Three years later in 583 CE, Emperor Wen received a memorial from the Inspector of the Ministry of Punishments from which he concluded “The number of court cases waiting to be judged has reached 10,000.
The primary sources of the changes were the published laws of the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou Dynasties, whilst in the table of contents there are entries for precedents (名例), restrictions on weaponry (卫禁), regulation of government offices (职制), marriage (户婚), barns and warehouses (厩库), dispatch of armies without authority (擅兴), theft and robbery (贼盗 also written as 盗贼), litigation (斗讼), fraudulent practices (诈伪), miscellaneous laws (杂律), capture of evaders (捕亡) and 12 chapters on judging cases (断狱).
Due to the severe and harsh nature of the government that he witnessed during his time as a Northern Zhou official, Emperor Wen of Sui advocated clear and simple frugal laws that would please the population at large.
According to the new statutes, “on the completion of a prison sentence handed down for one of the Ten Abominations or premeditated murder, even if pardoned the offender’s name will be expunged from his ancestral records”.
Offenders falling within the scope of the Eight Deliberations or government officials of the seventh rank (七品) and above could have their sentences reduced except in the case of a crime classified as one of the Ten Abominations.
Later, the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties all continued to use the code, making it a fundamental part of the development of the Chinese legal system.
The Kaihuang Code also influenced the foundation and development of the legal systems of other South East Asian countries including Japan, Korea and Vietnam.