There are many people in China's history who have been delayed.
Among them, people are well known for:
I. Liu Jin: A eunuch of the Ming Dynasty, who served Zhu Houzhao after his crimes were pardoned during the Hongzhi period, and was able to win the favor of Emperor Wuzong of Ming by offering birds and animals, and was promoted several times. It was rumored that Ling was three days late and cut three thousand knives.
2. Yuan Chonghuan: A famous general who resisted the Qing Dynasty at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Yuan Chonghuan was able to reactivate after Emperor Mingsizong Zhu Youjian took the throne, after which the Chongzhen Emperor Zhonghuang Taiji counter-plotted against Yuan Chonghuan and executed him Ling Chi. At the time of the execution, the people of Beijing watched the people compete for its flesh and drink and eat it raw.
3. Fang Xiaoru: Minister of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di, king of Yan, swore an oath to "Jing Nan" and marched south to the Beijing Division. Emperor Hui also sent troops to the Northern Expedition, and the edicts against the King of Yan at that time were all written by Fang Xiaoru. After the King of Yan entered the capital, the Wenwu Hundred Officials surrendered to the King of Yan, but Fang Xiaoru refused to surrender and was eaten by others, and ate a piece of silver and one or two.
4. Zheng Yan: A minister of the Ming Dynasty, who was killed for the impeachment of the castration party by Shangshu, he wrote "Pain and Strange Grievances" in prison, "Crying out to the heavens in pain, every word and blood, and forgetting the characters". The executioner removed Zheng's body and sold the meat on his body one by one, which people bought as raw materials for formulating scabies medicine.
5. Shi Dakai: The Wing King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of the Qing Dynasty, a famous military figure, politician, revolutionary, strategist, martial artist, poet, calligrapher, and national hero of modern China. Self-inflicted lingchi is not humble, and the side persuades others to grit their teeth and insist.
VI. Zeng Shihe: When the Qing Dynasty Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Zaifu executed Ling Chi, the executioner first cut Zeng Shihe with the first knife, and Zeng Shihe was in pain, screaming and screaming.
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As one of the most brutal tortures in feudal society, Ling Chi is worthy of the name. The word "Lingchi" is also known as "Lingchi", of which the word "Ling" means gentle slope, and the extended meaning is to let the criminal die slowly. According to the current available data, the torture of Ling Chi first appeared in the Five Dynasties period, and neither the Tang nor the Song Dynasties wrote it into the law. It was not until the Yuan Dynasty that this inhuman torture was included in the punishment.
Regarding the specific number of knives for Ling Chi, there have been regulations in successive dynasties. In the Yuan Dynasty, the upper limit of the number of knives was one hundred and twenty knives, but in the Ming Dynasty, the number of knives rose to a terrible thousand knives, which can be said to truly achieve "a thousand knives and a thousand knives". Later, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Ling Chi was changed by the rulers in many tricks, and successfully entered one of the ten major tortures of the Manchu Qing, which shows its horror.
In ancient times, when spiritual life was scarce, no trick was used to make people attractive. Whenever the imperial court disposed of heavy criminals, the execution ground would inevitably be surrounded. Don't look at the bloody and cruel process of Lingchi, but its specific operation process is extremely challenging to the executioner's skills. Just like the butcher of a butcher's meat in a butcher's shop, the executioner must also practice fast, accurate, and fierce hand-eye kung fu. If you only cut one pound and go down with a knife, there will never be ten or twelve.
Usually, the executioners in the prison department will establish cooperative relations with the Ichijing butcher shop, firstly to practice knife work under the guidance of the master, and secondly, to help out in the off-season. In order to practice the unique skill of one hand, these executioners do not know how many pigs have been cut and how many buns have been chopped. It wasn't until the knife workers were as accurate as the scales that they completed the primary level of an executioner.
Of course, human meat is obviously more challenging than fat pigs cut in butchers.
First, because the executioners had to face the vicious faces of the prisoners, the psychological quality needed to be excellent.
The second reason is that when the executioner really executes lingchi, the number of knives in operation cannot be different from the prescribed number of knives, otherwise, the executioner himself will lose his life.
In the process of executing Ling Chi, the executioner was required to cut off a piece of meat on the prisoner's chest in accordance with the ritual, then cut off a piece of meat on the left breast, and finally spin off the breast on the left breast. According to Mo Yan's "Sandalwood Punishment", these two pieces of meat are also called "money meat", and after cutting off, two copper coin-like holes will appear on the prisoner's chest.
