From ancient times to the present, rulers have often adopted various measures and means to maintain their authority. However, the most deterrent is undoubtedly criminal law. In ancient times, there were many types of criminal laws for prisoners, and a few simple torture instruments could make prisoners feel that life was worse than death.
The penal code for female prisoners is even more brutal. Normally, most corporal torture results in physical suffering, but more importantly, the punishment brings mental torture and humiliation to the prisoner.
The pain of some punishments can make the prisoner choose death rather than bear it. Why did many female prisoners in ancient times choose death rather than accept punishment?
Today, we will uncover several cruel punishments that were inflicted on female prisoners in ancient times.
The pain in my fingertips cannot be expressed in words. Execution, this seemingly ordinary punishment, can make people miserable. This punishment is done by holding the fingers with a torture instrument and then pulling hard.
Although it sounds simple, in reality, this kind of torture causes no less pain to the prisoner than the beating of a stick. The prisoner's fingers are tightly clamped with the torture instrument, and the pressure is enormous, and the pain that penetrates the heart will follow, and even the hands will be crippled.
In ancient times, this punishment was often used to extract confessions from the government, especially for female prisoners. Since women's hands are more delicate than men's, this punishment is more severe for them, whether it is physical or mental torture.
No matter which dynasty was in the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, the punishment was terrifying. It exists not only for punishment, but also for warning. It teaches us that no mistake can go unpunished, and that both men and women need to be held accountable for their actions.
1.Historically, women often relied on their hands for household chores such as laundry and cooking, and if they were tortured, their hands could be wasted, leading to insecurity in the future.
In addition to the punishment of the hands, there is an even more horrific form of punishment. 2.In ancient TV dramas, if a maid or servant made a big mistake, she would be punished by the interrogator by pricking her nails with a needle.
Compared with the punishment, the punishment of piercing the nails is more cruel. Interrogators usually immobilize the prisoner's body and then use a sharp bamboo stick or needle to pierce the prisoner's fingernails.
It is often said that "ten fingers are connected to the heart", so many women in ancient times would take good care of their hands, and the sharp pain of their slender hands being pierced by bamboo sticks and needles can be imagined.
1.Ancient Torture No. 3: One of the Five Cruel Punishments In ancient China, the cane, one of the five punishments, was an extremely cruel punishment for prisoners. The essence of cane punishment is to humiliate the prisoner, by making the prisoner strip naked, and then hitting the buttocks with bamboo sticks, wooden boards, wattles, etc.
Although the flesh on the buttocks is thick, if the hand is not particularly heavy, the cane punishment usually only causes the prisoner flesh and pain. However, for those female prisoners, the humiliation and mental torture are even more unbearable.
This kind of torture is compounded, and the prisoners can neither survive nor die, but can only endure it by force. As a result, many people would rather die than suffer such torture.
This kind of torturous punishment is really not something that ordinary people can bear. However, even so, ancient rulers would still use this torture as a sign of authority and deterrence.
In general, the ancient cane punishment was a very cruel and inhumane form of punishment, an insult and torture for the prisoner. The use of such torture is undoubtedly an affront to humanity and a violation of human rights.
Historically, Concubine Zhen has suffered a kind of torture called "stripping clothes and hitting the buttocks", and she is also the first concubine in history to be stripped of her clothes and punished with a cane. Concubine Zhen was open-minded and liked new things, and to the emperor, she was like a warm light, but this light annoyed Cixi.
In the end, because Concubine Zhen participated in an official sale incident and confronted Cixi, Cixi decided to rectify her, and used the official sale incident as a reason to order her to be punished with a cane.
Concubine Zhen was stripped naked in public and hit her buttocks with a wooden plank, and although she was not as physically strong as the man, the beating still left her half dead. This is enough to illustrate the damage and power of the cane.
However, what is more difficult to accept than physical pain is the mental humiliation and shame.
Fourth, the cruel punishment of the iron skirt The punishment of the iron skirt sounds interesting, but it is actually extremely cruel. It was a punishment specifically for women: the prisoner was roasted on a fire, but before that he was to wear a "skirt" made of pieces of iron.
