In ancient times, prisoners were treated poorly and the punishments they faced were harsh, and they did not talk about "human rights" at all.
However, it was surprising that the wives of male prisoners were allowed to come to their cells and spend the night with their husbands before they were executed.
After a happy night, the prisoner was taken to the execution ground and beheaded the next day.
All this makes it difficult to understand why the prison allows prisoners to meet with their wives, is it a deliberate hospice care by the government, or is there some other purpose?
Compared with today's society under the rule of law, the ancient times were simply a barbaric society, and the emperor punished extremely harshly in order to consolidate his country, and the common people would violate the criminal law if they were not careful.
There is a famous saying in ancient times: "The law is strict and treacherous is easy to rest, and the government is lenient and the people are more guilty."
This means that if the punishment is severe, the person with bad moral character will also dispel the idea of sinning, and the social security situation will improve.
If the law is relaxed, even people with good moral character have no scruples, and they may do bad things, and the social security situation will be a mess.
As a result, the punishments set by the emperor were often harsh.
This can be seen through the punishment of thieves.
The Qin Law stipulates that if you steal someone else's mulberry leaves, if the stolen money does not exceed one yuan (ten yuan is one tael in ancient times), you will be punished with 30 days of hard labor.
If the proceeds are between one and two hundred and twenty dollars, you will have to be forcibly displaced.
If the stolen money is between two hundred and twenty and six hundred and sixty yuan, it is necessary to tattoo the prisoner's face and then apply ink, and not only that, but also to serve hard labor.
If the proceeds exceed 660 dollars, the offender's nose must be cut off and a tattoo will be tattooed on his face.
And that's not all, you have to do it at the same time.
The punishment for thieves is so severe, not to mention the punishment for heavy criminals such as **, rebellion and robbery, which are generally put to death and directly eliminated from the body to have a deterrent effect.
As for the method of execution, it is also cruel, and it sounds chilling and creepy.
There is a "醢" punishment, which is to chop death row prisoners into meat sauce; There is a "preserved" punishment, which makes people into jerky.
There is the punishment of "cannon branding", that is, burning people to death on a red-hot copper pillar.
There is also the "磣" punishment, which is to break up the body of a person after being put to death; The punishment of "Gu" is the dismemberment of the prisoner; "Culling" punishment is the separation of flesh and bones; "Killing" punishment is to disembowelment a person; The punishment of "殄" is to punish the nine clans.
This shows that in ancient times, the level of civilization was low, the punishment was inhumane, and the prisoners had no rights at all, and they did not talk about treatment or respect for human dignity.
They take it for granted that if the prison pursues humanity, then everyone will not be afraid of breaking the law.
It is only when people are frightened when they hear about the execution of death row prisoners that they dare not break the law, and this is what the rulers want.
But there are also many things that seem to be "civilized" in ancient times, that is, death row prisoners can drink "Zhuangxing wine" (also called "decapitated rice" or "ciyang rice") before execution, and prisoners can eat a delicious last supper, and then drink dizzy, so that they can go on the road without fear.
Another point is that on the eve of the execution of a male death row inmate, the prison will let his wife come over and spend the night together.
For example, in the costume drama "Roll Sweep Cylinder", there is such a scene, and the prisoner Baoshan is allowed to meet his wife before he is executed.
The same scene also appeared in "Jiupin Sesame Official" starring Stephen Chow.
It is difficult to understand why this is done when the ancient civilization was very low.
You know, until now, some countries have not allowed prisoners to meet with their families before they die.
Some prisoners are executed before their families are notified.
* Political prisoners will also be allowed to meet with their families, but there will be a conspiracy. To put it bluntly, it is to let the executed person meet with his family and eavesdrop on their conversations.
Most political prisoners are resolute and would rather die than reveal organizational secrets.
The enemy uses this trick to get an unexpected reward.
In addition to this, they also want to probation the person through the prisoner's family.
For example, in the modern Peking Opera "Red Lantern", Hatoyama, the captain of the Japanese military police, asked Li Yuhe, an underground worker, to meet with Grandma Li, and wanted her to persuade her son to change his position and cooperate with them.
Of course, their plot was doomed to fail.
The ancients were also very clever, and they would also obtain secrets that they could not obtain by moving the torture by allowing their families to meet with the prisoners.
But we are now ** death row inmate meeting with his wife, not including such scenes.
They do this both to increase the potential workforce and to consider passing on traditions.
In ancient times, there were two more, one was more labor, and the other was more war.
In ancient times, many emperors, such as Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Yang of Sui, were so happy that they engaged in the project of the century.
During the reign of Qin Shi Huang, he created two of the Eight Wonders of the World, namely the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army.
During the reign of Emperor Yang of Sui, the Grand Canal was built, which was also on a grand scale.
As for the war, not to mention, tens of thousands of troops will be sent at every turn.
Whether it is to build a project or start a war, it is necessary to die, and "there is no rooster crowing for thousands of miles, and the bones are exposed in the wild", and there will be a shortage of labor.
People are infinite wealth, and if someone can create surplus value and create miracles on earth, they can exploit them and create wealth for the empire.
