peel

When peeling, cut the back skin in half with a knife, slowly separate the skin from the muscle with a knife, and tear it like a butterfly spreading its wings ... The hardest thing is the fat man, because there is still a pile of oil between the skin and the muscle, which is not easy to separate.

There is also a stripping method, I don't know how credible it is. The method is to bury people in the soil, exposing only one head, making a cross on the top of the head with a knife, pulling the scalp away and filling it with silver. Because of the heavy proportion of mercury, muscles will be pulled away from the skin, and people buried in the soil will writhe painfully and cannot break free. Finally, the body will jump out of the mouth, leaving only a skin in the soil. ...

After peeling off the skin, make two drums and hang them at the entrance of the yamen as a warning. The earliest skinning was after death, and later it developed to live skinning.

execute sb by cutting him in two at the waist

Because the waist chop is to chop people from the middle, and the main organ is in the upper body, the prisoner will not die at once, but will be sober after the chop, and it will take a long time to die.

Ming Chengzu cut his waist and killed Fang Xiaoru. It is said that after a knife, Fang Xiaoru crawled on his elbow, his hands were covered with blood, and he even wrote the word "usurp". I wrote it twelve and a half times before I died.

Automobile crack

That is, dismembering the victim is very simple, that is, putting a rope around the victim's head and limbs, pulling him in five directions with five fast horses and tearing him into six pieces. I remember Shang Yang was dismembered by five horses.

It takes a lot of effort to cut off a person's head and limbs, not to mention pulling them. The pain of the prisoner can be imagined. Speaking of tearing, I'm afraid the victim won't feel pain any more. The pain is when you are pulling.

All five punishments

Beheading, gouging out eyes, chopping hands, gouging out eyes, and cutting ears into one, that is, "cutting eight pieces", is generally to cut off a person's head, hands and feet after killing him, and then cut his trunk into three sections.

After the death of Emperor Gaozu, Lv Hou caught his favorite concubine, Lady Ruyi, chopped off her hands and feet, cut off her nose, ears and tongue, gouged out her eyes and fed them in a pigsty. As a result, Lv Hou's own son was scared to death. ...

Lingchi

The earliest way is to kill people and then chop them into meat paste, which is called "qi" People who were punished by this kind of punishment remembered Boycott, the eldest son of Luz and Zhou Wenwang.

Later, it was developed more carefully, with the aim of making prisoners suffer the greatest pain. Therefore, not only should the prisoner be punished when he is alive, but also how many knives he has to suffer before he dies.

It is said that at the end of each year, two people perform, starting with their feet, and a * * * cuts a thousand knives, that is, cuts a thousand pieces of meat, before the prisoner can die. It is said that if the prisoner dies before cutting a thousand knives, the executor will also be punished. The art of developing into the death penalty

The most famous person who was punished in this way was Liu Jin, the great eunuch. I heard it took him three days to die. ...

The worst is the famous anti-Qing star Yuan Chonghuan in the late Ming Dynasty. Because Emperor Chongzhen was tricked into collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country, he was sentenced to death that year. Before the execution, he wrapped himself in a fishing net (to make his muscles stand out under the knife) and paraded in the street. He was rushed forward by ignorant people in Beijing and bit off his meat piece by piece ... I'm afraid the psychological pain is far higher than the physical pain.

This is one of the official punishments in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

call out

Hanging is a common punishment abroad.

In China, hanging is carried out with a bowstring ... that is, the bow is put around the prisoner's neck, the bowstring faces forward, and the executioner starts to spin the bow at the back. The tighter the bow turned, the less angry the prisoner became and finally died. ...

That's how Yue Fei and his son died in the Fengbo Pavilion (because he was a hero, he couldn't be beheaded, so he had to get away with it), and so did Wang Gui, who was exiled in the late Ming Dynasty. He was strangled by Wu Sangui himself. ...

