Sima Qian suffered an extremely cruel punishment at that time - rotting. Before being tortured, he had to tie his hands and feet like a butchered pig, then tie him to a wooden frame with a rope, strip him naked, and then A beating. What is even more unbearable is the psychological damage, because after suffering this kind of punishment, he becomes a eunuch and is no longer a complete man. In the years to come, he must face the ruthless ridicule and ridicule of the world. . For Sima Qian, who came from a family of officials and was well-read in poetry and books, this was really a great shame and humiliation.
Also known as castration
Corruption is also known as castration
1. What is castration
"Gong" means "husband's circumcision" "The force is such that women are closed in the palace", which is a kind of physical punishment that castrates men's genitals and destroys women's reproductive functions. Palace punishment is also known as silkworm room, rotting punishment, underworld punishment and death penalty. These different names reflect the cruelty of this punishment. The so-called silkworm room, according to the explanation by Yan Shigu, a Tang Dynasty person: "Anyone who raises silkworms wants it to be warm and ready early, so it is a silkworm room, and the livestock fire is used to put it. The new rotten punishment also has the risk of stroke, and it is necessary to enter the secret room (perhaps the earliest "The concept of sterile room" can be saved because it is called a silkworm room. "This means that after being castrated, ordinary people are very susceptible to stroke due to the wounds. If they want to survive, they must stay in a secret room like a silkworm room. Only by squatting for hundreds of days in an environment without wind or sunlight can the wounds heal. Castration is also called corruption, because for the victim, it is not only physically painful, but also mentally humiliating. From then on, he is like a rotten tree, which has a rod but cannot be strong. Castor punishment, also known as vaginal punishment, refers to the punishment of a man or woman’s private parts. It is called the punishment of punishment, which is found in "Shangshu Lu Xing Chapter". According to "Shuowen", "椓" means to strike with a stick. According to Ma Guohan's "Tonggeng Tie", there was a method of using wood in ancient times. The stick is used to hit a woman's lower body to destroy her reproductive function.
2. The origin of castration
The emergence of castration has a long history in Chinese history. There are several references to the five punishments and palace punishment in the Book of Documents. For example, in the Code of Yao, there is a saying that "the five punishments must be served." The unearthed golden inscriptions on the Zhou tripod today include "Zhonghuanfu's tripod", which says: "Zhonghuan's father made the tripod, and his descendants will always use it." In "Shangshu Lu Xing Pian", there is "Gong refutes suspicions of corruption, and Lu Xing penalizes punishment" "Six hundred coins, it is a crime to read"; it also says: "The beginning of sexual intercourse is 哓, 刖, 椓 (ie palace), tattoo". It also says: "Shun's code of five punishments, palace." "Shenzi" has it. : "Yu was executed five times, with Aibi as the palace." "Zhou Rites" says: "The summer palace was built with five hundred people." From the above records, later generations generally believe that palace punishment appeared at least before Xia Yu. In the Zhou Dynasty, men who had been castrated were called "eunuchs". The word "Temple" is composed of the two characters "Shi" and "Cun". In ancient times, "Shi" was a pictographic character for male genitals. In historical books, "Shiren" refers to men, and "Shinu" refers to men and women; "Cun" resembles Holding a knife in one hand, "Shi" and "Cun" combined together means cutting off the male genitals with the knife. When a man is subjected to castration, it is generally understood that the penis is cut off from the roots, but according to ancient records, there are also cases where the scrotum and testicles are destroyed. For example, the book "Yun Hui" says: "The external kidney is the force, and the male is cut by castration. The external kidney refers to the scrotum and testicles. If they are destroyed, the human gonads will no longer develop, the penis will not be able to erect, and sexual ability will be lost. .
