| There was actually no such a general stipulation in regard to legitimate self-defense in ancient Chinese law. However, there were indeed some concrete stipulations concerning legitimate defense against some infringement. One of the most representative items since the Tang Code was the item of “intruding an individual’s dwelling house without any proper reason”.Actually, this item could be traced back to West Zhou. According to the Tang Code, any intruder intruding into an individual’s dwelling house at night, the punishment was 40 blows with light stick. If the host killed the intruder the moment he intruded the dwelling house, the host could be exempt from criminal charge. There are three important variations in this item in the Tang Code compared with the original items. Firstly, the intruding should occur at night. Secondly, the place intruded into was restricted to the dwelling house. Thirdly, the host can only kill the intruder without criminal charge the very moment the intrusion occurred.Compared with the Tang Code, the item specified by the Ming and Qing Codes displayed important differences. Simply put, the punishment of intrusion was getting more severe, and the punishment of the host for injuring or killing the intruder already held was getting less severe. It merits a mention that the Ming Code did not even stipulate the situation of “awareness of non-intentional infringement” as the Tang Code had. In the New Great Qing Penal Code, the legitimate self-defense system was validated formally and the punishment for intruding into an individual’s dwelling house was not specifically restricted to the night any more. Thereafter, the item specified by the Tang Code ceased to exist. |
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