Why Emperor Han Wendi Abolished the Meat Penalty and Replaced the Five Penalties of Slavery with the Five Feudal Penalties through the Story of Tiga's Rescue of Her Father in the Western Han Dynasty

The so-called "five punishments" do not only refer to the five fixed punishments, "five punishments" have different definitions in different periods of ancient China. "The five punishments were mainly divided into two categories: slavery and feudalism. In slavery, the five punishments were ink, wakes, amputations, palaces, and the big pavements. The five punishments of feudalism were flogging, caning, imprisonment, exile and death. The five punishments for slavery prevailed before Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, while the five punishments for feudalism prevailed after Sui and Tang Dynasty.

Chinese punishment began in the Xia Dynasty, and it wasn't until the Shang Dynasty that the "Five Punishments" developed into what we now call the "Five Punishments" of slavery, also known as corporal punishment. During the Shang Dynasty, the five punishments of ink, wakes, amputation of limbs, palaces, and the five punishments of the Great Pioneer were recorded in ancient documents and oracle bones, and were more commonly practiced during the Western Zhou Dynasty. At the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, corporal punishment was abolished and replaced by flogging and caning. Although to the end of the Han Dynasty, corporal punishment is not really abolished, but the traditional system of five punishments has begun to change, Wei, Jin, North and South Dynasties, there are constantly on the abolition and restoration of corporal punishment of the controversy, and the original five punishments were repeatedly changed. To the Sui and Tang dynasties, since the Shang Zhou ink, wakes, amputation of limbs, palace, the five-penalty system, finally for flogging, canes, prison, exile, death of the five-penalty system instead, until the Ming and Qing Dynasty along the unchanged.

Ink The penalty of applying ink to a criminal's face, behind the ears, on the neck, or on the arm after stabbing and carving is the lightest penalty. It was called tattooing in Qin during the Warring States period and was widely applied and combined with other punishments. When Emperor Wen of Han abolished corporal punishment, tattooing was abolished. It was used occasionally during the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, and was abolished again in the 14th year of Emperor Wu's reign in Liang (515). The Sui and Tang dynasties had no such system. In the Five Dynasties and Later Jin Dynasty, tattooing was reinstated, renamed stabbing, and used in conjunction with exile punishment, known as stabbing, which was used until the Qing Dynasty. The objects, parts and shapes of the tattoo varied from generation to generation. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the legal system reform, stabbing abolished.

Wakes cut off the nose of the punishment. It is heavier than the ink penalty and lighter than the amputation of limbs. It originated in Xia and was widely applied in the Zhou Dynasty. In the Warring States and Qin Dynasty, it was used in combination with other punishments. In the early Han Dynasty, wakes were also used. Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty removed corporal punishment and replaced wakeskate with flogging. But until the North and South Dynasties, wakes were still used occasionally. After the Sui Dynasty, wakes were not used in the penal code, but only in the early days of the Jin Dynasty, for those who committed serious crimes, they still had to cut off their noses or ears, so as to differentiate them from the general public.

Gotta amputate feet. Also known as amputation. It is heavier than wakes. Commonly used in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period. In the Xia Dynasty, it was also known as Bin punishment, changed to amputation punishment in the Zhou Dynasty, and was known as decapitation of the toes in the Qin Dynasty. It means chopping off the left foot, right foot or both feet.

Palace The punishment of cutting off the strength of men and secluding women. Beginning in the Xia Dynasty Miao Cang punishment, the Xia people inherited, Qin and Han Dynasty, also known as rot punishment, silk room punishment, Yin punishment. Men cut off the male genitals. Women's confinement, there are two ancient said. One is said to be confined to the palace, another is said to use a stick to hit the female chest and abdomen, so that the stomach and intestines sagging, suppression of the uterus into the vaginal tract, in order to hinder the intercourse. Palace punishment was initially used to punish the crime of prostitution, and later also applied to crimes such as rebellion and conspiracy, and extended to the children of the prisoners who were jointly sentenced. After the Qin Dynasty unified the six states, it was applied in large numbers. Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty abolished corporal punishment but not palace punishment. Emperor Jingdi of Han allowed the palace punishment to replace the death penalty. From the Han Dynasty to the North and South Dynasties, the Palace Penalty existed and was abolished from time to time, and was officially abolished in the early years of the Kaihuang Dynasty of the Sui Dynasty (581-600). Later, in the twelfth year of the reign of Emperor Muzhong of Liao (962), it was restored for a time, and there was no palace punishment in the laws of the following dynasties.

Da Pai, or death penalty. Its name and method of execution varied from generation to generation. In the pre-Qin period, there were cannon branding, disembowelment, minced meat, prostitutes, killing, beheading, burning, prostration, exhaustion, chariots, ku and so on. In the Warring States period and the Qin Dynasty, there were chiseling, wok cooking, drew the coercion, car cracking, bag pouncing, lording over the head, waist beheading, abandoning the market and so on. The early Han Dynasty was dominated by decapitation, abandonment of the market, lords. The Northern Wei Dynasty has chariots, waist beheading, death (severed head), abandoned the city four, later changed to lords, beheading, hanging three. Northern Qi, the Northern Zhou dynasty by inheritance does not change.

