In our time, no matter how heinous the criminals, at most they were hanged or shot, but in ancient times it was not so simple. As we all know, since the pre-Qin period, when severe punishment was advocated, various criminal laws that cut off noses and dig out eyes have emerged in an endless stream, and the lightest one is also a tattoo on the face, which brings a double blow to people's flesh and dignity, making life worse than death.
Although these criminal laws are cruel, they are only aimed at the criminals themselves, and if we want to talk about the most dehumanizing criminal laws, it is none other than the Nine Tribes, which has the meaning of cutting grass and removing roots. This cruel punishment originated in the Yisan clan of the Qin State, and then perhaps successive rulers believed that the three clans were not enough to vent their anger, so they gradually expanded the three clans into nine clans. So which nine clans are the nine tribes? The three clans of the father, the three clans of the mother, and the three clans of the wife are equivalent to almost all the related relatives and friends before the prisoner's life. There are countless people who have been subjected to this criminal law in history, and often a single execution is a massacre.
In the ming dynasty of Zhu Di, there were people who were subjected to a more thorough and cruel criminal law than the "Nine Tribes", that is, the "Ten Tribes" in history, and the extra clan was to increase the protégé clan, so that all those who were related to the executed would be subjected to Zhu Lian, and the name of the person who was subjected to this capital punishment was Fang Xiaoru.
This Fang Xiaoru was a proud protégé of the famous scholar Song Lian in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, and was also one of the great Confucians of the Ming Dynasty at that time, he was knowledgeable and strong, quick in thinking, and very good at governing the country, and in the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, he was also specially hired by King Shu Xian as the teacher of Shizi.
In 1398, Zhu Yuanzhang died. Due to the early death of crown prince Zhu Biao, Zhu Yuanzhang devoted all his efforts to his grandson Zhu Yunjiao and designated Zhu Yunjiao to inherit the throne, known as Emperor Jianwen. Zhu Yunjiao had just taken the throne fashionable and young, and there were so many uncles and princes who could fight good battles, they were of course very dissatisfied with this newly enthroned emperor, and Zhu Yunjiao also understood his situation, so he recruited sages and recruited talents for governing the country everywhere. In this way, Fang Xiaoru was recruited to Nanjing by Zhu Yunjiao and entrusted with a heavy responsibility. At this time, Emperor Jianwen was still young and lacked the ability to govern the country and the army, because Fang Xiaoru was his teacher, and he was trusted and relied on in every way, "the major affairs of the country, to consult", and Fang Xiaoru was also extremely loyal to Emperor Jianwen and fully supported.
Although Zhu Yunjiao was young at this time, he was also ambitious, and with the help of these recruited sages and counselors, he was also well-organized at the level of national affairs. However, he later adopted Qi Qin and Huang Zicheng's suggestion to cut the domain, which attracted the desire of the clan kings, and his uncle Zhu Di, the King of Yan, even raised the banner of "JingNan" and directly seized the throne, and Zhu Yunjiao himself did not know where he was.
Because the throne that Zhu Di seized this time was "not in his right name", it was easy to be criticized by the world. Many ministers superficially submitted to Zhu Di, but in their hearts they could still hope that Zhu Yunjiao would regain the throne, and the old-school ministers headed by Fang Xiaoru preferred to die and resolutely refused to recognize Zhu Di as emperor. In fact, after Zhu Di seized the throne, he most wanted to kill Fang Xiaoru, because it was he who helped Emperor Jianwen write a rebellious text, which degraded Zhu Di to nothing, but the counselor Yao Guangxiao thought that this person was "the seed of reading in the world" and could not be killed, and Fang Xiaoru was able to escape the disaster.
After Zhu Di officially ascended the throne, in order to convince the people of the world, he specially invited Fang Xiaoru, hoping that he could help Zhu Di write an edict of "correcting his name" and inform the world. This Fang Xiaoru was also very simple, directly wearing filial piety clothes to see Zhu Di directly, and was in pain, after hearing the intention, he even wrote down the four big words of "Usurpation of the Throne of the King of Yan" on the paper in front of him, and said: Death is death, and the edict is not bad. Zhu Di was most jealous of others saying that he had come to the wrong position, so he angrily said: Zhao Bu Zhen, destroy the Nine Tribes of Ru. And Fang Xiaoru's neck was straight, and he said tit-for-tat: Mo said nine tribes, why not ten tribes? Therefore, Zhu Di, who was born in the army, could no longer bear it, and despite the advice of others, he directly ordered the annihilation of the Fang Xiaoru Ten Clan.
Thus, on the eighth day of Zhu Di's ascension to the throne, a seven-day extermination torture of the famous Confucian Fang Xiaoru began, and his friend and protégé also suffered this senseless disaster. In addition to executing Fang Xiaoru, he also sent all 873 members of his ten ethnic groups to the execution ground, and thousands of them were exiled by the army. Perhaps Fang Xiaoru did not expect that his momentary loyalty and righteousness would actually ask for hundreds of lives to accompany him to the funeral, becoming the only person in history who was condemned to exterminate the Ten Tribes.