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Issues of causation in homicide decisions of the Qing Board of Punishments from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Abstract This paper explores in decisions of the Qing Board of Punishments the importance of the identification of the “cause of death” for the allocation of liability in cases of homicide. The Board's preoccupation with the issue of causation is discussed through its use of three formulae which express in different ways the causal link between the elements in the chain of causation culminating in death: yin/you … so zhi (“cause … as a result of which”), zui zuo so you/yin (“offence liable that which causes”), and zhaoxin (“beginning of the trouble”). Some remarks are added on the relationship between the concepts of “causation” and “fault” in the historical development of the traditional Chinese law of homicide.