Yu Hongtu was born into a prominent family in Haiyan, Zhejiang. His grandfather, Yu Jun, and father, Yu Yimo, both held important positions in the imperial court of the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty. Due to the influence of his family background, Yu Hongtu has been diligent and studious since he was a child, and he is extremely intelligent, and he has shown extraordinary talent and talent very early. At the age of twenty-five, he won the first place in the township examination, and then began his career as a second-class jinshi in the fifty-first year of Kangxi (1712).
In the Yongzheng period, his wife died when he was 49 years old. Later, he spent more than 1,000 taels of silver to marry a 21-year-old woman, Lin, who looks like a flower and jade on the outside, but is watery on the inside. This year, Yu Hongtu was ordered to serve as the chief examiner of Hubei University. During his tenure, it is stipulated that family members are not allowed to be brought with him. However, as soon as he arrived in Hubei, the Lin family made a special trip to Wuchang, rented a room, and met him secretly. The old servant beside him reminded Yu Hongtu that this matter was not trivial, and persuaded him to let his wife return to Beijing as soon as possible. The Lin clan used all the means of a woman, and Yu Hongtu was never able to make up his mind.
The exam date is approaching, one night, Lin proposed to accompany her husband to drink, after a few glasses of stomach, Yu Hongtu was already dazed, and actually said the content of the test questions in front of Lin, and showed off: "If he answers the questions, how to solve the questions, undertake the questions, and lead the questions." Unexpectedly, these words were remembered by the concubine Lin.
During the scientific examination, he warned the servants to be on duty outside the examination hall to prevent the malpractice of passing the examination materials. Unexpectedly, the servant wanted to bribe his son and colluded with his concubine Lin to help them cheat. His concubine pasted the materials related to the examination on the inside of Yu Hongtu's official uniform, Yu Hongtu wore it out, and after taking it off, the servants tore it off and passed it on to the outside; The servants outside also used the same method to pass the relevant materials into the examination room and collected bribes amounting to more than 10,000 taels. Their scheme, Yu Hongtu, was careless and did not know. Soon, the city was full of wind and rain outside.
Woe to Xiao Qiang, in fact, the Lin family came to Wuchang this time, according to the strategy of the lover, took out the exam questions from her husband's mouth, and then sold them at a high price, and after making a lot of money, the two went away. However, people are not as good as heaven, and the exam questions were quickly leaked.
The leakage of the exam questions soon reached the ears of Wang Shijun, the governor of Hubei. Wang Shijun and Yu Hongtu have never been at odds, so Wang Shijun immediately wrote a fold and sent it to the capital with "six hundred miles of expedited". Emperor Yongzheng was furious when he saw this, and immediately sent Zou Shengheng, the minister of the Imperial Mission, to ask him to verify the facts, and if it was correct, he beheaded Yu Hongtu on the spot to set the record straight.
After Zou Shengheng arrived in Wuchang, he came to a three-hall trial the next day. In front of human and material evidence, Yu Hongtu is difficult to argue. Poor Yu Hongtu was so pitted by servants and concubines, Yu Hongtu began to think of his innocence and denied his bribery, and later his concubines and servants confessed, Yu Hongtu confessed, and the supervising official Chen Shuxuan proposed to the Criminal Department that Yu Hongtu would be beheaded, and the Criminal Department agreed and reported to Yongzheng for approval. Emperor Yongzheng sentenced Yu Hongtu to be beheaded in order to relieve his hatred, and let his in-law Zou Shiheng take over Yu Hongtu's position and behead Yu Hongtu.
As a result, the result of the interrogation was played by Emperor Yongzheng, saying that Yu Hongtu was close to the outside world, but in fact he connived at his wife, concubines and servants to send them inside and outside every time they went to a mansion, and received bribes and other money. In March of the twelfth year of Yongzheng, the Criminal Department formulated Yu Hongtu's decision. And Yu Hongtu's father, Yu Zhaosheng, the household servant, was also dismissed and questioned by the imperial court because of his son's east window incident.
In order to calm public opinion, Zou Shengheng set up an execution ground on Wuchang Street, and Zou Shengheng served as a prison officer. At noon, the executioner held the guillotine tightly and cut Yu Hongtu into two pieces with one knife, and his intestines immediately bled and he was miserable.
Yu Hongtu was sentenced to be beheaded, a harsh form of execution. At that time, executioners always demanded a "fee" for beheading prisoners. With the "fee", it can be cut neatly, so that the prisoner can die quickly and suffer less pain. Otherwise, the heart will make people stay alive and suffer a lot.
The Yu family has many meritorious people, and the family has long been in disorder, and there is no news in advance, so naturally there is no "fee" for the executioner. On the day of the execution, the executioner showed no mercy, and after Yu Hongtu was immediately cut into two pieces, his upper body rolled around on the ground, dying in pain, but his mind was still awake. He dipped his hand in his own blood and wrote seven words "miserable" on the ground, and his inability to survive and die was unbearable.
Yongzheng's move was intended to kill chickens and monkeys, so that Zou Shiheng was jealous, not to repeat the mistakes of the past, although Zou Shiheng was unbearable, but helpless, Yu Hongtu did not know that he was sentenced to be beheaded before going to the execution ground, Zou Shiheng did not dare to tell him, on the day of the execution, Yu Hongtu died very miserably, Zou Shiheng covered his face with his sleeves, after Yu Hongtu was beheaded, he did not die immediately, he dipped his hand in blood on the ground and wrote seven consecutive "miserable" words before slowly dying. When Zou Shiheng reported this tragic situation to Emperor Yongzheng, Emperor Yongzheng immediately ordered the knife to be sealed, and the beheading was abandoned since then. This kind of capital punishment began in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and was abolished in the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, which lasted for more than 2,000 years.
It is said that the waist beheading began in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and was abolished in the Qing Dynasty, with a history of more than 2,000 years. Although Yu Hongtu has suffered hardships, the abolition of this cruel system is a blessing for future generations.
Torture has been practiced throughout the ages, both in China and abroad. In slave societies and feudal societies, there were many kinds of torture. For example, in ancient China, there were many kinds of torture, such as Chinese New Year, burning, skinning, splitting cars, cutting waists, etc. It's very brutal.
Many international organizations have been established in modern society, and international conventions explicitly prohibit the use of torture of all kinds. Only then can some of the torture slowly disappear. It can only be seen from the written record that modern civilized society respects human rights, and even if a capital crime is committed, people will die with dignity.
In general, Yu Hongtu, as an important official in charge of the imperial examination, has an unshirkable responsibility for this. He was accused of failing to effectively prevent and deal with the illegal acts of his wife and concubines, and thus was seen as bending the law for personal gain. In the end, he was sentenced to beheading for this crime.
Please note that the above is based on historical legends and folktales and may not be entirely accurate. For more detailed and accurate information, it is advisable to consult relevant historical documents and research materials.