In the Ming Dynasty, the absolute monarchy was strengthened as never before, the multi-ethnic state was further unified and consolidated, the handicraft industry and commodity economy flourished, a large amount of commercial capital was transformed into industrial capital, and the emergence of commercial market towns and the budding of capitalism made the forms of crime also appear diversified, and the corresponding punishment was naturally constantly developing and improving. Coupled with the fact that most of the Ming emperors were also a little off the ordinary way, they all used various methods to maintain their rule, and the special punishment of the Ming Dynasty also came into being.
1. Charge the army
Charging the army, as the name suggests, is to serve as a soldier, that is, criminals will be punished after committing crimes and enter the military service. His birth was very yin and yang - the imperfection of the Ming Dynasty penal system and the lack of military resources in the Ming Dynasty collided with each other, resulting in a special political chemical reaction. The punishment of the Ming Dynasty was very serious, and Zhu Yuanzhang advocated "heavy rules to govern the country", which made the Ming Dynasty have many cruel punishments, and the well-known Ling Chi was the first of the Ming Dynasty. However, the sins of some crimes were not so heavy, and there was a lack of punishment to match them, which became a problem for the rulers of the Ming Dynasty. Coupled with the border defense embarrassment of the Ming Dynasty, the nomadic people often went south to harass and plunder the frontier, so the Ming rulers came up with a way to replenish the army. Such punishments both filled the gaps in the system and gave the army the best of both worlds.
On the face of it, the effectiveness of the military sentence is obvious. However, the stability of national defense does not depend entirely on having a large army; in addition, it depends more on the collective guarantee of frugal defense expenditure, the superior combat effectiveness of the army and the strong support of the people. This unit, which was forcibly pulled up by violent means of punishment, has obvious deficiencies in terms of national defense costs and the combat effectiveness of the army, and these factors have seriously affected the realization of the goal of building a solid national defense.
To sum up, replenishing the army is a maladministration, and it is impossible to solve the urgent need once and for all.
2. The staff
The meaning of the court staff is the punishment that the emperor uses to suppress disobedient courtiers. The Ming Dynasty's court staff originated from Ming Taizu, who killed Zhu Liangzu with a whip in court. Although Zhu Liangzu himself really deserved to die, he relied on his power to do no evil, but it is undeniable that this is torture. After that, the Zhengde Emperor even took 107 people to the court at one time, and many of them were directly killed.
Such a punishment is entirely based on the emperor's wishes, and as long as the emperor is willing, he can treat his courtiers for any reason. As a special product of the imperial power of the Ming Dynasty, the court staff was extremely gray and dark, which greatly dealt a blow to the spirit of the scholars. But it was also because of such a cruel and barbaric system that some loyal subjects who were really willing to "carry the coffin to death" became an example for the aspirants of the Ming Dynasty, who encouraged generations of state soldiers to repay the country with their deaths, such as Zhou Yunyi, who was killed by the staff during the Jiajing period because of his severeness.
From the cruelty and harshness of special punishments, we can all find that the legal system of the Ming Dynasty was actually only a tool in the hands of the emperor, and the law only reflected the emperor's self-will. Almost all the additions, subtractions, and modifications of the ming dynasty were for the political purpose of maintaining rule and family world, and the ming legal system was actually going farther and farther down the road to feudalism.