In ancient times, in addition to many wars and labor, medical conditions were also very backward, and the average life expectancy of people was very short, generally around 30 to 40 years old.
Therefore, how to maintain population growth is a headache for the rulers, and allowing prisoners to meet their wives can make it possible for their wives to conceive children and increase fertility.
Secondly, the ancient rulers, whether tyrants or dumb monarchs, dressed themselves up as "benevolent monarchs", flaunting themselves to rule the world with "benevolence and righteousness" and respecting the Confucian concept of filial piety.
If the death row prisoner is allowed to meet his wife and give birth to a child, so that he can pass on the family and fulfill his filial piety, he can also add points to the emperor, saying how benevolent this emperor is, so that the people will support him more.
Also, the ancients attached great importance to the inheritance of bloodline, "unfilial piety has three no queens is great" ("Mencius, Lilou Shang"), if a man does not give birth to offspring for the family, it is a great sin, and he will not rest in peace when he dies.
In ancient times, the productive forces were backward, and the ancients were engaged in heavy physical labor, and men were the pillars of the family, and the family could not stand up without men.
In addition, men also bear the heavy responsibility of passing on the incense, and there are no descendants, and when it comes to the Qingming Festival and the Midyear Festival, there is not even a person who burns paper.
In rural China, when you have children and grandchildren, you have "hegemony", you can raise your eyebrows, and when you encounter a dispute, you can be aggressive, use your fists instead of reasoning, rush to the other party's house and smash it, and then leave with a smile.
Such scenes often appeared in the rural areas of old China, and they were not uncommon.
On the contrary, if there is no male in the family, he will be bullied, in an absolute disadvantage, and when there is a dispute, he can only be beaten passively, and it is difficult to move an inch if he is reasonable.
Therefore, the condemned prisoner must want to meet his wife, have sex on the last night, let her conceive a child, and make the last contribution to the prosperity of the family and the continuation of future generations.
Even if the death row inmate is a bachelor, if the family has money, he will spend a lot of money at the last minute to find a woman of appropriate age and give birth to a child for himself.
This move also has the advantage of preventing the wife from remarrying, and a woman who has children and becomes a widow will think twice when she remarries.
Also, if the wife gives birth to a boy, she will have something to rely on in her future life, and she will also have a protector.
As the saying goes, "there are many rights and wrongs in front of the widow's door", the widow's life is very sad, and after the death of her husband, there will be many men with poor moral character to be courteous, soft and hard to possess her.
knocking on the widow's door", it was not uncommon in the past.
But after having a boy, the widow's waist stiffened, and whoever came to harass her had to think about it, and maybe she would be beaten and her face would be swollen.
Since there are so many benefits for a death row inmate to meet his wife, why not?
So, is it an explicit rule of the state for a death row inmate to meet his wife, or is it a personal behavior of the prisoner's family?
Some people say that the system of "listening to wives and going to prison" arose in the Eastern Han Dynasty and became a rule in the Wei and Jin dynasties, which can be said to be a state act, but it is not necessarily true.
According to the history books, a man named Wuqiu Chang was walking down the street with his mother when he was attacked by a drunkard who killed him to protect his mother.
* Wu You said to the criminals: "Your actions are legitimate, but you should also be severely punished for violating the law, otherwise everyone will kill people for such reasons, and the society will be in chaos?" ”
When the criminal heard this, he was convinced and was willing to pay for his life.
After the death sentence, Wu You asked the criminal: "Do you have a wife?" ”
The convict sighed and replied, "I have a wife, but I don't have a son yet." ”
Wu You then arranged for the criminals to meet with his wife, removed the torture equipment, and let them do as they pleased, until they conceived a child.
The criminal was very moved, and said to his mother on the execution ground: "In order to repay Wu You, if my wife gives birth to a boy, she will be named 'Wu Sheng'......."
Coincidentally, there is a similar record in the Jin book "The Biography of Qiao Zhiming", saying that a young man Zhang Dui avenged his father and killed someone, although he had a wife, but he had no heirs.
* Qiao Zhiming was very sympathetic, so he quietly let the criminal go home and find an opportunity to reunite with his wife and have children.
Someone encouraged the criminal to escape, and the criminal said, Master Qiao is so good to me, if I escape, won't it be a burden to others?
Later, the criminal's wife gave birth to a boy, and he was satisfied and took the initiative to return to the case.
It can be seen that the phenomenon of listening to his wife in prison does exist, although it has not been written into the national criminal law, but it can be written into the biography, which shows that individual rulers are acquiesced in this, otherwise they would not dare to take this risk.
All in all, it is more humane and in line with the characteristics of modern civilization; But it only applies to death row and male prisoners, which is a far cry from the modern system of family visitation.
References:
"Legal Analysis of the System of "Listening to Wives and Going to Prison" by Du Minjie
Book of the Later Han Dynasty. Volume 64: The Biography of Wu Yanshi Lu Zhao Lie
"The Traditional Connotation of Listening to the Wife and Prison System", Journal of Heilongjiang Institute of Education, Chen Jingtao, Hangzhou Normal University