Zhiling's explanation

Lingchi is also called Lingchi, which is called "Thousand Pieces" by the people. The original intention of Lingchi is that the slope of the mountain gradually decreases. When it is used as the name of the death penalty, it means that when a person is executed, the bodies are cut off one by one, so that the victims die slowly and painfully.

Lingchi punishment first appeared in the Five Dynasties, and was officially named Liao Dynasty punishment. Since then, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties have stipulated it as a statutory punishment, which is the most cruel death penalty.

This criminal law is mainly used to punish some of the ten evils, such as rebellion and rebellion. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, if parents or in-laws, sons killed their fathers and wives killed their husbands, it was also a felony against ethics and morality, and they were sentenced to death. But later, in order to suppress the peasants' resistance, those who failed to pay taxes on time were also punished by late death, which was particularly prominent during the Ming Taizu period.

Ling Chi's punishment is cruel. Generally speaking, it means to cut off pieces of human flesh. There are also differences in execution methods in past dynasties. Usually cut eight knives, first beheaded, then cut hands and feet, then cut the chest and abdomen, and finally beheaded. But it's actually more than eight knives. There were 24 knives, 36 knives, 72 knives and 120 knives in the Qing Dynasty. Twenty-four knives are: one or two knives to cut eyebrows, three or four knives to cut shoulders, five or six knives to cut chest, seven or eight knives to cut elbows, ninety knives to cut the part between elbows and shoulders, eleven or two knives to cut leg meat, thirteen or four knives to cut leg belly, fifteen knives to stab the heart, sixteen knives to cut head and seventeen or eight knives to cut hands.

In actual implementation, most of them were Liu Jin, an evil eunuch of the Ming Dynasty, who was chopped for three days * * * 4,700 knives. By the Guangxu period of 1905, the punishment of year in year was abolished.

Execute by dismembering the body

Ethnic minorities in Asia and the Middle East especially like this kind of punishment. The key to this punishment is to scatter the human body until death.

The Persian Empire divided the rebels into four parts. The Romans cut their chests first when dealing with female prisoners and cut their genitals first when dealing with male prisoners. When the Greeks cut the meat, they had to add the procedure of deboning, which made the prisoners look like dolls filled with sawdust. But compared with China people, other ethnic groups are rough. China people have developed this year to its peak, making it a stunt. carry out

At first, the executioner would skillfully cut out the Adam's apple of the prisoner with a knife to prevent him from shouting. Then quickly bleed to dress the wound. The first part is the back, and the meat cut by each knife must be only the size of a fingernail. To kill an adult, you must use 3357 knives, and the knives must bleed and lose their flesh and blood. It should be stuck on it with a big white porcelain plate for the audience to appreciate, it should be appreciated. If the prisoner dies before the specified number of knives, the executioner will

Zi Shou will be laughed at by the audience and may lose his job.

A Brief History of Torture in China

In the era of 19 10, "Lingchi" became famous in Europe, because the photos taken by French soldiers in 1904 and 1905 became popular after being edited by postcards. However, torture was abolished in April 1905. In France, In the Year of the Dead is regarded as the ultimate representative of "China's torture", which inspired countless writers and artists, and even lasted until 1960, when georges bataille's photo album was published, and was later redrawn by Chen Jieren. These images are like China, its history and civilization, and similar styles still continue to influence westerners today.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, "mid-year" has become the most typical penalty in China's penalty system. However, the fact is just the opposite: the year of the year is very different from the ancient punishment and should belong to the modern punishment. Although the word "nian" first appeared in the tenth century, it was not formally incorporated into the criminal law until the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Neither the penalty itself nor its name probably originated in China. In addition, Shen Jiaben, a legal historian of 1905 (1840-19 13), wrote a letter requesting the deletion of capital punishment such as year in the year, which is also one of the arguments. After all, "year-in-the-year" does not conform to China's legal spirit, penalty characteristics and application methods, and looks more like a "special law" punishment type. Of course, this special law belongs to the emperor's judicial system, which was recorded in the laws of the Yuan Dynasty. However, careful observation shows that setting an incorrect penalty violates the normal legal spirit. Scholars have always called it cruel and inhuman punishment from its establishment to its abolition.

