Introduction: People who have watched historical dramas have seen on TELEVISION that when the dynasty punishes those who violate the laws of the country, the punishment is light and heavy, the punishment is more severe than the torture, Ling Chi is not the most powerful and cruel, more inhuman than it is "lighting the sky lamp".
According to historical records, there is indeed a lot of torture in the history of our country, comparatively speaking, beheading is still a relatively common way of execution in ancient times, and it is not so painful for people who have been beheaded, as the saying goes, "stretching out a knife and shrinking the head", that is to say, people suffer less, and they have no feeling when they have not felt pain. This penalty is imposed on persons who commit crimes in general.
The treatment of people who commit great treachery and great evil will carry out a more cruel torture on them, that is, Ling Chi, also called a thousand knives, this kind of punishment is when people live and cut off human flesh at a very slow speed, but they also avoid the key points of people, and do not let the victim die early, so this punishment is a double punishment of the mind and body for the tortured.
It is also known as "five horses divided into corpses" and "chopped into meat sauce". However, when it comes to the most brutal torture in ancient punishments, it may still be "lighting the sky lamp". Although its name does not have any information to link you to punishment, it is actually a kind of torture that tortures people alive, and in ancient times it was also called "pouring human oil wax".
This kind of penal history records that its execution method is more cruel, that is, the person is soaked in an oil tank, fished out and wrapped in sackcloth, and after dark at night, the person is tied to a high wooden stake, and then the fire starts from the foot, burns a part of it, pours it out and then ignites it, and so on until the torturer dies. It can be said that this punishment is very terrible and inhumane, and it is said that in ancient times, someone was indeed lit with a sky lamp.
The first is Dong Zhuo in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", his position in the Eastern Han Court at that time can be described as high, officials at all levels have to cater to him, no one dares to go against his wishes, the slightest hesitation will be the head of the ground, everyone dares to be angry in their hearts.
As a courtier, he was in accordance with the emperor's standards, because he was cruel and violent and had a high position of authority, and no one dared to oppose the protest, and even the princes did not dare to confront him. However, because he was so arrogant and arrogant, and he was about to draw his sword at the slightest word of his own cronies, Lü Bu also held a grudge against him, giving Wang Situ an opportunity to use the beauty trick to increase the gap between the two.
In the end, Dong Zhuo died at the hands of Lü Bu and threw his body on the street. Because Dong Zhuo had done too many things that people and gods were indignant about before he died, everyone felt that he died like this, which was too cheap for him.
So he burned his body into ashes by lighting a sky lantern. Dong Zhuo was lit because he had done many evil deeds in his lifetime, and he deserved it.
Another legend that was also lit after death was the Emperor of the Song Dynasty, Emperor Huizong of Song. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the "shame of Jing kang" made the two emperors captured by Jin Bing, who would not be soft on the captives of the Song Dynasty, and the tyranny of jin bing against the captives was also historically documented, and it would not relax slightly to Emperor Huizong, resulting in the death of Emperor Huizong of Song after all kinds of torture.
But Jin Guo did not bury him, but lit the body and threw it in the pit to make lamp oil. (However, it is recorded that the Jin people did not practice burial, and anyone who died would choose to burn it.) Therefore, it is a bit unbelievable to say that Song Huizong was lit by the sky lantern after his death)
There was a person named Zhu Jiumei in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and when she was executed, she was even more cruel than the previous two. When Dong and Zhao were lit by the sky lantern, they were both carried out after the death of the person, while Zhu Jiumei was said to be a woman who was lit with the sky lamp while she was alive. It was also carried out by people inside the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and I don't know what she did and would be treated like this.
Among the rebels of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, she was a woman who combined beauty and talent. Because of her beauty, after the victory of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, Yang Xiuqing, who already had dozens of wives, saw that she wanted to take her as a concubine, but was rejected by Zhu Jiumei, and she was not willing to die. Yang Xiuqing wanted to kill Zhu Jiumei in order to establish his will, and he chose the cruel lighting of the sky lantern.
Another theory circulating is that Zhu Jiumei wanted to poison Yang Xiuqing first, but he found out, so he was punished with lighting the sky lantern. No matter which one it is, Zhu Jiumei was lit by the sky lantern when she was still alive, and as one of the few talented and capable women in ancient society, she finally died at the hands of her companions because she was not committed to others, which is also very sad and lamentable.
Conclusion: When the lantern was first lit, it was to convey military information, not a means of execution, and now the people will also put lanterns to pray for blessings during festivals. After the founding of New China, these cruel tortures were abolished and replaced by the rule of law, and I am really glad to be able to live in a modern society.