Torture in Shang Dynasty-hitting the top of the melon, beating it, burning it, making a pot (snake pit), beating it, preserving it, sitting on a precious stone, decocting it, dripping it (dripping water), gouging out the eyes, gouging out the heart (digging out the heart) and so on.
Torture in the Qing Dynasty-peeling, cutting off the waist, cracking the car, all five punishments, in the middle of the year, bowing the head, cooking, castration, torture, inserting needles, burying alive, poisoning, clubbing, sawing, cutting off the vertebrae, pouring lead, playing the pipa, pumping intestines, riding a wooden donkey, etc.
Folk torture-soaking in pig cages, pinching fingers, kidnapping, burning at the stake, Hong Xiuxie, etc.
put to death by dismembering the body
Among all kinds of cruel punishments in ancient China, the most inhuman one is the year in. Lingchi, originally written as "Lingchi", originally meant the slow slope of the hill. Xunzi said: "Three feet on the shore, but an empty car can't be boarded." A mountain of mountains, let the negative car climb. What is it? Ling is late. " It means that the car can't pull up on a three-foot steep slope, but the car can pull up to the top of the mountain because of the gentle slope. Later generations used Lingchi as the name of punishment, only taking its slow meaning, that is to say, putting people to death at a very slow speed. To reflect this "slow" intention, it is to cut the flesh of a person one knife at a time, until the meat is almost cut off, and then the head is cut off by laparotomy, so that the prisoner is killed. Therefore, the so-called "thousands of pieces" refers to the year.
The punishment of Ling Chi lasted until the end of Qing Dynasty. After the Reform Movement of 1898, the Qing court was impacted by various internal and external contradictions, and had to follow the trend and make some reforms on the traditional malpractice. In the 31st year of Guangxu (1905), Shen Jiaben, the Minister of Law, was asked to delete the severe punishments such as Ling Chi, and the Qing court allowed it to be played, and ordered the laws such as Ling Chi, the beheading and the corpse slaughter to be "deleted forever, and all laws were changed". From then on, the inhuman torture in the year disappeared from the code and was replaced by beheading.
execute sb by cutting him in two at the waist
Because the waist chop is to cut people from the middle, and the main organs are 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.
tear a person apart by five chariots
When writing about someone's tragic death in Ming and Qing novels, they like to use such a cliche: Discipline him to "die worse than Li Cunxiao in History of the Five Dynasties and Peng Yue in Hanshu." Li Cunxiao, formerly known as An Jingsi, was the adopted son of Li Keyong, the king of Jin Dynasty in the late Tang Dynasty. He was forced to rebel because of Li Cunxin's slander. Li Keyong captured him and took him to Taiyuan, where the car split in the city. Peng Yue was a hero of the founding of the early Han Dynasty. Liu Bang adopted Lv Hou's opinion and executed him for treason, and destroyed his clan 1. When it comes to the punishment of car splitting, it makes people turn pale, which shows that this is an extremely cruel punishment in ancient times.
The so-called car crack is to tie a person's head and limbs to five cars respectively, put on horses and pull them in different directions, thus tearing the person's body into five pieces, so it is called car crack. Sometimes, when this kind of punishment is executed, five cows or horses are used directly instead of cars, so the car crack is commonly known as five cows dismembered or five horses dismembered.
behead
Decapitation was one of the means of executing the death penalty in ancient times. In the pre-Qin period, there were various names of death penalty, such as splitting the car, beheading and killing, but beheading at that time was not beheading, but cutting the waist. During the execution, the prisoner's body fell on the "body" and the executioner cut off his waist with a huge axe (see "Waist Cutting" in this book). Therefore, the word "chop" uses "che" as the radical, which means the same meaning as che Cha to put people to death, and the radical is "Jin", that is, the Jin of an axe, which means that an axe is used instead of a knife when executing. Before Qin dynasty, some people put the beheading to death, which was called "killing". After the Qin Dynasty, "beheading" was gradually extended to killing in a broad sense, and the punishment of decapitation was called decapitation.
The place of beheading, like other executions, is usually in the city. Most of them have been since the Spring and Autumn Period. Anyone who beheads a prince or a famous scholar-bureaucrat will be outside the Chaomen, such as the Wuchaomen in Bianjing (now Kaifeng) in the Northern Song Dynasty and the Wumen in Beijing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Any beheading of ordinary death row inmates is carried out in the market, which is the meaning of "punishing people in the city, rejuvenating the public and abandoning them" in the Book of Rites. For a city, the place of execution is sometimes fixed and sometimes not fixed. In the Qing Dynasty, people were killed in Beijing, often at the food market. According to legend, in the Qing Dynasty, people in Suzhou were often executed in busy streets at dawn. When citizens know that they want to kill people in this street, they all pay the executioner in advance. If anyone doesn't pay or pays less, the executioner intends to execute in front of his shop, and the family will feel very unlucky.
