After the incident of Tiying writing to save her father in the thirteenth year of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty (167 BC), Emperor Wen Liu Heng issued an edict to abolish corporal punishment and replace it with other punishments. Among them, the punishment that should be used was changed to flogging. Three hundred, if the left toe is chopped off, it is changed to five hundred floggings. However, three hundred or five hundred floggings can mostly kill people, which is more severe than the original corporal punishment. Therefore, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, Liu Qi, issued an edict in the first year of the Yuan Dynasty (156 BC), saying that using a cane was no different from a capital crime. Even if he did not die, he would be seriously disabled. Therefore, he changed the five hundred floggings prescribed by Emperor Wen to three hundred floggings, and the three hundred floggings to two hundred floggings. In doing so, many prisoners were still beaten to death. In the first year of the Zhongyuan Dynasty (144 BC), Emperor Jing issued an edict to change the three hundred floggings to two hundred, and reduce the two hundred to one hundred, and "fixed the flogging order". The gong was a torture tool used with the cane. At that time, the gong was stipulated to be five feet long and made of bamboo. The big head was one inch in diameter and the small head was half an inch. The bamboo joints had to be cut flat, and the buttocks were whipped during execution. From then on, according to such regulations, prisoners who were sentenced could save their lives.

After the Han Dynasty, the execution of the punishment of caning was relatively chaotic and there were no fixed rules. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, some dynasties thought the cane was too light, so they often used flogging, or whipping cane. Starting from the Sui Dynasty, flogging and cane were officially separated, and both were listed as one of the five punishments (i.e. flogging, rod, imprisonment, exile, and death). Among them, flogging was the lightest punishment, while rod punishment was slightly heavier than flogging, and the punishment of flogging was also different. The number, size of the instruments of torture, the parts to be punished, and the terms of sentencing are all clearly stipulated and formed into a system, which is supervised and implemented by the national judicial department.

Concerning the number of floggings, the Sui, Tang, Song, Jin and Ming and Qing dynasties all set flogging punishments into five grades, from ten to fifty, with one grade added for every ten strokes. The punishments ranged from sixty to one hundred, with one level added for every ten strokes. In the Liao Dynasty, punishments were severe and there was no flogging. There were six levels of cane punishment, ranging from fifty to three hundred, with one level added for every fifty strokes. The number of flogging punishments in the Yuan Dynasty was quite special. The flogging punishment is divided into six grades, from seven to fifty-seven, with one grade added for every ten strokes. The flogging punishment is from sixty-seven to one hundred and seven, with one grade added for every ten strokes. This number was stipulated by Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty. His original intention was to reduce the punishment. For the number stipulated in the Song Dynasty, "Heaven will spare him once, Earth will spare him once, and I will spare him once." Therefore, each period was reduced by three times. In fact, in the Yuan Dynasty, the flogging penalty was increased by one level, from the fifth level to the sixth level. As a result, except for the lowest level of flogging, each subsequent level increased by seven times compared with the Song Dynasty. Therefore, during the Dade period of the Yuan Dynasty, Wang Yueqi, the Minister of Punishment, said: In the early days of the country, it was stipulated that the number of floggings from ten can be reduced to seven, and the number of floggings from fifty should be reduced to forty-seven. There should no longer be fifty-seven; the number of floggings should be reduced from fifty-seven. By ninety-seven, there should no longer be a level of one hundred and seven. However, Wang Yue's opinion was not adopted, so in the Yuan Dynasty, the punishment method of flogging, beating with a cane, etc. was adopted.

