Why did the ancients choose to kill and behead at 3 noon?

In ancient times, one day and night were divided into twelve hours and one hundred hours ("hour" originally refers to the notch on the drip bucket for timing. Fight day and night for a hundred minutes). "hour" and "hour" are actually two sets of timing system units, which are more troublesome to convert, averaging eight and a third hours. "Noon" is usually between noon today 1 1 and 13. Three o'clock at noon, nearly noon 12 o'clock. The sun is hanging in the middle of the sky, which is the shortest time for shadows to appear on the ground. At that time, people thought it was the peak of yang in a day. In ancient China, people always thought that killing people was a "dirty thing". Whether the murdered person deserves it or not, his ghost will always haunt the judge who made the judgment, the official who supervised the execution, the executioner who executed the execution and so on. Therefore, the execution of the death penalty at the peak of Yang Can will inhibit the appearance of ghosts. This should be the main reason for the habitual "three-quarter noon" implementation.

Say "Three Quarters at Noon" —— Legal Culture in China's Classical Literature

Guo Jian

When I was a child, I saw the outlaws of the marsh, and I thought the most exciting plot was Robbery of the Giving Court: In the 40th episode of "Hero Bo of Liangshan Bailong Temple Robbery of the Giving Court", Song Jiang and Dai Zong were taken to the Giving Court, "Your Majesty:' Three o'clock at noon!'" "The supervisor beheaded the officer and said,' Report beheading!' "At this time, Liangshan heroes broke out together." At the crossroads, there was a tiger-shaped man in black upstairs in the teahouse. He took off his clothes and shouted at me with two axes in his hands, but it was like a bolt from the blue. It took him half a day to jump down from the air. "For example, back to the sixty-second" stab in the back by stabbing Yan Qing's rescuer to rob Shi Xiu to jump off a building ". Lu Junyi was going to be beheaded, and it was at the crossroads. The executioner shouted "Three o'clock at noon" and he was going to start work. Shi Xiu, who was waiting in the restaurant, shouted, "All the heroes in the water margin have arrived!" Draw out a sword and jump down, drag up Lu Junyi and go.

Other classical novels often have a plot of "three quarters at noon". For example, in the 39th volume of ancient and modern novels, "Ren Xiaozi is as strong as a god", what about that one? In the middle of the year, he was sentenced to death and taken to the execution ground. "Just wait for three minutes at noon." And the result? I can't believe I'm sitting on the execution ground

Then, did the ancient law stipulate that the death penalty should be executed at 3: 00 noon? That's not true. For example, in the Tang and Song Dynasties, the law stipulated that every year from beginning of spring to the autumnal equinox, as well as the first month, May, September, big sacrifice day, Lent day, 24 solar terms days, the first and second day of each month, there was no birthday killing (that is, every tenth, first day, eighth day, fourteenth, fifteenth, eighteenth, twenty-third, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, thirtieth). Moreover, it also stipulates that the death penalty shall not be executed in the case of "the rainy night is not clear". Some people think that according to this regulation, the death penalty can be executed for less than 80 days in a year in the Tang Dynasty. At the time of execution, the Tang Law clearly stipulates that execution can only be carried out during the period from untimely to the application for execution (about this afternoon 1 to 5: 00). Not "3: 15 noon". The laws of Ming and Qing Dynasties only stipulated the date of execution similar to that of Tang Dynasty, but did not specify the time of execution.

In fact, in the novels of the Qing Dynasty, there are not many descriptions of this "three-quarter noon" execution method. For example, the seventh chapter of "Awakening Flowers" said: "At that time, the weather was late autumn and early winter, and there were those heinous prisoners in prisons in various counties and counties, and they were executed at this time. The imperial edict was received by Gao Jie, the magistrate of Shuangliu County in Japan. He read the imperial edict, that is, several famous beheaders were tied to the cross neighborhood and executed at the fifth watch. " This means doing it in the early morning.

