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In ancient film and television dramas, people would say the last sentence when criticizing those who do evil:
"You are truly heinous, and you deserve death!"
According to historical records, the law on the "Ten Evils" can be traced back to the "Law of Qi" of the Northern Qi Dynasty.
At that time, the "Ten Evils" were also known as the "Ten Serious Crimes".
With the changes of the times and the continuous improvement of the rulers of previous dynasties, finally in the Sui and Tang dynasties, the "Ten Evils" were determined, and then there was the saying of "Ten Evils".
So, what kind of crimes do these "ten evils" refer to?
First of all, the first is "rebellion".
For a long time, "rebellion" has been recognized as the "first of the ten evils".
Needless to say, the meaning of rebellion is that until now, no national leader has wanted to rebel against his own people.
There are countless people who have died because of the "crime of rebellion" in history.
Like Han Xin, Hu Weiyong, etc., many of them were framed.
But no matter what the truth is, as long as a person is labeled as a "rebellion", then his end is already doomed.
Especially in the Han Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, many founding heroes with great merits were beheaded for the crime of "rebellion".
But in fact, people understand that the monarch is only doing this to eradicate future troubles for himself.
Second, seek great rebellion.
This article is different from the usual "rebellion", where "rebellion" refers to disobedience and rebellion against the royal family.
This is manifested in the destruction of temples, mausoleums, and palaces of the royal family.
In ancient times, people had great reverence for their ancestors, and various ancestor worship activities would be held every year to comfort the souls of their ancestors.
Then in the royal family, this kind of "ancestral plot" is more important.
The palaces and tombs of the royal family undoubtedly do not symbolize the authority of the royal family.
If anyone dares to vandalize these buildings, it is a blatant provocation to the royal family.
The most famous crime of "plotting against the Great Rebellion" in history is Sun Dianying's "stealing the Qing Dongling".
It's just that the Qing Dynasty was dead at that time, so he was not severely punished.
Sun Dianying
Third, rebellion.
This is somewhat similar to "rebellion", but it does not mean to overthrow the regime of one's own country, but refers to the crime of "defecting to the enemy".
In today's parlance, it is "treason".
The crime of rebellion appeared on the mainland very early, and according to research, it already existed in the Spring and Autumn Period.
Fourth, rebellion.
This one is a crime between family members.
This crime refers to the beating or killing of relatives such as parents, husbands, grandparents, siblings and other relatives in the family.
It's kind of similar to what we now call "domestic violence" or "abuse".
These behaviors are not allowed by law and are despised in modern times, let alone in ancient times when there was a concept of hierarchy and humility and "all virtues and filial piety come first"!
Fifth, no.
The "Tao" here refers to the meaning of "benevolent way".
"Unrighteousness" means those evil deeds that destroy human nature, are unkind, and are immoral.
Among them, this includes the use of witchcraft to harm people.
Aunt Zhao in "Dream of Red Mansions" used the "technique of disgust to win" to persecute Wang Xifeng and Jia Baoyu, which is "unreasonable".
Sixth, great disrespect.
The "respect" here refers to the respect for the imperial power.
On the contrary, "great disrespect" refers to contempt and disdain for imperial power.
The specific manifestations include stealing royal items, stealing imperial food, stealing the emperor's special luan chariot, and so on.
Therefore, in the palace, everyone is careful in what they say and do.
For fear that if someone accidentally says the wrong thing, he will be charged with "great disrespect", and his life will not be saved!
第七,不孝。
This is well understood, so I won't go into too much detail here.
Eighth, disharmony.
"Disharmony" means "disharmony" and mostly refers to tensions between relatives.
It should be pointed out here that in ancient times, if a woman sued her husband, she would also be judged to be "unharmonious"!
Li Qingzhao, the first talented woman in history, has encountered such unfair treatment.
This makes people sigh:
In ancient times, women had no status, let alone fairness!
Ninth, unrighteousness.
We often say "unkind and unjust", which refers to this, which means something that violates feudal traditional etiquette and morality.
Tenth, civil strife.
Unlike the "civil strife" that people understand in modern times, the "civil strife" in ancient times was about misdeeds between relatives and men.
In terms of modernization, it should be "close love" or something like that.
Moreover, the point is that the main target of punishment for such a crime is women.
In ancient times, these ten evil deeds did play a good role in restraining the behavior of the people themselves.
But from today's perspective, several of these crimes are inherently inappropriate.
The times are different, and what has been handed down by the ancients is not fully applicable to the development of today's society.
At least, in the area of women's status, it will never be accepted by today's people.