There is a famous saying in ancient China: "The Son of Heaven breaks the law and commits the same crime as the common people." However, in the era of the rule of feudal dynasties, it was difficult to achieve this sentence.
Why? Quite simply, the Son of Heaven, as the de facto ruler of the state apparatus, controls the military and political power. At the same time, they are also the holders of the right to interpret ideologies, and they can easily find someone to substitute for the crime, or use other means to offset the crime.
Although the Son of Heaven is not allowed to be condemned, the Son of Heaven can condemn the vassal king. For example, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born poor, found that his son had committed a crime, which caused a great turmoil, so he sentenced his son Zhu Tan to "punishment".
Regarding Zhu Yuanzhang's son, people are most familiar with the crown prince Zhu Biao and Yan Wang Zhu Di.
Zhu Biao can be said to be the crown prince with the most stable position in ancient China. He is the eldest son of Queen Ma and Zhu Yuanzhang, born in Zhu Yuanzhang's entrepreneurial period, and has excelled in governing the country. Unfortunately, however, Zhu Biao died young.
In contrast, Zhu Di's story is more legendary. He was the only vassal king in Chinese history to successfully rebel. After seizing the throne, he spent his life proving to the world that he was better than his nephew Zhu Yunwen.
As for Zhu Tan, people don't know much about him.
Zhu Tan is not Zhu Yuanzhang's eldest son, so he has no say in the battle for the succession to the throne. According to historical records, Zhu Tan was born in the third year of Hongwu (that is, in 1370) and was the tenth son born to Zhu Yuanzhang and Concubine Guo Ning.
After the overthrow of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor in Nanjing. In order to better manage the lands he conquered and consolidate his rule, he adopted the strategy of "emulating the Zhou and Han systems and dividing the princes to establish a Ping domain".
In addition to the eldest son Zhu Biao, who was named the crown prince, the remaining 24 sons were successively sealed in important state capitals across the country.
Zhu Tan was just two months old, and when he was still in infancy, he was named King Lu and became one of the first princes of Zhu Yuanzhang.
Because Zhu Tan was young and still in his infancy, he could not handle the affairs of the domain, so he stayed in Nanjing until the eighteenth year of Hongwu (1385). By this time, Zhu Tan was sent to Yanzhou, Shandong Province to take power.
Zhu Tan was originally a positive young man, full of interest in literature since he was a child, and treated people with humility and courtesy, which made Zhu Yuanzhang, who did not attach much importance to education, feel gratified.
Zhu Yuanzhang was happy, promoted Zhu Tan's status, and issued an order to upgrade Yanzhou to a government.
Originally, the domains managed by Zhu Tan only included Jining, Caozhou, Yizhou, and Dongping. However, with the upgrading to a prefecture, the jurisdiction has expanded a lot, including 23 counties such as Ziyang, Qufu, Ningyang, and Zou County, all of which are under the jurisdiction of Zhu Tan, the king of Lu.
As a result of this move, the area under Zhu Tan's jurisdiction accounted for about a quarter of the total area of Shandong's political division at that time, and the population accounted for about one-third of the total population. Therefore, Yanzhou became Zhu Tan's base.
However, after a long period of stability, Zhu Tan began to become indulgent.
He built the palace of King Lu, surrounded by a moat, with various institutions inside, with a total area of 550 acres and a circumference of about 2,420 meters.
In addition to investing a lot of money in his residence, Zhu Tan also indulged in the fantasy of alchemy and becoming an immortal, hoping to live forever. He burned incense and chanted sutras all day long, refining gold pills, and constantly taking them.
Long-term use of heavy metals caused Zhu Tan to suffer from neurasthenia and often had splitting headaches.
For the sake of this stubborn disease, Zhu Tan recruited magicians from all over the world.
These Jianghu Langzhong gave Zhu Tan a terrible suggestion, claiming that ** headache needs to use the root of the child's life as a medicine guide.
Zhu Tan listened to the words of these Jianghu Langzhong and ordered the royal soldiers to forcibly requisition children from villages all over Yanzhou. This move caused great panic, and the news reached Zhu Yuanzhang's ears.
Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and ordered all these Jianghu Lang to be executed, and Zhu Tan was punished with "stalking".
thought that Zhu Tan would learn a lesson, but he was even more indulgent and continued to take the elixir.
In the end, due to the miraculous effect of the elixir, Zhu Tan was poisoned and blinded, and finally died. It is mentioned in historical records that Zhu Tan "took gold and stone medicine, and poisoned his eyes".
Zhu Tan was only eighteen years old, and he ended his short life with this.
After learning of this, Zhu Yuanzhang was both angry and sad, and was deeply disappointed by Zhu Tan's behavior. In addition to anger, he gave Zhu Tan a piercing evil word - "desolate".
After Zhu Tan died, according to the prince's etiquette, a mausoleum was built for him at the southern foot of Jiulong Mountain, 25 miles northeast of Zoucheng City, Shandong. Since Zhu Tan was one of the first princes to die, his mausoleum is also known as the "first mausoleum of the prince in the early Ming Dynasty".
Zhu Tan was absurd and unreasonable, and his death caused a lot of discussion. However, many people are not clear about the punishment of "髡形" imposed by Zhu Yuanzhang on his son, and even the pronunciation of the word "髡" is not clear.
In fact, the character "髡" is pronounced "(kun)", and "髡刑" is the name of a punishment in ancient China.