Regarding the size of torture instruments and the location of torture, the regulations of each generation are also different. In the Han Dynasty, there were no different whipping sticks, they were all called "chui", and their sizes were as mentioned above. In the Jin Dynasty, bamboo sticks were used for whipping, following the Han system: the stick was made of thorns, six feet long, one inch in circumference (section circumference) of the big head, and three and a half minutes of the small head. During the Liang Dynasty in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, sticks were also made of thorns, six feet long, and divided into three types: large staff, magic staff, and small staff. The large staff has a circumference of one inch and three inches, and the small head is eight and a half minutes; the staff's large head has a circumference of one inch and three points, and the small head has a circumference of five points; the small staff has a large circumference of one inch and one minute, and the small head is thin and pointed. In the Northern Wei Dynasty, the sticks were made of wattle sticks with their joints cut flat, and they were divided into three types: the stick used for torture of prisoners, with a diameter of three points, the stick used for the prisoner's back, with a diameter of two points, and the stick used for the legs of the stick, with a diameter of one point. In the Northern Qi Dynasty, there were two types of staffs, one was four feet long, with a large head diameter of three points and a small head two points; the other type had a large head diameter of two and a half minutes and a small head one and a half minutes. During the execution, he was hit on the buttocks, and it was stipulated that no one could be replaced when executing one person. In the Sui Dynasty, staffs were used indiscriminately and had no fixed size. In the Tang Dynasty, the flogger and the staff were separated, and both were three feet and five inches long. The big head of the whip is two minutes in diameter, and the small head is one and a half minutes in diameter. There are two kinds of sticks: one is called the prison stick, the diameter of the big head is 3/2 centimeters, and the small head is 2/2 centimeters; the other is called Changxing stick, the diameter of the big head is 2/7 centimeters, and the small head is 1/7 centimeters. During torture, hit the back, buttocks and legs respectively. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin stipulated that the size of the regular official staff should be adopted in the fifth year of Xiande of the Later Zhou Dynasty (958). The length of the staff should be three feet and five inches, the width of the big head should not exceed two inches, and the thickness and width of the small head should not exceed nine minutes. In the sixth year of Tiansheng reign of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty (1028), Nie Guanqing, the director of the Jixian school, wrote a letter saying that since the cane system was stipulated, the length, width and width of the staff have been standardized, but the weight of the staff has not been uniform. Some officials specially made heavy staffs to increase the punishment. Provisions should be made. Emperor Renzong Zhao Zhen adopted his opinion and issued an edict stipulating that the weight of the regular official staff should not exceed fifteen taels. The size of the whip and staff during the Jin and Yuan Dynasties was uncertain, but in the Jin Dynasty it was stipulated that the diameter of the large staff should not exceed five minutes.

The flogging instrument of the Ming Dynasty was inherited from the Tang Dynasty, with slight changes. It was divided into three types: flogging, staff and interrogation staff, all three feet and five inches long. For a whip, the diameter of the big head is 2/7 centimeters, and for the small head, it is 1/7 centimeters; for a staff, the diameter of the large head is 3/2 centimeters, and the diameter of the small head is 2/2 centimeters; for a stick, the diameter of the large head is 4/5 centimeters, and the diameter of the small head is 3/5 centimeters. Both the whip and the staff are made of redbud sticks, and are struck on the buttocks during execution; the interrogation staff is made of redbud wood, and is struck on the buttocks or legs during execution. The floggers, staffs and interrogation sticks used by officials in various places must be compared and inspected with the styles of torture instruments issued by the Ministry of Punishments. Only when the sizes meet the regulations are they allowed to be used. The type of torture instrument was made of copper and was under the unified management of the Ministry of Punishment. The Ming Dynasty also stipulated that when making whips, sticks and other torture instruments, it was not allowed to use animal sinews or leather glue to install nails on the sticks.

The cane used by government offices in the Qing Dynasty initially followed the regulations of the Ming Dynasty, and later it was a bamboo board. The big bamboo board is two inches wide at the big end and one inch wide at the small end. It is difficult to determine the year in which this bamboo board was first used.

The regulations on the size of torture instruments in the above-mentioned generations all used the weights and measures standards of the time. The standards of each generation were different from each other, and they were also different from the modern size standards. Therefore, the historical records recorded The size is a figure at that time. It is difficult to verify what it is equivalent to in modern measurement standards. It only reflects the general situation of the cane torture instruments of various generations.

