[liuxing]

In this article,The Men of Han, it says that

"In his first year on the throne Emperor Wen abolished laws that extended accusations and punishments to the relatives of criminals, particularly the cruel punishment of mutilation, and greatly reduced the number of executions. "

The asiapac book '100 Chinese Emperors' also says the same thing.

Does this mean that Emperor Wen abolished the practice of 'execution until the 9th degree of the clan' during his reign?

[Bao Pu]

Yes.

[liuxing]

Thanks Bao Pu.

Was this new rule applicable to all crimes, including betraying/cheating the Emperor (欺君)?

When was this punishment reinstated?

[Yun]

The "zhu jiu zu" penalty was never codified as law, and only appears in very exceptional cases in Chinese history. The usual highest punishment was "yi san zu". See my recent post here: http://www.chinahist...showtopic=10878

Empress Lu had already abolished the "yi san zu" punishment (execution of three categories of relations), but the code of law still included zu zhu 族诛 (execution of immediate family, i.e. wife and children). For crimes punishable by castration, the criminal's wife and children would also be reduced to slavery at the imperial court, and his property and land would be confiscated by the court. However, a wife who had turned her husband in for his crimes would be spared from slavery, while married children or children who held aristocratic titles would also be exempted from slavery.

Han Wendi abolished the law on slavery for the wife and children of criminals, despite opposition from officials who felt it had a deterrent effect. Wendi's argument was that education was better than deterrence, and that unjust laws would negate any deterrent effect by alienating the people. Wendi also reiterated Empress Lu's abolition of "yi san zu", but later on he reinstated this punishment for a con-man named Xinyuan Ping who had deceived him by presenting him with a jade bangle with an auspicious inscription and claiming it came from Heaven (it was actually made by Xinyuan Ping himself). Xinyuan Ping had brought Wendi on a wild goose chase of building five shrines at the Wei River (near Chang'an) and conducting ancient rites there with the promise that Heaven would confer a jade bangle as a sign of its favour. Wendi was of course humiliated when it turned out the whole thing was a sham.

Thus "yi san zu" reappeared in the Han legal code under Han Wendi, while zu zhu 族诛 was never abolished at all. The only punishments abolished by Han Wendi were slavery for family members of the criminal, and three kinds of mutilation (see my post below). His image as a great humanitarian is thus not entirely justified.

[liuxing]

Thanks Yun,

Was 'yi san zu' ever abolished again during Han Dynasty?

[Yun]

Apparently not. It was still around in the Three Kingdoms.

[Sephodwyrm]

Punishments extending to family members are still enforced in the literary inquisitions of the Qing.

[bhchao]

Yun, did Wendi really abolish the punishment of mutilation?

[Yun]

I will tell here the story of Han Wendi's abolition of the mutilation sentences.

In 167 BC, Chunyu Yi, a warehouse supervising official in the Principality of Qi, was charged with an offence and sent to Chang'an for trial. He had no sons, only five daughters. While preparing to be wheeled off to Chang'an in a prison wagon, he lamented aloud, "I can only blame myself for having daughters, and not sons who would be of some use at a time like this." His 15-year-old daughter Chunyu Tiying heard this and was very sad. She resolved to plead her father' case in Chang'an. So she followed his prison wagon to Chang'an and wrote a letter of appeal to Han Wendi. It read: "Your maid's father is a minor official who was praised for his fairness and honesty in Qi. Now he has accidentally committed an offence and is to be sentenced. My fear is that one who is executed cannot come back to life, and one who was mutilated as punishment cannot return to his original state. Even if he wishes to turn over a new leaf, he has no such chance left. Your maid is willing to become a slave in the court in exchange for my father's being pardoned from the sentence of mutilation. Then my father will have a chance to begin his life anew."