In Bao Gong's stories described in novels and operas, Bao Gong executed the sinner with a tiger's head copper shovel, and when he executed it, the sinner was placed flat under the open shovel mouth, and the shovel was divided into two sections from the waist. For example, Bao Gong killed four grandfathers in Chenzhou, Xu Chen Shimei in Kaifeng, and later his nephew Bao Mian. Of course, these stories are only compiled according to legends, and the facts are not tested. However, this practice of killing people has existed since ancient times, that is, one of the execution methods of the ancient death penalty-waist cutting.
peel
Peeling, this two word is creepy, and its cruelty is no less than the year. This kind of punishment is not included in the official death penalty. But it has indeed been used many times in history and is recorded in historical books. When peeling, cut the back skin in half with a knife, slowly separate the skin from the muscles with a knife, and tear it apart like a butterfly spreading its wings. The most difficult thing is the fat man, because there is still a pile of fat between the skin and the muscles, 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, cutting a cross on the top of the head with a knife, pulling the scalp away, and pouring silver into it. Because of the heavy proportion of mercury, it will pull the muscles away from the skin, and people buried in the soil will keep writhing in pain, but they can't break free. Finally, the body will climb out of the top of the head "naked", leaving only a piece of skin in the soil ... After peeling off the skin, it will be made into two drums and hung at the entrance of the yamen as a warning. The earliest peeling was after death, and later it developed into live peeling.
hot bronze pillar torture
At the end of Shang Dynasty, Zhou Wang's favorite concubine, da ji, was vicious and grumpy, and seldom laughed. Zhou Wang tried many ways to please her, but da ji seldom had a smile on his face. One day, Zhou Wang saw an ant climb to the hot copper bucket. The tiny ant feet were burnt, so he couldn't continue crawling. He just rolled and struggled there, which made him feel very interesting. He thought that if people were burnt by fire, the miserable and struggling appearance would certainly look better. So, Zhou Wang let people make squares out of copper, simmer coals under them, burn the copper squares red, and let the guilty prisoners walk barefoot on them. The prisoners screamed with pain, and some people fell off the squares and fell into the fire and were burned to death. Da ji grinned with joy when he saw this scene. Zhou Wang was overjoyed. Later, he often branded people with copper plaids to make da ji laugh. Many people were branded or killed.
In the Romance of the Gods, da ji was transformed by a thousand-year-old fox, who entered the palace to confuse Zhou Wang and even led to the demise of the Shang Dynasty.
castration (as a punishment)
In ancient China, the origin of castration is quite long. There is evidence that there was the consciousness and behavior of castrating male genitalia at the latest in the Yin and Shang Dynasties. At that time, castration may have cut off the penis and testicles at the same time. The castration technology in Qin and Han Dynasties was relatively complete, and the nursing measures such as windproof, warmth and rest after castration were noticed. At that time, the place where castration was performed was called the "Silkworm Room", and Yan Shigu in The Biography of Han * Zhang Anshi noted: "Anyone who raises silkworms wants it to be warm and early, so he stores fire for the secret room. "The new corruption punishment also suffers from a stroke, and it can only be completed if it needs to enter the secret room, because it is called silkworm room ear." Roughly the same explanation can be found in Li Xian's note in the Book of Emperor Guangwu of the Later Han Dynasty. The so-called "castrated people are afraid of the wind and need to be warm, so they make a fire storage room like a silkworm room, because they are famous."
When performing castration on women, it is necessary to perform vaginal sewing. Sewing vulva, also known as locking vulva, is to sew up a woman's vulva with needle and thread rope. This kind of castration, because it is extremely despicable and obscene, is generally not used in officialdom, but it is very popular among the people. Husbands are happy with this method to deal with wives who have an affair with their husbands and jealous women to deal with handmaids who have an affair with their husbands. In Jian Xuan Ji, written by Chu Ren, a Qing Dynasty man, there are similar records, such as "Pouring garlic into a maid's shade and closing it with a rope" and "Locking it with a cone and abandoning the key in a well". It is said that there is an ancient building "Sewing Yin Lou" in Bozhou, Anhui Province, and this strange name probably stems from this kind of folk punishment.
