杜琳 / Du Lin (Eastern Han)

Overview

杜琳 / Du Lin is currently synthesized as an Eastern Han official whose strongest wiki role is legal restraint. Hanji 716 presents him as Guangluxun objecting to Liang Tong’s proposal to revise penal law, while Hanji 723 later records his appointment as Grand Minister of Works in Jianwu 22 / 46 CE.

Current Profile

Du Lin’s legal profile turns on implementation rather than sentiment. He does not deny that law matters; he argues that over-dense and over-severe statutes can become unenforceable, making officials and subjects evade the very system that is supposed to restore order.

His warning uses Han history as the frame. Early Han won support by abolishing Qin harshness, but later law accumulated detail until ordinary gifts such as fruit and vegetables could be treated as illicit goods and small matters could become capital cases. In that setting, Du Lin argues, law stops governing cleanly: prohibitions fail, commands are not obeyed, and officials shield one another. Hanji 723 adds only a later office notice, so his durable profile remains the Hanji 716 legal objection.

Key Characteristics

• Guangwu-era official identified as Guangluxun in the legal-debate scene.
• Legal conservative who prefers preserving existing statutes over launching a new penal revision.
• Critic of dense law, harsh penalty expansion, and small infractions becoming capital danger.
• Implementation-focused official who sees excessive law as producing non-enforcement and mutual shielding.
• Later recorded as appointed Grand Minister of Works, confirming continued high-office visibility after the debate.

Evidence

• Legal-debate office: Hanji 716 identifies Du Lin as Guangluxun when Liu Xiu circulates Liang Tong’s memorial for court discussion.
• Early Han comparison: Hanji 716 says Du Lin invokes the abolition of harsh Qin law as a source of early Han popular support.
• Over-density warning: Hanji 716 says Du Lin warns that detailed law can turn ordinary gifts and small matters into criminal exposure.
• Enforcement failure: Hanji 716 presents his core objection as law becoming formally abundant but practically unenforced.
• Later office notice: Hanji 723 records Liu Xiu appointing Du Lin as Grand Minister of Works after Zhu Fu’s removal.

Qualifications

Du Lin’s current page should not be read as opposition to law itself. The source supports a narrower claim: he opposes a new revision because severe, granular statutes can damage enforceability and public trust. Hanji 723’s appointment notice does not explain his later policy conduct, so it is supporting identity and office evidence, not a second legal-position source.

What Changed

• Created Du Lin as a canonical Eastern Han entity from Hanji 716 and attached his later Hanji 723 high-office notice.
• Framed his legal position as enforceability-oriented restraint, not lawlessness or simple leniency.
• Preserved the limits of the evidence because the debate is shelved and the later appointment notice is brief.

Relationships

• 光武帝刘秀 - ruler whose court debate and later appointment notice make Du Lin visible.
• 梁统 - opposing legal voice in the Hanji 716 penal-law debate.
• 刑法轻重与执行困境 - concept grounded by Du Lin’s warning that harsh, dense law can fail in execution.
• 刑法作为权力约束 - related because Du Lin treats law design as a limit on official overreach and arbitrary severity.
• 君臣反馈失灵 - adjacent failure mode Du Lin tries to avoid by keeping law enforceable and publicly credible.