Reflections | Ancient China’s 5 punishments: how extreme cruelty marked penalties including amputation, torture and horrific death
- The punishments were designed to cause the most intense physical pain and psychological anguish, for the individuals found guilty and the people around them
- Starting off at tattooing, other punishments included foot amputation, removal of a person’s reproductive function, and possibly being grilled or boiled alive
In 1999, Chinese archaeologists unearthed a human skeleton with the right foot missing. Recent medical analysis of the incomplete remains of the female, who was discovered at a site in Shaanxi province, determined that she had been the victim of yue, a cruel form of punishment in ancient China where a criminal’s foot was amputated.
Yue was one of the Five Punishments meted out as penalties for the most heinous crimes in China for close to a millennia before the early imperial period. These punishments were marked by extreme cruelty and designed to cause the most intense physical pain and psychological anguish for the individuals found guilty and the people around them.
Although there were written statutes in the Chinese kingdoms and states that matched the crimes to the punishments, more often than not, the rulers’ personal whims, political considerations and other factors decided the type of punishments that the victims suffered.
The first, and lightest, among the Five Punishments was tattooing. Indelible markings were made on the criminal’s face or other visible parts of the body, usually words that described their misdemeanours or the location of their exile or hard labour camp. These tattoos permanently and very visibly marked out their bearers as ex-criminals for life.
Then came rhinotomy, or cutting off the criminal’s nose. Like tattooing, it left the victim scarred for life. But because blades and bloodletting were involved, rhinotomy and the next two penalties often resulted in death because of attendant infections.
