Why do the characters in Water Margin carve gold characters on their faces? (criminal)

Ink punishment, also known as "black punishment" and "black face", is a kind of punishment in ancient China, in which characters or patterns were tattooed on the prisoner's face or forehead, and then ink was used as a symbol of the prisoner. It has little effect on the physical condition of prisoners, but tattoos on their faces will make prisoners lose their dignity. Carving people's skin is not only a concrete punishment, but also a humiliating punishment, which makes the prisoners humiliated and different from ordinary people. Ink punishment is the lightest of the five punishments of slavery. An ancient punishment. Tattooed words on the prisoner's face or forehead, and then painted with ink. Ying Bu in Qin and Han Dynasties was called "Qing Bu" because he was hanged. In the Tang Dynasty, Shangguan Waner was tattooed on her forehead for offending Wu Zetian. Later, she imitated the plum blossom makeup of Princess Shouyang in Liu Song, and decorated the forehead tattoo with plum blossom shape (it is said that it was particularly charming when tattooed, which was imitated by other women and became one of the popular makeup styles in the Tang Dynasty. On the basis of tattoos, ink punishment was developed. The characteristics of ink punishment are: first, it inherits the pain when tattooing; Followed by compulsion; Third, it has traces of shame. The era of ink punishment is also very early. As early as the Yao and Shun period, the five cruel punishments used by King Sanmiao included hitting the face. "Lu Xing Shang Shu" contains: "Miao people use their spirits and punish them with punishment. Only the punishment of five abuses is called law. Killing innocent people, love begins with lewdness. " Later, someone said, "Mianmian." "Another cloud:" Face ink is also a punishment. Yao Miao abolished "five abuses" and replaced it with "elephant punishment", that is, dressing criminals in clothes different from ordinary people as punishment, in which those who used ink punishment wore black headscarves. After He Shun, he began to use corporal punishment, and later formally designated ink punishment as one of the five punishments. At first, the method of ink punishment was to carve human skin with a knife, and then apply ink to the music score. In the chapter of Shangshu Lv Xing, after the sentence of "ink and pen are suspected of forgiveness", Kong Anguo said that "ink punishment is called when it is engraved. Zheng Xuan pointed out after the sentence "500 crimes of ink" in the Four Penalties: "Ink is also dark. Carve its face first, and then suffocate it with ink. "The inscription on the forehead is a sore, and the ink smothers the sore hole and discolors it." This practice of ink punishment has been explained in detail, that is, first faceted with a knife, and then coated with ink, the wound becomes a scar, and the ink blocks the sore hole and discolors the skin. It is recorded in the Book of Rites, Wen Wangshi, that the ink style is the same as the punishment of "breaking and chopping", "everyone cuts the human body with a knife saw." "Mandarin Lu Yu" once said: "The small punishment is a drill, and the second punishment is a knife saw." Ink punishment is a light punishment and should be used as a tool of torture. Other books talk about ink punishment, all of which are carved with a knife. These show that when the ink punishment was first stipulated as a punishment, it was executed with a knife, not acupuncture. Although ink punishment is a light punishment, people's facial nerves are extremely sensitive, and it is also very cruel to carve thorns on it with a knife. And some people will be life-threatening because of wound infection. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were also ink punishments and dark rooms. (Scarf insult) (darkroom) refers to tattooing on cheekbones, smearing ink, and covering the head with a black scarf. The prisoner not only lost his status as an official of the slave owner's grass-roots regime, but also became a guilty slave. A dark room refers to carving without ink, without wearing a black turban, and prisoners only withdraw from their posts without committing crimes. The criminal law of the Western Zhou Dynasty stipulates that "the crime of ink is 500", that is, there are as many as 500 kinds of crimes that should be punished by ink. The article "Shangshu Lv Xing" also said: "Ink punishment belongs to thousands." It can be seen that the punishment at that time was very severe and there were a little too few people. According to Zhou Li Zhangzha, in the Zhou Dynasty, the slave owners and nobles often took the masked man as the gatekeeper, that is, the Mohist was the gatekeeper. Because these people have shame marks on their faces, they will be recognized wherever they go, so they generally don't run away. Moreover, the dough maker has sound limbs and does not affect his work. