Shen Jiaben (沈家本)

Overview

The translated histories identify Shen Jiaben as an administrator, judge, official, and scholar. This record brings together 12 passages from 4 chapters across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Shen Jiaben	沈家本	Shen Jiaben
Given	Jiaben	家本	Jiāběn
Given	Jiaben	家本	Jiaben
Surname	Shen	沈	Shěn
Surname	Shen	沈	Shen
Personal name	Shen Jiaben	沈家本	Shen Jiaben
Personal	Shen Jiaben	沈家本	Shěn Jiāběn
Courtesy	Zidun	子惇	Zidun

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Strongly inferred · qingshigao:142:s0120, qingshigao:143:s0136, qingshigao:443:s0196, qingshigao:471:s0091

Roles

Administrator
Judge
Official
Scholar
Statesman
Writer

Life and dates

Death

Age: Value: 74 · Reckoning: sui
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0217

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 三十一年 · Western Year: AD 1905
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:143:s0136
Source Date: Text: 光宣間修律 · Western Interval: Start: AD 1902 · End: AD 1911
Strongly inferred · qingshigao:443:s0212, qingshigao:443:s0215, qingshigao:443:s0217
Source Date: Text: 光緒三十三年 · Western Year: AD 1907
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:142:s0125, qingshigao:471:s0089, qingshigao:471:s0091
Source Date: Text: 光緒九年 · Western Year: AD 1883
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0199
Source Date: Text: 光緒二十八年 · Western Year: AD 1902
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:142:s0120
Source Date: Text: 光緒十九年 · Western Year: AD 1893
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0202
Source Date: Text: 宣統元年 · Western Year: AD 1909
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:142:s0147
Source Date: Text: 宣統元年 · Western Year: AD 1909
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0215
Source Date: Text: 庚子 · Western Year: AD 1900
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0205

Career and standing

Label: prefect of Tianjin / 天津府知府 · Action: appointed · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 光緒十九年 · Western Year: AD 1893
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0202
Label: Commissioner for Revising the Laws / 修訂法律大臣 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:142:s0125
Label: commissioner for revision of laws / 修訂法律大臣 · Action: appointed · Other Person Id: Wu Tingfang (伍廷芳)
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0212, qingshigao:443:s0214
Label: Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices / 光祿寺卿 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0207
Label: Director of the Court of Judicial Review / 大理寺卿 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0214
Label: Vice Minister of the Ministry of Law / 法部侍郎 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0214
Label: vice president of the Political Consultative Assembly / 資政院副總裁 · Action: concurrent
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0215
Label: department director in Ministry of Punishments / 郎中分刑部 · Action: entered
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0198
Label: vice minister / 侍郎 · Action: held · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 光緒三十三年 · Western Year: AD 1907
Explicit · qingshigao:471:s0091, qingshigao:471:s0089
Label: chief drafter and Autumn Review Office / 主稿，兼秋審處 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0200
Label: Left Vice Minister of Punishments / 刑部左侍郎 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:142:s0120
Label: revising law minister / 修訂法律大臣 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:143:s0136
Label: circuit intendant of Tongzhou and Yongping / 通永道 · Action: promoted
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0205
Label: surveillance commissioner of Shanxi / 山西按察使 · Action: promoted
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0205
Label: Vice Minister of Punishments / 刑部侍郎 · Action: promoted
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0207
Label: prefect of Baoding / 保定 · Action: transferred
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0203
Label: accused of aiding Boxers; case dropped for lack of evidence / 誣以助拳匪，卒無左驗而解 · Action: accused-then-cleared
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0206

Places and affiliations

Label: Qing / 清 · Relation: served
Strongly inferred · qingshigao:443:s0199
Polity: Qing / 清 · Relation: served
Explicit · qingshigao:142:s0120, qingshigao:143:s0136
Place: Gui'an, Zhejiang / 浙江歸安
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0196

Learning and skills

Credential: Presented Scholar / 進士 · Action: earned
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0199
Skill: deep study of the Rites of Zhou / 於周官多創獲 · Level: original discoveries
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0197

