What is the next silkworm house?

"Going to the silkworm house" refers to being imprisoned and punished by castration.

Palace punishment is also called silkworm house punishment, corruption punishment, yin punishment and hanging punishment. These different names all reflect the cruelty of this punishment. The so-called silkworm house was explained by Yan Shigu in the Tang Dynasty: "Anyone who raises silkworms wants to grow early, so it is a silkworm house, and animals will set fire to it. The new greed punishment also suffers from a stroke, and it must enter the secret room (probably the earliest concept of aseptic room), so it can be completed, because it is called the silkworm room ear. "

In other words, after castration, most people are easily infected with a stroke because of the wound. If they want to survive, they must stay in a secret room like a silkworm room and squat for hundreds of days in an environment without wind and sunshine before the wound can heal.

Castration is also called corruption, because, for the victim, it is not only physical pain, but also spiritual humiliation. From then on, it was like a rotten tree, but it could not bear fruit with a stick. Another way of saying it is that castrated people are like rotten wood that can't bloom.

The initial function of castration

It was realistic at that time when the human marriage system had just entered the threshold of civilization. However, under the brutal rule of the slave-owning class and feudal rulers, the scope of castration has been expanded to the point where it has nothing to do with the original intention and has become a harsh means to suppress civilians and dissidents.

When did this expansion begin? There is no clear record in history, but by the late Zhou Muwang, the crime of "five hundred palaces" had been stipulated. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were quite a few charges of imprisonment, and the targets of punishment were slaves and ordinary civilians. As for the slave owners and nobles, it is "no sin in public, no truancy."

"Don't cut off its kind" means that their descendants will never be cut off. Even if the slave owners and nobles committed the crime of palace, they would only serve the penalty, that is, the prisoners shaved their heads and locked their necks to serve hard labor. "Those who do this, they will be a family with the king."

It can be seen that the ancient punishment has a distinct class nature. The scope of application of castration is more and more extensive in later generations. For example, in Liezi Fu Shuo in the Warring States Period, it was reported that the king of Qin had been advised to govern the country with benevolence and righteousness, and he was sentenced to imprisonment on the charge of "governing the country with benevolence and righteousness, then he would die", indicating that feudal rulers sentenced people to imprisonment on the charge of endangering the country.

However, it is wrong to refer to the castration place in the hidden palace of Qin Dynasty. Ancient palaces are sometimes used by officials, while hidden palaces are places where criminals are held. Therefore, Zhao Gao came from a secluded palace, not a eunuch. He killed Qin Ershi with his son-in-law. Before Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty, the general manager of the palace was not a eunuch, but a eunuch who managed the harem. It was not until Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, established a harem that all eunuchs held this position.