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, many countries often used prisoners covered with fins to do all kinds of hard labor. During the Warring States period, Qin called ink punishment a punishment. When Shang Yang was in the Qin Dynasty, once the prince broke the law and it was inconvenient to increase the punishment, Shang Yang put the prince's master on his face to show his punishment. In 2 13 BC, prime minister Lisi invited books such as poetry and books to be burned. Those who don't burn within 30 days after being ordered will be regarded as "shrewd", that is, they will be punished as hard labor who get up early in the morning to repair the wall after stabbing their faces. At that time, punishing criminals became a relatively fixed measure. Such prisoners are all over the country. In the peasant uprising at the end of Qin dynasty, many of them were prisoners who had been punished for slapping their faces. Ying Bu, who was named King of Huainan by Liu Bang in the early Han Dynasty, was also demoted for petty crimes when he was young. According to historical records, Qing Bu came from six counties, and his surname was England. He was a civilian in the Qin Dynasty. When he was a teenager, a guest visited his fortune teller and said, "He will be crowned king after being punished." In his prime, he was hanged for breaking the law. Qing Bu said with a happy smile, "Some people look at me and say that after I was punished, I was crowned king. That's it! " Everyone who heard him say this laughed at him. After Qing Bu was found guilty, he was sent to Lishan Mountain, where there were thousands of criminals. Qing Bu had contacts with leaders and heroes, and finally led the group to escape to the Yangtze River and became a group of thieves. Later, Ying Bu surrendered to Liu Bang, and was named King of Huainan in the early Han Dynasty. In this regard, Sun Bin Qing Bu in Jianxuan Collection said: "Qing Bu, the king of Huainan, whose surname is Ying, not Bu, tried to sit clean, so he was called, which is the name of the ink punishment. Cloud thought it was a mistake. In the early Han dynasty, the criminal law followed the Qin system and still used the punishment of hitting the face. The History of Criminal Law in Hanshu stipulates that there are "500 crimes of ink", the number of which is the same as that at the beginning of Zhou Dynasty. In BC 167, Liu Heng wrote to abolish corporal punishment, stipulating that the man who was punished by face should shave his hair and wear iron instruments of torture around his neck to do "Cheng Dan" hard labor for four years; This woman worked as a coolie for four years. Since then, cotton has not been practiced until the end of the Han Dynasty. However, in the Han Dynasty, the Huns stipulated that the envoys of the Han Dynasty were not allowed to enter the vault where Khan lived if they did not use ink. On one occasion, Wang Wu served as the special envoy of the Han Dynasty. When he was sent to Xiongnu, he obeyed their rules. Khan was overjoyed and agreed to let the Xiongnu prince be taken hostage in the Han Dynasty, demanding peace with Han and Qin. Some people say that this rule of the Huns is one of their customs. It is only painted on the face with ink to symbolically represent the face, and it is not really a knife to cut meat. This is actually a variation of the original tattoo custom. In the Han dynasty, with the recovery of some corporal punishment, noodles were re-adopted. According to "Youyang Miscellany", it is stipulated in the Jin Dynasty that handmaiden should be above her eyes when she escapes. If you run for the second time, wipe your cheeks again; The third escape, in full view. The above three points should be made one inch and five minutes long and five minutes wide when implemented. According to the Records of the History of the Song Dynasty, the History of the South Ming Taizu, in 468, Liu Lie of the Song Dynasty promulgated the Criminal Law, stipulating that those who commit crimes such as robbing and injuring officials should still be punished; If pardoned, the word "robbery" will be pasted on the cheeks of prisoners, and their hamstrings will be cut off and sent to remote military States; If five or less people form a gang to seize other people's property by violence, the same punishment will be imposed. According to the Criminal Law