Who knows the implementation of the Year? What are its steps?

After the Han Dynasty, China carefully defined the penalty norms of ancient laws. 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 the company extorts a confession by torture, then the death penalty of hanging or beheading cannot be understood as making the defendant suffer-the Tang Dynasty in 745 even considered abolishing the death penalty! Since the An Shi Rebellion, wars have been frequent, so the death penalty is often executed. At that time, it entered a period that was difficult to decipher: theoretically, the Sui Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty still implemented the five-punishment system; In fact, from the point of view of code, many more cruel practices are stipulated.

In the Song Dynasty, the penalty of "Ling Chi" continued to expand, but similarly, the kingship refused to change the criminal law, so the title of "Ling Chi" was still missing in the criminal series of the Song Dynasty. First of all, following the sacrificial teachings of human religion is an emergency measure to resist bloody rebellion. Song Zhenzong's imperial edict forbade Minister Yang Shouzhen to help the rebels. In Song Renzong, a partisan struggle broke out in Wang Anshi's political reform. In addition to the year of death, 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. "Ling Chi" has never been included in the Song Dynasty, so it is quite 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:

Crimes against the monarch: riots, treason, and seeking the throne.

Ethical crimes: children murder their parents, brothers murder their brothers, wives murder their husbands, and slaves murder their masters.

Cruel and inhuman crime: cutting off the limbs of others alive (witchcraft); Killing more than three people in the same family; Organize gangs to create terror.

The first and third categories only legalize the punishment of dismemberment in ancient times, which, by the way, is quite close to the criminal punishment in Europe: in France, the murder of a monarch is punishable by death by dismembering four horses, and gang leaders must be punished by rotation; In Britain, they used the punishment of dismemberment, and 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, the crime of killing relatives will be severely punished, but it is not enough to punish the crime of murdering the monarch. Only China people will carry forward the original methods to quell the rebellion between relatives.

The second feature is that the judgment of "in that year" implicated three families, that is, all paternal and maternal relatives! What's more, there is even more ridiculous. Most rebellions are committed by individuals, but they are regarded as family crimes when they are sentenced. Although only Zhu Yuanzhang intends to implement this law and vigorously eliminate public officials; But don't forget, his son Yongle slaughtered Fang Xiaoru, who was loyal to his predecessor, and implicated more than 800 people in his family. Later, the law of "three clans" was no longer the capital crime of involvement and respect for relatives, but 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 in the literary inquisition are often sentenced to year-end imprisonment. However, no criminals will be really punished like Dai Mingshi and others, and their crimes can be changed to beheading or execution. On the contrary, the other two crimes, such as ethical crimes, cruel and inhuman crimes, especially robbery, were punished in the middle of the year until the criminal law reform was abolished in the late Qing Dynasty.

From the beginning to the abolition of the title of literati resistance

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 later than that in Europe (1789, France abolished rotation punishment, and 18 10, Britain abolished 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 think that the inhuman torture of "year", that is, that China people worship European laws and concepts, is a serious mistake. 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) Repressing the worst objections should not be tit for tat: it is illegal to help a criminal, even if he has helped others; (3) Both the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty provided innovative and effective punishment systems and gave up torture. Therefore, he believes that the death penalty year and other torture should be restricted and abolished.

This passage is often quoted by scholars who oppose Ling Chi, and they put forward various arguments. Here I only quote the most important one: Wang Mingde, a jurist in the early Qing Dynasty, mentioned in his book Reading the Law published by 1680 that the New Year's Day is beyond the five punishments, so it is a "punishment other than the orthodox law" or a "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. A scholar who is good at textual research All arguments are circulated and collected among scholars. Xue, a learned jurist in the Qing Dynasty, whose two works, Tang Law and Interpretation of Mysteries, also had a far-reaching impact on the reform of criminal law in the late Qing Dynasty. He quoted Lu You and Wang Mingde's views in large numbers, and argued that the Han and Tang Dynasties should be restored, and that the year number should not be included in the criminal law. His favorite pupil, Shen Jiaben, used the same argument. On April 24th, 1905, Chen Qing made a watch, which was finally officially abolished in.

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 Heavenly Kingdom, 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 sentences 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 are photos, or photographers can capture the torture pictures in Britain or France like Ling Chi? "Torture in China" is not only an objective fact in the history of legal system, but I emphasize here that it has also influenced Europeans and left an impression on China for a moment. This is a common example in history, but it is very novel. For the first time, western civilization has scientific and technological methods to fix vision on paper. Here, historians should leave some room for this artist, who knows how to show his extraordinary views of ignoring the hidden power and the manipulation of the dominator.

