The Three Types Of Punishment In Ancient China

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Form ancient times until now, punishment acts as an indispensable part of the legal system for each country. The penal system is an important tool which protects private ownership, guarantees civil security, and maintains political domination. China is a famous country which has been advocate criminal law since thousands of year ago. Therefore, the Chinese penal system is a valuable reference for studying the variety of punishments. We can consider the three main types of ancient Chinese punishment: imprisonment, corporal punishment, seriously, and capital punishment. The first type of punishment is imprisonment. The definition of imprisonment is a punishment which deprives the offenders’ liberty and stays in a limited place for a period of …show more content…

The feature of Chinese corporal punishment was torture which causes physical injury or amputation in criminals, and the characteristics of the penalty presented gradually through time. Corporal punishment has been China since BC 2000 ago, but the maturation period were in the Zhou dynasty (BC1046-BC249). There were four kinds of corporal punishment: “Mo” which is lettering on offenders’ body, “Yi” which is cut off the criminal’s nose, “Fei” which is to cut off the foot of lawbreakers, and finally, “Gong” which is castrate the criminals. Those penalties were aiming to create an amputation, humiliation and suffering on the wrongdoers (Fu,1993,p.109). Nevertheless, those penalties were abrogated after the Nan-bei dynasty (AD420-AD589), and the main corporal punishment became physical injury, such as flogging. Even though the punishment still intend to humiliate and torture the convict, it is less bloody and unrecoverable. The last one is capital punishment. The ancient Chinese usually use capital punishment as judgment in treason, rebellion, and murder cases. Moreover, the forms of ancient Chinese capital punishment were diverse and merciless. For example, “Dapi” is an alias of ancient Chinese extreme penalty. This punishment is include “Paoluo”(bound prisoners on hot metal beam until died ), “Lingchi”(put death by thousands of cut and dismembering the body), and “Chelie”(tearing the criminal asunder by five carts). Those ideas

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