introduction
As we all know, during the slave era and the feudal period, in order to consolidate the power of the ruling class, deter opposition forces, and prevent acts of rebellion, successive rulers would formulate various cruel punishments.
China has one of the oldest torture countries in the world, and over the millennia has evolved a variety of cruel punishments, such as the "punishment of cannon branding" used by the King of Shang, forcing prisoners to hug the hot copper bucket naked; the Southern Han Emperor Liu Gong created the "Punishment of Tang Wok" to bundle prisoners into a cauldron of boiling water; and the "Punishment of Peeling The Last Weed" formulated by Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, which slowly skinned live prisoners and filled them with hay in the peeled human skin.
▲ Zhu Yuanzhang stills
In fact, these tortures are not the most cruel and cruel, and the top torture in the feudal era is the "Punishment of Ling Chi", which is often referred to as a thousand knives. In ancient Chinese society, ordinary prisoners were not subjected to lingchi, and generally only two types of prisoners would endure such cruel punishments. The first is the person who commits the great crime of rebellion, these people either collude with the enemy to commit treason, or rebel, or form a party to threaten the imperial power, which is very common for such people to be punished for delaying, and the second is the person who commits the great crime of disobedience, the feudal era attaches great importance to filial piety and friendship, and killing parents or elders will not be forgiven at all, so it must be severely punished to set an example.
▲ Ling Chi's execution painting restoration
Cruel punishment will also bring a powerful deterrent, and the reason why lingchi's punishment will make the world talk about it and be very frightening is because it has two major characteristics. First, once a prisoner is sentenced to lingchi, the executioner will cut every piece of flesh on the victim's body with one knife and one knife, and the time will last for a day, or even several days. In order to ensure that the prisoner will not die at the end of the execution, the prison will ensure that the prisoner is nourished every day, and carefully cook chicken soup and other things to feed the prisoner. For example, Liu Jin, the great eunuch of the Ming Dynasty, was cut 357 times a day after being sentenced to Ling Chi's sentence, a total of 3357 knives, and the pain can be imagined. Second, when the executioner carries out the punishment of Ling Chi, it will bring great deterrence to the onlookers, so as to avoid the risk of committing crimes and achieve the effect of killing one person and making an example.
▲Liu Jin stills
The specific execution steps of Ling Chi have been different in successive dynasties, some of which were at the chest and some at the limbs. One of the most frightening steps is to start with the forehead, where the executioner cuts the prisoner's forehead so that the flesh on the forehead naturally hangs down to cover the person's eyes. There are many opinions on the purpose of this step, but some people believe that it will avoid the executioner from directly seeing the prisoner's eyes and reduce the relevant interference of the prisoner. Others believe that these steps are used in order to prevent the prisoner from seeing the tragic condition of his body at the time of torture and to prevent death on the spot.
▲Statue of Chen Zizhuang
In the eyes of the world, Ling Chi's punishment can be regarded as the most brutal torture. However, the imagination of many vicious people is not limited to this, and they have created many cruel and extraordinary punishments, such as Chen Zizhuang, the right attendant of the military department at the end of the Ming Dynasty, who resolutely did not surrender after being captured by Tong Yangjia, the governor of Liangguang in the Qing Dynasty, and scolded Tong Yangjia and other generations. Annoyed, Tong Yangjia came up with a vicious execution, and he asked the executioner to hold the large saw used by the carpenter to cut Chen Zizhuang in half from the beginning, and the bloody scene was heinous.
▲Yue Fei stills
The famous Southern Song general Yue Fei was recalled to Kyoto by Emperor Gaozong of Song with twelve gold medals, and was framed and imprisoned by the lord and faction led by Qin Ju. Yue Feijing's loyalty to the heart of the country can be learned, of course, he will not admit the crime of conspiracy and other crimes that Qin Ju and others have woven against him. In order to force Yue Fei to obey, the shameless and vicious Qin Ju used a cruel "cloaked hemp torture" to boil the fish maw and raw silk into hot glue, and after the hot glue was successfully boiled, it was mixed with sackcloth strips to stir, so that the sackcloth strips were full of hot glue, and then wrapped the sackcloth strips around the person. Although the raw materials are common and easy to obtain, the power should not be underestimated - after the hot glue is frozen, it is full of stickiness, and once the cloth strip is torn off with a stand, the prisoner even has a piece of belt meat.
▲Yue Fei Cemetery
Even after being subjected to such a cruel punishment, Yue Fei did not bow his head, and in the end, Qin Ju and others used the "punishment of pulling ribs" to persecute Yue Fei to death. There are different theories about the execution method of the ribs, some say that they use a heavy hammer to slam the ribs on the chest to death, and some say that they wrap ropes around the prisoner's body and tighten the two ends hard, resulting in the fracture of the ribs and death. From this point of view, it is not unreasonable that the statues of Qin Juniper and others have been kneeling to this day.
epilogue
As a generation of famous defenders of the country, Yue Fei's cruel ending is really touching. Fortunately, we live in a peaceful and stable modern society, and we will no longer be deeply poisoned by feudal ideas. While enjoying a comfortable life, we should always be vigilant and never embark on the road of breaking the law and getting guilty.
Resources:
"Song Shi Yue Fei Biography", "Ancient Criminal Law and Torture Devices"