Modern related punishment

In 2000, it was a punishment, involving cutting and separating limbs of the body. Photographs taken in the late Qing dynasty show that it was a real "eight-knife punishment" execution. Eight knives, _ the son uses a basket of numbered sharp knives: the first knife, _ chest (all from the left, and other parts below); The second knife, _ biceps; The third knife, thigh; The fourth knife and the fifth knife cut the arm to the elbow; The sixth knife and the seventh knife cut the calf to the knee; Eighth knife, first knife. After dismemberment, the remains of the body were put into a basket and the head was publicly displayed indefinitely. This is the practice in the late Qing dynasty, commonly known as "sixteen knives", "thirty-two knives" and "three hundred and sixty knives" ... but we don't know whether these figures really exist or just the number of structures. "Knife" in the Ming Dynasty means "cutting" and "excessive". The number of knives increases, and the execution time is prolonged. 15 10, eunuch Liu Jin was sentenced to "_" for three days for conspiring to rebel, but died the next day. This is a special case. Eunuch was hated to be put to death and was sentenced to the heaviest crime. In Ming History, it was never mentioned that Liu Jin was sentenced to "in the middle of the year", but "in the city", which belonged to the form of "abandoning the city" and clearly stipulated that Liu Jin must be executed in public.

It is not easy to distinguish the "year-end" from other similar punishments and understand the practice of "year-end" before the Qing Dynasty. When we further explore the origin of this punishment, clearer relevant information becomes less and less. We must first distinguish: on the one hand, these punishments include solutions; The appearance of the word "year after year" shows the legitimacy of criminal law interpretation.

If _ _ is used instead of the chronicle of crimes, we can find many cases in which generals and officials were punished by _ _ in history, and the scariest details can be associated with the kitchen menu. By reading these historical episodes, I am confused about the origin of "year after year". Of course, there are two cases of beheading: when the so-called "death penalty" and "_" are executed, the corpse is completely beheaded, and the prisoner becomes the meat of a cannibal, so the enemy can have a big meal in his own hall; On the other hand, the "mid-year" punishment is the opposite. After the body is dismembered, the outline of the human body can still be recognized and displayed in the market afterwards. A basic difference between _ and _ is that the case of "Guo _" punishment is extremely rare and unique, and historians carefully preserve it as a cruel and terrible tyrant example. Although these cases are horrible, they are all anecdotes, and may even be just stories. On the contrary, from the end of 1 1, "mid-year" is a widely known and frequently executed punishment, not just anecdotes or legends, but a truly shocking historical fact.

We have also found many similar "years of imprisonment" for treason. For example, in 6 13 AD, Emperor Yang Di sentenced the rebels to dismember, pierce an arrow and exterminate the nation. Similarly, the Sui Dynasty also deleted corporal punishment from the Sui Law. This kind of punishment is not only used in judicial trials, but also in wartime, and it is real. Almost _ dynasties can see similar punishments, which are usually called "retribution" or "forgiveness", so people often think that the word "year" is not used as a kind of corporal punishment, but only in court legal decisions. All the key issues are to understand: how to use extreme means in special cases, so as to occupy a place in the code, thus becoming a perfect "crime" in law, and judges can often use it to sentence.

_ Origin and mysterious names

The word "Ling Chi" first appeared in the criminal record of Liao History and was named as a kind of corporal punishment. This noun is very mysterious. Undoubtedly, it is a combination of Chinese characters and Qidan language.

We can find almost the same nouns in the past dynasties, but the first word most often appears next to the word "fu" as "spirit"; "Ling" means "Fu" or mound; The word "late" cannot be interpreted as "late" in modern Chinese, but a verb of "spreading" or "scraping". Specifically, "late burial" can refer to paving or leveling mounds one by one, which means a mound and a clan's collective burial. However, the historical records of some dynasties are symbolic: "Mausoleum", slopes or earth dikes along the canal, represent systems and laws, and delimit the borders of various countries; "Late" means the sinking and collapse of the border. So "the year of the year" means the beginning of decline, and effective measures must be taken to prevent the system from crashing. Therefore, this term is not directly related to the penalty system, and it was not used until the Liao Dynasty to refer to a kind of corporal punishment. There are some differences in writing (people find that writing is "lasting" rather than "late"), and the word "Ling" next to the word "Bing" becomes more commonly used than the word "Fu". There are also two ways to write in the history of Song Dynasty, but since Yuan Dynasty, only the second way can be found, that is, the word "Ling" next to the word "Bing", and it will always only be used as an explanation of punishment. Ancient Chinese characters only appeared in ancient books, and later people no longer adopted them. From then on, "year in" is just the name of corporal punishment, and a few knowledgeable people will still remember its meaning.

