Chapter 90 <Excessive Judgment Case>

Kunqu Opera "Fifteen Strings" is a good show worth watching. In the play, through the two completely different styles shown by Tai Zhi and Kuang Zhong in the process of solving the case, people realize subjectivism.The dangers of bureaucracy and the importance of doing research honestly. The basic plot of the play is: There is a butcher named You Hulu, who came home drunk one night and made a joke to his adopted daughter Su Shujuan, saying that he sold her daughter to someone else.The daughter believed it was true and ran away late at night. At this time, You Hulu's neighbor, a gambler named Lou Ashu, broke into You Hulu's house, killed You Hulu, and took away the fifteen pennies from him.Su Shujuan escaped from her home and met a young man named Xiong Youlan on her way. The two went on the same road.

After You Hulu was killed, Su Shujuan and Xiong Youlan were arrested and sent to the government as suspects, and fifteen coins were found from Xiong Youlan. The county magistrate of Wuxi was too obsessed with not listening to the defendant's defense, and not going to the scene to investigate. When he saw Su Shujuan, he took it for granted that: Seeing her as beautiful as a peach and plum, how can no one seduce her!How can you be as cold as ice when you are young?She and her adulterer agree in love, so naturally they want to fly together.It is human nature for the father to obstruct him and steal his property by killing his father.Even if you don't ask about the facts of the case, you already understand the case ninety-nine out of ten.

Based on this idea, Tai Zhi determined the case as adultery and murder, and sentenced two innocent youths to death.Later, thanks to Kuang Zhong, the prefect of Suzhou, who conducted an investigation and research on the case and found out the murderer Lou Ashu and the stolen evidence, the grievances between Su Shujuan and Xiong Youlan were cleared. Overly persistent inferences may sound reasonable at first glance, but in fact they are just taken for granted and cannot stand the test of facts.Using unproven assumptions or guesses as arguments to prove a thesis is logically called an error of expected reason.

Taking unproven facts for granted as the basis for conviction violates the rule of argument that the evidence must be unquestionable, thus leading to sophistry of expected reasons.When our judiciary is trying a case, if the materials or evidence obtained are not finalized and the case is decided in a hurry, it will also make the mistake of being too strict.In this regard, it should be used as a warning.