| | Guo Gong's family had long been in charge of legal affairs, and they always emphasized leniency and fairness. In the first year of Zhanghe, an edict was issued pardoning all prisoners throughout the realm who had been detained before the Bingzi day of the fourth month; their death sentences were reduced by one degree, they would not be subjected to caning, and they were ordered to report themselves at the Gold City. However, the decree did not mention fugitives who had not yet been discovered. Guo Gong submitted a sealed memorial, saying: "I humbly believe that the grace of Heaven has no bounds; all those with capital and lesser crimes have been granted new life. However, fugitives who are captured remain uniquely excluded from this benevolence. I believe that those who committed capital crimes before the amnesty but were detained afterward should all be exempted from caning and ordered to report themselves at Gold City, so as to preserve lives and benefit the frontier." The emperor approved this suggestion and immediately issued an edict granting amnesty accordingly.
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