Why didn't ancient men cut their hair?

In ancient times, it was a great sin to trim hair at will. Because the ancients thought that "parents who are sick dare not die, and filial piety begins." (The Book of Filial Piety, anonymous in Qin and Han Dynasties).

The main idea is that the hair and skin of the body are obtained from parents, and you can't easily damage or change your skin and hair.

Cutting your hair means that the most sacred thing your parents gave you has been destroyed, which is very unfilial. At that time, it will not only make your parents sad, but also make your neighbors look down on you and lift their heads in front of others.

This is a great mental torture for the ancients who valued fame over life, no less than the corporal punishment mentioned above.

Moreover, the ancients believed that hair had some mysterious connection with longevity and health, so cutting off hair might affect people's longevity and health. If the cut hair falls into the hands of enemies, monsters or ghosts, this person's will will be controlled and his life and health will be affected.

Therefore, in the concept of the ancients, cutting off the prisoner's hair may pose an unpredictable threat to his personal safety and cause a huge blow to his psychology.

Extended data

Cutting hair was a form of torture in ancient times. There is a criminal law called Kun punishment, which is one of the five major punishments in ancient China. Shaving all or part of a person's hair is a humiliating punishment. Mainly popular in China from Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Punishment is a kind of psychological injury. Most of the tortured people have different hairstyles. Everyone can see it at a glance, just like the ancients tattooed the prisoners' faces, they will be ridiculed by onlookers wherever they go.

Kun punishment originated in the Zhou Dynasty. In the royal family, those who commit castration take Kun for the palace, that is, long hair is broken into short hair. By the time of the Qin Dynasty, it lost this nature and became a punishment to shave off the beard of the prisoner. In ancient China, it was normal for men to grow hair and beards. This punishment takes the form of forcibly shaving the hair and beard of criminals, which makes criminals in an obvious abnormal state and makes them feel pain.

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