After the Nanzhao state attacked Sichuan, why did it cut off the ears and noses of the captives?
In this article, I will talk to you about this topic.
Cutting off the ears represents the merits of the battle, and cutting the nose represents conquest.
Nanzhao's feud with the Tang Dynasty
Nanzhao originated from one of the Six Commandments, originally a powerful tribe in the Erhai Sea in western Yunnan, Shilangzhao, which began to gradually merge into a powerful slave state in the southwest in the early Tang Dynasty, because Shilangzhao was in the south of the Six Commandments, so it was called Nanzhao.
In order to stabilize the chaos in the southwest and fight against Tibet, Datang decided to support Shi Langzhao to annex the other five edicts. Twenty-six years of the new century (
738
), the leader of the Shilang Zhao, Pi Luoge, annexed the other five edicts and established the Nanzhao state centered on the Erhai Sea, and Pi Luoge was also named "
King of Nanzhao
”。 Although at that time, this measure was meaningful to stabilize the situation in the southwest in the short term, but in the long run it was a great threat to Datang.
The Six Commandments belong to one Great Tang Sorrow
That's what it means.
Trimble Four Years (
745
), Nanzhao to The Tang Dynasty"
Building a city to collect quality, training troops in armor, and secretly attacking me
The Battle of Tianbao, which took control of Anning City and Butou Road, took heavy losses and lost the most convenient outlet to the sea in the southwest. Although Nanzhao was victorious, it was also a tragic victory, so it finally chose to defect to Tubo and embarked on the road of confrontation with the Tang Dynasty.
When the Tang Anshi Rebellion did not have time to take care of others, Nanzhao took the opportunity to annex the tribes of the surrounding small countries and further expand its sphere of influence to the territory of the Tang Dynasty. Its power was so great and so strong that even the Nanzhao State itself at that time felt that "
Gradually, without the assistance of Tubo, it can exist independently
So Nanzhao once again returned to the old friendship with the Tang Dynasty and joined forces against Tubo. Under the continuous blows of Tang Dezong and Xianzong, Tubo quickly went into decline, and at this time, Nanzhao, because of its gradual strength, saw the declining national situation of the Tang Dynasty, and also bred ambitions with Tang Yi for a long time.
In 829, the Nanzhao army raided the Tang Dynasty and captured the western city of Chengdu to plunder tens of thousands of craftsmen and people, gold and silver treasures. In 859, King Shilong of Nanzhao changed the name of the country to "
Gift
", proclaimed himself emperor, rebelled against Tang and established himself, and began him"
Two traps annan, four offenses in Sichuan, and one into Qianzhong
In the large-scale military operation, Datang sent the famous general Gao Biao to serve as the protector of Annam. In 866, Gao Biao regained Jiaotong, completely annihilated the Nanzhao army, and beheaded the commander of the Nanzhao army, Duan Chieftain, and more than 30,000 of his subordinates, and sent his right ear to Chang'an to report his merits.
Shilong was not willing to accept defeat, so in 869 he personally led a large army to raid Xichuan, attacked several cities and attacked Chengdu again. Due to the sworn resistance of the chengdu soldiers and civilians, after Shilong lost thousands of elites under the city of Chengdu, he actually cut off the ears and noses of the captured soldiers and civilians in a frenzy to show the intention of conquest.
So the question is, why did Nanzhao cut off the ears and noses of the captives?
First of all, cutting the ears represents the battle merits, and cutting the nose represents conquest. After being defeated in Chengdu, Shilong had to retreat. The barbarians and retired soldiers were to be rewarded for their merits, and each department was to present its own military achievements and captive slaves to the king of Nanzhao, and in order to facilitate the counting, the ears and noses were cut off as evidence, so as to facilitate counting.
Secondly, in order to get revenge on Gao Biao for cutting off the ears of Thenanzhao soldiers in Annam. Gao Biao broke the Nanzhao army in the Battle of Jiaotong, beheaded more than 30,000 captured Nanzhao troops, and cut off their ears to repay the merits, in order to retaliate for Gao Biao's behavior in the Battle of Jiaotong, Shilong cut off his nose even more cruelly, in order to humiliate The Tang.
Finally, cutting off the ears and nose is both a punishment and a curse. As early as ancient times, there was the theory of slitting, that is, cutting off the nose, and cutting off the ears like it is also a punishment, and these two punishments belong to the same kind of punishment."
Five punishments in the flesh
One of these is a punishment that is mainly insulting. In addition, cutting off the ears is also a curse for the Nanzhao people. The ear not only represents the battle merit, for the Nanzhao people, it is also a medium for sacrificing the ancestors, without the ear after death, you can not get the sacrifice of the descendants, then cutting off the ears of the Sichuan military and civilians has become an extremely vicious curse.
epilogue
The Nanzhao state supported by the Tang Dynasty eventually became a major problem for the empire, and eventually the entire Tang Empire gradually withered away in the continuous consumption of Tubo and Nanzhao, and the victims of the war were always the people, and finally ended this article with a poem describing the tragic situation of the abducted people at that time.
Yunnan Road out of the sinking Hexi, poisonous grass evergreen miasma low. Approaching the barbarian city who dared to cry, for a moment collected tears envious of the ape crying.