What penalties did China have in ancient times?

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Ancient punishment

From the perspective of world history, the development and evolution of China's traditional culture has its obvious characteristics, which lies in the continuous development of China's traditional civilization. Since ancient times, "punishment and morality" have been regarded as two sets of good strategies for governing the country and keeping the country safe, so the ancient legal system centered on criminal law and punishment will inevitably become an important part of China's traditional culture. With the progress of society and the evolution of civilization, law has gradually changed from primitive and simple habits to a rigorous and philosophical model. The legal changes in China's history have essentially represented and reflected the Chinese nation's thinking on the fundamental issues of society, life and relations with people, and concentrated and highlighted the basic values of the Chinese nation. Therefore, as an important part of the ancient legal system, penalty's development and change is essentially the condensation of the development and progress of the whole China society. The reasons for the development and change of the penalty system are multi-level, different times have different characteristics, and different authorities at the same time have different measures. However, the general development trend is to develop in the direction of civilization and cautious punishment with primitive barbarism, backwardness and cruelty.

1. The development and changes of ancient punishment in China.

During the reign of Shun Yu in primitive society, many habits about punishment were confirmed. Shangshu. Shun Dian contains: "Elephant is punished by Canon, and five punishments are lost. Whip as official punishment, pounce as teaching punishment, and gold as redemption punishment. If the disaster is forgiven, the thief will be punished. Qin zai! Qin zai! Only the punishment is compassionate. " At that time, the punishment habit juxtaposed the bribery (ink) behavior with the looting (faint) murder behavior and punished them together, which reflected that the society at that time had paid attention to the rectification and management of administrative personnel and severely punished dereliction of duty and corruption.

shangshu. The punishment method in the end of primitive society is explained in Lu Xing: "Miao people use spirit, and punishment is made, and Huai is the punishment of king's abuse", and "He began to commit adultery as" awkward, embarrassing and embarrassing ". According to "were". The annals of criminal law says: "(Yu) made corporal punishment by virtue."

The Xia Dynasty gradually established the five punishment systems of Mo, Mo, Mo, Gong and Da Di.

the criminal law of Shang dynasty was harsh. Pan Geng stipulated that "if I am unlucky, the more disrespectful I am, and if I encounter rape for a while, I will be ruined". In addition to beheading, there are other means of execution and killing, such as chopping, preserving, burning, cutting my heart, cutting and picking.

In the Western Zhou Dynasty, imprisonment, criminal detention and other punishments were formed in the name of the system of loaning the soil and the system of Jiashi, as well as the system of redemption and exile as supplements to the five punishments. This period was the mature stage of slavery punishment.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the five punishments were still the main punishments, and the cruelty did not change. When Shang Yang was executed, the punishment of vehicle splitting was used. This period was the transitional stage from slavery punishment to feudal punishment.

new changes have taken place in Qin's punishment, which mainly includes eight categories: punishment, staff, apprentice, exile, death, humiliation, economy and implicating others. Among them, the first five categories are equivalent to modern principal punishment, and the last three categories are equivalent to modern supplementary punishment. Qin law has not yet formed a complete system and has obvious transitional characteristics.

The punishment was reformed in the Han Dynasty. In the 13th year of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, the corporal punishment was abolished and the punishment system was reformed. Specifically, there are: whoever is finished, is finished as a city; When you are a monk, the tweezers are Chengdan; When you are a monk, you will be three hundred; When the left toe is cut off, it will cost 5 yuan, and when the right toe is cut off, it will be abandoned. This changed the original "five punishments" system. However, there are also problems: 1. Cut off the right toe and abandon the market instead, expanding the scope of the death penalty; Second, flogging is used instead of flogging and cutting off the left toe, resulting in "more deaths" among the inmates. Later, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty issued another imperial edict to reduce the number of imperial edicts twice. The first time, the imperial edict was reduced from 5 to 3, and the imperial edict was reduced from 3 to 2. For the second time, it was reduced from 3 to 2, and from 2 to 1. After the reform, in addition to the death penalty, there were flogging, but the castration remained unchanged. At the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ming Di mentioned cutting off the right toe in his imperial edict, indicating that this punishment was used instead of abandoning the market, and the one that was from light to heavy when Emperor Wen came back. At this point, there were palaces and cutting off the right toe in the Han Dynasty.

