What is the real intention of the misunderstood famous saying "the punishment is not on the doctor"?

"Not being punished as a doctor" means that aristocrats and officials should not be punished by criminal law, which is a misunderstanding. Its real intention is to reform the upper-class criminals and make the punishment more humanized in form. China's culture is extensive and profound, and its language history is very long. Some words are easy to cause ambiguity, and different authors may have different interpretations. However, some people in history like to take advantage of loopholes in writing. They use these loopholes to commit crimes, just like "not being punished as a doctor".

In fact, there is another explanation that "punishment is not enough for doctors", that is, for those royal aristocrats, etiquette should be used to educate them, standardize some of their words and deeds, and let them know etiquette and obey the law. It's not enough to be punished for making mistakes, but it's different for ordinary people. As long as they make mistakes, they must be punished. After all, how can the identity of ordinary people be compared with that of royal aristocrats? Therefore, it can also be seen that there are high and low levels of education in ancient times.

In ancient China, if a doctor broke the law, he didn't have to suffer with the common people. First of all, there must be a conviction, but that's just a formality, because they feel that although the doctor made a mistake, their status is noble and they can avoid their humiliation. Therefore, when they are punished, there is no need to make a big fight, but they can do it quietly behind the scenes, so they enjoy special authorization before the law.

But "not being punished as a doctor" doesn't mean that you don't have to be punished if you commit a crime. We can give some examples: for example, Shang Yang was dismembered by five horses and Li Si was beheaded. At the same time, we can see that the punishment in ancient times was severe.