FIVE PUNISHMENTS: In China in the 19th century there was a brutal "complex" penalty called "Five Punishments

 FIVE PUNISHMENTS

In China in the 19th century there was a brutal "complex" penalty called "Five Punishments." The sentenced offender was branded, then his legs and hands were cut off, then beaten with sticks, his head was cut off, and he was put on public display.

“Five penalties”, wu xing, was a general term referring to all the main punishments  in ancient Chinese legal system from the Xia (about 2100 B.C.-1600B.C) to the Qing  Dynasty (1644-1911A.D.).Just as humiliation is a historical-cultural-social construct 

(Lindner,2007),“five penalties” is a psychologicalculturalsocialhistorical format in nature. In this paper, we first make a very brief introduction to the nature of xing and  its relations with fa (law), then have a historical glimpse over the inner changes in wu  xing, and analyze it psychologically, culturally, socially and historically

1 Etymological meaning of xing related to fa and lü  Etymologically, xing has the following meanings: 1) killing: “(xing) is used to 

kill the criminals” (in the historical book Yi Meng ); 2) punishment: “ (The ultimate  purpose of) Punishment is just to eliminate itself” (in Shu1 Dayumo); 3) government : “Ministers assist the King to rule the state” (in Zhouli Qiuguan ); 4) model: “A real  benevolent person is tolerant” (in Liji Liyun) ,and 5) law(fa), regulations(lü), torah: 

“Punishments according to the torah varies at different times”(in “Shangshu 

Luxing ”). To sum it up, xing was just fa in the Xia, Shang (about 1066 A.D.-771 A.D.) and  Zhou Dynasties (about 770 A.D.-221 A.D.) before it had the denotation of written laws in the Warring States Period. Generally speaking, xing, fa and lü were  interchangeable though all the codes in ancient China were nominated lü, or xing lü