regarding imprisonment, the Qin system was adopted in the early Han dynasty. However, there was a clear sentence in the Han Dynasty. For example, Cheng Danzhu was sentenced to five years in prison; After completing the city, he was sentenced to four years old; Ghost salary is white, three years old; Scooter and Zuoru Rukou were both sentenced to two years old, while male and female were both sentenced to one year to three months. In addition, there was another "Gu Shan" in the Han Dynasty, which was only used for female prisoners, so it was also called "Gu Shan as a female apprentice".

in addition, the Han dynasty still used the penalties of fines, emigration and so on in the Qin dynasty and before. In addition, there is the imprisonment penalty, which is a policy of banning officials from forming a clique and banning officials and their relatives from being officials for life.

compared with the previous dynasties, the penalty system in the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties changed greatly, and the overall change of penalty was characterized by gradual leniency. The penalty method of "cutting off skin and mutilating limbs" gradually decreased, and it transited to the new feudal system of five punishments. Mainly reflected in: 1. Abolish the castration system. In the 13th year of Datong (A.D. 547), the Western Wei Dynasty in the Northern Dynasties banned castration: "Those who should be castrated from now on will not be punished if they have no official." In the fifth year of Tiantong (AD 569), the Northern Qi Dynasty also decreed the abolition of castration: "Those who should be subjected to castration are generally exempted from being officials." 2, the provisions of the whip and rod punishment. This penalty originated from the Northern Wei Dynasty and was used in the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou Dynasties. 3. It is stipulated that exile is a reduced death penalty. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, popularity was regarded as a lenient measure of death penalty. For example, in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, exile was defined as five grades, with each grade being 5 li, and the capital being 2,5 li as the first grade and 4,5 li as the limit, with additional flogging. 4. The range of sitting on the edge has changed, which is mainly reflected in the change of sitting on the edge of women. The general trend is to narrow the range, but it has been expanded in judicial practice. Throughout the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the range of sitting on the edge was also repeated. "Liang Law" sets a precedent of exempting women from the death penalty.

sui's "kaihuang law" deleted a lot of harsh penalties. Abolish many cruel life sentences, and make the death penalty statutory as strangulation and beheading. Both exile and flogging were revised. Emperor Wendi of the Sui Dynasty clearly stated: "Strangling to death, beheading is extraordinary, and getting rid of evil is extremely good." All flogging of "beheading" and "peeling off the skin" was abolished, and the feudal system of five punishments was established.

The punishment in the Tang Dynasty was lighter than that in previous generations, and the death penalty and exile penalty were greatly reduced. There are only two kinds of death penalty: strangulation; Imprisonment is only one to three years; The number of poles is also greatly reduced. More importantly, its applicable punishment is lighter; The law of the Tang Dynasty is regarded as a model in the punishment of "balancing the ancient and the modern" in ancient China.

Song created some new penalty systems. 1, stabbing with punishment. Song Taizu set up the method of stabbing and matching for the crime of lenient loans and miscellaneous crimes, stabbing the face, matching the flow and sticking the back of the stick, which is a kind of substitute punishment for the special exemption from the death penalty. But later it became one of the commonly used punishments. 2. Ling Chi was punished. In the Song Dynasty, the extra-legal punishment in the Five Dynasties was regarded as the legal punishment, which was initially applicable to the crime of killing people and offering sacrifices to ghosts by witchcraft in Jinghu land. But then the scope of application became wider and wider. 3, the folding rod method. Song Taizu founded the method of folding staff as a substitute for severe punishment. However, due to the shortcomings, that is, "good citizens occasionally take risks and cause injuries to their limbs, which is a lifelong shame; Foolish people, although they hurt for a while, have no shame at all. " Therefore, in Huizong, the number of punishment for breaking the rod for the crime of not more than an act was adjusted again to reduce the harm to light criminals.

Yuan law was a customary law at the beginning. Genghis Khan sometimes had punishments such as beheading, exile and beating the sliver, and then he gradually transitioned to the five-punishment system in Han Dynasty, which was finally implemented. However, there is no hanging in his death sentence, and Ling Chi is a statutory death sentence.

