Compared with modern law, although the ancient law is not strict enough, but it is very cruel in terms of punishment, small crime exile, major crimes are the true portrayal of ancient law, when the management system is not strict enough, there is a need for cruel punishment to kill chickens and monkeys.
In addition to those cruel tortures, the most serious punishment in ancient times was waist beheading.
Although the same is the beheading, the cruelty of the waist beheading rises several notches, so that the criminal's family has to pay bribes to the executioner, hoping that they will be able to make the criminal a happy one.
The appearance of waist choppers
According to records, waist chopping originated from the Shang Dynasty king of the Shang Dynasty, before this there was no way to deal with waist chopping, and the tool used in waist chopping is exactly the knife that everyone often sees in TV dramas, in fact, beheading does not require a knife, and the knife is a special waist chopping service.
When performing the waist chop, the criminal will be tied to a special platform, and the hands and feet will be locked to prevent the criminal from moving randomly.
When he was ready, the executioner directly pulled down the knife and cut the prisoner in two.
In history, the first celebrity to be beheaded is Chao Wrong during the Han Jing Emperor period, he is a generation of loyal monarchs and famous courtiers, who have been inspiring to serve the country since childhood, but unfortunately he was born in the wrong era.
At that time, the princes in various parts of the Han Dynasty were extremely powerful, and even threatened the position of the Han Jing Emperor, so Chao Que went to the emperor and asked for the reduction of the domain, according to the development of the country, this measure was no problem, but the Han Jing Emperor at that time did not have this ability.
So there was a ridiculous scene, the various princes united to force the palace, asking the Han Jing Emperor to kill Chao, which was the rebellion of the eight kings during the Han Dynasty.
At that time, the Han Jing Emperor had no choice but to kill Chao Que to vent his anger for the various princes, and what Chao Que was executed at that time was a cruel waist beheading.
Can killing him quell the Rebellion of the Eight Kings? For the Eight Kings, killing him was just a vent of anger, but this incident also completely angered the Han Jing Emperor, and then he sent Zhou Yafu to completely solve the Rebellion of the Eight Kings and bring all the power of the Han Dynasty to the central government.
Terrible waist chop
Although it is also a question of why the waist beheading is listed as torture, the reason is that the position of the waist beheading, when the beheading, no matter where it is cut, as long as the head is cut off, the criminal will basically die on the spot, but the waist beheading is completely different.
If the position of the waist beheading is relatively high, then the criminal will die within a few seconds after the end of the waist beheading.
If the position of the waist is lower, the criminal will not die on the spot, but will be tortured to death in severe pain.
During the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di rose up and ascended to the throne, but Zhu Di's throne was not accepted by everyone, especially the literati, and many of the great Confucians of the time refused to recognize Zhu Di's throne, of which Fang Xiaoru could be called the representative of all the literati.
Fang Xiaoru not only did not recognize Zhu Di, but also often wrote articles scolding him for not being orthodox, as an emperor, Zhu Di of course could not accept this matter, at the beginning, Zhu Di was still good at persuading, as long as Fang Xiaoru could write an article to accept him, he would get the high-ranking official Houlu, but Fang Xiaoru still went his own way.
In the end, Zhu Di was finally enraged and ordered Fang Xiaoru to be punished by the Ten Tribes, which was the most cruel and widespread punishment in history, in the film and television drama, the Jiu Clan was already the most cruel punishment, and the Tenth Clan outside the Nine Clans actually referred to Fang Xiaoru's students.
As for Fang Xiaoru himself, he was ordered by Zhu Di to be beheaded, and it was this waist beheading that made everyone begin to feel afraid of this punishment.
So what happened when the waist was chopped?
Waist chopping way
After the criminal is ordered to be beheaded, the local official will generally allow the criminal's family to come to visit, on the one hand, to be the last mercy to the prisoner, and on the other hand, to give the family a chance to pay a bribe to the executioner. There's a lot of emphasis on that.
For executioners, they have a good control over the waist beheading, if they want to torture the prisoner, they can behead the prisoner twice, and after the first waist beheading, the prisoner, although very painful, can not die in a short time.
This is much like a soldier who was physically injured by a bomb on the battlefield, excluding viral infection and heavy blood loss, soldiers can generally survive for more than half an hour waiting for treatment.
In the same way, the executioners who have been slashing for many years are very proficient in the position of the waist slash, and if they want to make a criminal survive painfully, it is easy to do.
Although this matter is not written into law, it is an unwritten rule in the folk, and every criminal's family will secretly pay bribes, hoping that the executioner can give the criminal a "hard time".
But this matter changed when it came to Fang Xiaoru, Zhu Di's punishment for Fang Xiaoru was the Ten Tribes, because Fang Xiaoru was the culprit, so Fang Xiaoru's punishment was placed last, and at the time of Fang Xiaoru's execution, whether it was relatives and friends or his students, all were killed, but the executioner did not know.
This is a very embarrassing thing, when the executioner is waiting for the bribe, such a big person, there is no one to send money, which can annoy the executioner, deliberately moved the knife down two inches at the time of execution.
It is said that after Fang Xiaoru was beheaded, he was very painful, and wrote twelve "usurpation" words on the ground with his own blood before he died in pain.
To know that the writing at that time was traditional Chinese, the time to write a word was twice as long as it is now, which shows how long Fang Xiaoru lived in pain at that time, and finally died of blood under the eyes of everyone.
However, there are also different sayings in the folk, it is said that many officials at that time had explained that the executioner gave Fang Xiaoru a painful pain, but at that time, it was Zhu Di's cronies who were responsible for the execution, he only needed a look, and the executioner understood Zhu Di's thoughts, so he deliberately let Fang Xiaoru die in pain, achieving the effect of killing chickens and monkeys.
Because the waist beheading was too cruel, this punishment was directly abolished in the late Qing Dynasty, but at that time, it still retained very cruel torture methods such as hand clamping and chest clamping, and when faced with corrupt officials, it was common for suspects to be beaten into confessions.
However, with the loneliness of feudal society, this kind of punishment gradually withdrew from the stage of history.
Cruel punishment is a manifestation of the tyranny of the ancient rulers, but the chaotic world should be used heavily, and these punishments also invisibly dissuade many people from their criminal ideas, so that they will not be too arrogant.
Especially in times of war, the more cruel the punishment, the more warning effect, and in peacetime, the killing of heads is also rare, most of the punishment is still issued to the border pass, to help the border area to carry out construction, such as the Qing Dynasty Ninggu Pagoda, is the main location of exile, Ninggu Pagoda and surrounding areas, all rely on exiled criminals to gradually develop.