Documents on a total 381 cases adjudicated by the author during the six years he spent “his head buried in judiciary files” (chen shou andu zhong 沉首案牘中) at Wu 婺 (i.e., Jinhua 金華, Zhejiang). The title alludes to a passage in the Liji to the effect that “the Great Manager of Criminals (大司寇) heard cases under a jujube tree”. The original ed. published in 1654 in 20 juan was compiled by Li Zhifang from hundreds of his draft sentences that he had found on the top of a shelf when about to leave his post, and could not resolve to throw away. J. 2-13 are devoted to judgments (yanci 讞詞) on affairs responding to the following twelve categories : homicides (renming 人命), robbery (daoqing 盜情), corrupt yamen personnel (yadu 衙蠹), tax fraud (kezha 科詐), taxes (liangke 糧課), property (chanye 產業), marriage (hunjia 婚嫁), sexual crimes (jianyin 姦淫), false accusations (wuwang 誤妄), frauds (zhawei 詐偽), negligence (shuyi 疏遺), and prisoners (luqiu 錄囚). J. 14-20 are devoted to investigation reports (kanxiang 勘詳) and judgments composed by Li Zhifang as acting official in several other capacities. The 1702 ed., made while Li Zhonglin was publishing his father‟s collected works, had to be engraved anew because the original printing blocks were unusable. It used the same twelve categories with a few changes in their order, the judgments edicted as acting official being appended to the relevant chapters; Li Zhonglin also provided notes to indicate where penal law had changed since his father‟s time. There is afurther fascicle with a text entitled Fuyi xianggao 賦役詳稿 by Li Zhifang, with undated author‟s preface, featuring six reports and some further advice on taxation problems in Zhejiang which were already found (with other materials) in j. 1 of the 1654 ed. under the general title kanxiang 勘詳; Li Zhifang is said to have reformed the abusive fiscal practices of the late Ming in Zhejiang.
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