As for the crimes committed by each generation and the number of canes used, there are many items and no need to go into detail. It should be mentioned that some dynasties stipulated that those who were sentenced to the punishment of caning could pay property to atone for their sins. For example, the criminal law of the Song Dynasty stipulates: Those who are sentenced to ten lashes should redeem one pound of copper and avoid three lashes; those who deserve 20 lashes should redeem two jins of copper and avoid 13 lashes; those who deserve 30 lashes should redeem copper. For three pounds, twenty-two strokes are avoided; for those who deserve forty, four pounds of copper are redeemed, and thirty-two strokes are spared; for those who deserve fifty, five pounds of copper are redeemed, and forty strokes are spared. The same is true for the punishment of the rod. Those who should be beaten from fifty to one hundred times can redeem five to ten kilograms of copper respectively, and avoid thirty-seven to eighty strokes. In the Jin Dynasty, the punishment of flogging with a cane was also redeemed with copper. For every ten strokes, two catties of copper were redeemed. In the early Ming Dynasty, it was stipulated that the penalty of flogging with the cane could be redeemed with copper. Every ten strokes of the cane were redeemed for half a catty of copper, and every ten strokes of the cane were redeemed for one catty of copper. Later, money was used as redemption, and the redemption amount was 600 copper coins for every ten strokes. If the punishment was twenty strokes, the redemption amount would be zero and two hundred copper coins. The redemption amount would be six hundred copper coins for each ten strokes. After Jingtai, the amount of ransom money became larger and larger. In the first year of Jingtai (1450), it was stipulated that every ten strokes of the whip would redeem two hundred guan, and ten strokes of the stick would redeem three hundred guan. Later, each dynasty gradually increased the number and stipulated that money should be converted into silver. If a woman commits a crime and deserves to be whipped with a cane, the ransom amount will be greater. There are also temporary provisions for certain officials to redeem without money, but with what they need. For example, in the late Ming Dynasty, the magistrate of Rugao County in Jiangsu Province loved butterflies. Whenever someone should be punished with a cane, he would ask the prisoner's family to pay butterflies as a ransom. When he entertained guests, he would guard against butterflies, and they would fly all over the hall in colorful colors, like broken brocade in the wind. The king and his guests would laugh and have fun. Volume 8 of Qingketing's engraved version of "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" contains an article "Felting Butterflies", which describes this incident.

Although various dynasties have made clear regulations on issues related to caning punishment, the actual execution often does not follow the formal provisions. Officials often use caning only based on their subjective will at the time, and the torture instruments used are often inconsistent. Exceeds official standards. As a result, the punishment of caning in reality is much crueler than the provisions of the official criminal law, so that the caning completely lost its original purpose of teaching punishment and became a means of purely punishing people.

Originally, caning with a cane was not part of the scope of the death penalty. However, in various dynasties, from the emperor to the county magistrate, caning was often used as a method of execution, that is, the prisoner was killed under the cane. It's called flogging or rod killing. In the Han Dynasty, it was very common to die from being beaten with a stick. After the Sui Dynasty, killings by flogging or stick killings were still recorded in history books. In the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty Yang Jian personally ordered that Li Juncai, who joined the army in Chuzhou, be beaten to death. He also ordered the death of Zhao Chuo, the young minister of Dali, and Chen Yan, the young minister of Honglu. During the Tang Dynasty, various dynasties in the Tang Dynasty mostly used sticks to kill captured "anti-thief" leaders instead of beheading, hanging and other death sentences. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Taizu Zhao Kuangyin killed Li Yao, the magistrate of Shanghe County, with a stick in April of the second year of Jianlong (961), and in December of the fifth year of Kaibao (972), Yan'e, the inner class director, was killed with a stick. Taizong Zhao Jiong killed Zhongshu Ling Li Zhigu in July of the third year of Taiping and Xingguo (978), and Zhan Shicheng Xu Xuan in August. In September of the twelfth year of Shaoxing (1142) in the early Southern Song Dynasty, Emperor Gaozong Zhao Gouzhang killed Li Shanjing, the eldest princess of the fake Fu Kingdom. In the Liao, Jin and Yuan dynasties, there were many cases of killing people with canes. In the Ming Dynasty, the emperor used the imperial cane on ministers, and many important officials were killed by the cane. (See this book "Ting Zang") The Qing Dynasty abolished the imperial stick, but there are still examples of emperors killing people with their sticks.