The most famous person who received this punishment was eunuch Liu Jin. I heard it took him three days to die.

This is one of the official punishments in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

A year's development

Among all kinds of cruel punishments in ancient China, the most inhuman one was AD. Lingchi, formerly known as Lingchi, originally meant the gentle slope of the hill. Xunzi said, "Three feet on the shore, you can't board empty cars." A mountain, let the negative car climb. What is this? The year has arrived. "It means that the car can't be pulled up on a three-foot steep slope, but because the slope is gentle, the car can be pulled to the top of the mountain. Later generations took Ling Chi as the name of punishment, only taking its slow meaning, that is to say, putting people to death at a very slow speed. In order to reflect this "slow" intention, it is to cut off the human flesh one by one until the meat is almost cut, and then cut off the head by caesarean section and let the prisoner die. So the year is also called cutting, cutting, inch cutting and so on. The so-called "thousand pieces" refers to the year.

This practice of slashing the living with a knife has long existed. After the Song Dynasty, the deposed emperor Liu Yu personally hacked people. Gao Yang in Wen Xuandi, Northern Qi often kills people by chopping people. During the Anshi Rebellion in the Middle Tang Dynasty, Yan Gaoqing was defeated and captured in the anti-Anshi Rebellion, and was beheaded with Yuan and others at the same time. However, most people think that Nianguan started in the Five Dynasties as a formal punishment. Lu You said: "There are many reasons for the five seasons, and the regular law is insufficient, so it began in a special year outside the law. Exhausted, the breath is not exhausted, the liver and the heart are connected, and the audio-visual still exists. " But in the Five Dynasties, some people realized that Ling Chi's punishment was too cruel and advocated that it should be abandoned. For example, in the third year of the Jin Dynasty (946), Yan said that there were only two ways to keep the death penalty, and it was forbidden to "cut people's skin with a short knife". Later, Emperor Shi Zhonggui was allowed to take part in the competition, and the year-end punishment was no longer used.

At the beginning of the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, the punishment of year number was still prohibited. The criminal law promulgated by Song Taizu stipulates that beheading or strangulation should be adopted for felony, and there is no year. In Song Zhenzong, Yang Shouzhen, an official, toured Shaanxi, supervised the arrest of thieves and arrested the first batch of thieves. He asked the court to execute them later to punish these evil people. Zhenzong issued a letter and ordered the prisoner to be transferred to the yamen for punishment according to law, and the year was not allowed. It was not until Zong Xining and Yuan Feng that Ling Chi was officially listed as one of the death sentences. "A General Examination of Criminal System" said: "Before Zhaoling (Song Renzong Mausoleum), although killing thieves was fierce and powerful, it was never used lightly. Those who are busy in prison and say crazy things have all received this punishment. " In the eighth year of Ru Xining (1075), Zhu Tang, a native of Yizhou, sued Yuyao County of Yuezhou for rebellion. When Li Feng was arrested and tried, his confession also implicated Liu Yu, the ambassador and medical officer of Xiuzhou Yong Tuan, and the court ordered a department to hear the case. As a result, Li Feng and Xu Ge, the observation and promotion officer of Liu Yuhe Hezhongfu, were both executed by Ling Chi. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the cases of Qingyuan Law more clearly listed the death penalty names of year in, beheading and strangulation, which lasted until the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

In the Song Dynasty, the title of the year was commonly known as cut. During the Jingdezhen period, Yushitai interrogated the murderer. After the verdict was finalized, Naoki invited him to "cut it". The original word "cut" is "bone", without "moon" (meat), and it is also shaped like a human skull. Shuo Wen Jie Zi explains that it thinks that "removing human flesh and setting bones" is exactly the meaning of zero knife to cut people. Meng is also called Meng. In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Guo framed the section "The meaning of words begins with words" in Volume 18 of Architectural Essays: "In Zhenyuan, Xuanwu mutinies and the city will be defeated." And noticed that, alas, it is the word "cut". It can be seen that the meaning of "cut" has long been clear, but in the Song Dynasty, it became synonymous with the year and became more widely known. This situation is also common in novel description. The 27th chapter of Water Margin wrote that Wang Po, who instigated Pan Jinlian to kill Wu Dalang, was sentenced to "Miko Wu's death" by Dongping prefect Chen, and then wrote:

Take Wang Po out of prison and take orders from the hall. He read the surrender of the imperial court, wrote a guilty card and drew a confession. Then the woman was pushed onto the donkey, with four long nails and three whips. The Dongping magistrate sentenced her to "chop!" Word, out of the strip, two broken drums rang, a broken gong rang, and offenders were led by the front, mixed with sticks to urge, two sharp knives were raised, and a paper flower was shaken and taken to Dongping City to eat.

