authentic material, presented for effectiveness in making a point

The remaining two Zouyanshu cases 21 and 22 are slightly more difficult to characterise. Case 22 differs from cases 1-18 in that it not only records one particular judicial proceeding, consisting of an interrogation initiated by a criminal complaint (gao 告),⁵⁸ a finding of fact (ju 鞫)⁵⁹ and the

57 wu ci dao er wei ci fu zhe, qi zui si 無此道而為此服者，其罪死.

58 Zouyanshu 197.

concluding judgement (lun 論).⁶⁰ In between this formal record, case 22 interjects a lengthy section which describes the investigation and all steps taken by the officials responsible for it in great detail, involving a change of the lead investigator. After the judgement, a further section praises the investigator’s skill and achievement in solving the case. Such information is

uncharacteristic and contained in no other Zouyanshu case. The description of the investigation has no bearing at all on any legal matters. It is arranged in a fashion to underline the almost insurmountable problems in solving the case that threatened to frustrate the investigation. This serves, first, to build up suspense, and then, when the case has been solved, to reinforce the praise that is finally heaped on the investigator and the deft and thorough measures he has taken. The material therefore seems to have been arranged with the final praise-section in mind.

However, on balance case 22 still is very close to the first category and has to be considered an actual document. In effect, case 22 is a request for a promotion of the lead investigator that was submitted to the royal Qin court.⁶¹ The effort of detailing the difficulty of the investigation has the purpose of stressing the abilities of the investigator, which in turn makes the request for his promotion more convincing. While there is no comparable document within the Zouyanshu or the received texts, we know that requests by officials to the court to promote outstanding colleagues were routine.⁶²

59 Zouyanshu 224. Both finding of fact and judgement, though not explicitly introduced by ju and lun, are clearly recognisable as such.

60 Zouyanshu 224.

61 This purpose is made explicit with the words ye yi bu zushi 謁以補卒史 “we request to fill with him the ranks of the secretaries-in-chief” (Zouyanshu 228).

62 The Qin manuscripts held by the Yuelu academy contain two cases which are similar requests for promotion and closely resemble in structure, language, and contents Zouyanshu case 22. See Wei yu deng zhuang 142-170 and Lau and Staack 2016, 218-246. While the first of these two cases is very fragmentary, the second one (Wei yu deng zhuang 150-170) is dated to the end of 242 BC, that is, almost the exact time as Zouyanshu case 22 from a Han tomb, which is dated to 241 BC. Like Zouyanshu case 22 features a violent robbery, attempts to mislead the investigators by planting false evidence (garments typical for a convict, in this case), drag-net type searches among the general population, a suspect who raises suspicion by a change of attire (here, a new, instead of a missing, knife and scabbard), thorough interrogation and confrontation

The nature of case 22 as an actual document is further confirmed by the fact that, like cases 1-18, it can be exactly localised and dated.⁶³ The legal information contained in it, in particular the punishment for the theft, exactly corresponds to other sources.⁶⁴ As a document, it uses polite formulae of address and is clearly integrated in a hierarchy of authorities.

To conclude, case 22 is an actual document that diverges from the model of cases 1-18 insofar as it is a request for promotion and not concerned with legal problems as such. Because it does not focus on the actual legal decision, but on the steps taken to solve the case in order to emphasize the competency of the official suggested for promotion, it is not bound to follow the format used to document judicial proceedings for subsequent review, but follows a different format used for requests to promote judicial investigators.

More difficult is case 21, which, in some respects, looks similar to cases 19 and 20: The

applicable laws are, extensively, quoted in the beginning.⁶⁵ The bulk of the case is made up of a discussion between a secretary to the minister of trials (ting[wei]shi 廷[尉]史) called Shen 申 and his superior,⁶⁶ a discussion which in its structure resembles the discussion between the judges in cases 19 and 20 and their rulers: A judgement made by the minister of trials and his staff is surprisingly rejected by secretary Shen, who then enters into a dialogue with his superior and followed by an admission of guilt and the handing down of the appropriate sentence, as well as a request for promotion of the investigators which highlights their skill and cleverness by emphasising the difficulty of the case and the danger posed by the criminal. The fact that these two closely resembling cases are from two different text collections in two different tombs from different periods suggests that such model requests for promotion were widely available, and that not only the structure, but also plot details of the underlying criminal cases were copied and adapted to ensure the greatest possible chances for the request of promotion to be granted.

63 The request originates with the deputy prefect of Xianyang (Xianyang cheng 咸陽丞) , i. e. with the prefecture-level administration responsible for the Qin capital (Zouyanshu 227). On dating issues see below.

64 Compare Zouyanshu 212 (the offender’s jue 爵-rank) and 224 (the offence and its punishment) with Ernian lüling 55 (punishment of theft) and 83 (privileges for holders of jue 爵-rank).

65 Zouyanshu 180-183.

66 Zouyanshu 189-196.

colleagues, which is conducted in a question-and-answer format. The case utilises a climactic structure, which ends in the approval of Shen’s opinion and reversal of the earlier judgement.⁶⁷

In other respects, case 21 is closer to the first category: It discusses a doubtful case which has been submitted by a lower-level authority. As the case is written from the perspective of the higher authority, it does not contain the respectful formulae that distinguish cases 1-18. However, with the instruction to the authorities of Du to pass a specific judgement, it is also part of the workings of a multi-tiered government.

While the case contains no calendrical information, Du 杜 prefecture⁶⁸ can be clearly identified.

The officials of case 21, though referred to by name, are not illustrious people known from other sources who need to lend their fame to the decision. However, even though minister of justice (tingwei) Gou is not found in Shiji and Hanshu (which anyway give no complete listing of Qin officials), there is no reason to assume that he did not hold that office sometime in Qin. The legal stipulations and the procedure used are consistent with other sources. Also, the quoting of the applicable legal rules before the legal discussion is not unique to cases 19 and 20; rather, this seems to have been a general principle in legal records as – in a less elaborate form – a similar structure is found in cases 14, 15, 16, and 18.⁶⁹

Therefore, it is most likely that case 21 is based on an actual decision in an actual case, but that the discussion about this decision is not recounted in the way of an accurate protocol; rather, for the inclusion in the Zouyanshu the case was re-arranged and edited to render it most effective as an example of legal argument and reasoning.