"In medieval China, every two years on the average, the state flung open its judicial doors. The docket was cleared, the jails were emptied, the open cases were closed - all in a manner without precedent elsewhere in the world. In an age where punishment could at times be quick and strict, the policy of amnesty seems all the more puzzling. why did governments in the early empire let their criminals go? And why did later governments gradually abandon the policy?"--Book jacket