Works and attributed material

Works: Collation Notes on Reading the Code / 讀律校勘記, Essentials for Autumn Review Cases / 秋讞須知, Compendium of Criminal Cases / 刑案匯覽, Collection on Tattooing / 刺字集, Occasional Commentary on Statutes and Regulations / 律例偶箋, Study of Punishment Officials through the Ages / 歷代刑官考, Study of Punishment Law through the Ages / 歷代刑法考, Gathered Remains of Han Law / 漢律摭遺, Study of the Ming Great Admonitions and Completed Commands / 明大誥竣令考, Commentary on the Ming Code Table of Contents / 明律目箋
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0216
Work: more than twenty non-penal works, over two hundred juan total / 非刑律者又二十餘種，都二百餘卷 · Relation: author
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0216
Work: New Penal Code draft / 新刑律草案 · Relation: author
Explicit · qingshigao:142:s0144
Work: Current Criminal Code / 現行刑律 · Relation: compiler
Explicit · qingshigao:142:s0129, qingshigao:142:s0130
Kind: proposal · Role: author · Action: rural-pacification
Explicit · qingshigao:471:s0091
Kind: draft-commentary · Role: author · Provenance: Mode: quoted-in · Speaker Person Id: Lao Naixuan (勞乃宣)
Uncertain · qingshigao:142:s0157, qingshigao:142:s0170, qingshigao:142:s0171, qingshigao:142:s0172, qingshigao:142:s0173, qingshigao:142:s0174, qingshigao:142:s0175
Kind: draft · Role: author
Explicit · qingshigao:142:s0147
Kind: memorial · Role: author
Explicit · qingshigao:143:s0136, qingshigao:143:s0137, qingshigao:143:s0138, qingshigao:143:s0139, qingshigao:143:s0140, qingshigao:143:s0141, qingshigao:143:s0142, qingshigao:143:s0143, qingshigao:143:s0144, qingshigao:143:s0145, qingshigao:143:s0146, qingshigao:143:s0147, qingshigao:143:s0148, qingshigao:143:s0149, qingshigao:143:s0150, qingshigao:143:s0151, qingshigao:143:s0152, qingshigao:143:s0153, qingshigao:143:s0154, qingshigao:143:s0155, qingshigao:143:s0156, qingshigao:143:s0157, qingshigao:143:s0158, qingshigao:143:s0159, qingshigao:143:s0160, qingshigao:143:s0161, qingshigao:143:s0162, qingshigao:143:s0163, qingshigao:143:s0164, qingshigao:143:s0165, qingshigao:143:s0166, qingshigao:143:s0167, qingshigao:143:s0168, qingshigao:143:s0169, qingshigao:143:s0170, qingshigao:143:s0171, qingshigao:143:s0172, qingshigao:143:s0173, qingshigao:143:s0174, qingshigao:143:s0175, qingshigao:143:s0176, qingshigao:143:s0177, qingshigao:143:s0178, qingshigao:143:s0179

Events and relationships

Kind: legal · Role: reviser · Action: appointed-to-revise-laws
Explicit · qingshigao:142:s0120
Kind: legal-reform · Role: advocate · Action: argued officials must know law and Chinese code must change to recover consular jurisdiction
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0210, qingshigao:443:s0211
Kind: legal · Role: compiler · Action: assembled-staff-and-foreign-advisers
Explicit · qingshigao:142:s0126
Kind: legal · Role: prefect · Action: executed four riot ringleaders in market
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0202
Kind: legal · Role: author · Action: finalized-manchu-han-criminal-code
Explicit · qingshigao:142:s0128
Kind: education · Role: founder · Action: law school with nearly a thousand graduates
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0213
Kind: legal · Role: memorialist · Action: requested-abolition-of-severe-punishments
Explicit · qingshigao:143:s0136, qingshigao:143:s0153, qingshigao:143:s0165, qingshigao:143:s0177, qingshigao:143:s0180
Kind: legal · Role: author · Action: submitted-new-penal-code-draft
Explicit · qingshigao:142:s0144
Kind: legal · Role: author · Action: submitted-revised-draft
Explicit · qingshigao:142:s0147
Kind: legal · Role: advocate · Action: won dispute over church encroachment using gazetteer
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0204
Relation: colleague-of · Person Id: Yu Liansan (俞廉三)
Explicit · qingshigao:142:s0125
Relation: colleague-of · Person Id: Wu Tingfang (伍廷芳)
Explicit · qingshigao:142:s0120

