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concept Updated 2026-08-23 Topics: Politics

Pardon As State Power

Pardon as state power is the source’s interpretation of Shi Jianqiao / 施剑翘’s special pardon in 41.施剑翘复仇案：超越哈贝马斯的情与法. After courts imposed and upheld a sentence, the Nationalist Government / 国民政府 granted clemency and Shi served only about ten months, according to the episode.

The episode treats the pardon as double-edged. It could absorb public sympathy and present the state as humane, patriotic, and responsive. But it could also weaken the authority of courts by showing that final judgment belonged to the sovereign state rather than to ordinary legal procedure.

Hanji 169 adds an early imperial-founding case. After 项羽’s death and the settlement of remaining resistance, 刘邦 announces a broad pardon for crimes below capital punishment because years of war have exhausted soldiers and common people. Here pardon is not a court override around one famous defendant; it is a founding ruler’s way to mark the transition from war emergency into 西汉 governance.

Hanji 170 part 1 adds a targeted founding pardon through 季布. Liu Bang first treats Ji Bu as a personal enemy and fugitive, but after 朱家’s argument reaches him through 夏侯婴, he pardons Ji Bu and appoints him. This is clemency as political interpretation: the pardon tells former enemies that loyal service can be reclassified as virtue under 旧敌忠义重释.

Hanji 184 adds another targeted early-Han pardon through 栾布. Liu Bang first orders him boiled for mourning 彭越, but after Luan Bu argues that Peng Yue’s killing will chill all merit-holders, Liu Bang pardons him and appoints him duwei. The pardon functions as damage control around founding-merit trust, not only mercy to one condemned man.

Key Claims

  • Hanji 184 adds that a targeted pardon can repair political trust when punishment of a contributor threatens to make the wider merit group feel unsafe.
  • Pardon power can convert public emotion into state legitimacy.
  • Executive clemency can also mark the state as standing above law, especially when it reverses the practical force of a murder conviction.
  • In this case, the pardon was tied to political networks, patriotic image, and public sympathy as much as to legal doctrine.
  • The source presents the pardon as part of state-building, not only mercy.
  • Hanji 169 adds that broad amnesty can mark postwar transition: the ruler signals that a violent campaign has become an order capable of sparing and restarting ordinary life.
  • Hanji 170 part 1 adds targeted clemency for a former enemy: pardon can redefine yesterday’s hostile service as tomorrow’s public loyalty.

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