"History of Yin Benji": "Taijia was established, three years, unknown, tyrannical, disrespectful to Tang Fa, chaotic morality, so Yi Yin put it in the Tong Palace." ”
Throughout the five thousand years of China, the hierarchical system of feudal society has had a profound and extensive impact on the development of our country. From the ruling ranks of Tianzi, princes, Qing Dafu, and scholars in the Zhou Dynasty and the ruling ranks of Shuren, Industry, Commerce, soap, etc., to the official ranks of Gong, Hou, Bo, Zi, and Male in the Qing Dynasty, all of them reflect the inequality between people.
Under the feudal system, ordinary people may be imprisoned for mentioning names that avoided secrecy or accidentally colliding with the nobles of the time. In addition to being conscientious as an errand boy, the officials of the imperial court must also be able to observe the color of speech, just as the so-called "accompanying the king is like accompanying the tiger", if they annoy the emperor, the light one "loses the black hat", ruining their own future, and the heavy one "Zhulian Nine Ethnic Groups" and harming the family.
Raiding homes and exile seems to have saved lives, but in fact it is a long-term mental and physical torture of prisoners, a punishment second only to the death penalty, and the prisoners almost talk about discoloration, and even many prisoners prefer death to accept exile.
In ancient times, transportation was not developed, exile meant long journeys, prisoners wore shackles, mobility was difficult, and suffering was unbearable. The strict exile system will follow the principle of "the south will send to the north, and the north will send the south", exile the prisoners from the north to the smokey miasma in the south, and exile the prisoners from the south to the bitter cold and barbaric places in the north, so as to reflect the punitive and deterrent nature of their punishments.
During the long road of exile, prisoners faced unpredictable natural disasters and day-to-day suffering, and sometimes had to endure the physical and mental torture of military service. Such a day of overnight stay and bumpy journey is not something that everyone can bear, and the famous historian Song Lian died of illness in Kuizhou (present-day Fengjie, Chongqing) on the way to exile Maozhou.
And the same kind of environment, but also thousands of miles to travel, this errand is the eyes of the servants "fragrant food", if the escort is a female prisoner, it is even more scrambled.
Although it is not necessary to wear heavy shackles like prisoners, the servants in charge of escorting them also have to eat and sleep in the wind and travel thousands of miles, and the hardships of which can be imagined. In particular, the relevant regulations on women in the Tang Law that "wives have no seven out of righteousness and three do not go out" clearly point out that women who commit crimes against the law are more important than ordinary criminals, which means that they will be exiled to a farther place, which also shows that the escort of the servants will be longer. In our eyes, this is really a chore, why has it become a "hot job"? There are three reasons for this.
First, compared with the county lords who could only nod their heads and waist in the face of the commanding county lords, there was no doubt that in front of the prisoners, there was no doubt that "the peasants turned over and sang." Their daily work in Yamen is nothing more than to accompany the county commander to try cases or arrest prisoners outside, which requires a long period of standing or running, anytime, anywhere, on call, for the superiors to drive, rare rest time, very hard. On the way to escort, in the face of the displaced people who have become prisoners of the order, although they do not say that they must have the right to control the overall situation, at least they do not have the tension of being on standby at any time. In contrast, the escort of prisoners will have a more autonomous right, why not.
Second, often well-off prisoners would give their servants a sum of silver in order to make themselves less miserable on their way to exile, and often in large amounts. When women are escorted, their families are more generous in their efforts to ensure that women are protected from abuse. On the way to exile Tibet, Ji Xiaolan might not have been able to reach Urumqi at all, let alone have the opportunity to return to Beijing after "giving the ring." Therefore, for the servants, on a certain escort journey, they may get the cost of enough food and clothing for the whole family for the rest of their lives. So why not enjoy the additional benefits of escorting prisoners?
Third, compared with the low-level military service, the high-ranking officials and nobles who grew up in fine clothes could not tolerate the hard life on the way to exile, and if they wanted to successfully arrive in the exile place, they could only "fund" to improve the conditions, which benefited the most from the service responsible for escorting prisoners. Using a horse-drawn carriage instead of hiking may feel that the well-treated nobles will feel that the carriage is bumpy, but for the servants who are running and working on weekdays, the arrangement of food, clothing, housing and transportation is properly arranged, which is enough to be comfortable and leisurely. In contrast, the escort of prisoners will have a more comfortable environment, why should the servants refuse.
Mr. Kang Youwei said: "Everyone is close to each other, everyone is equal, and the world is just, which is the same." The impact of the feudal hierarchy of more than two thousand years on us often outweighs the benefits, and the hierarchical privileges are clearly written into the law to greatly exploit the equal rights of the people, from the figures in the official arena to the prisoners of the order without long things, perhaps just a word of the Son of Heaven, on the contrary, at present, everyone is equal, so beautiful, enough to cherish.
Resources:
History of Ancient Chinese Criminal Law
"Tang Law Neglect Discussion : Household Marriage Law"