Speaking of this ancient criminal law, it is really countless, lingchi, waist beheading, beheading, skinning, hanging, etc., one more ferocious than the other, these are the death penalties for serious crimes.
In modern times, only a very small number of repeat offenders are sentenced to death, and in ancient times one accidentally lost his head. So what about the ancient prisoners who did not die of sin? The light ones beat the board to warn them, and the heavy ones were exiled, and exile was a means of punishing criminals by deporting them to remote areas.
So why didn't people at that time sentence them to fixed-term imprisonment or life imprisonment like modern people?
First of all, today the country is unified and in a peaceful society, but in ancient times, under the oppression of war for many years, there was often friction and collision between countries. In this case, the country urgently needs border guards, but the border areas are remote and desolate, these soldiers are not fools, soldiers are not willing to go, so what to do? The wise rulers have come up with a way to distribute criminals who have committed crimes to the frontier, so as to avoid the possibility of their crimes, and to increase the strength of the border defense.
Secondly, in ancient times, there was a saying that "fallen leaves return to the roots", and there was a very heavy nostalgia, and sentenced to exile a person to thousands of miles away, for a person is that he can never return to his hometown, even if there is no way after death, your so-called soul has no way to return to his hometown. Therefore, such a punishment can be regarded as particularly cruel, and it is equivalent to a relatively serious punishment. Because once the frontier is distributed, there is no possibility of return. It is said that a person's roots are in the place where he was born, and in ancient times, when transportation was not developed at all, thousands of miles away was the end of the world.
In addition, the rulers of ancient times, in order to reflect their generosity and benevolence, they were reluctant to kill more people, and the method of exile did not kill people, but also showed the great grace of the emperor, which could further consolidate the position of the ruler. It should be known that in ancient times, rulers advocated that "the lord of virtue is used to punish and the law is used at the same time", and blind punishment may be counterproductive, and only tyrants will kill people at every turn. The true Ming Emperor knows this truth very well, so exile without killing has become a means of winning the hearts and minds of the people.
In the end, in fact, a person is exiled to a deserted place, and the surrounding environment is originally a kind of physical and mental torture for him. In addition, the dissatisfaction caused by the soldier's escort will be angry at the prisoner, and from time to time, the prisoner will be insulted and struck, causing the prisoner to be physically and mentally injured.
That's why most of the ancients didn't put prisoners in jail, but focused on their exile.