On the contrary, there were executions at dusk. A strange case in Meizhou was recorded in the notes of the Qing Dynasty "Miscellaneous Works of DreamWorks". Cai Asan, a local rape murderer, was sentenced to death. The sealed document (death penalty execution order) arrived, just as the state government was not doing business, and there was only one official in the state government (a small official in charge of public security and prisons), so it was impossible to supervise the execution. The official asked the guerrillas (officers) stationed in the local army to discuss the matter. Guerrillas said: "Civil and military integration, why can't I supervise the implementation?" It will take at least three days if we invite the well-known people in neighboring States to supervise according to the system, which will delay the deadline. "Officials opened the seal and ordered the extraction of death row inmates. It was afternoon when the two men discussed it, and it was near dusk when the execution was carried out. They came to the execution ground outside the city, and it began to rain, and it became darker. The camper who was chosen as the executioner has not killed anyone for the time being. Before his execution, he drank one after another to encourage him. The man who plays with the knife is drunk. Hearing the sound of "chop", he slashed with a knife and reported "chop" when he saw the death row fall to the ground. Officials and guerrillas are too far away to go forward and check. Send a commander (officer) to have a look General Qian glanced forward and said, "How far away is your head? Can you still be alive?"? "So hastily ended. But the body was collected the next day, but the body could not be found. Panicked guerrillas and officials searched for a reward near the execution ground and finally found Cai Asan on the edge of a pit. It turns out that the knife was cut on the shoulder last night. He woke up in the middle of the night, struggling to escape, but he couldn't walk far. Li Mu told the executioner to mend a few more knives before he finished. After this incident was discovered by the boss, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi personally tried it, and decided that the executioner and General Qian "had to pay bribes to sell themselves" and sentenced them to death; The officer's eyes will definitely be careless and stay in prison; Both the well-known and the guerrillas were sentenced to exile for dereliction of duty.

Since there is no explicit provision in the law, the saying of "execution at noon at three o'clock" in novels of Ming and Qing Dynasties should only be the practice of the government at that time, or the general view of storytellers and writers. Then the next question is, what is the secret of this "three-quarter noon"?

In ancient times, a day and night was divided into twelve hours and one hundred hours ("hour" originally refers to the notch on the drip bucket of timing. Fight day and night for a hundred minutes). "hour" and "hour" are actually two sets of timing system units, which are more troublesome to convert, averaging eight and a third hours. "Noon" is usually between noon today 1 1 and 13. Three o'clock at noon, nearly noon 12 o'clock. The sun is hanging in the middle of the sky, which is the shortest time for shadows to appear on the ground. At that time, in people's eyes, "Yang" was the peak in a day. In ancient China, people always thought that killing people was a "dirty thing". Whether the murdered person deserves it or not, his ghost will always haunt the judge who made the judgment, the official who supervised the execution, the executioner who executed the execution and so on. Therefore, the execution of the death penalty at the peak of Yang Can will inhibit the appearance of ghosts. This should be the main reason for the habitual "three-quarter noon" implementation.

Almost all ancient countries in the world require the execution of the death penalty during the day. For example, before the twentieth century, European countries usually made it at sunrise and stopped at sunset. There are obviously * * * reasons to consider here, and there are also reasons to shock the people. However, like China, few people consider the ghost-yin factor. China traditional culture emphasizes retribution. Getting the "good news" is the result of virtue, and getting the "bad news" is the result of virtue. For China people who emphasize "spreading incense" and fear "childlessness", "retribution" is the most important factor affecting people's behavior. After the introduction of Buddhism, the preaching of causal reincarnation was combined with the traditional concept of "retribution", which was more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The so-called saying that "good is rewarded with good, evil with evil, and if you don't report it, you will have it. Time waits for no one" is the most typical expression.

According to the textbook "A Brief Introduction to Gongmen" written by Chang Sui in Qing Dynasty, when the judge signed the execution order, it was the bookkeeper in torture room who gave the prisoner's name tag to the chief executive, who asked him to mention it. Pen, the scribe in the torture room just took a drag and let the death row's name hook on the red pen mark. Which one is this? The judge is not directly responsible for the execution order issued by pen. That? This pen was discarded and never used again. In order to ward off evil spirits, the beheading officer always wears a full set of official clothes and covers a red cloak to ward off evil spirits. After the execution, you always burn incense around the Chenghuang Temple, so that the Lord Chenghuang can control the ghosts who may follow you. After returning to the yamen, set off firecrackers and the official car will enter the gate again. All courtiers went out and lined up neatly in the lobby yard, waving sticks to "row courtiers" to drive away ghosts.

In the 100th chapter of Biography of Water Travel, Wang Qing was executed. "The executioner shouted' All evils kill people', which happened to be three minutes at noon." . The so-called "evil killing" means to let the dead remember that evil spirits took his life and not pester the executioner. After the execution, just like when Yang Xiong was executed in the city center for the forty-fourth time, a group of idle friends came up to give him a red shirt, get some drum music, go to a lively hotel in the city to drink, and drive away ghosts who might follow.

Although the religious color of China culture is not strong, in fact, the ghost factor is always manifested in the daily activities of the people and even the government. "Three o'clock at noon" in literary works is one example of this ghost factor at work.