In ancient TV dramas, eunuchs were often seen announcing the emperor's will: "Ask the ...... after the autumn on the chosen day"
Is there anything special about the autumn queen asking? Why does it have to be autumn season? Why not ask for a chop in winter and ask a chop in spring?
The history of "asking and beheading after the autumn" should start from the Western Han Dynasty.
After the autumn asked about Confucianism
In the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty vigorously promoted Confucianism, and the Confucian master Dong Zhongshu inherited the Confucian idea of "the unity of heaven and man" and created a unique set of "heaven and man induction" doctrine.
"Celestial Induction" relates everything that happens naturally to the will of the celestials, and if the heavens are not satisfied with the emperor's will, they will send down heavenly punishments. On the other hand, if the heavens are satisfied with the emperor's decree, auspicious fortune will descend.
Dong Zhongshu said: "There are four seasons in the sky, and the king has four politics, and celebration, reward, punishment, and punishment correspond to spring, summer, autumn, and winter." ”
It means that God first appreciates and praises, and then chooses punishment and punishment. This just corresponds to the seasonal season.
We should be rewarded in spring and summer, executed in autumn and winter, and autumn is the year when the temperature is gradually getting colder, and the atmosphere of slaughter is gradually brewing, and we can choose to carry out the death penalty as a demonstration of solemnity.
Emperor Zhang of the Eastern Han Dynasty also recorded in the second year: "The life and death of the king should be in accordance with the times." Its law: there is no prison report in November or December. ”
The custom of "asking for beheading in autumn and winter" was thus fixed, and it was enshrined in the law to be observed.
The colloquial saying "asking for beheading after the autumn" first appeared in the Ming and Qing novels "Water Margin", which shows that it has been widely spread among the general public.
Autumn and winter ask and slash and the five elements of yin and yang
In addition to being mentioned in Confucianism, this idea is also mentioned in ancient China in the theory of the five elements of yin and yang.
According to the ancient Chinese idea of the Mandate of Heaven, the execution of a prisoner is the execution of "heavenly punishment", which is the greatest punishment for a person. This is to uphold the will of God, and it must conform to God's rules, which is the so-called providence.
In the Book of Rites, the Moon Decree records that "the moon of mid-spring...... Don't plunder, stop prison lawsuits" and "The moon of Meng Qiu, the fate is a division, the prison is imprisoned, and the shackles are ......".
The Yin-Yang scholars believe in the theory of "rewarding spring and summer, punishing autumn and winter", which is actually consistent with Confucianism.
Spring is a mild climate that sprouts and blooms, making it ideal for sowing seeds and celebrations. The autumn and winter seasons are cold, and the cold wind blows on the face, with a solemn atmosphere, which is a good time to carry out punishment.
Ancient thinkers all had the same view on executions.
Under the influence of these ideas, the laws of the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty specifically stipulated the time of execution, and the death penalty generally could not be carried out in the beginning of spring when the seeds were sown, and the execution had to wait for the autumn to be executed, and then gradually fixed.
There is another important reason for the autumn queen's question, which is closely related to farming. Autumn and winter are generally the time of agricultural leisure, and the people have a rare leisure time throughout the year.
At this time, the execution of the death penalty does not have to delay agricultural production, and the people also have time to watch, so as to achieve the effect of deterrence and deterrence, and consolidate the ruling order of feudal society.
The laws of the Tang Dynasty had similar provisions, generally stipulating the time when the death penalty could not be carried out.
The Tang law stipulated: "After the beginning of the spring and before the autumn equinox, the death penalty shall be imprisoned for one year." Though the offender is not waiting, if he is executed on the month of slaughter and on the day of the prohibition of slaughter, he shall have sixty rods each. If the time comes, the second class will be added. ”
Tang law strictly shows that the death penalty must not be carried out from the beginning of spring to the autumn equinox, the month of slaughter and the day of the prohibition of killing, otherwise they will be punished with a rod and a prison.
The month of slaughter is not a traditional festival, but is related to the month of May, September and New Year, when Chinese Buddhism prohibits killing.
The days of prohibition are the first, eighth, fourteenth, fifteenth, eighteenth, twenty-third, twenty-fourth, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, and thirtieth days of each month.
There are even other more detailed provisions on this, and the "Tang Law and Discussion" also stipulates that the execution of the death penalty must be stopped on the days of the Great Sacrifice, the Synod, the 24 solar terms, the rain is not clear, and the night is not bright.
Most dynasties followed the principle of autumn and winter executions, but in the early feudal societies such as the Qin Dynasty, the ritual law had not yet been formed, and the death penalty could be carried out in all seasons.
Ancient Punishments
Compared with modern times, ancient punishments were more numerous and varied.
The earliest criminal law was stipulated in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and it was recorded in the early "Zhou Li, Qiu Guan, and Preface Official": "It is the establishment of the Qiu Dynasty and the envoy of the commander of his subordinates and the prohibition of the state, so as to support the king and punish the state."
The autumn official who holds the "power of life and death" corresponds to the autumn queen's questioning. The clerk was in charge of prisons and pickets, and his status was similar to that of today's judges.
