The Ceremony for Check-Marking Criminals for Execution and the Court and Autumn Assizes under the Qing Dynasty.

Every year in the fall, the Qing emperor was to preside over ceremonies during which he was asked to check-mark the names of criminals condemned to capital punishment whom he reckoned were to be executed. This article proposes an understanding not only of these check-marking ceremonies under the Qing dynasty, but also of the judicial rehearing procedure of all capital punishment criminal cases, known as the Court and Autumn Assizes. Based on materials drawn from the Qing central archives and other institutional sources, as well as on the information found in officials' diaries, this study provides a dynamic and evolutionary analysis of the Assizes and the check-marking ceremonies, highlighting their position as central features of the imperial judicial process. By detailing their successive changes, it seeks to unravel their highly complex and bureaucratic nature and to better assess the exact role played by the various institutional actors they called into play, first and foremost, the sovereign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]