Emperor Yongzheng once watched a theater troupe perform "Xiu Ru Ji". The actors were all excellent in singing and singing. Yongzheng was overjoyed and sent a decree to reward the outstanding performers with food. Because in the play Zheng Yuanhe's father Zheng Dan was the governor of the state, an actor asked an official during the meal the name of the current governor of Changzhou. When Emperor Yongzheng heard about this, he was furious and said: "You are just an actor, how dare you inquire about official affairs without authorization!" So he ordered the actor to be executed immediately. Not only did the emperor do this, but officials at all levels also acted this way. In the eleventh year of Shunzhi (1654), Li Sen first patrolled the south of the Yangtze River and killed the famous elite Wang Zijia and Shang Sanzhezhang in Suzhou.

When the punishment of caning was carried out in the past dynasties, various names were often used to aggravate the punishment. During the Northern Dynasties, Emperor Xuan of the Zhou Dynasty, Yuwen Yun, every time he used his stick on someone, he must give him a full 120 blows, which was called the "Heavenly Staff", or double the blows, giving him 240 blows. There was a man named Yang Wenyou who wrote a song to ridicule the government. Zheng Yi reported it to Emperor Xuan, who ordered him to be given a staff of 240 to kill him. During the Five Dynasties, when Liu Zhu of the Southern Han Dynasty used sticks on people, he always hit them with two sticks at the same time, which was called "Acacia stick". Also before execution, the age of the person being beaten must be asked, and the number of sticks must be the same as his age, which is called "year-old sticks". Older prisoners are often beaten to death on the spot. During the reign of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, Wang Wentong served as the governor of Hengshan County, and his method of punishing prisoners with a stick was even more unique. He asked people to bury a large wooden stake in the open space of the courtyard, which was more than a foot above the ground. He also buried a small wooden stake around the big wooden stake. He placed the prisoner face down with his chest on the big wooden stake and tied his limbs to the four sides. He put a small wooden prong on his back, and then beat him on the back with a stick. After a few blows, his body festered and died.

Moreover, when using rods in ancient times, other things were often used instead of rods. In many cases of killing people with sticks, the sticks are used instead of sticks. Compared with sticks, sticks are much thicker and heavier, and hitting a person is obviously more likely to cause injury or death. In the Liao Dynasty, in addition to the staff, there were also wooden swords, big sticks, sandbags, iron bones, etc., all of which were more powerful than the staff. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Liao Dynasty Yelv Deguang Tianxian (927-938), big sticks and wooden swords were made, and the number of people beaten ranged from fifteen to thirty. Those who suffered this punishment were rarely disabled. During the reign of Emperor Yelujing of the Liao Dynasty (951-969), sandbags were also made. They were made of cowhide, six inches long and two inches wide, and equipped with a wooden handle more than a foot long. Those who are over ten will be beaten with sandbags. During the execution, they were punched all over the body. There were no scars on the skin but the internal organs were ruptured and bleeding. Many people died soon after being tortured. Later, the iron bone flower was made, and the number of executions was stipulated as five or seven blows. However, even these few blows could cause a person to be disabled in the slightest, or fatal in the worst. During the Southern Song Dynasty, Lizong Zhao Yun used torture cruelly. He often used "broken firewood" (broken firewood) as a stick to hit people's hands or feet, which was called "dropping firewood". Similar to the iron bone flower in the Liao Dynasty, it was called Jingua in the Ming Dynasty. It was in charge of the imperial court and was often used to punish courtiers. In the first year of Hongxi (1425), Li Shimian went to Shu to anger Renzong Zhu Gaochi. Renzong ordered the warriors to beat him with golden melons, and his ribs were broken seventeen times.