Because imprisonment was widely used in the Song Dynasty, when people retaliated against their enemies, they also hacked people to death like the official imprisonment. There is also such a plot in the biography of water travel. Please see the description of Li Kui jy cutting Huang Wenbing in Chapter 4 1:

(Li Kui jy) said, "You are going to die today, but the master wants you to die slowly!" He first cut off a sharp knife from his leg and put it face to face on a charcoal fire to cook and drink. Cut a piece and bake it. When there was no movie, Huang Wenbing was cut. Li Kui jy cut off his chest, took out his heart and made a hangover soup with all the leaders.

The two paragraphs in the Water Margin quoted above can show the general situation of Ling Chi's execution in the Song Dynasty, which is basically consistent with the practice of "Ling Chi died first, but it was embarrassing" in the criminal law records of the Song Dynasty.

In the Yuan Dynasty, the death penalty was beheaded without hanging, and it was also stipulated that people who committed the most heinous crimes could be executed in a hurry. In the Yuan Dynasty, the execution in the year of death was similar to that in the Song Dynasty. For example, in the Yuan drama "The Earthquakes Shake the Mountain to Report Wrongful Cases", his father Dou reviewed the unjust cases and sentenced Zhang Lver to "poison his grandfather, rape a widow, agree on the year of death, take him to the city, nail him to a donkey, and execute him with one knife and one hundred and twenty." This is the same as how Wang Po was killed in the Water Margin, and they all had to be crucified with wooden donkeys. This donkey is probably a wooden shelf, on which the prisoner can be fixed, so that the prisoner can't move when cutting. It is different from the ancient punishment for female prisoners who colluded with adulterers to harm their husbands to ride wooden donkeys (see Miscellaneous Punishment in this book). The zaju "Dou Eyuan" points out the number of knives that should be cut more clearly than "Water Margin". Imagine that 120 is fatal to a person, and its cruelty cannot but make people shudder.

The laws of the Ming dynasty also clearly stipulated that 2008 was one of the death sentences. "Daming Law Criminal Law" contains: "Rebellion: anyone who conspires against the country is called seeking danger; Treason refers to the destruction of ancestral temples, mountain tombs and palaces. But the conspirators, regardless of their first offense, were all executed in the middle of the year. " The establishment of the annual punishment reflects the cruelty of feudal autocracy. In order to suppress the people's resistance and various uprisings, the rulers did not hesitate to use all sinister means. During the Ming dynasty, leaders of peasant uprisings and other captured rebels were sentenced to years in prison. For example, in the thirty-fourth year of Wanli (1606), Liu Tianxu and others rebelled, were defeated and captured, and the first seven people were killed. The "crack" here is the year of the year. In the twenty-first year of Jiajing (1542), maid-in-waiting Yang and others attempted to murder Ming Shizong and were arrested. Yang, Yang Lianxiang and other 16 maids were all executed that year and their remains were filed. In May of the seventh year of Wanli (1579), Dong Chuance, assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites, was killed by domestic slaves in the government. A company caught murderers and put them in prison for trial. The next year, they were all cut down in the city.

As a matter of fact, the annual sentence in the Ming Dynasty is not only applicable to rebellion, but also to criminals with minor crimes. In the early Ming Dynasty, there were many such cases in the Big Draft compiled by Zhu Yuanzhang himself. For example, Qian Jin, the governor of Jin Wuwei, asked his wife to beat the drums to express her dissatisfaction. After the trial, the accusation was untrue, and Qian Jin was found guilty of slandering the imperial court and was executed. Li Fu, a citizen of Chongde County, was denounced for disturbing the people. The magistrate summoned him, but he ignored him. He asked the king to arrest him. He designed to invite Wang to drink. After Wang was drunk, Li tied Wang up and claimed that Wang cheated to eat and drink. Although Li's behavior is hooliganism, it does not constitute a capital crime. As a result, he was executed that year for false accusation. There is a gap between Zhe Ke, an imperial envoy of Beiping Road, and Zhan Wei, an imperial envoy of Jingshi, so He Zhe and two other imperial envoys Ren Hui and Sichuan Road teamed up to fabricate facts and frame Zhan Wei. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang trusted Zhan Wei, so he instructed a company to punish He Zhe and others. As a result, he, Ren, Qi and Wei were sentenced in public. Like the above three cases, there are still some cases that should not be delayed. Zhu Yuandao's punishment is cruel, which can be seen from these facts.

