Chapter 257 Car cracking and "five horses torn corpses"

Shang Yang, a politician in the middle of the Warring States period, helped Qin Xiaogong make two reforms, laying the foundation for the Qin State to be strong and prosperous.However, his reforms aroused the hatred of the old aristocratic forces. After the death of Duke Xiao, Prince Qin Hui came to power and killed Shang Yang with the punishment of "car cracking". So, what exactly is the "car crack" type? Car cracking, also known as Yuan Xing and rolling apart, is a cruel death penalty in ancient times, commonly known as "five horses to divide corpses".In the past, people believed that the execution method of this punishment was to tie the victim's head and limbs to five chariots respectively, and then drive the chariot with five horses, and then split them at the same time to tear the limbs apart.This kind of torture not only made the deceased extremely painful physically at the last moment, but also suffered mentally. Under normal circumstances, it is dedicated to rebellious people such as treason and usurper.

There are many historical records about car cracking, but is car cracking "five horses torn corpses"? In fact, car splitting is not five horses.In ancient China, car splitting, beheading, and rolling had the same meaning, that is, to cut off a limb with a sharp weapon.In the pre-Qin period, all countries dismembered criminals or enemies who were publicly executed, no matter whether they killed them with swords or spears or shot them with bows and arrows, and finally dismembered their corpses and hung them high for public display.It can be seen that car splitting refers to dismembering the corpse of an enemy or criminal with a knife and axe, not tearing people alive.

When the ancients carried out executions, they always divided the corpse after the head. When the chariot was broken, the corpse was already headless. How could five horses be used to divide the corpse without a head? From the perspective of character development, the "che" in "che rift" does not mean "car". So, where did the saying "five horses divide the corpse" come from? It turned out that during the reign of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, the little girl Tiying wrote a letter, and Emperor Jing ordered the abolition of corporal punishment.After that, the truth about some executions before Emperor Jing gradually faded away, and was eventually lost.Some ancient books have been recklessly revised by later generations. When readers read the books, it is inevitable that they take the words literally and cause various misunderstandings.In addition, the description of this penalty in folk literature and classical novels also played a direct role in spreading it.

So, in the history of China, is there really a five-horse-divided body?There are still some. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Xiuquan awarded the five-horse corpse as the official punishment name of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to the world. This is the unique five-horse corpse in the history of Chinese legal system.