Take the five-hundred-knife level of Ling Chi as an example, after the executioner cut three knives on the chest, the new knife edge overlaps with the old knife edge, thus forming a pattern like fish scales, so Ling Chi is also called "fish scale cutting". If the third knife went down to reveal the stubble of white raw flesh, it showed that Ling Chi had a good start. In general, good executioners bleed very little when executing ling. Just by tapping the prisoner's chest before execution, the aorta was sealed. In this way, the blood in the prisoner's body will be concentrated in the abdomen and legs, and several knives will be cut without death.
Of course, if the third knife is bleeding, the executioner also has an emergency solution. Throw a bucket of cold water directly on the prisoner, and the prisoner will be frightened and the blood will be closed. If cold water does not stop the bleeding, the executioner will also use acetic acid. According to the "Compendium of Materia Medica", the splitting head pouring vinegar has the meaning of convergence. If none of the above methods worked, the executioner would have to cut two pieces of meat on the prisoner's leg and stomach and bleed. Although this method can solve the problem of blood flowing in the chest and abdomen, prisoners often die of blood before cutting five hundred knives.
It can be said that every step of the executioner's operation has the attention of tens of millions of "spectators", and if the operation is slightly deviated, it is basically not far from losing the head. According to the rules of the imperial court, the executioner must cut evenly to ensure that the prisoner is killed at the last stab. If the execution time is extended, the operation is more difficult. Therefore, even if he is an eight-foot-tall executioner, he will fall to the ground tired after executing a Ling Chi.
After cutting the three pieces of flesh on the chest, the executioner is about to start cutting the fourth knife. At this point, the prisoner's blood vessels are closed, so the executioners can cut without hesitation until they have cut fifty knives. The operation of this part is actually very elaborate, if the prisoner is muscular, the meat on the chest is very good to cut, and the executioners can often do it well. However, if you encounter a prisoner who is skinny or overly obese, the executioner will be very tired when operating.
When fifty pieces of flesh on the pectoral muscles are cut, the pectoral muscles on either side of the prisoner will appear to be just exhausted. By this point, Ling Chi's punishment had been completed by one-tenth. At this time, the ribs on the prisoner's chest were all present, and inside the membrane was a still beating heart, and the scene was quite frightening. After the assistant has replaced him with a new knife, the executioners will continue to cut other parts.
If it was a male prisoner who was executed, the executioners, after spinning the flesh on their pectoral muscles, would cut off the prisoner's crotch. This part generally requires three knives to be cut, that is, the size of the meat slice is not considered when cutting. Usually, the pain of cutting this part is not unusually intense, but many male prisoners will have a particularly strong stress response out of fear and shame.
It can be said that no matter how brave a man is, as long as he is cut off from the male root, he will never regain his former prestige. This is like pulling out the feathers of a rooster and cutting off the mane of a horse. When operating specifically, the executioner will generally pull the male root out of the crotch at once, and then quickly cut it. At this time, the assistant will loudly report to the onlookers: "Fifty-first knife!" ”
Next, the executioner cut the tongue of the prisoner. At this time, the prisoner has long since changed his face, and blood foam will continue to gush out of his mouth. Because of the great pain, prisoners often bite everywhere, so at this time, digging out the tongue of a death row prisoner is tantamount to pulling out a tiger's teeth. At this point, the assistant would again pour cold water on the prisoner, and the executioner would quickly squeeze the prisoner's throat until the purple tongue naturally spat out of his lips. Between the strokes of the knife, the prisoner's tongue was cut off, which was the fifty-fourth knife.
At this point, the executioner must speed up and the slices of meat cut must be reduced. While avoiding the prisoner's dense blood vessels, he cut the muscles of his legs with two hundred knives, the muscles of his arms and abdomen with a hundred knives, and finally, the flesh on his ass with one hundred and fifty knives. After the above parts were cut, a five-hundred-knife Ling Chi punishment was completely over. It is worth mentioning that the executioner also ordered his assistant to show the surrounding spectators and execution officials what he had cut off the prisoners.
Why?
Because, in this way, first, it can show the fairness and ruthlessness of the court's law enforcement, and on the other hand, it can deter the masses who are watching the punishment, so that they can restrain their evil thoughts and dare not commit crimes.
This is also an important reason why the rulers of previous generations have encouraged the people to come and observe the punishment.