When I was disobedient or naughty as a child, I was always punished by my parents and said, "If I don't obey again, I will spank!" "There are also often "cane responsibility" episodes in costume dramas, where the executioner will take a long stick and hit the punished person's buttocks hard. However, who invented the spanking punishment, many people may not know.
▲ Emperor Taizong of Tang changed the punishment part of the long stick to the butt. (Photo/Taken from the encyclopedia entry)
Caning is a type of torture in which a person is beaten in the back with a wooden stick, also known as "fighting the spine", and the victim needs to be bedridden for a few months, or paralyzed or killed, which is far harsher than flogging. However, before the Ming and Qing dynasties, caning was not common, and flogging was carried out more often by the government.
It is understood that the ancient rod did not have a fixed position at the beginning, and many sinners were accidentally beaten to death because of this.
Ancient canes were basically struck the back, and the killing effect could be imagined. Therefore, the "cane punishment" in the Han Dynasty was said to be in order to sympathize with the health of prisoners, and the "cane punishment" was used instead of the "corporal punishment" of cutting people's hands and feet.
In the years when Emperor Wen of Sui played the majestic "cane punishment", the officials were so frightened that they resigned one after another, and he himself was still puzzled: "Is my rod heavy? "Does it hurt? It's speechless.
Until the Tang Dynasty appeared in the book "Mingtang Acupuncture and Moxibustion Map", the then emperor Tang Taizong Li Shimin read this book and found that the back of the human body was where the five internal organs meridian holes were concentrated, so he revised the "flogging" in the "Tang Law", stipulating that the back of the criminal must not be whipped, and the butt with few acupuncture points and not easy to kill was changed to the butt.
▲ Ancient rods reprimand "spanking". (Photo/Photo: Weibo)
The "Law of Tang" further divides the "rod punishment" into five grades: "rod sixty", "rod seventy", "rod eighty", "rod ninety" and "rod one hundred". In ancient Chinese feudal society, the letter of the law was one thing, but the implementation was another, and sometimes the emperor came up with a temper and fought as much as he wanted. For example, when Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was in power, it was common for officials to be "roded" in anger, such as the imperial history Jiang Ting, who was "roded to death" in the court because he said a sincere word.
For more than 1,200 years, the government punished criminals for spanking with canes, sometimes taking off their pants and executing them naked, thereby making criminals feel ashamed.
▲Tang Taizong Li Shimin. (Photo/Taken from the encyclopedia entry)
In contrast, the Song Dynasty was much stricter than the Tang Dynasty in the execution of the "cane", basically fighting as it should be. However, the application of "cane punishment" is also more extensive, and it is often used as an additional punishment for other punishments, such as exile, which must be attached to a "rod ridge". There are even "heavy rods", dedicated to executions.
The "younger brother" of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Liao State, also developed a new "cane" tool - sandbags. The "caning punishment" of 50 to 300 is all beaten with 50 pounds of sandbags wrapped in cooked skin.
However, in the army of the Song Dynasty, the application of "cane" was very widespread. Officers who pressed the first level often regarded "caning punishment" as a means of coercion. The two Song armies were not effective in fighting, but the "cane" roze was quite positive, and finally caused serious consequences: during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of Song, Song Xiaozong, who was aiming to restore Heshan, vigorously improved the treatment of officers and encouraged the martial artists to join the army, but unexpectedly, Wu Zhuangyuan Lin Biao and others refused one after another - they would rather have no hope for a lifetime than go to the barracks to be beaten.
Although the punishment of "caning" is mainly used to punish adultery and is also commonly used to beat officials and establish authority, it is also often abused. A mighty rod of punishment is sometimes used to punish the people. For example, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, not only crimes would be "rod punishment", but even sometimes conquests were violent, and it was often "rod punishment" to open the way.
It was not until the Republican period that Sun Yat-sen thought that the punishment of "spanking" was a very serious insult, and did not stop this punishment, but the practice of "wrong spanking" still survives to this day and has become a means for parents to teach their children.
References: "Old Book of Tang", "New Book of Tang"