Case of Fei Yangpi Selling His Daughter for His Mother's Burial

In 488 AD, under the Northern Wei dynasty, Fei Yangpi, driven by extreme poverty, sold his daughter to finance the funeral of his deceased mother. The act was discovered, and the judicial authority Tingwei charged him under statutes that imposed the death penalty for selling close relatives. Recognizing that Yangpi’s motive was filial piety, the Tingwei submitted the case to Emperor Xiaowen. The emperor, commending Yangpi’s moral virtue, issued a special pardon and exempted him from punishment. The case revealed the conflict between rigid legal codes and the Confucian value of xiao (filial devotion), setting a precedent for tempering justice with ethical considerations.

Emperor Xiaowen (Yuan Hong) granted a special amnesty, absolving Fei Yangpi of all charges.

Whether the strict law against selling relatives should be upheld when the act was committed out of filial piety, and whether moral intent can override statutory punishment.

The case spurred legal debates that influenced the Northern Wei penal code to incorporate considerations of poverty and filial piety into sentencing. It became a landmark example of "sentencing according to circumstances" in Chinese legal history.