Some of the staff used by cool officials are specially made. During the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, when Wang Yan, the supervisory censor, inspected Suzhou, he cut open large moso bamboos to make bamboo boards and named them "Fanhuang". When executed with it, many people died before being beaten enough times. Those who were lucky enough to survive had to ask craftsmen to use fine tweezers to carefully remove the bamboo thorns from the rotten flesh, and then seek medical advice to apply medicine to remove congestion and stay in bed for more than a hundred days. To be cured. One day, Wang Yan went to Wuxi for inspection. A monk had no time to avoid and bumped into his guard of honor. He immediately ordered the monk to be punished with a yellow stick. The monk died soon after. Wang Yan was furious, scolded him for pretending to be dead, and ordered the beating to continue. The monk finally did not wake up again. Later, Wang Yan was promoted to serve in the court, but he offended Xianzong Zhu Jianshen, and tasted the taste of receiving the imperial staff at the Meridian Gate. As a result, he died two days after receiving the staff.

Although there have been regulations in the past dynasties on what crimes should be punished with the cane, in execution, convictions were often made arbitrarily and the cane was frequently used. The servants who worked in the yamen did not know if they offended the officials with their words, they would be punished with a cane. Du Mu's poem in the Tang Dynasty goes: "When I joined the army and was a county captain, the dust was raging. If I couldn't say a word, I would be beaten and covered with sores." The situation described in the poem was also the same in other dynasties. Cui Hongdu of the Sui Dynasty was eating turtle meat. Eight or nine people were waiting on him. Cui Hongdu asked them one by one: "Does the turtle meat taste good?" The waiters were usually afraid of him, so they all replied: "It's good." He scolded: "You stupid slave, how dare you lie to me! You have never eaten this turtle meat, how can you know whether it tastes good or not?" He ordered each of them to be caned eighty times. At that time, there was a proverb in Chang'an, the capital city: "It is better to drink three liters of vinegar than to see Cui Hongdu." This shows how tyrannical this Cui was.

Yan Rong, a famous cruel official who lived at the same time as Cui Hongdu, often flogged his subordinates when he was the general manager of Youzhou. The number of punishments at one time was as many as thousands. The people who were beaten were bloody. He drank and ate meat beside him, looking calm. One time, Yan Rong went out for an inspection and saw that the thorns growing on the roadside could be used to make a whipping stick. He asked someone to make one at that time and grabbed a follower at random to see if it was useful. The man defended himself and said, "I didn't commit a crime, so why did you beat me?" Yan Rong said, "I beat you today. If you really commit a crime in the future, you can replace it with the amount you beat today and no more beatings." Soon, it turned out that the attendant deserved a cane for making a mistake. He immediately said: "I have already suffered it last time. Master, you said that if I am guilty again, I should be exempted from punishment, so you can't beat me today." Yan Rong reprimanded him and said: " You didn't commit a crime and you were able to receive the cane. Now that you have committed a crime, shouldn't you receive the cane even more?" So he couldn't help but beat the man again. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a man named Chen Jingji who was serving as the prefect of Huzhou. He had a problem. He hated crows the most. Occasionally he heard crows crow in the courtyard in the yamen, so he would beat the yamen servant with a cane. Therefore, people at that time called him "Chen Laoya".

Some dynasties stipulated that the punishment of caning was the buttocks, that is, spanking. If a woman commits a crime and needs to be whipped with a cane, it is also the butt of the cane. In the Song and Yuan dynasties, there was a rule of "removing clothes and receiving sticks". The Ming Dynasty followed the old system, which stipulated that women who committed adultery and needed to be caned must take off their pants and be naked to receive the cane. For women, this is not only a cruel physical pain, but also an embarrassing mental humiliation. This rule in the Ming Dynasty caused a social ill. If there was a small quarrel between relatives and neighbors among the people, one party would seize the opportunity to find trouble, accuse the woman of the other party's family of adultery, and then bribe the government to arrest the accused woman. Naked and caned. On the day of execution of the sentence, the plaintiff gathered relatives and friends in advance and came to the court together, called "watching the beating." They also spent money to buy the officials who carried out the execution, so that they could humiliate the woman in every possible way during the execution. The yamen servants are very good at doing this kind of thing. Their methods include "digging taro", "digging water chestnuts", "cutting gourds", "peeling water chestnuts" and other names. Sometimes the yamen servants take off the defendant's clothes before the county magistrate goes to court. Taking off one's pants in public is called "drying one's buttocks." Sometimes, after the execution, women are still not allowed to wear pants, and they are immediately dragged out to the street in front of the door, which is called "selling meat." When encountering such a situation, some women cannot bear the humiliation. After returning, he committed suicide. It was also customary for the accused woman to appear in court barefoot, wearing a torture device. At this time, the enemy took the opportunity to cause trouble and encouraged the scoundrels to steal the woman's shoes. They took off their pants and some people picked up their shoes. If the official didn't leave the court, he would still make a fuss the next day and be detained in front of the government office. One day, the scoundrels came to watch all day long, touching and teasing the women, laughing and having fun. Some of them were killed on the spot. During the Jiajing period, Zhejiang Governor Hu Zongxian was arrested and sent to Beijing. His wife and daughter were arrested in Hangzhou. Being insulted like this.

