"Exile to Lingnan" is the most common four words in the history books of the Song Dynasty, and it is also one of the most important methods of punishment during the Song Dynasty, and every year a large number of prisoners are assigned to the Lingnan region and cannot return for a lifetime.
Perhaps according to the ancient punishment level, exile is lighter than the punishment of the death penalty, but exile is the punishment that ancient prisoners least want to face, and some prisoners will even choose to commit suicide after knowing that they have been exiled, but for the servants, exile is their favorite punishment, and whenever they encounter prisoners who are escorted into exile, the servants always rush to go.
Classification of ancient punishments
Although the ancient punishment is not as detailed as the modern law, but there is also a set of self-contained system, as early as the Sui Dynasty, it was established the penal method called "five punishments", namely: flogging, staff, disciple, stream, death, of which flogging and cane belong to the punitive measures, is through the cause of harm to the human body, in order to achieve the role of warning.
However, these two kinds of punishments also have times when people are killed, such as the cane punishment, an ordinary person can withstand the limit of about thirty rods, more than this number will open the flesh, if more than a hundred will basically declare death, so the ancient cane punishment is basically maintained at about fifty (each hit fifty large boards), so that the human body can be painful, will not make some small mistakes.
And when it comes to prison sentences, the severity of things will begin to rise, imprisonment is to restrict personal freedom at the same time, punish it for hard labor, which is very similar to the measures before the reform of the prison system in our country, when the prison sentence was basically based on building roads, bridges and other facilities, many large-scale projects in ancient China were done by prisoners of prison.
Finally, exile and the death penalty, many people feel that exile and imprisonment are similar, both restrict personal freedom while punishing labor, but these two punishments are very different, compared with imprisonment, exile is not only restricting personal freedom, but depriving personal rights.
In ancient times, exile has two characteristics, the first point is the embroidery, according to the record, the sting has appeared as early as the Tang Dynasty, as long as the tattoo, it will always be a prisoner, even if you can get pardon, it is difficult to participate in the lives of ordinary people, most of the exile returnees, can only choose the bounty hunter such as the work of the unsettled.
The second point lies in identity, the exiled people are subject to strict official positions, and the ancestors will inherit the identity of the exiles and live forever in the exile areas, for example, in the Wu Zetian period, the exiled families will be directly tampered with with their surnames, and the ancestors will be insulted.
Coupled with the harsh natural environment, most of the exiled people do not live more than ten years, so exile and death can be counted as reciprocal punishment.
The terrible nature of exile
Since exile and the death penalty result are the same, why is there such a punishment added, in fact, the reason is very simple, that is, let them work.
The history of exile and punishment can be traced back to the tribal period in China, according to records, as early as the clan society, known as the water god of the co-worker, is exiled by Yao to the Youzhou area, and in different eras, the exile area is also completely different, for example, in the Song Dynasty, the place of exile was many Lingnan regions.
During the Yuan Dynasty, there were many choices for exile, but because the Yuan Dynasty was a vast area, the exile would be based on the place of birth of the prisoner, for example, born in the northern region, exiled to the south, and vice versa.
In the early Qing Dynasty, most of the exiles were Ninggu Pagoda, and in the late Qing Dynasty, the penal colonies would choose Ulyasutai, which was farther away, and almost half of the northeast region was established by the exiles.
The reason why there is a penal punishment of exile is to let these people reclaim wasteland and make the motherland more prosperous and powerful, although our country is vast, but there are many areas where the living environment is not good, so it is necessary for these prisoners to go to reclamation and construction to achieve a suitable living situation.
During the reclamation period, the natural environment is very harsh, and the amount of activity is very large, the mortality rate is naturally very high, in order to ensure the smooth reclamation of wasteland, a person who commits a crime will exile many people around him, such as an official who commits a crime, his family, subordinates and even relatives and friends will be exiled.
For prisoners, exile and death penalties are obviously more relaxed, and they end as soon as they close their eyes, and when they arrive in exile areas, they are simply hell on earth, but exile, which is deeply feared by prisoners, is a very easy task in the eyes of the servants.
Easiest job
The ancient concept of class is very strict, even if you have great talent, you will be defeated in front of the class, and in the yamen, the servants are naturally the lowest level, not only have to accept the county officials' orders to drink six, the workload is also very large, every day to go out early and return late, but also often overtime.
The most important thing is that the rest time of the ancient servants is very short, and many people feel that the modern office workers are tired of taking a day off a week, but the ancient servants may only have less than 7 days of rest a year, so they will often look for some work instead of vacation.
In ancient traffic conditions, the shortest distance of exile was about 3 months, plus the journey back, escorting a prisoner to at least half a year, in this half year, the servants did not have to be oppressed by the county officials, did not have to be bound by time, even if they slept until noon every day, as long as they could arrive within a limited time, no one would care how you allocated time.
Not only that, the treatment of the servants in the escort process will also be improved, and the families or friends of the general exiles will arrange some carriages and horses, and some will even arrange servants, which they will never enjoy in the yamen, and along the way, the servants can also enjoy the service of prisoners.
However, the most important thing is money, in order to make the prisoners suffer less, most of the prisoners' families or friends will send some money, although this money may not be much, but it is very much for the servants, for example, in "Water Margin", when Lin Chong was exiled, his friends gave away ten silver to let the servants take care of him.
At that time, an ordinary servant, a year of Feng Lu is not so much, can imagine what a rich windfall, especially some female prisoners, they are afraid that female prisoners will be suppressed and bullied on the road, often stuffed more money, sometimes go out this trip, you can get about three years of Feng Lu.
However, there are exceptions to everything, in the chaotic period, there are many people who rob prisoners, and the servants have thus become the primary targets of attack, if an exiled person is a jianghu person or their female dependents, then the rescue of him must also be a martial arts master, in front of the master, the servants basically have no ability to resist.
If you are unfortunate enough to meet some fierce people, it is also common to kill people and kill their mouths, so while wanting to make money, they must also consider whether they have this strength.