Those who have watched Hu Jun's version of the "Zhu Yuanzhang" TV series must be familiar with such a scene.
At the time of interrogation, Zhu Yuanzhang asked Hu Weiyong, "Wei Yong, you say, (rebellion) according to the law, how to punish it", Hu Weiyong replied: "Is it necessary to be an emperor and talk about the law?" The emperor's words are the law, the law. The emperor let the subject die, the subject will die", and then Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Well, Wei Yong, you are much stronger than Yang Xianke, aren't you afraid of itching?" Let's make you itch to die, this kind of death is the first time in the world! ”。
In this way, a generation of power ministers Hu Weiyong was stripped of his shirt by the guards, and then tied to a tree, and was wantonly torn and bitten by mosquitoes, and he was itched to death alive. Before dying, Hu Weiyong laughed and said, "If I Hu Weiyong is not a famous person throughout the ages, I can be regarded as the first person to itch to die in the past!" It's itchy! Oh my! ”。
Let's not say whether the history interpreted by the TV series is correct, just the line that Hu Weiyong said before his death, "It can also be regarded as the first person to itch to die in the past and the present" is wrong. Because as early as the ancient Roman period, there was this kind of punishment that made people itch to die, which is "laughing punishment". The criminals sentenced to such punishment at that time would first be tied to a stake by a large number of flowers, and then the executors would coat the soles of the prisoners' feet with the salt water that the goats liked, and then they would lead a goat to lick the soles of the prisoners' feet, so that under the repeated licking of the goats, the prisoners would feel very itchy back home, and then they would laugh until they laughed to death.
Here, one would ask if one would really get tickled to death? The answer is yes. The scientific explanation goes like this: "We all know that when people are itchy, they will involuntarily continue to laugh, and in the process of laughter, people's breathing will become intermittent." In this way, with the non-continuous and uneven breathing, the oxygen entering the lungs will continue to decrease, and with the reduction of oxygen, people's breathing ability will become weaker and weaker. If the laughter cannot be stopped, it will cause the brain to be hypoxic, and once the hypoxia lasts too long, it will suddenly die."
Of course, although people will indeed be itched to death, Hu Weiyong was bitten by mosquitoes until he was tickled to death, which can basically be said to be a film and television drama, rather than a historical fact.
Since Hu Weiyong was not itched to death, why did he die?
First of all, the History of Ming. The biography of Hu Weiyong says: "(Zhu Yuanzhang) is a curse on Weiyong, Ning and Jie", from this record, although we do not know exactly what the cause of Hu Weiyong's death is, we can make it clear that he was definitely not itched to death. Think about it, if Hu Weiyong was really itched to death by Zhu Yuanzhang's orders, would the Ming History not record it? After all, although being itched to death was not a strange story abroad, it was a real ancient strange story in China at that time, and this strange story was personally promoted by the emperor. Therefore, if there really was such a thing, the Ming history would never fail to record it, and would not just use "curse" to explain that Hu Weiyong was killed.
According to the "Records of Ming Taizu", "The group of courtiers played Hu Weiyong and other sins, please punish them." Therefore, He gave WeiYong and Chen Ning the death"; the "Deeds of the Beginning of the State" said: "Hu Weiyong and other officials were given without authorization, and all were punished with felonies, and Hu Weiyong was executed the following year", so it can be seen that most of the methods in which Hu Weiyong was executed were in accordance with zhu Yuanzhang's method of executing Feng Sheng, Fu Youde, and so on, that is, beheading and showing the public.