What the hell happened? Certainly, it was originally a noun in the Khitan language, and its pronunciation is very close to the Chinese character "Niannian". It was a kind of corporal punishment used under the regime of the Khitan Liao Dynasty. It may be that the bound prisoner was cut with a knife. After much consideration, the term was fixed to refer to this kind of corporal punishment in Liao Dynasty, which ruled China.

For China scholars who study the reform of penalty system, this kind of penalty is of barbarian origin, and its terminology is obscure. Although it does not belong to the "five punishments" system, it obviously has Chinese characters. However, tying people to a tree and killing them is not only a way of execution in barbarian areas or foreign dynasties, but also an increasingly frequent and systematic method. This method spread to the Yuan Dynasty in the Song Dynasty and to the Qing Dynasty in the Ming Dynasty. China in these dynasties, like the dynasties established by prairie people, has been passed down continuously. Zhu Yuanzhang, who was the first to fight against the Mongolian Khan and later became Ming Taizu, awarded the Great Gao and punished all kinds of crimes, especially the corruption and invasion of officials, no matter how small the amount of property was.

_ The continuous expansion of the death penalty

After the Han Dynasty, China's first generation of laws carefully defined the penalty norms. A good dynasty must try its best to curb the number of death sentences and abolish the most cruel corporal punishment. Therefore, the Sui Dynasty formulated "five punishments" for their power: slap, stick, apprentice, exile and execution. This system was also adopted in the Tang Dynasty, followed by later generations, and the punishment in the Tang Dynasty was obviously reduced. If _ judicial torture extorts a confession, then the death penalty of hanging or beheading cannot be understood as making the defendant suffer-the Tang Dynasty in 745 AD even considered abolishing the death penalty! Since the Anshi Rebellion, the frequent execution of death penalty has entered a period that is difficult to decipher: theoretically, the Sui Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty still implemented the five-punishment system; In fact, from a code point of view, there are many more serious practices.

In the Song Dynasty, the punishment for "Ling Chi" was constantly expanding, but similarly, the kingship refused to change the criminal law, so the name "Ling Chi" was still missing in the Song Dynasty. First of all, following the sacrificial teachings of human religion is an emergency measure to resist bloody rebellion. Song Zhenzong (998- 1022) banned Minister Yang Shouzhen from supporting the rebels. During the reign of Renzong, a partisan struggle broke out in Wang Anshi's political reform. In addition to "mid-year", "waist cutting" also became a common punishment at that time. Ma Duanlin pointed out in the Literature General Examination that ministers used these punishments to deter officials who wanted to seek the throne. During the Southern Song Dynasty, there were more and more punishments for Ling Chi, but some officials objected, such as Lu You playing Chen Qing, which I will describe later. Lingchi was never compiled in the Song Dynasty, so it is difficult to know the actual implementation. In my opinion, it is possible to punish treason and conspiracy only.

In the criminal law of yuan dynasty, "year of age" was clearly regarded as a kind of death penalty. The second point is that they regard it as a tool for barbarians to publicize their authority to the Han people. However, we can also see that the laws of the Yuan Dynasty, like those of the late Southern Song Dynasty, legalized the title of the year. In the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, the title of the year was no longer an extreme means to suppress riots and dangerous sects, but an ordinary punishment for special crimes. Lingchi began in the Yuan Dynasty until/kloc-0 was abolished by the Qing Dynasty in 905, and it was mainly used to punish three kinds of crimes:

-Conspiracy against the monarch: major riots, treason and conspiracy to seize the throne.

-Moral crimes: children conspire against their parents, brothers conspire against their brothers, wives conspire against their husbands, and slaves conspire against their masters.

-Cruel and inhuman crimes: cutting off the limbs of others alive (witchcraft); Killing more than three people in the same family; Organize _ send creates terror.

The first and third categories only legalize the ancient punishment, which, by the way, is quite close to the criminal punishment in Europe: in France, the murder of the monarch is punishable by the death penalty of four horses, the faction leaders must be punished by turns, and the limbs must be broken with iron; In Britain, they used the punishment of dismemberment. Like China, they were executed in public and dismembered in public until18th century.

China people have the characteristics of aggravated punishment.

First of all, the first feature is synonymous with monarchy and patriarchy. Relatives are protected like emperors in their kingdom. Wives, children and servants are subjects and tend to seek power. In the west, _ pro-crime will be severely punished, but it is not enough to punish the murder of the monarch. Only China people will carry forward the original method and use _ to quell the rebellion between relatives.