Cue the punishment
Cuo, one of the ancient criminal laws in China, is also called Cuo, a form of torture in ancient China, which refers to cutting off the left foot, right foot or both feet of the punished person, usually refers to cutting off the kneecap of the prisoner.
contact pin
Stick a needle in the nail seam, often used by female prisoners.
bury alive
Burying alive is a common means in war. Because it is labor-saving and fast. Buried alive during the war, all prisoners of war are told to dig their own holes. Sometimes, prisoners are killed first and then pushed down, but when time is not enough (or when bullets need to be saved), they are pushed directly to cover the soil later. Torture in China has existed since ancient times. But I haven't heard of any celebrities who have been punished like this. Those who are more ruthless will bury people upright in the soil, showing only one head, and then start to abuse.
poisoned wine
Among the ancient poisons in China, "zhenniao" is the most famous poison, from which the idiom "drinking zhenniao to quench thirst" comes. Often used in the case of death.
Stick punishment
That is, the wooden stake punishment, the stick punishment to be mentioned here, is not to hit people with a stick, but to insert a stick directly from a person's mouth or anus, and the whole root sinks into the stomach and intestines, which makes people die miserable.
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 it is also called "Laughing" for this kind of torture.
For this punishment, the Encyclopedia of the19th century defined it as "one of the creations that brought human cruelty into full play". The execution method is to insert a stake into the prisoner's body, the most common is to insert it into the anus and let him die.
Depending on the diameter of the stake, sometimes the anus is opened with a dilator or cut with a knife in advance, and then the executioner inserts the stake and nails it with a hammer. In some areas, after the stake is inserted 50-60 cm, the executioner will erect the stake and insert it into the first dug pit, so that the stake can cooperate with the prisoner's own weight and go deep bit by bit until it passes through the armpit, chest, back or anus. Under normal circumstances, prisoners who are so "repaired" often have to endure torture for more than three days.
During the pro-Christianity war in Europe, the wooden stake punishment was particularly popular. In Piedmont, Italy in 1669, Delatour, the daughter of a nobleman, was naked and died. A group of executioners held her high and marched, claiming that the body was their flag.
1958, the uncle of the king of Iraq was sentenced to stake for homosexuality. He chose this punishment because he "likes to stick things in his ass".
cut open the belly
At the end of Shang Dynasty, Zhou Wang was indeed the most tyrant. He not only initiated inhuman punishments such as branding and cooking, but also set a precedent for ministers to cut their hearts by caesarean section. At that time, the famous courtier Prince Bigan saw that Zhou Wang had no way, and felt that as a courtier, he should do his duty to assist the monarch, so he spoke frankly, which angered Zhou Wang. He said, "I heard that a saint has seven holes in his heart. Is your heart like this?" So, he ordered the warriors to seize Bigan, cut open his stomach, and take out his heart to see if he had any orifices. Shang Shu Tai Shi said "cut the heart of the sage", Zhuangzi Stole the Foot said "cut the heart by comparison with the dry", Zhuangzi Guilou said "cut the dragon every time" and Xunzi Zheng Lun said "cut the heart by comparison with the dry". Zhou Wang also cut open the belly of the pregnant woman alive and took out the fetus to see if it was male or female. These acts are really outrageous.
Bowel pumping
It is said that when birds of prey such as eagles, vultures and vultures peck at animals, their eyes are the first place to drop their mouths. They peck the eyes of the beast with sharp beaks, and the beast can't resist effectively when it loses its vision. After that, the raptors put their mouths in the anus of the beast, pecked out the head of the large intestine three or two times, and dragged the intestines out. Animals have been stripped of their intestines, and they are more powerless to resist, so raptors can safely and boldly eat their meat.
shoot and kill
Bow and arrow are common weapons in ancient wars. If people are executed by shooting arrows in non-war time, it is a cruel torture.
Shenhe
During the Warring States Period, when Wei Wenhou of Wei was in power (446-396 BC), the three elders and Tingyi in Yedi (now in Linzhang County, Hebei Province) colluded with witches to collect people's money, pretending that they were marrying Hebo, and they chose their daughters to sink into the Zhanghe River every year. After Ximen Bao was appointed as the imperial edict, he saw through the witches' plot, played along, and threw witches and people into the river. This well-known story of "Ximen Bao's skillful delivery of Hebo's wife" illustrates the fact that people were already drowned in the river during the Warring States Period. The people, the court and the witch played tricks and took advantage of the opportunity to make profits, so that innocent girls were killed. Ximen Bao used wisdom and power to fight poison with poison to save the local people from great harm.