3. The purpose of castration
According to research, the original function of castration was to punish improper sexual relations between men and women, that is, "women who are promiscuous must not be detained in the palace." "If a husband commits adultery, he will be cut off from his power." "Fu Sheng Shu" reports: "If a man and a woman do not have a righteous relationship, they will be punished in the palace." "It can be inferred from this that castration is something that happened after the emergence of monogamy. Otherwise, there would be no punishment for improper sexual relations between men and women. Moreover, judging from the arrangement of the five punishments, castration is corporal punishment. The most serious one was second only to Dapi (beheading). Obviously, people at that time still had the influence of the primitive people's worship of genitals. The value of genitals was second only to the head. The legendary Yao and Shun were roughly the patriarchal clans of China. During the period when society was transitioning to a class society, monogamy was gradually established, so it is entirely possible that castration began to appear at that time.
The initial role of castration was limited to punishing improper sexual relations between men and women. This was realistic when the human marriage system had just entered the threshold of civilization. However, under the brutal rule of the slave-owning class and feudal rulers, the scope of castration expanded to the point where it was completely irrelevant to the original intention. It became a harsh method to suppress civilians and those with dissident thoughts. There is no clear record in history when this expansion began, but as late as King Mu of the Zhou Dynasty, it had stipulated "five hundred palace crimes" and was punished by palace punishment in the Western Zhou Dynasty. There are quite a lot of them, and the subjects of punishment are the majority of slaves and ordinary people. As for the slave-owning nobles, "the public family does not have castration, and they do not cut off their kind." "Not cutting off their kind" means that their descendants will not be exterminated. Those who were found guilty of being in the palace would only serve the penalty of being sentenced to death. The prisoner's head would be shaved off and his neck would be chained to perform hard labor. "Those who are not concubine will be of the same clan as the king." This shows how distinct the class nature of ancient punishments was. The scope of the application of castration became wider and wider in later generations. For example, in the Warring States Period, "Liezi Shuofu Pian" records that someone once advised the King of Qin to govern the country with benevolence and righteousness. The King of Qin imposed castration on the crime of "ruling our country with benevolence and righteousness will be the way to destruction." " This shows that the feudal rulers have sentenced people to castration for crimes that endanger the country. "Historical Records: The Chronicles of Qin Shihuang" records that when Qin Shihuang built Afang Palace and Lishan Mountain, he discovered that more than 700,000 prisoners were serving in the hidden palace. Here " "Hidden Palace" refers to castration. There must be many people among the more than 700,000 people who have been castrated.
4. The Development of Palace Punishment
The Qin Dynasty quickly fell due to its brutal rule, and the Han Dynasty that followed was not much better in nature. Castration was more common in the Han Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, although it was stipulated that certain death sentences could be replaced by castration, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was cruel by nature. During his reign, official history recorded ministers such as Sima Qian, Zhang He, and Li Yannian who were subjected to castration. Because Sima Qian told the truth when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty asked for his opinion, he defended Li Ling who surrendered to the Huns. Because Zhang He was lucky enough to be the crown prince of Wei, the crown prince was defeated and Zhang He was also sentenced to death. Emperor Zhao of the Eastern Han Dynasty also issued an edict: "Those who are extremely rebellious and have no moral principles will be killed, and all those who die will be sent to the silkworm room." This law expanded the scope of castration. Ministers and officials who slightly disobey the will of the supreme ruler will be tortured, and civilians must be ravaged by this torture in greater numbers. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, castration was still carried out. In particular, the Northern Wei Dynasty had clear regulations on the implementation of palace punishment. According to Volume 16 of "Tongzhi", in the Northern Wei Dynasty, all those who committed "high rebellion and immorality must be executed, their fellow citizens must be punished, and those under the age of fourteen shall be punished by corruption." Therefore, palace punishment was generally used in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Yu was considered to be the descendant of a rebel. For example, in Volume 94 of "Book of Wei", Pingji was sentenced to death because his father and the monk attempted to rebel. The crime of those who were subjected to castration was slightly less than the death penalty. Even if they were pardoned, they were sent to the government as slaves. For example, the emperor of the Northern Qi Dynasty once showed mercy and exempted those who were originally sentenced to be castrated as official slaves.