The Yuan Dynasty chopped the prisoners into ten thousand pieces, and the number of knives in the Ming Dynasty was far more than that in the previous generation, which was shocking enough. There were two famous cases of execution in Ming dynasty, and the number of knives was clearly recorded. One is Liu Jin, the eunuch of Zheng De, and the other is Zheng Zhi, a scholar during the Chongzhen period. Zhicheng Deng's "Gu Xu Dong Ji" Volume II "Inch" said: "According to the custom, the punishment of burning an inch in the Ming Dynasty was 4,200 yuan for Liu Jin and 3,600 yuan for Zheng Zhi. Li Ciming also said in his diary. " The number of knives that Liu Jin was chopped here may be misinformation. In fact, Liu Jin was chopped 3357 times. Such a large number is really amazing. Folk women often say "you get a thousand knives" when swearing. It doesn't seem to be a function word to chop down more than 1000 knives in ancient times.

Let's start with Liu Jin. In the fifth year of Zheng De (15 10), Liu Jin was sentenced to death for treason, and the imperial edict granted him "three days within the year", and then his body was filed. In the tenth scene of execution, Zhang Wenlin, who was serving his sentence in prison at that time, gave a detailed account:

On the same day, Hu Yuan, the then director of Shaanxi Department, was arrested and stunned. He told the above-mentioned Mr. Liu Jing, "How can I do it?" Liu Huiyan: "I'll let undergraduates help you." Respond. After the official breakfast, I asked the official to follow the company to Lang Zheng in the west corner. Liu Jin had already had an operation. The number of knives in a year, for example, 3357 knives, take a break every ten knives and shout. On the first day, you should cut 357 knives from the left and right sides of the chest, such as large nail pieces. There will be blood in the first operation, but there will be no blood in the second operation. It is said that the prisoner was frightened and blood entered his lower abdomen and calf. After the incision, the blood came out, so I think it should be Send the gold to Tianfu wanping county at the latest and let it go. Kim still ate two bowls of porridge. That's the way to prevent thieves. The next day, he was taken to the east corner. On the first day, Kim was punished, and he said a word. He gagged his mouth with hemp walnuts and died after dozens of knives. At sunrise, Liu Jin played the imperial edict with the supervisor, several feet late, filing the corpse to avoid beheading. The victim's family tried to sacrifice its meat to the dead. Filing a corpse is a big axe in the chest, and the chest counts. It's a pity to repay a thief.

When Liu Jin was in charge of state affairs, it was more evil to destroy loyalty It is true that he finally became like this, but judging from the process of his punishment, it cannot be said that it is really inhuman.

Look at Zheng Zhi. It's a pity that when Liu Jin was tortured, Zheng Zhi was tortured like this. Zheng Zhi, a native of Henglin, Changzhou, was a scholar in the second year of the apocalypse (1622). His literary talent and reputation were once famous. In the early years of Chongzhen, Zheng Zhi was involved in political disputes caused by party struggles within the imperial court. He was accused of two heinous crimes: "beating his mother" and "raping his sister". After the crime, Emperor Zhu Youjian personally instructed him to execute the death penalty that year.

