ABSTRACT
Common people used false accusation to force the court to consider disputes it might have otherwise ignored. In many instances, individuals deployed explicitly illegal means to bring their grievances to court. A false accusation of homicide, however, provided entry into the court as a site of mediation. Macauley describes false accusation as an “integral part of late imperial legal culture.” Linxia Liang notes that the law included several provisions that allowed magistrates to overlook or dismiss cases based on false accusation, and further suggests that this accounts for the relative infrequency of punishment for false accusation. False accusation could be a means of appealing to a higher authority, and of escaping the confines and constraints of local society. Vernacular maps are clear depictions of the shaping hand of local influence on state power, and make clear the enduring presence of everyday politics in the court.