Cook

That is, "please enter the urn." It was the Tang Dynasty. When Wu Zetian was emperor, there was a cruel official named Lai Junchen in the DPRK, who advocated severe punishment and severe punishment, and often tortured prisoners who refused to confess. The solution is to find a big urn, put people in it, and then heat it with firewood below. The temperature is getting higher and higher, and the prisoners are getting more and more unbearable. If they refuse to confess, they are often burned in an urn ... Later, when Wu Zetian heard about it, she called Lai Junchen and asked him what to do if the prisoner refused to confess. Lai Junchen proudly said this method, and Wu Zetian simply said, "Then please go to the urn" and burn Lai Junchen to death. ...

castration (as a punishment)

Sima Qian didn't write the Historical Records until he was in prison, and he also wrote the sentence "I am a boudoir minister" in the Letter to Ren. China's castration is exquisite. First, tie up the little brother with a rope (including the child's bag), let the blood not circulate and die naturally, and then cut it off with a sharp knife (all! Not just a little brother). After cutting, cover it with incense ash to stop bleeding, and put a goose feather in the urethra. In a few days, take off the goose feathers. If you can pee, castration will be successful. If you can't urinate, even if that person is useless, he is likely to die of uremia in the end. So if you want to castrate the eunuch, you'd better castrate him while he is still young, and it will be much more dangerous when he is old.

This punishment is often offset by the death penalty of the nobles. Relatively women are claustrophobic.

Chisel punishment

There are different opinions about the punishment of strangulation. Some people say that it is to cut off all below the knee, while others say that it is to cut off the kneecap. The latter is more credible. In short, strangulation is a kind of torture similar to amputation.

During the Warring States Period, Sun Bin was framed by his brother and fined. I heard that his original name was Sun Bin, but he was changed to Sun Bin after being punished.

If the kneecap is cut off and there is no protection between the thigh and calf, the person may not even stand up. Therefore, according to unofficial history's records, after Sun Bin was punished, he couldn't even ride a horse on the battlefield, so he had to take a bus (carriage or rickshaw).

Inserting needle

Stick a needle in your fingernail. Often used for female prisoners.

Be buried alive

Burying alive is a common means in war. Because it's labor-saving and fast.

All prisoners of war buried alive in the war were told to dig their own holes. Sometimes the prisoners are killed first and then pushed down, but when time is not enough (or bullets need to be saved), they are pushed down directly and covered in the back. Torture in China has existed since ancient times. But I haven't heard of any celebrity who has been punished like this. Even more ruthless, people will be buried upright in the soil, only one head will be exposed, and then abuse will begin. ..

Silver poison

Poisoning may be the only more humane form of torture. ....

Among the ancient poisons in China, the most famous poison should be "pigeon", from which the idiom "Drink pigeon to quench thirst" comes.

Often used in situations of death.

Stick punishment

That is, stake punishment. What I'm talking about here is stick punishment, not hitting people with sticks. The stick punishment mentioned here is to take a stick and insert it directly into a person's mouth or anus. The whole stick sank into the stomach, which made people die miserably.

There is no record of this kind of punishment in the official history, but it is mentioned in Jin Yong's novel "Chivalrous Man", and he nicknamed this kind of torture "Laughter".

saw

Saw a person alive with an iron saw, and its horror seems to be equivalent to year-end and peeling. No wonder there is torture of sawing people alive in hell torture. However, people who see life and death not only exist in the legendary hell, but also exist in the world. According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, during the Three Kingdoms period, the concubine of Sun Hao, the emperor of the State of Wu, ordered his attendants to rob people of their property in the market. Chen Sheng, the corps commander in charge of fair trade, is a favorite of Sun Hao. He caught the robbers and brought them to justice. My concubine told Sun Hao that Sun Hao was furious, arrested Cynthia on the pretext of other incidents, sawed off Cynthia's head with a red-hot saw and threw his body under the stage.

