There is an ancient saying in ancient China, which is called "The Son of Heaven violates the law and is guilty of the same crime as the common people". However, in the imperial era of the feudal dynasty, it was really difficult to put this sentence into practice.
Why? Quite simply, the Son of Heaven, as the de facto ruler of the state apparatus, holds the military and political power. On the other hand, it is also the owner of the ideological interpretation power, and he can find someone to substitute for the crime, or in some other way to offset the crime.
Although no one in the country dares to condemn the Son of Heaven, the Son of Heaven can condemn the vassal king. For example, in the early days of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the poor middle peasant emperor, saw that his son had committed a crime, and the movement was too big, so he executed his son Zhu Tan to "torture".
About Zhu Yuanzhang's son, people know the most about the crown prince Zhu Biao and Yan Wang Zhu Di.
Zhu Biao can be said to be the most stable crown prince of the ancient Chinese dynasty, Zhu Biao is the eldest son of Queen Ma and Zhu Yuanzhang, born in Zhu Yuanzhang's entrepreneurial period, he is a good hand in governing the country, but unfortunately Zhu Biao died young.
Zhu Di is even more legendary, he is the only Chinese feudal king who successfully rebelled, and after winning the emperor's throne, he has been proving to the world all his life that he is much more qualified than his nephew Zhu Yunwen.
For Zhu Tan, people don't know much about it.
Zhu Tan is not Zhu Yuanzhang's sister-in-law, so naturally he bid farewell to the battle for the throne in advance. Historical records record that Zhu Tan was born in the third year of Hongwu (that is, in 1370), and was born to Zhu Yuanzhang and Concubine Guo Ning, ranking tenth.
After the overthrow of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor in Nanjing, in order to better manage the country and consolidate his rule, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the strategy of "imitating the system of the Zhou and Han dynasties, dividing the king's sons and sons, and building the Ping domain".
In addition to the eldest son Zhu Biao as the crown prince, the remaining 24 sons were successively sealed in important state capitals across the country.
Just two months after he landed, Zhu Tan, who was still in infancy, was named King of Lu and was one of the first princes to be crowned by Zhu Yuanzhang.
Due to Zhu Tan's young age and still babbling, he was unable to manage the affairs of the domain, so he had to stay in Nanjing until the eighteenth year of Hongwu (1385). As soon as the time came, Zhu Tan went to Yanzhou, Shandong Province to take power.
Originally, Zhu Tan was still a positive and promising young man, he loved literature since he was a child, and he was humble to the corporal on weekdays, which made Zhu Yuanzhang, who had not received much serious education, deeply gratified.
As soon as his father was happy, Zhu Tan's status also rose a lot, and he decreed that Yanzhou should be promoted to the government.
Originally, the domains managed by Zhu Tan were only Jining, Caozhou, Yizhou, and Dongping. At this time, it immediately expanded a lot, and twenty-three counties such as Ziyang, Qufu, Ningyang, and Zou County all belonged to Zhu Tan, the king of Lu.
The area under its jurisdiction accounted for about a quarter of the total area of the Shandong Buzheng Division at that time, and the population accounted for about one-third of the total population of the Shandong Buzheng Division at that time.
Life has been normal for a long time, and is not under Zhu Yuanzhang's nose, Zhu Tan began to get carried away.
The palace of King Lu was built, with a moat on the periphery and a subordinate institution on the inside, with a total area of 550 acres and a circumference of about 2,420 meters.
Not only is he building a lot of construction on his residence, but Zhu Tan is also obsessed with "alchemy and becoming an immortal", thinking that he will be immortal one day. Burning incense and chanting scriptures all day long, refining gold pills, and swallowing them every day.
Due to the long-term use of heavy metals, Zhu Tan suffered from neurasthenia and often had headaches.
For the sake of this stubborn disease, Zhu Tan also recruited Fang Immortal Warlocks from all over the country.
These swaggering warlocks gave Zhu Tan a bad idea, saying that he had a headache and needed to use the lifeblood of the child's body as a medicine.
As soon as Zhu Tan heard this, he ordered the soldiers of the palace to force the villages in Yanzhou to sacrifice their sons. The matter became bigger and bigger, and it reached Zhu Yuanzhang's ears.
Zhu Yuanzhang, who was furious, ordered that all these warlocks be executed, and Zhu Tan was also punished with "stalking".
thought that Zhu Tan would be able to reform himself, but who would have thought that Zhu Tan would become even worse and continue to take pills. As the saying goes, "Heaven is evil, but it is forgiving." and thou shalt not live. ”
Zhu Tan, who was young and menstruating, was injured by the mineral toxins in the elixir, and even became blind. Historical records record that Zhu Tan "baited gold and stone medicine, poisoned and injured his eyes".
Zhu Tan, who was hopeless, died of death, and his life expectancy was forever fixed at the best age of eighteen.
After Zhu Yuanzhang learned about it, he was also helpless, both angry and sad, and gave Zhu Tan a vicious nickname - "Wild".
After Zhu Tan's death, he built a mausoleum for him at the southern foot of Jiulong Mountain, 25 miles northeast of Zoucheng City, Shandong Province, according to the princely etiquette system. Because Zhu Tan died the earliest, Zhu Tan's mausoleum is also known as "the first mausoleum of the prince in the early Ming Dynasty".
Zhu Tan is unscrupulous, and it is not a pity to die, but many people don't understand what kind of punishment Zhu Yuanzhang inflicted on his son, and they don't even know the pronunciation of the word "髡".
In fact, "髡" is pronounced as "(kun)", and "髡刑" is the name of a punishment in ancient China.
