Mongols 蒙古 and Documents Relating to the Autumn Assizes during the Qing : On the Processing of Mongols Capital Cases from the Latter Part of the 18th Century to the Early 20th Century

The Qing dynasty, which occupied vast tracts of land and ruled over diverse groups of people, implemented a system for classifying the people into various groups such as Civilians 民人, Bannermen 旗人, and Mongols 蒙古. This system needs to be taken into account also when studying the judicial system, but in past research on trials during the Qing the main emphasis has tended to be placed on questions pertaining to Civilians, who accounted for a large percentage of the population. In this ar ticle, I have therefore made an attempt to clarify the actualities of the processing of Mongols felons as part of an approach aimed at gaining an overview of the Qing legal system. Having collected and classified Mongols capital cases from the second half of the 18th century onwards, I examined in particular (1) sentencing procedures by the central authorities and (2) procedures for retrials (autumn assizes) held after sentencing. In my examination of (1), I clarify the fact that there were three types of sentencing procedures by the central authorities, and I also show that individual cases were classified under one of these types depending on where the offence had been committed and the attribution of offenders and victims. Further, as a result of my examination of (2), I clarify that different procedures were followed depending on the position of the officials who had custody of the offender, that is, depending on whether they were officials of China and Manchuria or officials of the Mongol regions. In this fashion, judicial proceedings for Mongols felons during the Qing had a complex and divergent structure owing to factors such as where the offence had been committed, the attribution of offenders and victims, the officials in charge, and so on. This structure may merit attention as being indicative of a distinctive feature of the legal system of the Qing, which ruled over many different groups of people spread over vast territories