Strand
Today, people are familiar with hanging. In the modern history of the world, many revolutionaries were hanged and died heroically. This kind of hanging is not a product of modern times. It has a long history in ancient China.
In Zuo Zhuan's Two Years of Mourning for the Duke, if he is guilty, he will be strangled to death. Du Yu commented, "Strangulation is why he strangles the characters." That is to say, the original intention of strangulation refers to something, such as rope or belt, which can hang people to death. Before that,
People have long regarded hanging as a way to commit suicide. For example, in Jin Xiangong, Prince Shen Sheng was persecuted by Li Ji, and hanged himself in Xincheng (now Quwo) in December 656 BC as a punishment. Scholars at present generally believe that it began with the record in Zuo Zhuan's Two Years of Mourning for the Public.
Mianmian
Mianmian is the ink punishment, the first of the five punishments in the Zhou Dynasty. The method of implementation is to tattoo words on a person's face or other parts of the body, and then apply ink or other pigments to make the tattooed words become permanent marks. Compared with "Mo", "Gong", "Moe" and "Kill", it is obviously the lightest. However, this kind of punishment will also hurt the flesh and even the bones and muscles, and it can't be concealed when it is imposed on the obvious parts of the body, which not only causes physical pain, but also causes great mental humiliation. Therefore, this book also lists it as one of torture.
Tongue cutting
According to legend, during the Yongjia period of the Western Jin Dynasty, a Buddhist monk from Tianzhu (now India) came to China, and he would perform tongue-breaking tricks. Before the performance, he opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue for the guests to see. Then he cut his tongue with a knife, and blood flowed on the ground. He put half of his tongue on a plate and showed it to the public, and everyone was amazed. After a while, he put his tongue in his mouth, paused for a moment and then stretched out his tongue for people to see. The tongue grew well, exactly the same as before. It is also said that when Tang Wenzong was an adult, there was a famous monk in Zhaodi (present-day Hebei). The court summoned him three times, but he refused to go to Beijing. In a rage, Literati ordered the monk to cut off his tongue and throw it into the fire and burn it to ashes. The monk made a golden tongue and put it in his mouth. Every day, he recited the scriptures as usual. Therefore, people call him the monk with golden tongue.
Xiangpen
In ancient torture, cheating officials were stripped clean and sent to a pit full of scorpions and poisonous snakes. This torture comes from the following story "Romance of Gods":
One day, Zhou Wang and da ji had a feast on the deer platform, and 3,600 palace concubines gathered under the deer platform. Zhou Wang ordered them to take off their skirts, sing and dance naked, and make fun of themselves. Zhou Wang and da ji booze and laugh on the stage. Only seventy-two imperial concubines in the late Jiang Hougong hid their faces and wept, and refused to sing and dance naked.
Da ji said, "This is the official daughter around the Queen Jiang. After hating the King for killing Jiang, I heard that she was secretly planning an insurrection to murder the King! I didn't believe it at first, but now I see that they dare to disobey the king's orders. It seems that the rumors of rebellion are true! They should be severely punished so that others will not dare to rebel! "
Zhou Wang said, "What is severe punishment?"
Da ji said: "In my opinion, you can dig a pit with a depth of 50 feet and a depth of 50 feet on the ground in front of the Star Tower, and then throw snakes, scorpions, bees, stings and the like into the hole, and throw these maids into the hole to bite hundreds of insects. This is called the punishment of the basin."
Zhou Wang joy, immediately made a Qiu basin according to da ji's words, and threw the seventy-two ladies-in-waiting into the pit together, and at that time there was a sad wailing from the pit. Zhou Wang laughed: "If it weren't for the queen's clever plan, we couldn't destroy this rebellious concubine!"
Cooking
In ancient times, it was a kind of torture, that is, the prisoner was put into a large wok or cauldron filled with boiling water and hot oil to be boiled or fried to death. It was also called cooking punishment, wok cooking and cauldron cooking.
the act of cutting, tearing, pulling, wrenching the body into many parts
The "five punishments" of torture in ancient times, commonly known as "unloading eight pieces", are quite similar, but there are still subtle differences. The original meaning is beheading, gouging, cutting hands, digging eyes, cutting ears and one, that is, "big unloading eight pieces", usually after killing people, chop off their heads, hands and feet, and then chop their trunks into three pieces. Now it refers to dividing the whole thing into several small pieces.
red embroidered shoes
Burn your feet with red-hot iron.