In fact, it is recorded in "Zuo Chuan: The Sixth Year of Zhao Gong": "Xia has a chaotic government and makes "Yu Punishment", Shang has a chaotic government and makes "Tang Punishment": Zhou has a chaotic government and makes "Nine Punishments"."
In ancient times, in order to restrain the people, the establishment of criminal law originated very early, among which the "five punishments" were the most important. The five punishments are the five punishments for criminals in ancient times, which are constantly changing in the course of historical development.
The "five punishments" during the Qin Dynasty refer to the five punishments of "Mo, Xuan, Jing, Gong, and Dapi", and the five punishments of "answer, rod, apprenticeship, flow, and death" after the Sui and Tang dynasties.
In addition, there are other different criminal laws, among which the punishment methods of the previous dynasties are compared, and the criminal law of the Ming Dynasty is the most severe.
The ancient sages all expressed their support for criminal law, although they may not have been born in Legalism, but they all advocated the use of criminal law to restrain the people.
They are also very concerned, Confucius once said: "The gentleman is punished, and the villain is favored." It means that those who govern the country are concerned about the country's criminal law, and ordinary people are concerned about benefits.
From a certain aspect, it can be seen that the criminal law has become the ruler's means of rule, which meets the needs of class society and maintains the special preferential treatment of the ruling class in the power of life and death.
However, whether in ancient times or now, the setting of criminal law has reflected the care for human nature, which is in line with the core value of "benevolence" in ancient society.
The purpose of criminal law is to regulate and inspect people's words and deeds, so as to achieve the harmonious development of society.
Here we can tell the story of Tang Taizong letting go of 400 death row prisoners in one go.
Tang Taizong released 400 prisoners
There is a record of such an event in the "Zizhi Tongjian" and the "New Tang Book", in the winter of the sixth year of Zhenguan (633 AD), during the reign of Taizong of the Tang Dynasty.
It happened that the people were busy preparing for the Spring Festival, and Dali Siqing suddenly said at this time: "There are 390 death row inmates in the prison who will be beheaded after the autumn of the next year, but these people are worried about their parents and weak wives and young children, and they are crying day and night.
Tang Taizong brought this matter up for discussion, and some officials suggested that the sentence should be used in advance, and the prison should be returned to a quiet place, and at the same time achieve a deterrent effect.
Tang Taizong thought for a moment and ordered that all these death row prisoners be released home for a period of one month, and then they would automatically come back to be tortured after they had dealt with the aftermath.
Not to mention that if these death row inmates return to their homes and continue to endanger one party, do evil, and disrupt public order, will they come back or not?
Everyone was full of complaints, but they could only obey Tang Taizong's holy decree and release the death row prisoners home.
During the Lantern Festival in the second year, on the day when the death row inmates returned to report for duty, many of the 390 death row inmates returned to the prison, and the government and the opposition were shocked.
Tang Taizong saw that they were all honest and obedient to their covenants and were good people who could be converted, and issued an edict to exempt them from capital crimes and exile them to the frontier.
From this incident, we can see the benevolence and mercy of the monarch, and for the condemned prisoners, he did not blindly adopt radical punishment methods such as beheading, but used kindness to educate the people to be virtuous.
Originally, this was a beautiful story, but since ancient times, it has been people's instinct to avoid death, and these causes of death escaped from prison, but all of them regarded death as their home, and consciously returned to prison to receive their deaths, which sounds like there must be something strange in it.
When Ouyang Xiu compiled the "New Tang Dynasty Book", of course, he made annotations on the side, and specially wrote an article "On the Theory of Prisoners" for this purpose, speculating on the truth in it.
According to Ouyang Xiu's words, everyone is afraid of death. But the reason why gentlemen are gentlemen is because they understand that they died in righteousness, so they die honorably.
But death row prisoners are all villains among villains, and it is simply impossible for them to go to death calmly and treat death as if they were at home.
Ouyang Xiu didn't believe in this kind of "influence", the sages couldn't do it to influence so many villains at once, the depth and speed of this kind of kindness were unbelievable.
In the end, Ouyang Xiu came to his conclusion: This thing must be a show!
There may have been prior communication with the death row inmate: "If you are released, you must come back, and if you come back, you will definitely be pardoned for the crime." ”
So in the end, through such means, he sang up and down, and deceived the world. The death row prisoners were forgiven, and Tang Taizong was famous, and it seemed that everyone was happy, but in fact it was a deception.
The Qing Dynasty Confucian Wang Fuzhi agreed with Ouyang Xiu's analysis very much, and added: death row prisoners are actually inescapable of escaping and must return to prison.
He studied the laws of the Tang Taizong period, and the laws were very strict, and the Shiwu sat down to protect each other. If one person commits a crime, all the relatives of the clan will be implicated.
Therefore, the prisoners were willing to come back because the law was too strict, and they could escape for a while, but not for a lifetime.
Although the "arson" incident is both false and deceitful, it does not deserve much praise. But it does not prevent our descendants from seeing this matter and still being able to appreciate the benevolence of the monarch in the law.
The death penalty is never a means of punishing people, but a means of edifying them.