In your opinion, what was the purpose of so much torture in ancient times?

In short, torture is meant to protect unscrupulous power, and as power spreads within the family, those in power become more and more dismissive of the approval of the people, and the punishment of the people becomes more and more severe. With the development of society, culture and economy, it is becoming more and more difficult to fool and deceive the people, and torture has become the favorite method of those in power, and it has begun to be renovated to become more and more cruel.

Emperors, especially tyrants, mostly liked to use torture to punish criminals and use it to deter the people, and they were influenced by Legalist thought, and they believed that only severe torture could make these people who were disloyal to the court submit, and could play a role in killing chickens and monkeys.

Torture is meant to be used for criminals or evildoers, and it is a flaw of torture that it does not want to be used excessively and hurt too many innocents! In order to prevent torture from harming innocent people, it is necessary to govern the country according to the law, use punishment according to the law, and prevent bad people from getting away with money and power, and prevent good people from being punished for framing false accusations.

Torture only exists in a specific historical period, and will not be handed down as a formal punishment, the main role is to deter intimidation, some torture is the evil taste of kings, only a few cases, of course, such kings generally do not have a good reputation.

In ancient times, the rulers used torture to intimidate the people, and the most deterrent of them was naturally corporal punishment, and this punishment was irreversible.

The purpose of torture is only twofold, one is to inflict as much physical and mental harm as possible on the perpetrator, and the other is to shock the person watching the torture to the greatest extent.

In fact, these tortures are displayed to the common people, to intimidate them, and to make them frightened.

As a result of human nature, the non-use of torture is not enough to deter the world, and the non-use of torture is not enough to demonstrate the dignity of the law.

Torture is a despicable method used to protect the authority of the ruler and intimidate the common people.

In addition to being used to consolidate and maintain the power of the feudal government, I personally believe that it was more difficult to detect criminal cases in ancient times, and in order to effectively maintain public order, torture will be used to deter and intimidate the people in serious cases, so as to achieve the purpose of not defying the law.

Since they are doing things like men stealing and prostituting women, it is obvious that when the country is truly governed, it is impossible to be merciful, and all kinds of torture must be used.

1. Ancient Chinese torture was a cruel criminal law for the purpose of executing or punishing prisoners, mainly including Ling Chi, beheading, beheading, skinning, cannon branding, palace punishment, etc. The famous ones are "Ten Tortures of the Manchu Dynasty" and "Ten Tortures of the Shang Dynasty".

2. Torture in the Shang Dynasty - gold code gourd strike, slashing, cannon branding, basin (ten thousand snake pits), burial punishment, preserved punishment, sitting on Jiachi slag Lu Shi, soup punishment, dripping punishment (dripping water punishment), gouging out the eyes, digging the heart (digging the heart), etc.

3. Manchu torture - skinning, waist beheading, car splitting, five punishments, Ling Chi, hanging, cooking, palace punishment, slashing punishment, inserting needles, burying alive, poisoning, stick punishment, sawing, breaking the vertebrae, filling lead, playing the pipa, pumping intestines, riding a beam and a wooden donkey, etc.

4. Folk torture - dipping pig cages, pinching fingers, human stakes, burning at the stake, red embroidered shoes, etc.

There are the following reasons:

First, the reign of arbitrariness and terror is the political institutional reason for the perpetuation of torture. The American scholar P.W. Kahn points out: "Before the era of democracy, torture was a traditional instrument of sovereign power. ”

Second, it is related to the historical criminal evidence system. For example, countries on the European continent have long adopted a statutory evidentiary system for "inquisitorial" proceedings based on Roman law. Thirdly, there has been a historical tradition of justice in which the accused are forced to incriminate themselves and to be presumed guilty.

"The whole theory of torture is that a person who has been criminally charged should, if possible, prove guilt or others." ”

Fourth, stigma and discrimination against members of specific groups are identity systems or social causes of torture. In the history of mankind, man was not in fact created equal. Hierarchical systems and discrimination based on origin, family origin, identity, rank, race, gender, religious belief, political affiliation, etc., have always accompanied human society.

Fifth, in addition to the above-mentioned institutional causes, human nature itself is also an important reason for the existence of torture. Human nature is complex and diverse, with both good and evil sides. Different people also have different qualities.