With regard to the detailed background and merits of Zheng Zhi's case, I don't want to make a specific textual research here, but just talk about the general process of his punishment. In the twelfth year of Chongzhen (1639), at dawn on August 26th, the imperial edict issued the execution on that day, and some officials immediately ordered the relevant personnel to be summoned. Escort the prisoner to the west side. At that time, Xi Shi was located in the Si Xia archway of Ganshiqiao on the west side of the Imperial City of Beijing (hereinafter referred to as Xisi archway, now Xisi in Beijing), where the execution of the condemned prisoners was often carried out. According to the convention, the beheading is downstairs in the west row and the year number is downstairs in the east row. So, that morning, a group of people set up a shed next to the East Row, where the supervisor, beheading officer and others sat. A thick wooden pole was erected in front of the shed, and a fork was inserted into the wooden pole. Soon, the executioner of the execution also arrived ahead of time. Each of them brought a small basket with iron hooks and sharp knives. The executioner took out an iron hook, a sharp knife, etc. Put them in the sand and sharpen them very sharply. In the morning and the third hour, the supervisor took Zheng Zhi to the execution ground with a captain and a servant. Zheng Zhi was temporarily parked in the south row downstairs. He is sitting in a big basket, without a headscarf, shoes and socks, and is talking endlessly with a nerd about things at home. At this time, the onlookers were crowded, blocking the surrounding roads and open spaces, and the nearby roofs were full of people. An official said that the judge of Xicheng court had not arrived yet, so he had to stop for a while. Just then, the magistrate was crowded with followers and came here separately from the dense crowd. After sitting down, he read out the imperial edict loudly. Because of the noise around, people couldn't hear what he was reading clearly, except for his last sentence: "According to the law, you should cut 3600 knives." The executioner echoed in unison, sounding like Lei Zhen. The onlookers trembled with fear. Only three shots were heard, and then the execution began. The crowd became more excited, and some people who climbed into the room stood up and craned their necks to see how the executioner chopped people. However, due to the dense crowd nearby, the execution site is far from being seen. After a long time, I saw a rope hanging from the forked thick wooden pole. Someone pulled the rope behind the wooden pole, and something was hanging from the other end of the rope, dripping with blood. It turned out to be human lungs and liver, which were hoisted to the highest point of the wooden pole. This shows that the prisoner's meat has been cut off, and he has begun to gut. After a while, put down the rope on the wooden pole, took out the liver and lungs, and hung a head, indicating that Zheng Zhi had been beheaded. Then, hang Zheng Zhi's body, with his chest on the wooden pole and his back facing the crowd. Everyone saw that the muscles on his back were cut into strands, but they were not cut off. Thousands of dense hemp clusters were like hedgehogs. At this time, the one-year punishment came to an end. Two captains waved red flags and rode fast Ma Xiangdong. They went to the palace to report to the emperor how many knives they had cut. Later, an executioner took down Zheng Zhi's body and sold some pieces of his meat. It is said that people buy these human flesh as raw materials for preparing medicines for treating scabies.

In the Qing dynasty, there was punishment for the New Year. Once the rulers catch the leader of the peasant uprising, they will always be executed in the middle of the year. For example, when the Northern Expedition Army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom failed, eight generals, including Li and Li, were captured and sent to Beijing for public display. The leader of the Nian Army and Lai were defeated and captured, and they were also punished in the same year. Shi Dakai, the famous leader of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was defeated in Dadu River and surrendered to Sichuan Governor Luo. However, he was not treated leniently. The Qing court ruled that Shi Dakai need not be escorted to Beijing and executed on the spot in Sichuan. Luo, the executioner who suppressed the peasant uprising, cruelly used the punishments of Shi Dakai and others. It was June 25th, the second year of Tongzhi (1862). Luo led the Qing soldiers to the big opening, while Zaifu Zengshi and Zaizhong went to the execution ground. Shihe was tied to two cross-shaped stakes face to face. When executing the title, the executioner cut Zeng Shihe first, but Zeng Shihe was in great pain and screamed. Shi Dakai scolded him and said, "Why can't you stand such a short time?" Zeng Shihe just gritted his teeth and stopped shouting. When Shi Dakai was tortured, he was cut more than one hundred times. He remained silent from beginning to end. Shi Dakai's awe-inspiring righteousness and strong will shocked the officers and men of the Qing army. Liu Rong, the envoy of Sichuan deployment, said that he was "arrogant and strong, but his words were neither supercilious nor flattering." ..... At the time of execution, I looked very happy, and I was the ugliest. "

Ling Chi's punishment lasted until the end of Qing Dynasty. After the Reform Movement of 1898, the Qing court was impacted by various internal and external contradictions and had to follow the trend and carry out some reforms on traditional disadvantages. In the thirty-first year of Guangxu (1905), Shen Jiaben, the minister of the Ministry of Justice, was asked to delete severe punishments such as Ling Chi, and the Qing court allowed him to play them, and ordered laws such as Ling Chi, beheading and slaughter to be "deleted forever, and all laws were changed". From then on, the inhuman torture of that year disappeared from the code and was replaced by beheading.