The second feature is that the sentence "Zainian" implies "three families", that is, all paternal and maternal relatives! What's more, there is even more ridiculous. Most of the chaos is committed by individuals, but it is regarded as a family crime when sentencing. Although only Zhu Yuanzhang intends to implement this law and vigorously eliminate public officials; But don't forget, his son Yongle once slaughtered Fang Xiaoru, who was loyal to the former emperor Wen Jian, and implicated more than 800 people in his family. Later, the "three-clan" law was no longer a capital crime of involvement and respect for relatives, but an exile. In the Qing Dynasty, only adult sons were exiled indefinitely. The Qing dynasty continued the laws of the Ming dynasty, but the punishment was reduced, including the first kind of treason. Therefore, cases of "literary inquisition" are often sentenced to year-end imprisonment, but no criminal will really be punished by dismemberment like Dai Mingshi (1653- 17 10), and their crimes can be changed to beheading or death. On the contrary, the other two crimes, such as ethical crimes, cruel and inhuman crimes, especially theft, were punished in the middle of the year until the criminal law reform was abolished in the late Qing Dynasty.

_ Literati Rebellion from the beginning to the abolition of the title

Ling Chi, which appeared in the Liao Dynasty in 920 AD, became a legal punishment at the end of 13 century, and was abolished in 1905, which was about a century longer than that in Europe (1789, France abolished the rotation punishment, and 18 10, Britain abolished the dismemberment punishment). Abolishing the death penalty is the first step to implement the western code. Imprisonment and fines have replaced the original corporal punishment, and hanging has been restricted.

Some people find "year in" inhuman torture, that is to say, it is a serious mistake to assume that China people are in their prime-European laws and concepts. Since the Song Dynasty, there have been constant calls to restrict or abolish the annual festival punishment. At that time, the best example to prove the abolition of Ling Chi was the love letter written by Lu You, a great poet and official. This was an unexpected move at that time: he thought that Ling Chi only needed to be replaced and enthusiastically defended the benefits of abolishing Ling Chi. In fact, Lu You's argument can be summarized as follows: (1) Cruel death and organ exposure make the nation disrespected and hinder the mission of practical education; (2) Fighting the worst faction should not be tit for tat: it is illegal to help a criminal, even if he has helped others; (3) At the same time, the Han and Tang Dynasties provided an innovative and effective penalty system and gave up the "cool" penalty. Therefore, he believes that cruel punishments such as "annual income" should be restricted and abolished.

This passage is often quoted by scholars who oppose Ling Chi, and they put forward various arguments. Here, only the most important one is quoted: Wang Ming _, a jurist in the early Qing Dynasty, mentioned in the book Reading Fa Pei _ published in 1680 that the year of death is a punishment other than the five punishments, so it is "non-punishment" or "non-punishment". Indeed, although it was adopted by emperors of different dynasties, it did not conform to the jurisprudence and violated the spirit of China's punishment. Qian Da _( 1728- 1804), a great scholar who is good at textual research, insists that the word "year after year" is obscure and difficult to understand, and the name of punishment must be clearly understood before "punishing". All disputes have been circulated and collected by generations of scholars. Xue (1820- 190 1) was a learned jurist in the Qing dynasty. His two works, Tang Law and Reading Mysteries, also had a far-reaching impact on the criminal law reform in the late Qing Dynasty. He quoted Lu You, Wang Ming _ and Qian Da _ in large numbers, and argued for restoring the Han and Tang Dynasties and not including Ling Chi in the criminal law. His favorite pupil, Shen Jiaben, used the same argument. Finally, on April 24th, 905,/kloc-0 officially abolished the "year of the year" in the form of "Chen Qing's watch".

Of course, under the emperor's rule, the voice of literati demanding the abolition of the title or the reduction of the death penalty was too weak, and they had to bear heavy external pressure. We can even speculate that after the Taiping Rebellion, similar death sentences were very frequent in the late Qing Dynasty. So, a few months ago, soldiers of the French Embassy took pictures of the death penalty of three different prisoners at the Caishikou execution ground in Beijing. These photos are not conducive to China's past, and turned into evidence of terror. But what if there is a photo, or a photographer can capture the torture picture in Britain or France like "In That Year"? "Torture in China" is not only an objective fact in the legal history, but also affects Europeans, leaving a certain impression on China for an instant. This is a common example in history, but it is very novel. For the first time, western civilization has a scientific and technological method to fix vision on paper. Here, historians should leave some room for this artist, who knows how to show his extraordinary views, ignoring the hidden power and the manipulation of the rulers.