In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming Dynasty,
In order to consolidate its own political power and maintain its own rule, it established the Secret Service Agency of jinyiwei
。 The Jinyiwei were the intelligence agency of the Ming Dynasty, initially aimed at defending the emperor's safety and being responsible for the emperor's honor guard, after which the Jinyiwei became more and more powerful, even surpassing the judicial organs.
Jinyiwei can judge cases without trial procedures, and the means are extremely cruel
，
The punishment used was even more heinous
The prisoners who were tried by him basically did not come out alive, and his original punishment of "playing the pipa" made the prisoners worse off than dead.
First, the establishment of Jinyiwei
At the end of The New Morning,
The rulers were unscrupulous, the class contradictions were sharp, the society was turbulent, the people lived in deep trouble, and wars were frequent.
Zhu Yuanzhang chose to become a monk in order to eat mixed food, and later followed Guo Ziwei in the southern expedition to the north by chance, and was entrusted with a heavy responsibility.
In 1368, after Zhu Yuanzhang led an insurgent army to occupy Yingtian, he decided to create a new dynasty, that is, the Ming Dynasty, which soon quelled the wars across the country and re-realized the reunification of the country.
However, due to his tragic experience and the consolidation of the king's power, it was difficult for him to trust the people around him, and after the founding of the country, he killed many generals who had achieved great success.
Later, Zhu Yuanzhang learned that the chancellor Hu Weiyong monopolized power, so he executed Hu Weiyong in a fit of rage.
It also abolished the system of prime ministers, which had existed for more than 1,600 years
By concentrating all power in his own hands, feudal despotism was further strengthened.
Since then, all the big and small affairs of the country have been handled by Zhu Yuanzhang alone
He got up early and was greedy and had heavy government affairs. According to legend, Zhu Yuanzhang once handled more than 800 political affairs a day, nearly half of which needed to be replied by himself, and because political affairs were too busy, Zhu Yuanzhang created the position of a scholar of the Imperial Pavilion to help him read the chapters.
In order to prevent these scholars from monopolizing power and to consolidate their rule, Zhu Yuanzhang founded the JinyiWei alone.
Jinyiwei is not only a secret service agency, but also Zhu Yuanzhang's personal institution, it only needs to be responsible for the emperor, and can almost do whatever it wants without disobeying the emperor's orders, except for the emperor, no one can restrict Jinyiwei.
Jin Yiwei was sent by Zhu Yuanzhang to secretly search for a person, and could directly investigate and arrest without being restricted by the formal organs of all countries.
Moreover, in the process of trying prisoners, they will not be restricted by the judicial organs, and Jinyiwei has the power to directly convict them.
In order to get the desired result, the Jinyi guard does not talk about human feelings, and will carry out any punishment that can be imagined.
II. Original Punishment "Playing the Pipa"
Jinyiwei were the emperor's "right-hand men" who could handle all kinds of things for the emperor, especially things that the emperor could not personally solve. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty,
Zhu Yuanzhang sent Jinyi guards to eliminate those who were too powerful to threaten his own rule
In this way, it can not only consolidate the power of the king, but also maintain its image in the hearts of the people and ministers.
With the stabilization of the regime, Zhu Yuanzhang did not abolish the Jinyi Guard, but intensified it.
They were sent to patrol the country, monitoring the every move of the ministers and the people as if they were everywhere.
At first, the local officials did not take the Jinyi guards seriously, and thought that they were just local inspectors.
However, when they knew that Jinyiwei was directly dispatched by the emperor, had great power, and also held various powers of life and death rewards and punishments, they were very flattering to Jinyiwei.
Therefore, Jinyiwei soon established a strong network of spies from the central to the local level, and they were found all over the country.
Because the Jinyi guards enjoyed the privileges granted by the emperor, they often acted arbitrarily and did wrong.
Jinyiwei not only acted recklessly and mutilated Zhongliang, but their method of extorting confessions by torture was even more notorious, which could be described as fierce and cruel, making people feel pain.
For example, sitting on ice cubes, tiger stools, broken vertebrae, lingchi, fingers, brushing, lead filling, etc.
One of the punishments is called "playing the pipa", which is also the most cruel punishment.
Speaking of the pipa, it is an instrument in itself, and the sound of the pipa is like a natural sound, gripping, ethereal and long, and evocative.
The Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi once wrote "Pipa Line" and described the beautiful feeling of pipa music: "Noisy cutting of miscellaneous bullets, large beads and small beads falling on the jade plate".
But the "pipa" created by Jinyiwei is the opposite of this beauty, which can make people feel like entering purgatory.
In the "History of Ming", it is recorded that the punishment of "playing the pipa" can make people's ribs fall off, and its cruelty can be seen.
The execution of this punishment begins with the inmate being pushed to the ground, tying his hands and feet, removing his shirt and exposing the ribs, leaving only a layer of skin covering the ribs.
The executioner uses a sharp knife like a lute, and uses force to "flick" back and forth on the prisoner's ribs like a lute.
If the prisoner is determined and refuses to confess, the Jinyi guard will "play the pipa" several times, and the most powerful prisoner will eventually give in.
Therefore, once the Jinyi guard implements the "playing pipa", the prisoner will immediately confess, because the cruelty of this punishment has long been notorious, which will make the tortured person extremely miserable, and it is better to live than to die.
3. The product of the concentration of royal power
The Jinyi Guard was set up by Zhu Yuanzhang in order to consolidate his own rule,
It is entirely an institution of the individual and is not subject to the restrictions and constraints of any formal institution of the State. They can fish and flesh the people, they can also punish officials at will, and if someone is not as good as they want, they will find ways to torture him, and human life is not worth mentioning in their eyes.
Jinyiwei did not appear out of thin air, it can be said that it came into being.
At that time, the Ming Dynasty was already at the end of feudal society, the royal power was highly concentrated, and the emperor was completely above the entire national society, with supreme political, economic and military privileges. The Jinyi Guards monitored the ministers and the people all the time, clearing many obstacles for the emperor to achieve absolute monarchy.
4. Summary
Jinyiwei is the pawn of the emperor alone, the product of the absolute monarchy and the high concentration of imperial power, and is a manifestation of social pathology.
He was completely obedient to the Emperor and was the monitor that the Emperor placed in the lives of his ministers and the people.
Jinyiwei is a special institution of the emperor, only responsible for the emperor, the efficiency of work is extremely high, as soon as there is a wind and grass,
Jinyi guards are able to quickly dispatch, capture information in a short period of time, and then make decisive choices, which has a positive impact on the reunification of the country to a certain extent.
However, once the Jinyi guards were mobilized, they would not give up until they reached their goal, they destroyed humanity, took people's lives, and used extremely cruel means, especially inventing such a terrible punishment as "playing the pipa".
Such a punishment is not intended to kill people, but to torture prisoners, make them confess, and obtain the desired information content from the prisoner population.