According to Sima Qian's "Book of Reporting to Shaoqing", "The old soldiers have painted the ground as a prison; the force is inaccessible; the wood is cut as an official; the discussion cannot be corrected; and the calculation is set in Xianye." ”
Legend has it that a long time ago, people were very disciplined, and if someone made a mistake, then draw a circle on the ground and let him stay inside as punishment, and there was nothing around him to trap him, not even to guard him, but even so, the people in the circle would not leave. This is also known as "painting the ground as a prison". Later, because the "painting the ground as a prison" could no longer trap the perpetrators, prisons appeared.
Nowadays, going to prison is also a very bad thing in people's hearts, and it was also true in ancient times, and in ancient times, there was a very strange phenomenon, that is, ancient women were reluctant to go to this place, and even after going once, most of them came back and hanged themselves! What's going on?
With the development of the prison system, women's prisons came into being
The first person in China to propose the creation of a prison was named Gao Tao. He is a fair judge in Chinese mythology, he has a one-horned sheep with an iron face, he can find the guilty person, when Gao Tao encounters an unsolvable problem in the trial of the case, he will lead this sacred sheep, and the person touched by the sacred sheep is the guilty person and will be thrown into prison. And this is a legend in mythology.
In fact, in the earliest days, prisons were developed from the circle of domesticated animals in primitive clan societies.
People in primitive clan societies had begun to keep animals in captivity, and as tribes expanded, sometimes the defeated were taken prisoner, and how these captives should restrain them became a problem. Some people proposed that captives be kept in captivity like animals, so there was a circle of "raising people", which is the origin of prisons.
With the development of society, the emergence of the state, and the related laws, people began to realize that it was very difficult to use circles to hold people who wanted to escape, so circles turned into real prisons. Since then, the setting of the prison has been used.
The emergence of prisons has also led to some problems. When the prison system developed for a period of time, because most of the people held in prisons were misconductors, when male and female prisoners were held together, the guards could not be guarded at all times, so it was difficult to ensure the personal safety of these female prisoners.
When the women's prison first appeared, for the women who were at that time, the crime was only to atone for their mistakes, and it was not a big deal to go home after the redemption. But after the Song Dynasty, the situation was completely different.
There is a record in the Book of Song that in the Song Dynasty, once most women were found to have committed crimes and were put on trial and imprisoned, they would not be able to think about it, and before being taken away by the servants, they would hang their lives, even if the crimes they committed were not very serious, they would make them unwilling to continue to live because they wanted to go to prison. And that doesn't happen with male criminals.
Some people think that the punishment of the Song Dynasty may be too harsh, but it cannot withstand scrutiny, because some women who are too late to hang themselves, after taking the servants away, go home alive after being tortured by punishment, but still choose to commit suicide after returning home. So, what exactly is the cause of such a strange phenomenon?
A punishment that makes women unbearable
According to the Shang Shu Shun Dian, cane punishment is one of the oldest criminal laws in Chinese history. Dating back to the ancient times of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, it was a means of punishing officials for dereliction of duty.
In the Song Dynasty, however, the cane punishment slowly withdrew from the ranks of the main punishment and became an additional punishment.
The so-called punishment of flogging is the cane buttocks, that is, he spanks his ass. If a woman commits a crime, she is punished with a flogging stick. In the laws of the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, it was clearly stipulated that if a woman once the red apricot came out of the wall, she must "go to the clothes and receive the staff". This makes the tortured person not only suffer from flesh and skin, but also has the effect of humiliation.
And when a woman is executed, there will be a lot of onlookers, including many neighbors in the village, most of whom like to watch the liveliness, and most of these people are also people who like to chew the root of their tongues, so when the woman who commits the crime is punished by flogging and is seen by them, then most of the women who are tortured are humiliated.
Moreover, if the circumstances are serious, after the cane punishment will also fade their full body clothes to go to the street parade, at this time not only some people, but all the people on the road, the tortured women will also be insulted by everyone, bringing great psychological harm, so usually women encounter this situation will choose to commit suicide.
For such a woman, some people may say that the woman who is out of the wall with red apricots has no face to speak of, and why would she be born because of this kind of thing?
In fact, in ancient times, if a woman had a conflict with someone else, some people would collect some of her usual behaviors that did not conform to women's morality in order to sue the government. The so-called "women's moral behavior" in ancient times was extremely harsh, and it may be criticized just by whispering a few whispers to a man alone, while in ancient times, when women's status was underground, people were more inclined to the words of whistleblowers. As a result, many women have been wronged.
So, why did it start with the Song Dynasty?
The Song Dynasty was ideologically bound, allowing women to choose to hang themselves once they were in prison
Since the Song Dynasty, Cheng Zhu Lixue has always occupied a dominant position in the ideological circles, and due to the shackles of Cheng Zhu Lixue, China has become introverted, conservative and stagnant since the Beginning of the Song Dynasty. There are even scholars who study the history of clothing that the dress of women in the Song Dynasty tends to be rigid and rigid, because of the influence of Cheng Zhu Lixue.
Cheng Zhu Lixue was enshrined as orthodox thought, deeply rooted in the hearts of the people of the Song Dynasty, so for that era, for women, it was an era when chastity was heavier than life, and it was also the period when feudal thought was the most seriously bound on women's physical and mental conditions, at that time, chastity even became the only value standard for people to judge women!
Therefore, for those women who go to prison and are flogged with a cane, even if they end their suffering in court, they still have to endure discrimination from others after returning home, even if she has made a trivial mistake, even if she has been wronged, and this discrimination is a lifelong one, so for them, there seems to be no choice but to hang.
brief summary
From this point of view, the society at that time was really depressing for women. However, fortunately, with the development of the feminist movement in modern times, women's rights have been more and more guaranteed, and society's prejudice against women has become less and less.
After entering prison, women are treated no differently from men, and they no longer have to suffer extra white eyes, let alone humiliated punishment. I also hope that our society can completely solve this problem, so that the day when equal rights between men and women will really come.
Of course, what I want to tell you here is that no matter when, do not choose to commit crimes.
References: Shang Shu ShunDian (尚書)
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