Translating barbarian depictions

[tuoba]

Dear community, 

 

I have a short phrase to translate that is driving me nuts. It is the last sentence from a Ming dynasty description of the Koreans that reads: 

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其餘皆輕重原之矣

The context is a depiction of the legal system in Korea: 

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刑無惨酷there are no cruel punishments。罵父母者斬who scolds their parents loses their head。其餘皆輕重原之矣。

My guess for the last part is something like: "everything else gets excused, depending on how severe it is". However, I am confused about the word order here and the meaning of 原. Because it is followed by 之, it looks like it should be a transitive verb that is followed by an object pronoun. In this case, its meaning should be 原諒 (to forgive) - only that I haven't seen it used that way before. Would you give me your two cents on the matter?

 

There are a couple of parallel passages that may provide additional information:

 

1. 刑無慘酷之科唯元惡及罵父母者斬餘皆杖肋死罪貸流諸島累赦視重輕原之 (from 大明一統志)

2. 刑無慘酷之科，惟元惡及罵父母者斬，餘皆杖肋。死罪貸流諸島，累赦視重輕原之 (from 殊域周咨錄)

3. 外郡刑殺悉送王城嵗以八月慮囚死罪貸流諸島累赦視輕重原之 (from 文獻通考)

 

Note that in the first two passages the order of 輕重 is reversed, which I have seen translated as "turning a heavy punishment into a light one". 

 

I appreciate your help! Most useful will be explanations on the character level with special regard to 原 and 之

 

Edit: I think I just found evidence for 原 meaning "to remit (punishment), pardon": 

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⑤<动>赦免。《三国志·张鲁传》：“犯法者，三原然后乃行刑。” (http://wyw.hwxnet.com/view/hwxE5hwx8Ehwx9F.html)

So the bigger question is how 輕重 relates to the rest of the sentence. Is it "depending on its severity"? Or "no matter how severe"?

Edited October 30, 2017 at 09:08 AM by tuoba
Question partly answered by myself

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I think the former one is the right interpretion.