Spinal fracture

When a person hates another person, he often thinks of breaking his spine. Breaking the spine is really a Japanese behavior, because if a person's spine is broken, he will die. In the history of China, spinal fracture is also a very important torture. According to the story. There are clear rewards and punishments. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Ji Chonger planned to make the criminal law explicit so that all the people in China would abide by the law, so he consulted with the doctors. Dian Jie, the famous minister of Ji Chonger, arrived late. Some people think that Dianjie is guilty and should be punished. Therefore, Ji Chonger approved the execution of the broken vertebra. The scholar-officials in the state of Jin were very afraid. They said: "Chu Jian went into exile with Ji Chonger in other countries 19 years, and made great contributions. Now we are punished so severely occasionally, not to mention us. "From then on, everyone was afraid of punishment and obeyed the law.

Lead irrigation

In the Buddhist story about Yamaraja, Yamaraja said that Bai Xiang was the Lord of hell, and there were orders from hundreds of officials and beautiful women around him. In the dark period, that is, two hours a day, I was subjected to copper enema. Similarly, human beings are tortured by pouring tin or lead. The melting point of tin is 232 degrees Celsius and that of lead is 327.4 degrees Celsius. Whether tin or lead is poured, people can be burned to death. Moreover, molten tin or lead will solidify into lumps as soon as it enters the stomach, and the falling force of this heavy metal can also cause death.

Yangcheng, the queen of Liu Qu, the king of Changchuan in Han Dynasty, was jealous and overbearing. Liu Qu dotes on another Maggie named Rong Ai and drinks with her many times. She was so jealous that she said to Liu Qu, "Rong Ai looks at people a little abnormal, probably because she is having an affair with someone." Liu Quxin believed it. Seeing Rong Ai embroidering the pattern on the collar, she grabbed the clothes in a rage and threw them into the fire to burn. Rong Ai was very scared to see Liu Qu angry. She threw herself into the well. Liu Qu ordered someone to fish her out, but unfortunately she didn't die. Liu Quzhang blamed Rong Ai. \ * \ * She confessed the affair and Rong Ai was punished. However, she just said that she had an affair with the doctor. Liu Qu became more and more angry, so she tied Rong Ai to a post, gouged out her eyes with a red-hot sharp knife, cut off the meat on her thighs, and finally poured molten lead into her mouth, thus destroying Rong Ai.

Comb washing

The grooming mentioned here is not a woman's grooming, but an extremely cruel punishment. It refers to scraping off a person's meat with an iron brush until the meat is gone and finally he dies. The real inventor of the punishment of grooming is Zhu Yuanzhang. According to Shen Wen's "Politics of the Sages", when the punishment of persuasion was carried out, the executioner stripped the prisoner naked, put him naked on the iron bed, poured boiling water on him several times, and then brushed off his flesh with an iron brush. It's like folk killing pigs after scalding with boiling water until the skin is brushed and the bones are exposed, and the punished person dies before it's over. The punishment of modification has the same effect as the punishment of 2008. According to "Biography of Huan in the Old Tang Dynasty", Wu Sansi once sent Zhou Lizhen to catch Huan, dragged him around on a bamboo raft, and then killed him with a stick.

From the perspective of world history, the development and evolution of China's traditional culture has its obvious characteristics, which is that the development process of China's traditional civilization has never been interrupted. 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 with criminal law and punishment as the core 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 a primitive and simple habit to a rigorous and philosophical model. The legal changes in China's history essentially represent and reflect the Chinese nation's thinking on fundamental issues such as society, life and interpersonal relationship, and concentrate and highlight the basic values of the Chinese nation. Therefore, as an important part of the ancient legal system, the development and change of punishment 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 have different measures at the same time. However, the general development trend is from primitive barbarism and backwardness to civilization and cautious punishment.

First, the development and changes of ancient punishment in China.