When the metal torture instrument is roasted by fire, it will heat up and burn the prisoner's **. When the fire breaks out, the temperature of the iron skirt rises rapidly, and the prisoner will feel the pain as if he has been branded with a soldering iron, and the scene is terrible.
This punishment is more insulting than dead, and is usually used for women who have committed serious crimes. 5. The punishment of immersing the pig cage Immersing the pig cage is an ancient punishment that we all know, and it is depicted in many TV dramas.
When a woman in the village gets into trouble or doesn't follow women's morals, the village chief will take her and arrest her, put her in a cage made of bamboo strips, and throw her into the river.
This punishment made people more cautious about women's behavior, and it also reflected the strict requirements of society for women at the time.
In the old society, the people who came out of the wall were severely punished, the men were beaten to death with sticks, and the women were immersed alive in the pig cage and lynched. It was a cruel form of feudal practice, and many women would rather commit suicide than suffer such punishment.
In addition, there was a kind of torture in the old days, called "red embroidered shoes". The torture was performed by burning a pair of special iron shoes red and then putting them on barefoot.
The temperature of the iron shoes is extremely high, and the flesh of the prisoner will be burned, and then the soles of the prisoner's feet will be burned with blisters, and this punishment will be repeated repeatedly.
Two chilling tortures! In ancient times, the tortured prisoners were tortured by red embroidered shoes and tigers and leopards, and they could not survive or die.
Among them, the Red Embroidered Shoes make them susceptible to infection by repeatedly burning the soles of the feet, while the Tiger and Leopard Hip Chun is made by having the victim coexist with wild animals and lit firecrackers in sacks, where they are frightened, scratched, and then soaked in salt water in an unimaginably painful way.
Whether it is the red embroidered shoes or the tiger and leopard playful spring, they cannot hide their inhumane nature.
This kind of criminal law is really terrifying to hear, not to mention stripping naked, and the mere fact that a rat or cat is scratched and bitten in a sack and cannot get out of the restraints is enough to make the prisoner miserable.
What's even more cruel is that after the prisoners have been tortured, they have to expose their wounds to salt water, which is a fatal blow to add insult to injury, which is tantamount to driving people to death. Therefore, under such torture, very few people can survive.
Objectively speaking, this kind of criminal law is indeed inhumane, and no matter how serious the mistake is, the offender should not be treated in such an inhumane way, which is completely contrary to human nature.
This punishment is an extreme insult to the personality of the offender. Women love beauty, but it is undoubtedly shame and humiliation to shave their hair and walk down the street with a bare head.
Moreover, the ancients believed that the hair and ** of the body came from the parents, although it did not cause substantial harm to the body, but this punishment insulted and destroyed the personality, like a shadow over the prisoner.
I have to admit that the criminal law in ancient times was very cruel even today. Torture is torture for men and deprives women of their fertility.
According to the Shangshu Lü Xing, when female prisoners were tortured, wooden sticks would continue to hit them in the abdomen, causing damage to their internal organs and loss of fertility.
If a woman is subject to this criminal law before giving birth, she must lose not only a chance for a mother, but also hope for the future. 10. Ink punishment, one of the five punishments of the ancients, pierced the prisoner's skin with a needle of ink, leaving a pattern or text.
It is usually applied to the face or forehead, and although it is not harmful to the body, the main purpose is to punish the heart. The ancients attached great importance to appearance, and female prisoners were even more afraid of this punishment, once they left marks on their faces, they would ruin their lives.
Although in ancient times "ink punishment" originated as a form of punishment, it has now become fashionable. While it can cause physical trauma to people, its deeper effects are mental torture on people.
Even though it has been abolished legally, the spirit of "ink punishment" remains, telling us that the mistakes of the past, no matter how they are covered up, will always leave traces.
And the modern tattoo culture may be a reflection and transcendence of this mistake.
Conclusion: In the long course of history, countless punishments have been inflicted on women, causing them deep harm. Even if convicted, women should still be treated with respect and should not be treated as such.
However, many people are tortured to death or commit suicide due to mental stress, which has extremely negative effects on individuals and society.
These punishments undoubtedly brought deep fear and ** to the people, but the wheels of history are rolling forward, feudal society has become a thing of the past, and the current society is harmonious and peaceful, and naturally the existence of these punishments is no longer needed.