770 t h e a n n a l s o f k i n g t’a e j o
“When we look at the law this way, there was pardoning through exile
but no payment of money for penalty when it came to the Five Punishment
crimes. The law that allowed offenders to pay for their penalty in the cases
of the Five Punishments was finally made during the reign of King Mu of
Zhou, and that was not the law made in antiquity. Later generations took
advantage of the law, and consequently the rich used it to avoid punishment
for their crimes, while the poor had no choice but to suffer punishment. This
was certainly not the original intention of the sages who promulgated
the law.
“When the crime of a man is light or looks suspicious, it is appropriate to
allow him to pay for his penalty with money so that he can have a chance to
start again. However, if those who have committed crimes are also allowed
to pay the penalty with money under the pretext that their crimes are suspi-
cious, people will take the law lightly, and the problems and troubles will
never stop.
“From this day forward, those who commit a crime subject to sixty
strokes of the paddle and over a year of penal servitude should not be allowed
to pay off the penalty with money even if the crime deserves sympathy or
looks suspicious. They should be punished leniently only through penal ser-
vitude and exile, making the distance of exile different according to the
seriousness of their crimes. If those who commit a light crime and are
expected to be released soon after the ruling are allowed to pay off the pen-
alty after making sure that they deserve sympathy or that their crimes look
suspicious, it will not be against the spirit of the law or disagree with the
institution in antiquity.
“When it comes to deciding the penalty for stolen goods, calculating their
monetary value, the law says that if those who are responsible for super-
vising and keeping the stolen goods happen to steal those goods for them-
selves, they are put to death if the value of the stolen goods exceeds 400
catties. If five bolts of fabric of average quality cost 10 catties, two hundred
bolts of fabric cost 400 catties, and it is quite pathetic that a man should lose
his life for stealing two hundred bolts of fabric. On the other hand, it is also
problematic to allow the one who is supposed to be punished with one hun-
dred strokes of the heavy paddle to pay for his penalty with just thirty bolts
of fabric. Since the penalty is too light in this case, it is against the principle
of law that emphasizes the appropriateness of penalty.
“We wish that fifteen bolts of average fabric would cost 10 catties of cash.
If they do, one receives capital punishment only when he steals more than