In the Qing Dynasty, it was still a practice for women to be caned naked. Yu Yue in the late Qing Dynasty recorded this incident: A certain county magistrate was young, frivolous and arrogant, and liked to talk about love. News. When he tried the case and found that it involved harem, he deliberately involved it and classified it as adultery, and then made the woman naked and walk with a cane. He often said to people: "The criminal law clearly stipulates that women who commit crimes should be sentenced to death with a cane." , 'The traitor will be stripped of his clothes, and the remaining crimes will be punished by being clothed alone'. When walking with the cane, the buttocks are spanked. The so-called single clothes are single pants. Of course, taking off the clothes means taking off the pants. "Others couldn't argue with him, but he insisted on doing this all the time. Later, he was executed for corruption, his family property was confiscated, and his wife became a prostitute. Some people said that this was retribution for his naked sex with women.

Yu Yue also returned There was a similar incident. A farmer married his 13- or 14-year-old son to a 27- or 28-year-old daughter-in-law. On the wedding night, the new daughter-in-law tied her son-in-law to the leg of the bed and tied her sweetheart to her. A butcher was living with her in hiding in her new house. After the incident, she was arrested. The county magistrate ordered her to strip naked and give her a forty-weight stick. Her parents helped her naked daughter out of the government office and took off her clothes. She took off her clothes to cover her daughter's body. There were hundreds of people watching. Many people came forward and took the clothes off and refused to let her wear them. The woman had no choice but to walk home naked.

< p>There were even more cruel examples of women wearing bare sticks in the Qing Dynasty. During the Qianlong period, Pingyang County Magistrate Zhu Shuo made a special thick yoke and a big stick, and often tortured prisoners, and he even interrogated a person for adultery cases. The prostitute ordered the government servants to strip her naked and punish her with a cane, and then ordered the head of the cane to be inserted into the prostitute's vagina.

Zhu Shuo said proudly: "Let's see how you still accept customers!" Zhu hated prostitutes and wanted to use severe punishment to stop the local prostitution business, but his method was too much.

There are ruthless and poisonous officials like Zhu Shuo everywhere, but in ancient times, there were also a few officials who were relatively reasonable and kind-hearted when using caning punishments. It is said that Cao Bin, the founding hero of the Song Dynasty, was kind and forgiving, and used punishment cautiously. When he was the magistrate of Xuzhou, a petty official committed a crime. After the case was filed and tried, he should be punished with a cane. However, it took a year for Cao Bin to punish him with a cane. . The official didn't understand why he did this. Cao Bin said: "I heard that the official was newly married when he committed the crime. If he was tortured, his parents would think it was a disaster caused by the new daughter-in-law's incorrect horoscope. The cruel treatment made her unjust and unable to survive. I suspended the execution of the matter without affecting his family and maintaining the dignity of the law." Everyone admired his opinion.