Hanging is the process of placing a bow around the neck of the condemned person, with the bowstring facing forward, and the executioner starting to rotate the bow behind him, the tighter the bow is rotated, the less breath the condemned person has, and finally the person's breath is finally cut off...

Car cracked that five horses, very simple, is to put the head and limbs of the tortured person on the rope, by five fast horses pulling in five directions to gallop, the people torn into six pieces. I remember that Shang Yang was subjected to the punishment of five horses.

Waist beheading Since waist beheading is to cut a person from the center.

Lynching Executed by two people, starting from the feet, a **** to be cut a thousand cuts, that is, a thousand slices of flesh to be cut off before the prisoner is allowed to break.

Sawing A man was cut to death with a hacksaw, which seemed to be on a par with lynching and skinning.

The five punishments continued into the Qin and Han dynasties with some changes. First, the ink penalty was changed to tattooing; second, although corporal punishment was still used alone, it was more often combined with labor penalties under the names of "ghost salary" and "white charm". Because corporal punishment seriously undermined productivity and was detrimental to the economic development of society as a whole, it was increasingly opposed by the people.

According to historical records, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty issued an edict in the thirteenth year of the first Yuan Dynasty, formally abolishing corporal punishment, thus making the brutal corporal punishment that had been carried out for more than 2,000 years during the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han Dynasties was finally abandoned, and promoting the Chinese legal system to get rid of barbarism, and embarking on the road of civilization, from which China's "Five Punishments" also started to the "Prudent Punishment". As a result, China's "five punishments" also began to change to "prudent punishment". The "five punishments" of the feudal system took shape.

The five punishments of the feudal system existed during the Han Dynasty, and were formally designated as legal penalties in the Sui and Tang dynasties.

Flogging is flogging, the original instrument of torture with small wattle twisted, to the Qing Dynasty is made of bamboo. Generally hit the buttocks. Flogging is divided into five grades: one ten, twenty, thirty, forty and fifty.

The cane, twisted from thick thorns and made legal by the Sui Dynasty, is divided into five grades: sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety and one hundred. The striking parts were the back, buttocks and legs. It was the same in the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties as in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and was abolished in the late Qing dynasty when the law was reformed.

Aprisoner, the penalty of forced labor for prisoners. There are five grades: one year, one and a half years, two years, two and a half years, and three years. In the Tang Dynasty, no caning was attached, while in the Song Dynasty, the spinal cane was added.

Streaming, that is, the prisoner exiled to remote areas, not allowed to return home. In the Sui Dynasty, there were three levels of exile: 1,000 li, 1,500 li, and 2,000 li, with two, two-and-a-half, and three years of hard labor, respectively. The Tang Dynasty added 1,000 li to each, but the length of the labor service was reduced to one year.

Death, after the Sui and Tang dynasties, the death penalty was generally two kinds: hanging and beheading. The Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties added lynching. The Ming and Qing added lording it over the head. The Five Dynasties and the Song dynasty largely followed the Sui law, in addition, there is not contained in the book of the law of the lingchi (i.e., split the prisoner's limbs). The beginning of the Liao Dynasty, there are also cast cliffs, shooting ghost arrows, five car chariots, raw Dizhi (buried alive), cannon throwing and so on. The Jin Dynasty had a blow to the brain. The torture instrument is a kind of shape like pumpkin hammer or copper hammer, the so-called "golden melon hit the top" refers to this kind of copper hammer to hit the head of the punishment. In addition, there are also extrajudicial torture, such as beating, skinning, cooking.

The Ming and Qing Dynasties saw a new development in punishment, characterized by more brutal punishment and a large number of resurrected corporal punishment. The changes in punishment during the Ming and Qing dynasties were:

1. Capital punishment. The Ming and Qing dynasties legally resumed the punishment of lording it over the people, and the scope was gradually expanded. In addition, the Ming and Qing dynasties, the execution of the death penalty there are some more brutal way, such as "skinning grass", "extermination of ten clans", killing corpses and so on. The Qing Dynasty also had a unique system for the death penalty, that is, the system of decapitation and imprisonment.

2, military punishment. The "charging army" was created in the Ming Dynasty, but it was not the original offense of charging the army. The Qing Dynasty, the army as an aggravating circumstance of the crime of exile, and to the army as the crime. Moreover, the number of entries in the charge of military service was also increased compared with that of the Ming Dynasty.

3. Sentenced to deportation, this is a heavier penalty than military confinement. In the Ming Dynasty, it was limited to officers and soldiers, and they were never allowed to return to their place of origin. In the Qing Dynasty, it included civil and military officials who had committed crimes above the level of imprisonment, and there was also an opportunity to be released.

4, the yoke, is the first Ming Dynasty shame penalty. In the Ming Dynasty also turned into a deadly torture. In the Qing Dynasty, this method was used for some ethical and moral crimes