Regarding the "髡 punishment", "Shuowen Jie Zi" explains: "髡, shave your hair. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the "Punishment of the Body" already existed. There is a sentence in Qu Yuan's "Chu Ci and Shijiang": "Pick up the public opinion." It describes a hermit in the Chu State in the Spring and Autumn Period, who was punished with a head for committing a crime.
In ancient history, archaeological discoveries have confirmed that in the Qin and Han dynasties, the cruel punishment of "髡" has long existed as an independent punishment.
Archaeological discoveries show that the content of "unauthorized killing, punishment, and punishment of future generations" is recorded in the "Legal Questions and Answers", indicating that the existence of "髡punishment" has long been conclusively recorded in the text unearthed by Qin Jian in the Sleeping Tiger Land.
Evidence shows that "punishment" as a punishment is not only supported by excavated cultural relics. It is specifically described in the "Customs and Customs": "Qin Shi Huang sent Meng Tian to build the Great Wall, and the criminals were banished to Xianbei Mountain, and then multiplied. These men were all shaved as a sign of outlaws. This account makes it clear that the prisoners who went to build the Great Wall were also forced to receive a mustache as a mark of distinction from normal soldiers.
According to the Taiping Imperial Review, "execution" was practiced throughout the ages, but there are still questions about how the convicts' hair was shaved.
In the "Treatise on Corporal Punishment" quoted in volume 642, he criticized the judicial injustice at that time, and there was a folk proverb that said: "Han Bomi, a wealthy disciple in Luoyang, is not one of the three hundred flogging, and his head is up to his ears and knees." This proverb implies that criminals are "punished" and that their hair should have been shaved to their ears, but due to the favoritism of officials, the hair could be kept up to the knees.
In addition, the Book of Jin also has a record of "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 record clearly states that felons who have been subjected to "scabooping" should not have more than three inches of hair, and provides a clear explanation for this.
In the field of archaeology, there is a wise saying: "Isolated evidence does not stand", which means that a single piece of evidence is not enough to support a conclusion. The same principle applies to our treatment of historical punishments, and it is not enough to rely on historical descriptions, and we need more empirical evidence of excavated artifacts to fully understand this punishment.
Recently, a precious portrait stone was found in the tomb of Sun Cong, the Taishou of Hanyang in the late Han Dynasty, excavated from the Liangtai in front of Zhucheng, Shandong, and a "flogging map" was depicted on it. In the picture, the long hair of a prisoner is being cut short.
These archaeological discoveries clearly show that the execution was not a complete shaving of the prisoner's hair, nor was it merely shaving the hair around the prisoner to leave the top to be used to tie the braids, but rather cutting the long hair into short hair, usually about three inches in length.
How enthusiastic were the ancient people about the "execution"? What are the cultural and legal factors involved?
Nowadays, for modern people, haircuts have become a commonplace part of daily life, and hair is only regarded as a symbol of beauty, and there is no other mysterious function. But in ancient times, the concept was very different.
The ancients attached great importance to hair. For example, Xu Shen's "Shuowen Jie Zi" points out that the word "fat" means "root". The "Kangxi Dictionary" also has a similar explanation: "the body of the kidney is in the hair", "the glory of the blood is in the hair". It can be seen that whether a person's kidneys are healthy and whether the blood is full can be glimpsed from the state of the hair.
The Book of Filial Piety also gives a high importance to hair, linking it to whether the child is filial piety, emphasizing: "The hair of the body is given by the parents, and there can be no harm in the slightest, which is the starting point of filial piety." ”
It can be seen that damaging other people's hair is a very serious act. In the eyes of ancient people, hair was not just ordinary hair on the top of the head, but was actually closely related to the human soul and was a gathering place for the essence of the body. Once the hair is cut off, the body will lose its vitality and aura, and life and health will be threatened accordingly.
In ancient times, it was a common practice to sacrifice to the living, but with the progress of civilization, this cruel custom was gradually eliminated.
However, the importance of sacrificial rituals cannot be overlooked, so people have started using substitutes such as hair to achieve the same effect. In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Cao Cao was frightened and accidentally stepped into a wheat field.
And he once declared that those who destroyed the fertile land would be severely punished. So, Cao Cao picked up the knife and planned to execute himself. It was only after the persuasion of his advisers that he decided to cut off his beard and hair as a substitute for punishment.
China is not unique in its superstitious beliefs about hair, and there are similar legends in Europe.
For example, Samson, the Hercules described in the Old Testament Book of Judges, is said to have had superhuman strength due to his long hair, and once shaved off, he lost his strength. The ancient Franks also believed that shaving their hair was as great as losing their life. It can be said that hair was regarded as an extremely important item in the early development of various civilizations.
In addition to the harm that cutting your hair can cause to your health, even the cut hair itself is tied to the fate of the individual. If it falls into the hands of an enemy or a ghost, the will of the person may be controlled.
The ancient Persians also performed the necessary rituals when cutting their hair and buried their hair alone in an outdoor cave.
Confucius's book "Calling the Soul" mentions a group that emerged during the Qianlong period to cut children's hair, causing panic in society.
Conclusion: Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang's "punishment" of his son Zhu Tan can be regarded as an extremely severe punishment.
Although Zhu Tan was not physically harmed, he suffered a heavy blow mentally. This caused him to live in extreme fear every day, coupled with Zhu Tan showing no signs of repentance, continued to indulge in drugs, and eventually passed away.
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