During the reign of Shun Yu in primitive society, many habits of punishment were confirmed. Shangshu Shun Dian contains: "Like being punished by Canon, five penalties are lost. Whip is the official punishment, jump is the teaching punishment, and gold is the redemption punishment. If disasters are forgiven, thieves will be punished. Qin zai! Qin zai! Only punishment is merciful. " At that time, the punishment habit was to punish bribery (Mexican) and looting (unconscious) together, which reflected that the society at that time had attached importance to the rectification and management of administrative personnel and severely punished dereliction of duty and corruption.

Shangshu The criminal law at the end of primitive society was explained in Lv Xing: "The Miao people used the spirit, but the punishment was made, and they were pregnant with the punishment of king abuse", and "he began to commit adultery because of" embarrassment, embarrassment ". According to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty. "Criminal Law Annals" said: "(Yu) committed corporal punishment with virtue. "

In the Xia Dynasty, the five major punishment systems of Mo, Mo, Mo, Gong and Da Bi were gradually established.

The criminal law of Shang Dynasty was harsh. Pan Geng stipulated that "if I am unlucky, the more disrespectful I will be, and I will be raped and ruined". In addition to beheading, there are other means of execution and killing, such as chopping, embalming, burning, cutting my heart and picking.

In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the imprisonment penalty, detention penalty and other systems were formed in the name of borrowing soil system and military system, as well as the redemption penalty and exile system as a supplement to the five punishments. This period is 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, he used the punishment of car splitting. This period is the transition stage from slavery punishment to feudal punishment.

There have been new changes in the punishments of the State of Qin, which mainly include eight categories: slap, stick, apprentice, exile, physical punishment, death, humiliation, financial aid and collective punishment. 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 Han Dynasty. In the thirteenth year of Emperor Wendi, corporal punishment was abolished and the penalty system was reformed. Specifically: whoever is finished will be finished as a city; When it is awkward, the pliers are Cheng Danchun; When you become a monk, you will be 300; If the left toe is cut off, it will cost 500 yuan, and if the right toe is cut off, it will be discarded. This changed the original "five punishments" system. But there are also problems: 1, cutting off the right toe and abandoning the city, expanding the scope of death penalty; Second, whipping instead of whipping and cutting off the toes of the left foot led to "more deaths" among prisoners. Later, Emperor Han Jing issued another imperial edict, reducing the number of imperial edicts twice. For the first time, the imperial edict was reduced from 500 to 300 and from 300 to 200. The second time it was reduced from 300 to 200, and then from 200 to 100. After the reform, in addition to the death penalty, there are flogging, but the castration remains 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 to replace the abandonment of the city, and it was the lighter one when Emperor Wen came back. At this point, the palace appeared in the Han Dynasty and the right toe was cut off.

Regarding imprisonment, the Qin system was adopted in the early Han Dynasty. But there is a clear saying 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 wages are white, three years old; Scooter and Zuo Rukou were both sentenced to two years old, while both men and women were sentenced to one year to three months. In addition, there was another kind of "lonely mountain" in the Han Dynasty, which was only used for female prisoners, so it was also called "lonely mountain as a female disciple".

In addition, the Han Dynasty still used the penalties of fines and border migration from the Qin Dynasty and before. In addition, there is imprisonment, which is a policy that prohibits officials from forming gangs and prohibiting officials and their relatives from being officials for life.

Compared with the previous generation, the penalty system in the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties changed greatly, and the overall change of penalty showed the characteristics of gradual leniency. The penalty method of "peeling and amputation" gradually decreased and transitioned to the new feudal five-penalty system. Mainly reflected in: 1, abolishing the castration system. In the 13th year of Datong (AD 547), castration was forbidden in the Northern Dynasties and the Western Wei Dynasty: "Those who should be castrated from now on will not be punished without official." In the fifth year of Tiantong (AD 569), the Northern Qi Dynasty also issued a decree to abolish castration: "Those who should be imprisoned are generally exempted from being officials." 2, the provisions of the whip and rod punishment. This kind of punishment 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 commutation of 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 classified as five classes, with each class being 500 Li, and the capital city being 2,500 Li and 4,500 Li, plus flogging. 4. The range of sitting on the edge has changed, mainly reflected in the change of women sitting on the edge. The general trend is to narrow the scope, but it has expanded in judicial practice. Throughout the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the scope of sitting on the side was also repeated. "Liang Law" is a precedent for exempting women from the death penalty.

