Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography and portraiture - Who invented ancient punishment?

Who invented ancient punishment?

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. Before and after the Ming Dynasty, this criminal law was mainly used to punish those heinous crimes, 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 farmers' resistance, people who failed to pay taxes on time were also punished with late death, which was particularly prominent in the middle and early Qing Dynasty. 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. Generally, eight knives are cut, first beheading, then cutting hands and feet, then cutting the chest and abdomen, then beheading, and finally dismembering. During the Ming dynasty, the new year's goods were generally good, and most of them were above 1000 yuan. A typical example is Liu Jin, a vicious eunuch in the Ming Dynasty, who was cut for three days, with a total of 3,357 knives. It is said that after cutting on the first day, Liu Jin also drank some porridge and continued the next day. After the Qing Dynasty, Ling Chi's knife was not as good as before. There are roughly 24 knives, 36 knives, 72 knives, 120 knives. Among them, 24 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 between hands and elbows, ninety knives to cut between elbows and shoulders, eleven or two knives to cut leg meat, thirteen or four knives to cut leg belly, fifteen knives to stab heart, sixteen knives to cut head and seventeen or eight knives to cut hands. In the Guangxu period of A.D. 1905, Ling Chi's punishment was abolished. 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. When the ancient Romans dealt with female prisoners, they cut off their breasts first, and for male prisoners, they cut off their genitals first. When the ancient Greeks cut meat, they had to add the procedure of deboning, which made the prisoner look like a doll 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. At the beginning of the execution, the executioner will skillfully cut out the Adam's apple of the prisoner to prevent him from shouting. Then quickly bandage the bleeding wound, the first part is the back, and the meat cut by each knife must be only the size of the fingernail. To kill an adult, you must use 3357 knives, and the knives must bleed and lose meat. It should be glued to it with a large white porcelain plate for the audience to appreciate and get appreciation. If the prisoner dies before the specified number of knives, the executioner will be laughed at by the audience and may lose his job. The origin and mysterious name of "Niannian" first appeared in Criminal Records 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 hill; The word "late" cannot be interpreted as "late" in modern Chinese, but a verb of "spreading" or "scraping". Specifically, "Lingchi" can refer to a gradually flattened or flattened mound, which means a mound and the collective burial of a clan. However, the historical records of some dynasties are symbolic: "Mausoleum", earth dikes along slopes or canals, represent systems and laws, and delimit national boundaries; "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 "persistent" rather than "late"), and the word "Ling" next to the word "Bing" is 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, "revenue" is only the name of corporal punishment, and a few knowledgeable people will 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, which may be to cut a bound prisoner 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 the penalty system, this kind of penalty is savage and its terminology is obscure. Although it does not belong to the "five punishments" system, it obviously has Chinese characters. However, it is not only a way of execution in barbarian areas or foreign dynasties, but also an increasingly frequent, systematic and irregular method, which spread from Song Dynasty to Yuan Dynasty and from Ming Dynasty to Qing Dynasty. China in these dynasties, like the dynasties established by prairie people, has been passed down continuously. Zhu Yuanzhang, who first fought against the Great Khan of Mongolia and later became Ming Taizu, promulgated "Da Gao", and punished all kinds of crimes, especially the corruption of officials, with the penalty of "the middle of the year", even if the amount of property was no exception. With the continuous expansion of the death penalty after the Han Dynasty, China carefully defined the penalty norms in 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. Ling Chi, compiled in Yuan Dynasty and abolished in Qing Dynasty in 1905, was mainly used to punish treason, treason and seeking position. 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. Respected relatives, like the emperors in their kingdom, are protected. Wives, concubines, children and servants are all subjects and tend to conspire for 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 "three clans" law was no longer a capital crime of involvement and respect for relatives, but was changed to 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. "Which emperor or minister came up with this punishment?" You think they have nothing to do? Look at the following: from the beginning to the abolition, the literati rebelled in the Liao Dynasty in 920 AD, and it became a statutory punishment at the end of 13. 1905 was abolished, about a century later than Europe (1789, France abolished wheel punishment, 18 10). 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 was punished in this way was Liu Jin, the great eunuch. It is said that it took him three days to die. This is one of the official punishments in Ming and Qing Dynasties.