The Yuan Dynasty still retained many customary laws, including many corporal punishments. In general, people commit theft, except for the crime of breaking the original, "the first time they stabbed their left arm, the second time they stabbed their right arm, and the third time they stabbed their neck." Only Mongolians are exempt from this punishment, "a robber must stab a neck when he first commits a crime." In order to safeguard the privileges of monks, the Yuan Law stipulated that "those who beat Xifan monks cut off their hands and those who scold them cut off their tongues".

yuan has a police trail system. After serving his sentence, the robber pays the "police tracker" of his origin. Set up a red mud wall at the door of the house, write the name on it, and the reason for the crime is supervised by the neighbors, and see the government for supervision every six months. Those who don't commit crimes for five years will be disqualified, and those who commit crimes again will be detained for life.

There were new developments and changes in penalties in Ming and Qing Dynasties, which were characterized by more cruel penalties and a large number of resurrection of corporal punishment. The changes of punishment in Ming and Qing Dynasties are as follows:

1. Death penalty. In Ming and Qing Dynasties, the punishment of beheading and showing off to the public was restored in law, and the scope was gradually expanded. In addition, there are some more cruel ways to execute the death penalty in Ming and Qing Dynasties, such as "peeling grass", "destroying ten families" and slaughtering corpses. The Qing dynasty also had a unique system against the death penalty, namely, the system of beheading and waiting for trial.

2, banishment. "Being banished from the army" was created in the Ming Dynasty, but it was not a crime based on being banished from the army. In Qing dynasty, banishment was regarded as an aggravated punishment for the crime of exile, and banishment was the main crime. Moreover, the number of banishment items has also increased compared with that of the Ming Dynasty.

3. Send punishment, which is a heavier punishment than banishment. In the Ming dynasty, only officers and soldiers were allowed, and they were never allowed to return to their original places. In the Qing dynasty, civil and military officials who committed acts or above were included, and they could be released.

4. cangue was a humiliating punishment initiated by the Ming dynasty. It also became a deadly torture in the Ming Dynasty. In Qing dynasty, this law was used for some ethical and immoral crimes.

there was a court staff system in the Ming dynasty. Refers to the extra-legal punishment of directly flogging ministers who disobey the imperial orders in front of the temple.

second, the reasons for the evolution of ancient punishment in China.

generally speaking, the reasons for the development and change of punishment are as follows.

1. With the development of social economy and the progress of human civilization, the constant change of the guiding ideology of those in power has led to the development and change of punishment. The legal system is an important part of the social superstructure. The emergence and development of any legal system and the formation of its characteristics are closely related to the social and economic conditions at that time, such as politics, economy, culture, customs and traditions. In the primitive society, there was no country and no law, and the level of productivity was low, and the ability of human beings to understand nature was low. At that time, the primitive habits were also determined by the low level of productivity marked by gathering, fishing and hunting, and the punishment method was simple and cruel. Later, due to the development of productivity, private ownership became the dominant. A considerable number of customary laws have gradually emerged. With the further development of the economy and people's further understanding of the material world, the system of punishment has gradually improved and its purpose has become more specific, protecting private property, protecting personal rights and maintaining political rule. Since the establishment of the first slave country in Xia Dynasty, ancient Chinese society has always adhered to the legal system based on criminal law.

Because autocracy and centralization run through thousands of years of ancient development history in China, China's legal culture also has distinct China characteristics, and there is no concept of democracy, legal system and human rights in the western world. A large number of criminal laws are full of indifference to human life and arbitrariness of punishment.