Regarding the "髡 punishment", the explanation given in the "Shuowen Jie Zi" is "髡, shaving your hair." As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the "Punishment of the Body" already existed. Qu Yuan's "Chu Ci and Shijiang" said: "Pick up the public opinion. "It's about a hermit in the Chu State called Jieyu in the Spring and Autumn Period, who committed a crime and was punished by the head of the body.
There are archaeological facts to support the fact that the "髡" was used as an independent punishment in the Qin and Han dynasties.
For example, the "Legal Questions and Answers" unearthed by Qin Jian in the Sleeping Tiger Land recorded: "Unauthorized killing, punishment, and striking." It can be seen that "髡" and killing are juxtaposed, which proves that "髡 punishment" already existed in the Qin Dynasty.
"Punishment" as a punishment, not only with unearthed cultural relics as an endorsement. It is clearly mentioned in the "General Principles of Customs":"Qin Shi Huang sent Meng Tian to build the Great Wall, but he committed a crime in vain, died in Xianbei Mountain, and then multiplied. Now they are all heads, as the effect of the dead. ”This also shows that the prisoners who go to build the Great Wall also have to be beheaded, which can be regarded as a sign that distinguishes normal soldiers.
Since we know that there have been "slashes" in all dynasties, we also know that "shaved the hair" of criminals in the past. But there are doubts about how the prisoners' hair was shaved.
If you want to find the answer, you have to rely on the introduction of "Taiping Yulan". When criticizing the miscarriage of justice at the time, quoted in volume 642, the Treatise on Corporal Punishment, a folk proverb says:"Luoyang Haotu Han Bomi, plus three hundred flogging, not one hit, head to ears and knees. ”
From here, it can be seen that the criminals were subjected to "torture", and the length of the hair could only be kept to the ears, but due to the favoritism of the officials, the hair could be kept up to the knees. The Book of Jin also records the knowledge related to the "punishment", saying:"The ancients used torture to stop the ......For example, if the deceased is a repeat offender, he will be severely punished if he has been sent three inches. ”
This historical document clearly mentions that the hair of a felons who have been "punished" cannot exceed three inches, which is a clear explanation.
In archaeology, there is a saying that "isolated evidence does not stand", that is, evidence alone cannot be used as a conclusive conclusion. When applied to the "punishment", we cannot only rely on the records of historical materials, but also need the empirical evidence of unearthed cultural relics.
In the portrait stone unearthed from the tomb of Sun Cong in Hanyang Taishou in the late Han Dynasty in front of the Liangtai in Zhucheng, Shandong, there is a "beard map". The long hair of the tortured person is being shaved short.
All this shows that the "shaved hair" of the prisoner was not to shave all the prisoner's hair, nor was it only to shave the hair around him, and to use the top hair as a braid to droop, but to cut off the long hair into short hair, the length of which was generally three inches long.
So why were the ancients so keen to impose "executions" on those criminals? What are the cultural and legal factors behind it?
Today, for modern people, haircutting is a habitual behavior, and hair only plays a beautiful role, and has no other mysterious function, but this was not the case in ancient times when the concept was strong.
The ancients attached great importance to hair. For example, Xu Shen's "Shuowen Jie Zi" says that the word "fa" is "root". "Kangxi Dictionary" also has the saying that "the body of the kidney is in the hair" and "the glory of the blood is in the hair". Whether a person's kidney function is sound or not, and whether the blood gas is sufficient, can be judged from a person's hair.
The Book of Filial Piety even raised the hair to a very high status, and whether the child was filial piety was linked, said:"The body is skinned, and the parents who receive it dare not hurt a single centimeter, and the beginning of filial piety is also. ”
It can be seen that hurting someone's hair is quite a serious thing. In the eyes of the ancients, hair was not just an ordinary hair on the top of the head, but was actually associated with the soul of a person, and was a gathering place for the essence of a person's body. Once a person's hair is cut off, the body will lose its vitality and vitality, and its life and health will be threatened accordingly.
In ancient times, human sacrifices were often used to sacrifice to the gods, but with the continuous development of civilization, this bad habit was gradually removed.
However, the various rituals and processes of the sacrifice are indispensable, and people have begun to use hair as a substitute, and there is room for turnaround. In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Cao Cao was frightened by his horse and accidentally stepped into a wheat field.
But Cao Cao had already said in advance, saying that those who destroy the fertile land will be decided. Cao Cao, who loves to show off, also picked up a knife and wanted to cut himself. It was still the strategists who persuaded him hard, and Cao Cao cut off his beard and hair as a substitute for himself.
Superstition about hair is not unique to China, and there are similar legends in Europe.
For example, the superhuman strength of Samson, the Hercules in the Old Testament Book of Judges**, was due to his long hair, and when he was shaved off, Samson lost his strength. The ancient Franks also believed that if you were haircut, you would lose your life. It can be said that the importance of hair was an extremely important item in the early stages of the development of various civilizations.
Not only will cutting off hair hurt people's health, but even cut hair is closely related to people's real fate. If it falls into the hands of enemies and ghosts, people's will will be controlled.
The ancient Persians also performed the necessary rituals when cutting their hair and buried it alone in the open air.
Kong Feili's book "Calling the Soul" mentions that during the Qianlong period, there was a group that specially cut off children's hair, causing social panic.
From this point of view, Zhu Yuanzhang's "execution" of his son Zhu Tan is indeed an extremely serious punishment.
Although Zhu Tan was not physically traumatized, he undoubtedly suffered a major blow mentally. So much so that he was worried every day, and Zhu Tan did not repent, continued to take drugs, and finally died.
References
"Exploring the Origin: From the Perspective of Legal Anthropology", Chinese and Foreign Legal History Research, No.5, 2009.
The tomb of King Lu of Jiulong Mountain - the first mausoleum in the early Ming Dynasty Yu Qiuwei.