When I read historical stories when I was a child, I would see that all kinds of criminal laws in ancient times were extremely cruel, like some criminal laws such as cannon burning, broken hands and feet, tattooing words on the face, and so on. Many criminal laws feel very uncomfortable just by looking at the description of the text, not to mention that the ancients really experienced it.
In ancient times, punishments, even the death penalty, had a thousand tricks, in short, it was to make you die uncomfortable, what kind of filial piety, a thousand knives, a knighthood, and so on, each punishment was extremely cruel.
In this comparison, although the death penalty is still retained in modern society, it is still very humane, at least it will not add so much extra suffering.
But in ancient times, there was also a little bit of human nature in the criminal law, as long as it was not a criminal who committed the most heinous crimes, there were certain preferential treatment before death, such as eating a good meal, summoning people who wanted to meet and so on.
One of the most humane should be the "listening wife system."
1. The system of listening to wives
This system, which originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty, was mainly aimed at prisoners who were married but did not yet have children, and before they were executed, they would arrange for their wives to enter prison to accompany them, and they would not formally carry out the death penalty until their wives were pregnant. The main purpose is to be able to leave a child behind. Of course, this system is naturally not applicable to those who have committed the great crimes of the Nine Tribes, mainly to some corrupt officials in the imperial court.
At first, the wife-listening system was mainly a rule for taking down married prisoners, but later it gradually changed, regardless of whether the prisoner had a wife or not, the family would arrange for them to come in and live with them until they could leave the children.
In fact, this is easier to understand, after all, in ancient times, children were very important, especially if there was only one child in the family, the family could continue to maintain it with children.
The original intention of the listening system is to allow prisoners to leave a child, but also to give prisoners a little psychological comfort, so that they will not be too lonely when they go on the road. In ancient times, he especially believed in the theory of ghosts and gods, and he was also afraid that after the prisoner's death, his resentment would be too deep, and he would turn into a ghost and not disperse.
Before dying, he had his own relatives to accompany him, and he also left a child, which could eliminate some resentment and was also a way for the ruler to accumulate goodness and virtue.
In fact, not only the system of listening to wives, but also the prisoners in ancient times invited their families to prison before their deaths, and revised their wills in person, in order to properly distribute the family property. In ancient times, so many systems were formulated for the tranquility of the family home, and those who could enjoy these systems were some people with a certain status.
Stabilizing their families was also of certain benefit to the imperial court.
Second, more benefits
Of course, the system of listening to wives is definitely more than these benefits, it can even be said to be a very important part of the entire punishment process, which not only maintains social stability to a certain extent, but also improves the credibility of the punishment of the imperial court.
The first point is to verify the identity of the prisoner, we have seen some plots of stealing dragons and turning phoenixes in the TV series, quietly getting the death row inmates out and then finding someone to replace them.
But with this wife-listening system, this situation can be avoided to the greatest extent, after all, it is still very difficult to get both people out. From this point of view, the wife is also a witness to the identity of the prisoner, ensuring that there will be no accidents in the middle.
Another is to enhance the credibility of the imperial court, where wives accompany their husbands in prison, and while passing on the generations, they can also monitor every move in prison to ensure that no one will do other things to prisoners in prison, reducing the abuse of prisoners by officials.
When the wife leaves the prison, she will generally tell the various situations in the prison, and the imperial court needs to have a good reputation, which is also one of the ways to shape.
Successive dynasties, even the Qin Dynasty, which is known for its brutality in history, also wants to leave a good reputation, and the wife-listening system will not lose anything for the imperial court, but can be exchanged for such a large benefit, not only to maintain the stability of the family society, but also to establish a good reputation for themselves, why not enjoy it?
Moreover, in ancient times, the fertility rate was not high, and naturally it was necessary to do everything possible to increase the fertility rate, and the wife-listening system was also one of the means.
3. Abolition of the system of listening to wives
The system of listening to wives did not exist in history for a long time, and basically few dynasties after the Han Dynasty followed suit. Many people wonder that there are many benefits of the listening system, so why should they abolish it in the end? There are 3 main reasons for this.
One is the difficulty of implementation, the system of listening to wives sounds very simple, but it is really difficult to implement, and many of the measures are difficult to grasp.
It is as if if the wife has not been able to conceive, should the execution of the death penalty be postponed? If it were to be postponed, it would not be in accordance with the provisions of the judgment, and if it were not postponed, there would be no point in establishing this system in the first place, and pregnancy is not something that can be interfered with by humans, and there are too many variables in between. There is also the fact that if the wife who comes in to accompany them is treated, they cannot always be treated as prisoners, and there are too many problems in the middle that are difficult to grasp.
The second is that the results are not high, in fact, there are not many children who really stay through the listening wife system
The imperial court originally set up this system to be able to leave a little blood for these prisoners, but it had little effect. Taking a step back, even if you can leave a child, the child's growth environment will not be good, after all, in such a fierce struggle environment as the family, without the protection of the father, it will definitely attract people to dislike.
The last point is a more realistic reason--- cut the grass and remove the roots. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Daoist thought was relatively strong, more in accordance with nature, but in the later period, the rise of Confucianism and Dharma thought, Taoist thought was gradually abandoned. At first, the system of listening to wives was introduced to appease people's hearts, but gradually the imperial court gradually realized that leaving descendants for criminals was still a scourge and had to be guarded against. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, many people were convicted by one person and the whole family suffered, in such a situation, do not say that there are no children,
Even those who had children were exiled to the frontier or executed together. In this way, the existence of the listening system is meaningless.
Combined with the above, the system of listening to wives has gradually been abolished, but it has also been replaced by other manifestations of human nature, such as being able to eat a good meal and a good dish before dying, meeting the people you want to meet, etc., which can also be regarded as compensating this system from the other side.