From the above history, although the scope of execution of castration has expanded, although it is not only used as a cruel method to suppress the rebels as a punishment for improper sexual relations between men and women, it is still closely related to sexual relations. There is a certain connection, that is, the victim is incapacitated and has no descendants. This is indeed very harsh in a feudal society that attaches great importance to heirs and future generations! Castration also has the purpose of destroying the body and spirit of the victim. The victim will be humiliated for life, and life is worse than death. Sima Qian is a strong-willed and ambitious man, but whenever he thinks of the shame of being castrated, he still sweats and wants to "seduce suicide" and no longer wants to live. The use of this kind of torture cannot but arouse the opposition of some upright people in history. Famous ones include Chen Zhong and Kong Rong during the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Wang Lang of the Wei State during the Three Kingdoms period. They all advocated the abolition of palace punishment and other cruel corporal punishments. However, there are also some people who adhere to the will of the supreme ruler and cling to castration, such as Zhong Yao and Chen Qun, who were contemporaries of Kong Rong and Wang Lang. Although palace punishment was officially abolished when the Sui Dynasty was established, and this provision was no longer found in the punishment system of subsequent dynasties, some emperors and some nobles still imposed it arbitrarily according to their own will until the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
For example, An Lushan of the Tang Dynasty once castrated a man named Zhu'er, who bled several liters and almost died; later, An Lushan was also killed by Zhu'er's seppuku. "In the early days, Zhu'er came out of the Wife Dan tribe. He was in Lushan (An) when he was more than ten years old. He was very wise and shrewd. Lushan used the blade to eliminate all his power, and the blood flowed several times. He was about to die. Lushan used ash fire to burn him until the sun was gone. And Su. Because Lushan favored him, he was the most trustworthy. Lushan was strong (he weighed three hundred and thirty kilograms), and three or four people helped him when he was wearing clothes. Two people lifted his belly and the pig's head After wearing it, he began to take off the skirt belt and tie the belt. Xuanzong favored Lushan and gave him a bath in Huaqing Palace, and all allowed pigs and others to help him untie his clothes. "Another example is Zhu Yuanzhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty. His "Great Edict" stipulated many severe punishments, including the content of castration into slavery. In the ninth year of Hongwu's reign in the Ming Dynasty, the Qinshen Hall was built in the Nanjing Imperial Palace. Only because the relevant officials mistook the middle-class craftsmen as top-class craftsmen, Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that he wanted to castrate all the more than 2,000 craftsmen. Fortunately, someone tried their best to stop them, so he was able to These craftsmen were spared a terrible disaster. But it can also be seen from this how arbitrary and casual the feudal rulers used castration. In the Ming Dynasty, not only the court used castration, but some senior generals also used excessive force. According to "Wanli Yehuo Ji", during the reign of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty, Prince Jingyuan actually castrated young children into slaves during a campaign in a certain place. , Ming Yingzong did not interfere after knowing it, which shows that this practice was allowed at that time. In the Qing Dynasty, there were so-called "leap punishments", that is, some tortures that were not clearly listed in the punishment system, and it was inevitable that there was no palace punishment among them.
5. The operation of castration
Earlier castration may have been inspired by castrated animals. Of course, there was no concept of asepsis at that time. It is conceivable that many people died due to failure to treat wound infection. However, life does not receive due attention in China, whether in ancient times or today, and it is nothing.
The castration or castration techniques before the Qing Dynasty were probably very crude and simple, but by the Qing Dynasty, the castration technology, which was in the same vein as castration, had developed to its extreme.
Before children who are going to be eunuchs undergo "purification" surgery, they must first sign a contract, indicating that they voluntarily undergo the surgery, and that if their lives are in danger, they will bear full responsibility (this may be the earliest "pre-operative consent form"). ")