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Five Punishments

The Five Punishments (Chinese: 五刑; pinyin: wǔ xíng; Cantonese Yale: ńgh yìhng) was the collective name for a series of physical penalties meted out by the legal system of pre-modern dynastic China.[1] Over time, the nature of the Five Punishments varied. Before the Western Han dynasty Emperor Han Wendi (r. 180–157 BC), the punishments involved tattooing, cutting off the nose, amputation of one or both feet, castration, and death.[2][3] Following the Sui and Tang dynasties (581–907 AD), these were changed to penal servitude, banishment, death, or corporal punishment in the form of whipping with bamboo strips or flogging with a stick. Although the Five Punishments were an important part of Dynastic China's penal system, they were not the only methods of punishment used.

Mò (墨), also known as qíng (黥), where the offender would be tattooed on the face or forehead with indelible ink.

Yì (劓), where the offender's nose was cut off without .

anesthesia

Yuè (刖), also known as bìn (臏) during the and zhǎnzhǐ (斬趾) during the Qin dynasty, involved amputation of the left or right foot or both. Other sources claim that this punishment involved removal of the kneecap, which is claimed to be where the name of Sun Bin, a Warring States period military strategist, comes from. A recent study of a female skeleton found in 1999 revealed her to be the oldest corpse found with evidence of yuè.[7]

Xia dynasty

Gōng (宮), also known as yínxíng (淫刑), fǔxíng (腐刑)[9] or cánshì xíng (蠶室刑), where the male offender's reproductive organs were removed.[10][11] The penis was removed and testicles were cut off (emasculation), and the offender was sentenced to work as a eunuch in the Imperial palace.[12][13] Gōng for men was applied to the same crime as Gōngxing for women, namely adultery, licentious or promiscuous activity.[14]

[8]

Dà Pì (大辟), the death sentence. Methods of execution were quartering, or cutting the body into four pieces (分為戮; fēn wéi lù); (烹; pēng); tearing off an offender's head and four limbs by attaching them to chariots (車裂; chēliè); beheading (梟首; xiāoshǒu); execution then abandonment of the offender's body in the local public market (棄市; qìshì); strangulation (絞; jiǎo); and slow slicing (凌遲; língchí). Other methods of execution were also used.

boiling alive

Apart from the death penalty, the remaining four Punishments for Slaves were designed to bring about damage to their bodies that would mark them for life.[4] All ordinary citizens were subject to these punishments.[5] These punishments were for men. The number of crimes to which the punishment was applicable is listed next to each one.[6]

Chī

[16]

Zhàng

[16]

Tú

[16]

Liú

[16]

Sĭ (死), . Following the Sui and Tang dynasties there were generally two options: hanging (絞; jiǎo) or decapitation (斬; zhǎn). From the Song dynasty (970–1279 AD) onwards, slow slicing (凌遲; língchí) along with beheading (梟首; xiāoshŏu) were also used. The death penalty could be remitted on payment of 42 guàn in copper cash.[16]

death penalty

During the Western Han dynasty, tattooing and amputation were abolished as punishments and in subsequent dynasties, the five punishments underwent further modification. By the Sui dynasty, the five punishments had attained the basic form they would have until the end of the imperial era. This is a brief survey of the five punishments during the Qing dynasty:[15]


The scale of the remittance payments can be gauged from the fact that at the era of the Qianlong Emperor (1735–1796), the average wage of a construction laborer in Zhili Province was 0.72 wén or 0.6 troy ounces of silver per day.[17]


These punishments were applied to women for the same crimes as committed by men.

Traditional Chinese law

girl who persuaded Emperor Wen of Han to abolish the Five Punishments.

Ti Ying