Hu Taichu in the Song Dynasty once said about the use of caning as a punishment: "The old and young are not as good as the old and the young, and the sick and pregnant will not be punished." This means that the cane should not be used on the elderly, young children and sick and pregnant prisoners. He also said that torture should not be used when the interrogator is drunk, the prisoner is drunk, or the prisoner is thin. Lu Kun, who served as the minister of the Ministry of Punishment during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, further developed Hu Taichu's views. He wrote eight chapters of "The Punishment Commandments" and established eight precepts on the use of canes during trials. The first item is called the five no-beats: no beatings for the elderly, no beatings for young children, no beatings for the sick, and no beatings for those who are hungry, cold and without food and clothing. Those who have been beaten will not be beaten. The second item is called "Five Mo's": Don't hit the royal family lightly, don't hit officials easily, don't hit scholars easily, don't hit children easily, don't hit women easily. The third item is called "Five Don't Hit": Don't hit someone right away when he is in a hurry, don't hit him right away when he is angry, don't hit him right away when he is drunk and yet to wake up, don't hit him right away when he arrives after walking a long way, don't hit him right away when he arrives after walking a long way. He came half-running to catch his breath and was still unsure whether to fight immediately. The fourth item is called Five Delayed Punishment: Delayed Punishment when I am angry, Delayed Punishment when I drink alcohol, Delayed Punishment when I am sick, Delayed Punishment when I have not seen any real evidence, Delayed Punishment when I cannot handle the case. The fifth item is called "Three Mo's": don't hit again with your fingers, don't hit again if you have already used a stick, and don't hit again if you are about to use the shackles to show the public. The sixth item is called the Three Kinds of Pity and No Hitting: During festivals and good times, the criminal should be pity and not hit him; during the cold and hot weather, the criminal should be pity and not hit him; when the criminal is sad, he should be pity and not hit him. The seventh item is called "Three Responses to Punishment": The elders should be beaten if they make mistakes, but if they are in disputes with younger people, they should not be beaten; the common people should be beaten if they are wrong, but if they are in disputes with government servants, they should not be beaten; the workers should not be beaten if they are in disputes with government officials. If he makes a mistake, he should be beaten, but if he is doing errands for the government or buying things for his own use, don't beat him. The eighth item is called the Three Bans on Beating: It is forbidden to hit with a heavy stick, it is forbidden to hit the criminal from the lower part of the body, and it is forbidden to use non-criminal means to beat severely.

Cao Bin, Hu Taichu, Lu Kun, etc. can be regarded as honest and kind officials in ancient times. Unfortunately, there are only a few such officials. Their benevolent practices only took some mitigating measures within the scope of the legal system, but could not fundamentally abolish the torture of caning.

The slaves who directly torture prisoners in government offices are generally ruthless, otherwise it would be difficult for them to serve as such errands. But among these people, there are also some people with good intentions. In the Qing Dynasty, the ancestors of Zhu Jin, a native of Xiushui County, Zhejiang Province, worked in the county government and sympathized with the prisoners suffering from the cane. He heard people say that drinking urine after being injured by torture can relieve pain and detoxify, so he soaked the bamboo stick he used in the toilet bucket. When it was time for him to carry out the execution, he used the bamboo stick soaked in urine to beat people. Neither painful nor suppurative. In this way, he persisted for decades. When Zhu Jin's generation became prominent, people said that he was rewarded for his ancestors' good deeds. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zheng Jin invented a prescription called "Zhang Dan". The method is to bake the leeches, grind them into powder, add a small amount of saltpeter, make a paste with water and apply it on the injured area. He often used this secret recipe on people who were suffering from lawsuits and being punished with canes, and the effect was very obvious. In the feudal era where torture was abused, such acts of kindness could be said to be a rare bright spot in the dark night.

Note:

The cane was the most widely used punishment in ancient times. The original meaning of "whipping" is to beat people with bamboo or wooden sticks, and the original meaning of "stick" is a crutch. In ancient times, if a son was unfilial, his father could beat him with a cane. When Shun was a child, he was very filial. If his father hit him with a small stick, he would endure it. If he hit him with a big stick, he would run away. Later, the cane was used as a punishment. It is said that it followed the teaching and admonishment meaning of the ancient father beating his son, so the cane was also called a punishment.

Before the Han Dynasty, the five official punishments were ink, torture, palace, mutilation, and killing, and there was no cane