Huang Kai Law of Sui Dynasty deleted many severe punishments. Abolish many cruel life imprisonment, and make the death penalty legal as strangulation and beheading. Exile and flogging have been revised. Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty clearly put forward: "Strangulation and beheading are very good, and eliminating evil is extremely good." Abolished all flogging of "beheading" and "skinning" and established the feudal five-punishment system.

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, the applicable penalty is lighter; The law of the Tang Dynasty was regarded as a model in the punishment of "balance between ancient and modern" in ancient China.

The Song Dynasty created some new penalty systems. 1, stabbing. Song Taizu has set up the method of stabbing and matching for the crime of leniency and miscellaneous loans, which is a substitute for the death penalty. But later it became one of the commonly used punishments. 2. Ling Chi was punished. In the Song Dynasty, the extrajudicial punishment of the Five Dynasties was regarded as the statutory punishment, which was originally applied to the crime of witchcraft killing and offering sacrifices to ghosts in Jinghu. But then the scope of application became wider and wider. 3. Folding rod method. Song Taizu invented the method of folding sticks instead of severe punishment. However, due to the shortcomings, that is, "it is a lifelong shame for a good citizen to occasionally take risks and cause injuries to his limbs;" Foolish people, although they are in pain for a while, have no shame. " Therefore, in Hui Zong, the number of punishments for crimes with no more than one act has been adjusted again to reduce the harm to minor criminals.

In the early Yuan Dynasty, it was customary law. Genghis Khan was punished by beheading, exile, beating stripes, etc., and then gradually transitioned to the five-punishment system of the Han Dynasty, which was finally implemented. However, his death sentence was not hanged, and the death penalty was statutory.

The Yuan Dynasty still retained many customary laws, including many corporal punishments. Generally speaking, the crime of theft, in addition to breaking the original sin, "stabbed his left arm for the first time, stabbed his right arm for the second time, and stabbed his neck for the third time." Only Mongols are exempt from this punishment. "A robber will stab his neck for the first time." In order to protect the privileges of monks, Yuan Law stipulated that "those who beat Xifan monks cut off their hands and those who scold Xifan monks cut off their tongues".

There was a police interrogation system in Yuan Dynasty. After serving the sentence, the robbers paid the "police tracker" of their origin. Set up a red mud wall at the door of the house with the name written on it. The reason for the crime is supervised by the neighbors and the government every six months. Disqualification for not committing a crime for five years, and life detention for committing a crime again.

The punishment in Ming and Qing Dynasties had new development and changes, which showed that the punishment was more cruel and the corporal punishment was revived in large numbers. The changes of punishment in Ming and Qing Dynasties are as follows:

1, death penalty. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the punishment of decapitation was restored in law, and its scope was gradually expanded. In addition, there were some more cruel execution methods in Ming and Qing dynasties, such as "stripping grass", "destroying ten families" and slaughtering corpses. The Qing dynasty also had a unique system against the death penalty, that is, the system of beheading and awaiting trial.

2, banishment. "Demoted army" was created in Ming Dynasty, but it was not a crime based on demoted army. In the Qing Dynasty, exile was regarded as an aggravated punishment for the crime of exile, and exile was the main punishment. Moreover, the number of exiled articles has also increased compared with that of the Ming Dynasty.

3. Send punishment, which is heavier than banishment. Only officers and men were allowed in the Ming Dynasty, and they were never allowed to return to their original places. In the Qing dynasty, all officials who committed crimes above were included and could be released.