of Sui Dynasty, in 502, Liang Wudi Xiao Yan was sentenced to face-slapping. The method of applying the face is probably not carving with a knife, but acupuncture. If the robber is to be beheaded and pardoned, the word "robbery" should be marked. This penalty was not implemented for a long time and was abolished in 5 15. After the Five Dynasties, Shi Jingtang abused harsh laws, resumed torture, changed his name to tattoo, and used it with exile, which was called stabbing to death, and it was used until the Qing Dynasty. In the Northern Song Dynasty, all the punishments on the face were changed to acupuncture, so it was also called stabbing. On this point, there is a clear record in the annals of Song History and Criminal Law. In the Northern Song Dynasty, it was also stipulated that the position of thorns and the arrangement and shape of characters were different according to the crimes of prisoners. Any theft must be stabbed behind the ear; Acts and vagrants should be stabbed on the cheeks or forehead, and the arrangement of thorns should be arranged in a square; If it is the crime of staff, the words of thorns are arranged in a circle, and the punishment of the three crimes of staff is moved to the surface, but the diameter is only five points. Anyone who committed a felony and had to be sent to a prison camp in a distant military country had to face it, which was called stabbing at that time. Di Qing, a famous minister in the Northern Song Dynasty, was also stabbed when he was young. Later, he became a dignitary, and he still had the mark of thorns, and he didn't want to remove it. Until the Southern Song Dynasty, stabbing to death was very common. The criminal law of Liao dynasty also had thorns, which was the same as the implementation method of Northern Song Dynasty. According to the records of Liao history and criminal law, acupuncture was also used in Mo punishment in Liao Dynasty, but the position of acupuncture was not exactly the same. 1033, Yelu Zongzhen of Liao Xingzong stipulated that prisoners sentenced to imprisonment should be stabbed in the neck. If a handmaiden is caught running away without permission and steals the property of her master, the master should not stab him (her) in the face, but his (her) neck or arm. Who commits theft? The first time he stabbed his right arm, the second time he stabbed his left arm, the third time he stabbed the right side of his neck and the fourth time he stabbed the left side of his neck. If he does it again for the fifth time, he will be put to death. Other punishments in Liao Dynasty were cruel, but the face punishment was more lenient than the previous generation. According to the criminal record, the Jin Dynasty stipulated that those who committed theft and lost more than/kloc-0 and less than 50 stolen goods were sentenced to imprisonment and tattooed on their faces, and those who lost more than 50 were sentenced to death. In the Yuan Dynasty, following the relevant laws of Song and Jin Dynasties, the crime of theft was tattooed, and at the same time, the penalty of cuju order was imposed. Tattooing methods and the number of battles are very detailed. "Yuan Zhang Dian Criminal Division Forcing Thieves" stipulates that the thieves of Han people and southerners stab their left arm for the first time, then their right arm and their neck for three times, but the Mongols do not stab them when committing crimes. In addition, there are specific regulations on when to avoid pricking, when to make up after pricking, etc. In the Ming Dynasty, the laws on torture were similar to those in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, but the scope of application was narrower. In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated in the Preface to Daming Law in May 1397 that "people should not be stabbed except those whose families are disobeyed by the Party", that is, the families of rebels and some prisoners who have to stab people should stab people, and other prisoners will no longer use the method of stabbing people in the Song Dynasty. In addition, for thieves, the word "steal" should be tattooed on the right forearm for the first time, and hanged on the left forearm for the second time. Anyone who robs other people's property in broad daylight should tattoo the word "rob" on his right forearm. If they rob again, they will tattoo their right forearm as usual. You don't need a tattoo even if the plot is minor. The laws of the Ming dynasty also have clear provisions on avoiding and supplementing thorns. Whipping in Qing dynasty was mainly used for handmaiden to escape, and it was often combined with whipping, which was called whipping.