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Why are ancient "wanted warrants" so abstract, why do they always catch criminals? See what's written on the back

author:History of Concord

Skynet was restored, neglected but not leaked.

Once someone commits a crime, even if they flee to the ends of the earth, they will be arrested and arrested by law enforcement.

Why are ancient "wanted warrants" so abstract, why do they always catch criminals? See what's written on the back

Nowadays, our country Guotai Min'an, in order to protect the safety of people's lives and property, there are countless monitoring equipment in the streets and alleys, and once someone violates the law, his appearance and even criminal experience will be monitored and photographed.

Even if he escapes, law enforcement officers will issue a wanted notice based on the surveillance footage, let people see the appearance of the crime, and assist the law enforcement to arrest him.

However, no one expected that in ancient times, the wanted warrant already existed.

At that time, there was no surveillance equipment, and since there was no video data of the criminals, the portraits on the wanted warrants were all drawn by the painters little by little according to the descriptions of the witnesses.

Why are ancient "wanted warrants" so abstract, why do they always catch criminals? See what's written on the back
In this regard, some people can't help but ask, if the portrait on the wanted warrant is so abstract, why can the prisoner always be caught? In fact, there is a big article on the wanted warrant, and experts say, "Look at what is written later." ”

1. Ancient wanted warrants

When it comes to wanted warrants, we are all familiar with today, once there is a person who violates the law, law enforcement officers will issue a wanted warrant, which will be accompanied by a photo of the criminal, and will also be marked with the name, age, place of origin, body characteristics and other information of the criminal.

Now the wanted warrant can be seen at a glance and facilitates the identification of criminals.

However, the earliest wanted warrants were not as clear as they are now, and even the appearance of the criminals was blurred, and the traceable wanted warrants could be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and the first person to be painted with a wanted warrant was the famous Wu Zixu.

Why are ancient "wanted warrants" so abstract, why do they always catch criminals? See what's written on the back

At that time, Wu Zixu betrayed the State of Chu and defected to the State of Wu, which made the King of Chu very angry.

The king of Chu ordered someone to paint a portrait of Wu Zixu, and wrote Wu Zixu's height and appearance characteristics below the portrait, and even wrote a reward on it, not only promising all kinds of gold and silver property, but also promising high-ranking officials Houlu.

This was the first wanted warrant, which at the time was called a "sea fishing document".

Because there was no precedent before, and the painter who painted Wu Zixu did not have this experience, so on this "sea fishing document", Wu Zixu's portrait was painted with a big gap with the true appearance of Wu Zixu himself, and even when Wu Zixu stood in front of this sea fishing document, people could not see that it was him who was painted.

Even though the portrait was very different from his appearance, this "sea fishing document" still forced Wu Zixu to hide in Tibet, and even was chased behind him several times by the chu officers and soldiers who arrested him.

Why are ancient "wanted warrants" so abstract, why do they always catch criminals? See what's written on the back

This can't help but make people wonder, why can't you see that the person on the portrait is him, and even if he doesn't even need a disguise, he will be found so many times by the pursuing soldiers?

In fact, not only him, but also the ancient portraits of "sea fishing documents" are very different from his appearance, and can even be described in the abstract, so why can he always catch the prisoner?

Second, the mystery of the sea fishing documents

Why is there such a powerful role for sea fishing documents? Some experts have given the answer.

Although the portrait on the sea fishing document is very abstract, the content written behind the portrait is hidden and mysterious, and the reason why the sea fishing document will play such a big role is mainly because of the words written on it.

In the sea fishing documents, in addition to the portrait of the criminal, it is often written with three parts.

The first part is the information of the offender, which, as it is now, will write about the height, appearance, age, physical characteristics of the place of origin, the case committed, and so on.

Why are ancient "wanted warrants" so abstract, why do they always catch criminals? See what's written on the back

Some sea fishing documents even write the direction in which the criminal escapes and where they may go.

The second part of the information is the bounty policy, which usually varies according to the nature of the case committed by the offender and the identity background of the offender.

The higher the degree of danger of the offender, the more serious the case committed, and the deeper the background of the offender, the higher the reward, and the general reward amount is about twelve.

The third part of the message is that if anyone is found to dare to harbor and kill the criminal, then the punishment will be obtained.

It is precisely these three parts of the sea fishing documents that make the people dare not harbor criminals, and even if there is news of criminals, they will report to the government at the first time.

Why are ancient "wanted warrants" so abstract, why do they always catch criminals? See what's written on the back

Some people may suspect that the reward of ten silver is not high, and the wanted criminals are all "fierce gods and evil spirits", how can anyone risk being retaliated against by fugitives because of ten silver? In fact, ten silver is not a small amount in ancient times.

At that time, ordinary people lived with copper coins, and those who used silver were either in high positions or rich in their families, and ten silver was enough for a person to live in peace and stability for four years.

For the people, ten taels of silver was enough for them to risk reporting fugitives.

At that time, this was still a profession known as a "bounty hunter", specializing in catching or looking for fugitives on sea fishing documents, relying on bounties for a living, not to mention encountering repeat offenders and important offenders, and the amount of bounties would be particularly large.

In addition, in ancient times there was a system of joint sitting.

If anyone dares to harbour fugitives, and if the families of those who harbor fugitives report them to the government, the people who harbor the fugitives and their neighbors are also implicated.

Why are ancient "wanted warrants" so abstract, why do they always catch criminals? See what's written on the back

It is for these reasons that even if the portrait of the criminal in the ancient sea fishing document is painted so abstractly, the fugitive can always be caught.

Third, the legal net is difficult to escape

In fact, the reason why the ancient "wanted criminals" were always successfully caught was not only because of the adjustment information on the "sea fishing documents", but also had a lot to do with the living conditions of ancient people.

As we all know, in ancient times, people's way of travel was very single, and the transportation was not convenient, so ordinary people rarely had the opportunity to go far.

Many people's lifelong trajectory is within the hundred miles of their own home, neighbors are familiar with each other, if you find strangers, it will inevitably cause people to be vigilant.

again. Sea fishing documents have been issued, and every day many people provide "suspects" similar to those described by prisoners on sea fishing documents, so that one by one investigations have increased the probability of catching fugitives.

Why are ancient "wanted warrants" so abstract, why do they always catch criminals? See what's written on the back

Therefore, the rate of arrest of fugitives in ancient times will be so high, which can be described as the restoration of the legal net, so that fugitives are doomed.

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