Abstract:
Shen Jiaben's argument in The Investigation of Criminal Laws in Chinese History that “No forfeit law was imposed in the Song Dynasty” was not very reliable. In fact, the Song Dynasty did carry out some forfeit laws, which were adopted to such cases as judicature, education, choice of talented workers. These laws were used for punishment of such crimes as malfeasance, dereliction of duty, power monopolization and deception, whose quantity of forfeit ranged from 6 through 8 and 10 to 100 catty. However, the socalled “forfeit bronze” in the day referred actually to forfeit punishment in a general sense. Such punishment divided into 18 grades and applied to very wide cases.