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: praised by Pan Zuyin for legal learning · Provenance: Mode: named-source-report · Witness Person Id: Pan Zuyin (潘祖廕)
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0201
Assessment: won contemporary acclaim for revising the laws · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0219

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 142Volume 142 Treatises 117: Penal Law 1 · 4 passages

Open chapter

二十八年，直隸總督袁世凱、兩江總督劉坤一、湖廣總督張之洞，會保刑部左侍郎沈家本、出使美國大臣伍廷芳修訂法律，兼取中西。 In the twenty-eighth year, Viceroy Yuan Shikai of Zhili, Viceroy Liu Kunyi of Liangjiang, and Viceroy Zhang Zhidong of Huguang jointly recommended Left Vice Minister of Punishments Shen Jiaben and Minister to the United States Wu Tingfang to revise the laws, combining Chinese and Western approaches.

三十三年，更命侍郎俞廉三與沈家本俱充修訂法律大臣。 In the thirty-third year, Vice Minister Yu Liansan was appointed together with Shen Jiaben as commissioners for legal revision.

沈家本等乃徵集館員，分科纂輯，並延聘東西各國之博士律師，藉備顧問。 Shen Jiaben and his colleagues then assembled a staff, divided the work by subject, and retained legal scholars and practicing lawyers from East and West as advisers.

宣統元年，沈家本等彙集各說，復奏進修正草案。 In Xuantong 1, Shen Jiaben and others gathered the various opinions and again submitted a revised draft.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 143Volume 143 Treatises 118: Penal Law 2 · 1 passage

Open chapter

三十一年，修訂法律大臣沈家本等奏請刪除重法數端，略稱：「見行律例款目極繁，而最重之法，亟應先議刪除者，約有三事：一曰凌遲、梟首、戮屍。 In 1905 revising law ministers Shen Jiaben and others memorialized to abolish several severe punishments, noting: "Current statutes are vast, but three exceptionally harsh penalties should be removed first: lingchi, display of the severed head, and corpse dismemberment.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 443Volume 443 Biographies 230: Sun Jianai, Zhang Baixi, Tang Jingchong, Yu Shimei, Shen Jiaben · 6 passages

Open chapter

沈家本，字子惇，浙江歸安人。 Shen Jiaben, whose courtesy name was Zidun, was a native of Gui'an in Zhejiang.

家本據府志力爭得直。 Jiaben argued forcefully from the prefectural gazetteer and won his case.

拳匪亂作，家本已擢通永道、山西按察使，未及行，兩宮西幸。 When the Boxer uprising broke out, Jiaben had already been promoted to circuit intendant of Tongzhou and Yongping and to surveillance commissioner of Shanxi, but before he could take up his posts the court fled west.

家本以謂治今日之民，當令官吏普通法律。 Jiaben held that to govern the people of today, officials must be made generally conversant with the law.

會變法議起，袁世凱奏設修訂法律館，命家本偕伍廷芳總其事； When reform was debated, Yuan Shikai memorialized to establish the Commission for the Revision of Laws and ordered Jiaben and Wu Tingfang to direct it jointly.

百熙管學務，家本修法律，並邀時譽。 Baixi directed educational affairs and Jiaben revised the laws; both won contemporary acclaim.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 471Volume 471 Biographies 258: Sheng Xuanhuai, Rui Cheng · 1 passage

Open chapter

侍郎沈家本建議辦清鄉，朝命瑞澂主蘇、松、太、杭、嘉、湖捕務，六屬文武受節度。 Vice Minister Shen Jiaben proposed rural pacification; the court put Rui Cheng in charge of pursuit in Suzhou, Songjiang, Taicang, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou, with civil and military officials of the six districts under his command.