As I mentioned earlier, on his accession to the throne in 179 BC, Han Wendi had already reiterated Empress Lu's abolition of the "yi san zu" penalty and also abolished the practice of taking the wife and children of criminals into slavery. Han Wendi was now moved by Chunyu Tiying's letter and issued an edict: "I have heard that in the ancient past the Sage-Kings Yu and Shun merely had to make criminals wear clothes of a different style or colour, or with a special pattern on them, to indicate that they were being punished. And yet the people rarely committed any crimes. What an enlightened reign that was! Now our laws have three types of mutilation sentences: tattooing, cutting off the nose, and cutting off the toes on one foot. But the number of crimes has not decreased; where does the fault for this lie? Is it not because I am defecient in virtue and cannot civilize the people? I am deeply ashamed. My ability to civilize the people is lacking and thus they ignorantly fall into crime. The Book of Songs says, "A kind and approachable ruler will be treated as a parent by the people." Now the people do wrong, and before I can civilize them they are already subjected to excessive punishments; even if after their crime they desire to repent, they have no chance to start anew. My compassion for them is great. A punishment that is so severe it renders a body incomplete or disfigured permanently - how tragic and immoral is that! How can this be the meaning of 'being the people's parent'? I should abolish mutilation and replace it with other penalties. I command also that punishments must be proportional to the crime, and those who do not try to escape during the period of punishment can be released as commoners after that."

Prime Minister Zhang Cang and Supreme Censor Feng Jing got to work on this and submitted a proposal for reforming the laws: Tattooing would be changed to shaving criminals bald (including facial hair for males) and making them wear an iron cangue and work on the building of the Great Wall for five years, while female criminals would pound grain into flour for the state granaries for five years. Cutting off of the nose would be changed to 300 strokes with the bamboo rod. Cutting off the toes on the left foot would be changed to 500 strokes with the bamboo rod. However for crimes like a murder where the criminal later turned himself in, and official corruption, which were previously punished by cutting off the toes on the right foot, they were too heavy for mere beating with the bamboo rod and the sentence was instead raised to public execution.

Also, under the new laws, the penalty of retaining hair to work on the Great Wall (for males) or pound grain (for females) would after three years be commuted to one year of wood-cutting for males and food processing for females, and then another one year of servitude in government offices, followed by release as a free person (thus five years in all). Those sentenced to wood-cutting or food processing would after three years be commuted to servitude in government offices for one year, followed by release (4 years in all); and those sentenced to servitude in government offices would after two years be commuted to service in the border patrol for one year, followed by release (3 years in all). Those sentenced to border patrol service would be released as free persons after two years. The longest sentence was 6 years: one year of being shaved and wearing an iron cangue to work on the Great Wall or pound floor, then three years of doing the same with hair and without the cangue, then one year of wood-cutting or food processing, and then one year of servitude in government offices, followed by release.

Han Wendi accepted these proposals. But they came to cause problems of their own. The changing of nose-cutting and toe-cutting into hundreds of strokes with the bamboo rod tended to cause the death by beating of criminals even before the stipulated number of strokes was reached. Han Wendi's son and successor Han Jingdi had to further reform the punishments by reducing the 500 strokes used to replace the cutting off of toes on the left foot, to 200 strokes. Similarly, the 300 strokes replacing the cutting off of the nose were reduced to 100 strokes. Han Jingdi also had to stipulate the length, thickness, weight and shape of the bamboo rod used, and rule that the man wielding the rod could not be changed halfway during the conduct of the punishment. Only after this did convicts being beaten with the rod stand a good chance of survival. Han Jingdi also abolished the sentence of execution by dismemberment, which usually involved tearing a person apart with horse carriages tied to his limbs, replacing it with public beheading.

One more reform of Han Jingdi was to give convicts sentenced to death the choice of choosing to commute it to castration - this was what Sima Qian would do later when sentenced to death by Han Wudi. Note that neither Han Wendi nor Han Jingdi actually abolished the sentence of castration, even though they abolished the other mutilation sentences.

The abolition of mutilation seems to have remained in effect throughout the Han. In the Cao-Wei dynasty of the Three Kingdoms, there was debate in court about whether to revive the mutilation sentences so as to improve public order. In the end, the court's decision was to not reintroduce mutilation as a punishment.