From simple homomorphic revenge to slavery punishment in Xia and Shang dynasties, and to the "five punishments" in feudal society, the change of punishment is closely related to the ruling thought of those in power. China ancient society has always been a centralized patriarchal system, and the king or emperor is the master of the country, so-called home world. "Pu days, murphy king soil. Leading the land, is it a king? " Therefore, the law also embodies the basic guiding ideology of maintaining kingship. Advocate criminal law and attach importance to punishment. So that in ancient China, regardless of civil, administrative and criminal sanctions, without exception, the means of punishment were adopted. The law not only punishes political crimes that endanger the rule of kingship by means of harsh penalties, but also severely punishes criminal crimes that undermine state rule and disrupt social procedures. Rulers have learned from long-term practice that it is more beneficial to punish criminals and preserve their ability to work. Therefore, the reform of the criminal system has better adapted to the needs of the economic base and better maintained its rule. In Xia and Shang Dynasties, people's ability to understand nature was very limited, and at the same time, they just evolved from primitive barbarism. Maintaining the kingship became their primary purpose. At the same time, people's ignorance enabled the rulers to realize their plans under the guise of God's will. Although their punishment was very brutal and cruel, the rulers successfully demonstrated the rationality of their punishment in the name of heaven. At the same time, in view of the lessons of the previous dynasty, the rulers put forward the idea of "matching heaven with virtue" and "knowing the law and being cautious in punishment", emphasizing "lenient punishment" and combining enlightenment with punishment, which was reflected in the punishment, such as imprisonment and criminal detention in the name of "the system of cultivating soil" and "the system of cherishing stones", as well as redemption and exile. From the Qin Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, centralized rulers were more firmly established. Although the guiding ideology of the rulers in different dynasties was different, the economic development and social progress gradually promoted the rulers to make changes in punishment, replacing the cruel life punishment with strangulation and beheading, and replacing the brutal corporal punishment with shackles, sticks, prisoners and vagrants. The essence was that the rulers gradually adapted to the social and economic development and improved their civilization.

Second, in ancient society, the patriarchal system was highly centralized, and the rulers' power was unrestricted and unrestricted. Those in power often acted according to their own likes and dislikes, which made the punishment unstable and uncertain. Therefore, in the process of the development and change of punishment in ancient China, there are strong traces of man-made. The general trend is towards leniency, but there are also many repetitions. Since there was a state in ancient China, no matter in the era of unwritten legislation or written law, the types of punishment were clearly defined by law, but extrajudicial punishment was often increased at will. At the beginning of Sui Dynasty, the Law of Opening the Emperor and the Law of Great Undertakings were formulated, emphasizing lenient and slow usage. However, Emperor Yangdi did not act according to the law, and he "made stricter laws", and resumed torture, self-destruction of the legal system, and indiscriminate sexual punishment. Another example is that the law in the Tang Dynasty was the most prosperous period in ancient China, but the phenomenon of extra-legal punishment also emerged one after another. During the reign of Wu Zetian, cool ministers Zhou Xing, Suo Yuanli and Lai Junchen illegally used torture to destroy prisoners, and they "banned prisoners in dungeons, or filled them like urns, moxibustion them with fire, and deprived them of their food, until they had a glimpse of them." In the Ming dynasty, the emperor set up a factory health secret service, and the abuse of punishment was even more serious. There is no direct provision about literary inquisition in the Qing law, but all literary inquisitions are convicted according to rebellion and rebellion, which is the most serious crime and the most severe punishment. Therefore, under the ancient autocratic system, the emperor's behavior often reduced the law to a dead letter.

On the other hand, the actions of the more enlightened authorities will bring different consequences. According to historical records, the reason why Emperor Wen changed the punishment in the early Han Dynasty was that he was moved by Ti Ying's filial piety, so he wrote a letter saying: "Punishment is immoral until the limbs are broken and the skin is carved for life". This led to the reform of punishment in the early Han Dynasty.

therefore, under the guiding ideology of governing the country with benevolent people in ancient China, the promotion of the legal system obviously has its contingency, but on the other hand, such development and changes are also the inevitable result of social progress.

third, the reasons why the legal system changed from light to heavy in Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. From Qin and Han Dynasties to Sui and Tang Dynasties, the development trend of penalty system has been from complicated and cruel to simple and gentle. During this period, there was the reform of abolishing corporal punishment by Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the criminal system reform in the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the statutory five punishments by Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty. By the time of the Tang Dynasty, the legal system reached its peak, and its influence reached the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and spread to overseas countries. However, although the punishment in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties was made by the Tang Dynasty, it became more cruel and complicated than that in the previous dynasties, and corporal punishment was revived, and the execution methods of death penalty also increased. Historically, during the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, China's small-scale peasant economy continued to develop and declined, while the commodity economy gradually sprouted, and social contradictions became increasingly intensified. In order to maintain its rule, the rulers strengthened centralization and ruled the world with heavy codes, so the punishment was more cruel, which was also an important feature of the punishment in the later period of China ancient society, especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Its characteristic is to restrict commodity production and commerce.