Torture and hard labor, while the eyes of thousands of people are sideways. ——Liu Zongyuan, "Feudal Theory"
China's legal system and legal system have been relatively sound since ancient times, and punishment is also a very important part of this. With the development and progress of society, the punishment in ancient times was constantly changing. Some of these punishments are only to serve as a warning or a slight punishment, and some are very cruel and can be called torture.
Perhaps everyone will think that beheading is already more cruel in punishment, but in fact, beheading can only be regarded as a more direct method. Compared with beheading, Ling Chi's torture is the most painful. According to historical records, there have been many tortures in China's history, the most widely known of which is the ten major tortures in the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Among the ten major tortures are waist chopping, car cracking, Ling Chi, etc., just listening to the name makes people feel chilling.
And the kind of torture we want to talk about today is not a lot of ink in history. Because according to historical records, only a few people have endured this kind of torture. The name of this torture is called lighting the sky lantern, I believe that people who know it will see this name and find that it is more cruel than the rumored Ten Great Tortures of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, so what is this torture?
Ignite the living, cruel to the extreme
Although the name sounds very ordinary, in fact, the execution process of lighting the sky lantern is very complicated and cruel. As we all know, under normal circumstances, people will not be easily ignited, unless there is a huge fire. So in order to make it easy for the person who accepts this punishment to be lighted, the first step in lighting the sky lamp is to soak the prisoner in the cylinder and let the prisoner's body fully absorb the fuel, so that the prisoner itself becomes a flammable product.
When prisoners are fished out of the oil tank, the executioners do not place them smoothly, but instead tie them up with chains and hang them on the execution rack. The firing rack is very high, and the prisoner is hung upside down. Doesn't that sound very suffocating? At this time, this torture is not immediately carried out, and in order to ensure the best results, the lighting of the sky lantern generally begins at night.
At night, the executioners began to ignite the upside-down prisoners, starting at their feet. Because if the key organs of the prisoner's heart and lungs are burned out, they will immediately lose their vital signs, then the punishment will become meaningless. So they have to start burning from their feet, so that the whole burning process will be slower and longer, and the prisoner will suffer more.
The first person to be tortured in history: Dong Zhuo
As we mentioned just now, the first person recorded in history to be punished by the lighting of the sky lantern was Dong Zhuo, so what kind of evil deed did he do to accept such a cruel punishment? According to historical records, Dong Zhuo was originally a very cruel person, he was a famous traitor during the Three Kingdoms period, and when he was alive, many people resented him. He not only ignored the imperial power, but also tried to manipulate the government and made many enemies.
At that time, Dong Zhuo had an enemy named Situ Wang Yun, and in order to get rid of Dong Zhuo, he came up with a beautiful trick. There was a very beautiful servant in his house called Sable Cicada, so he considered Sable Cicada to be his righteous daughter and offered it to Dong Zhuo. However, it quietly caused ambiguous feelings between Sable Cicada and Dong Zhuo's righteous son Lü Bu. As a result, Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu, the righteous father and righteous son, turned against each other, and Dong Zhuo was certainly not an opponent of Lü Bu, who was strong in martial arts, and eventually died at the hands of Lü Bu.
Although Dong Zhuoren has passed away, everyone's hatred for him cannot be quelled. At that time, his body was thrown on the street, which was already enough to be depressed, but the people who had been hurt by him still felt that they were not relieved enough, so at the suggestion of many people, everyone decided to carry out this cruel torture on Dong Zhuo's body - lighting the sky lantern. It is said that the lighting of the lantern for Dong Zhuo at that time lasted for several days before it ended, and the reason was that Dong Zhuo was too fat, so there was a lot of grease on his body.
The reason why Dong Zhuo was tortured by everyone like lighting a sky lantern was entirely because he was too tyrannical when he was alive, and he deserved it. Moreover, this torture was carried out after his death, when he was already unconscious and did not suffer any torture. But for another torturer, this is not the case.
The only female victim: Zhu Jiumei
Speaking of the only female prisoner in history who lit the sky lantern, everyone may not be familiar with it. Contrary to Dong Zhuo, she is not a person who does many evils. On the contrary, according to historical records, Zhu Jiumei was extremely talented and beautiful, and she was also one of the rebels in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. It can be said that she has courage and strategy, and is a rare outstanding woman. So, how could such a good woman be reduced to being tortured by lighting a sky lantern?
Things still have to start with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. As we all know, there was a leading figure in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement named Yang Xiuqing, who was crowned by Hong Xiuquan as the Eastern King. Although they led the peasant uprising, there was still no progress in their bones. Yang Xiuqing already had 66 wives at that time, but he still couldn't change the personality he liked when he saw beautiful women. Therefore, when he saw Zhu Jiumei, he naturally moved his heart, hoping that the other party could also come to him as a concubine.
But at that time, Zhu Jiumei already had a family, but her husband was only a small hundred chiefs, and there was no way to compete with Yang Xiuqing's ability. In desperation, Zhu Jiumei had to start hiding around. Yang Xiuqing also sent many people to search her, and after finding her, he not only carried out court battles against her, but also brutally killed her husband.
Zhu Jiumei thus became one of Yang Xiuqing's concubines, but she was not willing, so she decided to poison Yang Xiuqing with Yang Xiuqing's other concubine. Unexpectedly, he was recognized by Yang Xiuqing before he began, and in a fit of anger, Yang Xiuqing decided to carry out the punishment of lighting the sky lantern on Zhu Jiumei.
summary:
In ancient times, there were too many cruel tortures, and lighting sky lanterns was only one of them, perhaps not the most cruel one. In feudal society, the invention of punishment was originally intended to cooperate with the law as a management tool, but it did not expect that such a situation would eventually be formed.
In modern society, each of us must abide by the law, because once we do something that exceeds the red line of the law, we will be punished accordingly. Although we will no longer be tortured like the ancient lanterns, we still have to be in awe of the law and the criminal law.
Reference: Feudalism