Ling Chi began in the Five Dynasties, was scheduled for the Liao Dynasty, flourished in the Ming Dynasty, and was abolished in the Qing Dynasty.
Just when Lingchi was about to be abolished at the end of the Qing Dynasty, a 6-year-old child was executed 3,000 times in nine years.
It was none other than Empress Dowager Cixi, who was in power at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
So the question is, where did Ling Chi's punishment come from, and why did the terrible number of 3,000 knives that could appear after the Qing Dynasty developed.
And who is this child, and what kind of hatred does he have with Cixi?
All the answers are hidden in the fog of history, let us peel back the cocoon and explore the truth of history step by step.
Many emperors in ancient times were very aware that a good dynasty had to curb the number of death penalties and reduce or abolish some cruel corporal punishments.
The so-called corporal punishment is to use extreme means to kill criminals, such as car cracks, waist beheadings, Ling Chi and so on. Among all the cruel corporal punishments, Ling Chi was the most cruel.
However, turning over the historical classics, the real Sense of Ling Chi actually appeared relatively late, and the first Ling Chi should have occurred in the Eastern Wei Dynasty of the Five Dynasties.
According to the History of the Five Dynasties, Gao Cheng, a powerful minister of Eastern Wei, was killed by the governor of Xuzhou. Gao Cheng's younger brother Gao Yang, in revenge for killing his brother, led troops to occupy Xuzhou and killed the governor of Xuzhou using the "Thousand Swords", later Ling Chi.
However, the punishment was only a lynching at the time, both during the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
For example, in 706 AD, when King Wu Sansi of Jingde killed Wang Jinghui of Pingyang County, Wu Sansi's subordinates declared a personal vendetta and did not execute according to beheading, but adopted Ling Chi's lynching.
Pictured: Prisoners to be executed
In the Northern Song Dynasty, Ling Chi's lynching was introduced to daliao and was written into the code, and since then Ling Chi has had a legal basis and has become a formal corporal punishment.
However, the highest peak of Ling Chi's development was not the Liao, Song, Jin, and Yuan dynasties, but the Ming Dynasty established by Zhu Yuanzhang.
At this time, Ling Chi had developed very meticulously, and from where to cut the knife, how much skin and flesh was cut each time was already very exquisite. And the number of knives has also reached its peak, and more than 3,000 knives can be executed.
The reason why it is explained that the Dynasty period was the peak of LingChi's development is because the laws of the Ming Dynasty were very strict, and only when major crimes such as treason were committed before, they would be punished in this way.
But in the Ming Dynasty, even if he scolded the teacher or defied the imperial power, he had to execute Ling Chi.
Therefore, during the Qing Dynasty, the voice advocating the abolition of Ling Chi always existed.
Especially when Kang Yongqian and several emperors reigned, they also felt that they were too cruel, so they rarely used it. However, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, due to the Hong Xiuquan uprising, the imperial court reintroduced this criminal law.
According to the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty", after the victory of the Battle of Lujiang, the Qing army Ling Chi executed 180 Taiping prisoners.
Immediately after the Battle of Fengxin, 221 more prisoners were captured.
After the complete victory of the Qing Dynasty, the 24 captured Taiping Army generals were also executed by Ling Chi. One of the most tragic is the Wing King Shi Dakai, who was silent during the whole process.
However, the matter did not end here, although Shi Dakai was dead, his children were still there.
So what should this child do? History gives 3 claims.
The first is the murder of the Qing Dynasty scholar Fei Xingjian in prison.
The second is folklore that successfully escaped and grew up to be an adult.
The third is from Luo Bingzhang's compromise in Ling Chi's 3,000 knives.
Today, this recital is in the collection of the Palace Museum, and the content of the recital is as follows:
"His son Shi Dingzhong is now five years old and should be imprisoned, as usual when he is old."
This means that the child is too young now, and should be imprisoned according to the Great Qing Law, and then executed later when he grows up.
However, the next year, when Cixi received the generals who participated in the suppression of the Taiping Army, she was touched by the scene, remembering that the Taiping Army almost overthrew the Qing Dynasty, and remembering the fearful battle she had once had, such as the pain of sitting on a needle felt, which was really hatred into the bone marrow. So he ordered that instead of waiting for the children to grow up, he would start executing Ling Chi's punishment now.
In fact, to put it bluntly, it is the winner-king mentality that is at work.
As we all know, Shi Dingzhong's father was originally determined to be Ling Chi with 3,000 knives, so he was the same, it was also 3,000 knives.
However, at that time, the child was too young, and he fainted in pain after cutting two knives, and even the executioner could not bear to do it.
The governor of Sichuan could not bear to see the situation, so he pleaded for the child, and the result was directly rejected by Cixi, and even ordered, but all those who pleaded were punished with the same crime.
In this way, this innocent child was cut by his father for 9 years, and it was not completed until he was 15 years old, and the child cried out for his life.
Although Ling Chi could have a shocking effect, it was really too cruel, so after the Penghu Reform Law, the voice of opposition sounded again, and the Qing Dynasty had to go along with the trend to abolish the punishment that had been implemented for 1355, leaving only the beheading.
But then again, although there are three kinds of endings in history for Shi Dingzhong, and the most credible should be the claim that he was killed in prison, Ling Chi's statement has always been the mainstream.
Perhaps it was the later generations who set off the tragedy of their father and son, or perhaps it was to reflect the cruelty of Cixi.
But no matter what, according to the ancient punishment of the rebel heirs, this child could not have a good end.
When everything is gone, that cruel history is at most an exclamation of posterity, what else can there be?
Reference: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty