From ancient times to the present, wars have been hated and spurned by people, and wars have not brought happiness to people, let alone good luck, but have brought endless disasters, misfortunes, and demise.
But even so, it is still impossible to avoid the outbreak of war, and one side of the two armies will lose the battle.
Although some victorious parties would give preferential treatment to prisoners of war, most victorious parties would try to torture prisoners of war in exchange for the joy of success.
Among them, there is a very famous punishment method "leading the sheep", so what is this punishment method? Why do women commit suicide after the fact, while men can tolerate it?
The country's fortunes are not good, and the country's strength is weak
The "sheep-bearing ceremony", this punishment naturally has a certain relationship with the sheep, in our consciousness, the sheep are either tied to a stake or kept in captivity.
The "sheep-leading ceremony" is to use a rope to tie it to the neck of the prisoners of war, in addition to which they are required to wear no upper clothes for men and women, but to wear sheepskin and be led forward.
Such a punishment is not only a physical insult to people, but also a psychological suppression of people, and when it comes to why anyone will accept this punishment, it must start from the Song Dynasty.
The Song Dynasty was a new dynasty after the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in Chinese history, and Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, did not actually obtain the throne through normal Zen concessions.
He was a general in the Later Zhou army at the time, and with the support of his subordinates, he launched a mutiny and established the Song Dynasty.
Because of his own experience, he became suspicious of the military generals, and staged a "cup of wine to release the military power", emphasizing the text and light weapons, suppressing the military generals, and consolidating his imperial rule.
During the reign of Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, the economy, culture, science and technology of the Song Dynasty achieved unprecedented development, the country's economy was prosperous, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment.
However, later, the implementation of the decision to emphasize literature over force led to more and more shortcomings being revealed.
Eunuchs controlled the government of the dynasty, and the corruption of the domestic political situation caused grievances among the people's livelihood, resulting in a situation in which soldiers did not know the generals and would not know the soldiers, and also brought the illusion that the country's fortunes were not good and the country's strength was weak.
This also made the Song Dynasty in the fight against the Liao, Jin and other strong northern enemies have been in a weak position.
At the same time as the war between the Song Dynasty and the Liao Dynasty, there was an empire that was slowly rising, the Jin Kingdom, the Jurchen tribe of jin origin, during the Liao Dynasty, they were widely distributed, and the main way to survive was through hunting.
Later, their living conditions were greatly improved, and they had the ability to make iron, weave, and build ships independently, and as their tribe grew stronger, they began to wage wars with daliao, large and small.
Although they had a certain gap with the Liao in all aspects of the military, under the leadership of Ah Kuanta, their armies won successive victories and won high prestige.
The surrounding tribes also began to surrender, and their ranks gradually became stronger, and began to establish their own dynasty, the Golden Kingdom.
The Song Dynasty watched the war between the Jin Dynasty and the Great Liao unfold, coupled with its frequent defeats in the confrontation with the Great Liao, which made them begin to have the idea of winning over the Jin State.
Diplomatic exchanges between the Song Dynasty and the Jin State became more frequent, and an agreement was reached to jointly resist the Liao, and the Jin State defeated the main army of the Liao and captured the Liao Emperor after a decade.
After the Jin Dynasty destroyed the Liao, it bred greater ambitions to destroy the Song.
Although the Jin Dynasty already had plans to swallow the Song Dynasty, he did not turn his face to the Song Dynasty at the first time, but continued to send emissaries to make friends with the Song Dynasty.
In order to let the Song Dynasty relax its defenses and better understand the military and development of the Song Dynasty in all aspects, the Jin Dynasty pursued the strategy of "long-distance and close attack" and caught the Song Dynasty by surprise.
In the seventh year of Xuanhe, the Jin Dynasty adopted a military strategy of dividing troops into two ways, and launched a comprehensive war against the Song Dynasty against the capital of the Song Dynasty, and the last emperor of the Song Dynasty, Song Qinzong, was ordered to be in danger.
This man was indecisive, timid and afraid to listen to the rumors of the villains, deposed Li Gang, a hero of the anti-Jin dynasty, and asked For peace with Jin, and The weakness of Song Qinzong could only make Jin Guo more arrogant.
During the Jing Kang period, Song Qinzong vigorously suppressed those who bravely resisted the Jin state in order to save his life, which directly led to the smooth entry of the Jin army into the capital, but was powerless in the face of the wanton plunder of the Jin state.
In 1127, the Northern Song Dynasty fell, and the Jin army returned to the Jin Kingdom with the captured Song Huizong, Song Qinzong, and their empresses, noble concubines, and children.
Let others slaughter like cattle and sheep
The winner is the king and the loser is the Kou, the man is the sword trick, I am the fish meat, and the active surrender of Song Qinzong did not get the favor of the Emperor of the Jin Dynasty, and they suffered great insults.
When they were captured, it happened to be winter, and they had experienced a long journey from the imperial capital to the Jin Dynasty, and among the captured people, women accounted for the overwhelming majority, weak and weak, and at the mercy of others.
Some of the young and beautiful women had already been teased by the soldiers of the Golden State on the way, and some could not bear to choose to commit suicide.
After some twists and turns, they arrive at their destination, and who would have thought that the first thing they would face when they arrived would be a leading sheep ceremony.
They had come here before they were respected royal nobles, dressed in magnificent costumes, and now all they had to do was to fade their honors, and in public, they draped their breasts with sheepskin full of smell for people to see.
Such a great contrast was unacceptable to them, and after they had accepted this ritual, many women chose to commit suicide, including a very famous figure, Empress Zhu.
Empress Zhu was only 26 years old at the time, she was dignified and beautiful, she had already suffered many insults from the Jin people on the way to escort, and after receiving the "leading sheep ceremony", she was ashamed to end her life.
Empress Zhu's behavior was even admired by the rulers of the Jin Dynasty at that time, and she was posthumously named Lady Zhenjie of Jingkang County.
On the contrary, Emperor Huizong of Song and Emperor Qinzong of Song did not have the dignity and courage of Empress Zhu, and perhaps they were waiting for an opportunity, so they chose to live in the world.
The "leading ceremony" is a great insulting punishment, and coupled with the fact that women have been deeply influenced by feudal ideas since childhood, they regard "chastity" as more important than their own lives.
Such a punishment is worse for them than killing them, which is why women choose to commit suicide after the fact, while men are safe and sound.
summary
In fact, the status of women in feudal society can be seen from the fact that women and men have performed different actions at the same time as men.
Women in feudal society were deeply bound by feudal etiquette, had no social status, and even if they were noble empresses, noble concubines, and princesses, they were still vassals of men.
In order to defend their honor, they can only exchange death for "chastity arches" to prove that such an ending is not a sadness.