Abstract:
The mediator and judge were officials in charge of criminal cases in the ancient times. For a long period of time, there has been a lack of scrutinous discussions on the origin and growth of mediators and judges. In fact, despite a earlier origin, the mediator didn’t specialize in criminal matters until the late Zhou Dynasty, while the judge was an official majoring in criminal matters established in the late days of the Zhou Dynasty. During the period of Warring Kingdoms, two systems of addresses of criminal officials were popular among the kingdoms, namely, “the mediator” as a remainder of ancient tradition and “the judge” as an official position advanced since the late Zhou Dynasty. The evolution from mediator to judge mirrored the course of completion of the system of officialdom in the Zhou Dynasty.
