Many Emperors, mostly before the Ming-Qing period, tried to show that they were just and caring when it came to civilian justice. Two prominent examples were documented - among many - which were Zhao Kuang Yi - 2nd Emperor of Song - and Empress Wu Zetian. It was recorded in Zi Zhi Tong Jian that Wu Zetian had set up a special informing service, where commoners who felt abused and wanted to report corrupt/unjust magistrates/officials could easily report the problem to Wu Zetian herself. Regional governments were required by law to aid any commoner with information, giving them money and shelter. Under Zhao Kuang Yi, he had set up a special drum in front of the Imperial Palace - this was also set up by many other Emperors - where commoners who felt they were wronged could strike the drum and get the attention of the Emperor himself. There is a colloquial tale of a chicken farmer who had a chicken stolen striking the drum, and Zhao Kuang Yi was quite speechless when he heard the man's reason.

Another case was recorded by Sima Qian, concerning Emperor Wen of Han. Emperor Wen did not have a special drum like Zhao Kuang Yi, but there was a warning bell outside the palace. A doctor by the name of Chunyu Yi was not able to save a rich, sick woman, and the woman's family sued Chunyu Yi. The bad magistrate decided that Chunyu Yi must be guilty, and gave him an option among 3 punishments: losing one foot, have a guilty tattoo on his face, or losing his nose. Chunyu Yi's daughter wrote a letter to Emperor Wen, and rang the warning bell so that the eunuchs who came to see what had happened could pass the letter onward for her. As a result of this, Emperor Wen decided to abrogate all forms of mutilating punishment.

In the Ming/Qing period though, the idea of justice blurred by quite a bit. Qing was notorious for its literary inquisition: "the word prison", where any literati who may have said/written a word that compromised Qing's interest were thrown in prison. In fact, the literary inquisition's fervor actually peaked during the most stable Qing reigns under Kang Xi and Qian Long. If the most enlightened Qing monarchs had so little concern for justice and the abuse of power on the part of the governmental functionaries - the inquisition caught most of the people through very corrupt means - there is little to prove that they would care about the welfare of commoners at all. This corruption and abuse of power peaked in the 1800s, which is self-explanatory as Qing was plummeting to its end at that point. In the Londo Pall Mall Gazette's August 1894 issue, to explain China's probable failure during the Sino-Japanese War, the paper stated that "[the officials in China] eke out their fortune by extortion and tyranny. Birbery is universal".

But of course, I think - not breaking the rules of this "opinion" is almost universally agreed upon? - that it is a commonly accepted fact that Qing gave no sh*t about the welfare of commoners, since the commoners were Han. Qing needed to maintain the power of its Manchu minority, and their supremacy as a minority could only be maintained through the oppression of the Han majority - the divide between the classes of the 2 races must be significant enough. Some historians may not agree here, but the literary inquisition happened for a reason: Hans were not happy, and the Manchu were terrified that they would voice it. This could also be seen through the plethora of anti-dynastic - not just any rebellion, anti-dynastic - rebellions: White Lotus, Taiping, the Nian, the Triads, the Eight Trigrams...

If the Qing used the abuse of power and corruption actively to reinforce the strength of its Empire, how about Ming? Well, technically, arguments could be made for either sides. The most salient example would be Zhu Yuan Zhang, the founder of Ming himself. It would look as though Zhu Yuan Zhang was a champion of justice. Born poor, his entire family died from starvation, and the records showed that he cared hugely about the welfare of the common people. Any governmental official found to have corrupted or extorted even a bronze penny were sentenced to death. Corrupt officials were regularly flayed, with straw stuffed in their flayed skin, and were put on display in the palace as a warning for others. On the other hand, Zhu Yuan Zhang abused his own power by quite a bit. His sense of justice seemed to be limited to only those who were poor. For governmental officials, well...it was recorded in Ming Shi - though this may be a biased source, written under the surveillance of the Qing government - that governmental officials who attended the Zao Chao - morning reports with the Emperor that all officials in the capital higher than the Eighth Rank must attend - kissed their beloved ones goodbye as if it was their last day, since Zhu Yuan Zhang's volatile personality regularly led to summary executions for the smallest of mistakes. In fact, in what is now known as the "Hong Wu Four Great Cases", on four separate occasions, Zhu Yuan Zhang was presented with legal cases that enraged him enough to kill a total of (even in the most conservative of sources) 100,000 people, the governmental functionaries and anyone who could possibly be related to them. The purge killed pretty everyone. Go find any information on Zhu Yuan Zhang's rise to power. Look for names of people who worked for Zhu Yuan Zhang during that time. Look up those people. I can guarantee you that if they didn't die during Zhu Yuan Zhang's rise to power, they were killed as a result of the four cases.

If Zhu Yuanzhang alone did not prove to be enough of an evidence for either side when it came to civilian justice, a better example could be found in the case of Zhang Ju Zheng, arguably the most progressive minister in the Ming Dynasty. In 1572, a Jin Yi Wei - Ming's version of an FBI agent - named Zhou Shi Cheng was killed in a robbery case. A maid of his hid and witnessed the event, after which she reported it to the government. However, it was decided by the chief officials who oversaw the case that she must have been involved in it, and along with 2 others the maid was executed for the crime. 2 years later, the real version of the story came out. The punishment for the officials involved? Their ranks were lowered and they were posted to positions outside the capital. Yup, "ranks were lowered". That's it. And we are talking about the death of a government inside dude here.

You may also want to look into the story of Hai Rui.

Hope this helps, although I did stray from your exact question by quite a bit.