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

There was also a court aide system in the Ming Dynasty. Refers to the extrajudicial punishment of directly flogging ministers who do not obey the imperial edict 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.

First, the development of social economy, the progress of human civilization and the constant change of the guiding ideology of those in power have led to the development and change of punishment. Legal system is an important part of 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 such as politics, economy, culture, customs and traditions at that time. In primitive society, there was no country, no law, low productivity and low human ability to understand nature. The primitive habits at that time 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 productive forces, private ownership became dominant. A considerable number of customary laws have gradually emerged. With the further development of economy and people's further understanding of the material world, the penalty system is gradually improved and its purpose is more clear, protecting private property, protecting personal rights and maintaining political rule. Since the establishment of the first slave country in Xia Dynasty, ancient China 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 distinctive 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 disregard for human life and arbitrariness of punishment.

From pure homomorphic revenge to slavery punishment in Xia and Shang dynasties, and even 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 clan system, and the king or emperor is the master of the country, so-called home. "Pu day, murphy king soil. Territory, is it a king? " Therefore, the law also embodies the basic guiding ideology of safeguarding kingship. Advocate criminal law and attach importance to punishment. So that in ancient China, no matter civil, administrative and criminal sanctions, without exception, criminal means were adopted. The law not only punishes political crimes that endanger the rule of kingship with severe punishment, but also severely punishes criminal crimes that undermine the rule of the state and disrupt social procedures. Rulers realize from long-term practice that it is more beneficial for them to punish criminals and preserve their labor ability. Therefore, the reform of the criminal system has better adapted to the needs of the economic base and better safeguarded its rule. In Xia and Shang dynasties, people's ability to understand nature was very limited, and it just evolved from primitive barbarism. Maintaining kingship has become their primary purpose. At the same time, people's ignorance enables rulers to realize their plans under the guise of God's will. Although their punishment was very brutal and cruel, the rulers successfully proved the rationality of their punishment in the name of heaven. At the same time, in view of the lessons of the previous dynasties, the rulers put forward the ideas of "matching heaven with morality" and "knowing the law and being cautious about punishment", emphasizing "lenient punishment", combining education with punishment, which is reflected in punishment, such as imprisonment, criminal detention, redemption and exile in the name of "farming the soil" and "cherishing the stone". From the Qin Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, centralized rulers became more stable. Although the guiding ideology of rulers in different dynasties was different, economic development and social progress gradually prompted rulers to make changes in punishment, replacing cruel life imprisonment with strangulation and beheading, and replacing cruel corporal punishment with shackles, sticks, prisoners and vagrants. Its essence is that the rulers gradually adapt to the development of social economy and improve their civilization.

Second, in ancient society, the patriarchal clan system was highly centralized, and the power of rulers was unrestricted and unconstrained. People in power often act according to their own likes and dislikes, which makes punishment unstable and uncertain. Therefore, in the course of the development and change of ancient punishment in China, there are strong man-made traces. The general trend is towards leniency, but there are also many repetitions. Since China had its own country in ancient times, no matter in the unwritten legislation era or the written law era, the types of punishment were clearly stipulated by law, but the extra-legal punishment was often increased at will. At the beginning of Sui Dynasty, the Law of Opening the Emperor and the Law of Great Cause were formulated, emphasizing leniency and slow use. However, Emperor Yang Di did not act according to the law. He "made stricter laws" and restored torture, self-destruction of the legal system, and indiscriminate sexual punishment. For another example, the law of 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 kill prisoners. They "banned prisoners in dungeons, or filled them like jars, and used fire moxibustion to deprive them of food until they got a glimpse." The Ming emperor set up a factory health secret service, and the torture was more serious. There is no direct provision about literary inquisition in the Qing Law, but all literary inquisitions are convicted according to 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 more enlightened authorities will bring different consequences. According to historical records, the reason why Emperor Wen changed his punishment in the early Han Dynasty was because he was moved by his filial piety, so he wrote a letter saying, "Punishment is immoral until the limbs are cut off 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 change is also the inevitable result of social progress.

