Intervention of Public Opinion in Trials during Ming and Qing Dynasties

The intervention of public opinion in China's traditional trials was inevitable. In Ming and Qing dynasties, civilian, scholar and bureaucrat classes often intervened cases that were not related to themselves, due to the expressions of appeals related to their own interests, or simply indignation and sympathy. To influence results of judgments, civilians often aggregated and chose non-typical forms of Qique and Kouhun, scholar groups were good at criticism and allegory, and bureaucrats often utilized the system of remonstration and impeachment. When the opinions have been formed before the first judgement, it may directly affect the judgment result or it may affect the result via invoking the retrial procedure. This kind of interventions may somewhat elevate the transparency of the case, and in some sense supervise the justice of judgment.