Third, the reasons for the change of legal system 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 was from complex and cruel to simple and gentle. During this period, there was the abolition of corporal punishment by Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the reform of the penalty system in the Three Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the statutory five punishments by Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, the legal system reached its peak, and its influence reached the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and spread abroad. However, although the punishment in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties was formulated in the Tang Dynasty, it was more cruel and complicated than the previous dynasty, with the resurgence of corporal punishment and the increase of execution methods of the death penalty. Historically, during the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the small-scale peasant economy in China continued to develop and decline, the commodity economy gradually sprouted, and social contradictions intensified. Rulers in order to maintain their rule, strengthen centralization, and rule the world with severe punishment, so the punishment is even more cruel, which is also an important feature of punishment in the late period of ancient China society, especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Its characteristic is that it restricts the development of commodity production and commodity economy. Under the condition that the seeds of capitalism have been born, we still adhere to the tradition of emphasizing agriculture and restraining commerce, and implement "sealing the sea", which delays the formation and development of capitalist relations of production. There were a lot of extrajudicial torture in the Ming Dynasty, but in the complicated period of China's ancient modernization, the Qing Dynasty imposed unprecedented severe punishment on political thought. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, China's advanced thoughts in ancient times were prevented from further development by vigorously establishing literary inquisition and severely punishing ideological heresy. This is also the embodiment of China ancient society's consistent ignorant policy.

The concept of severe punishment in Ming and Qing dynasties was closely related to the socio-economic development and the complexity of social contradictions at that time. When the ancient society developed to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the feudal system had ended and new relations of production were taking shape. This new production relationship is bound to threaten the vital interests of the feudal ruling group. Therefore, in order to maintain the political autocratic rule, the rulers will inevitably muzzle the thoughts and public opinions of the broad masses of people, and even use cruel punishment to curb the rise of free ideas.

Four, the change and development of punishment is closely related to the current situation of specific social development. In different stages of China's ancient social development, or in different periods of the same stage, the social development levels of politics, economy and culture are different, so different characteristics will be formed in different periods of social development. As an important part of the law, punishment certainly has different development and changes. The criminal policy of "punishment is lighter than the world" has also been fully reflected. Since Xia and Shang Dynasties, rulers of all dynasties have gradually accumulated rich experience in using punishment in the process of ruling society, and by the Western Zhou Dynasty, the theory of "punishment is lighter than the world" was formed. Shangshu Lu Xing said, "There is a right punishment, and the punishment is light and heavy." "The new country punishes the light code, the country punishes the middle code, and the country punishes the heavy code." This thought was gradually integrated into China's traditional political theory. The development and change of penalty actually reflects the application of this theory in the practice of governing the country. During the Warring States period, the world was in chaos, and when the emerging landlord class made laws, it particularly emphasized heavy punishment and severe punishment. The social and economic development in the Tang Dynasty was relatively rapid, and the national strength was obviously enhanced. Therefore, during this period, the strategy of "punishing the country and using the Chinese Code" was pursued, which was reflected in the punishment, and the change was lenient and moderate, simple and easy to understand. Therefore, the society was more stable and the economy was more prosperous, making the Tang Empire the political, economic and cultural center of Asia at that time. During the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, all the rulers seized the world in troubled times and disputes among heroes, and they all thought that they were in troubled times, emphasizing the use of heavy codes to deal with troubled times. Therefore, the punishment in this period, which was against the policy of light punishment and moderate punishment since Sui and Tang Dynasties, introduced punishment into the period of severe punishment and severe law, and went back. However, severe punishment and harsh laws did not bring long-term stability to the rulers, nor did they prescribe a good prescription for governing the country. Cruel repression accelerated the demise of this dynasty.