In costume TV series, many people often see such a scene: when the prisoner is about to be executed, the executioner has put the knife on the prisoner's neck. Suddenly, a sound of "Keep the person under the knife" came from a distance! The deceased officer will stop beheading, and the criminal will escape by chance.
But costume dramas are film and television works after all, and returning to reality. Has there really been a scene of "retaining people under the knife" in real history?
The word "Killing the Sword" comes from the Yuan Dynasty drama "Yan Qing Fishing" and is related to the heroes of Liangshan : Wu Xuejiao kneels down and persuades the subject, and keeps the Sword! Brother calmed down...
Except for the stricter criminal law system in the pre-Qin and Han period, after the Tang Dynasty, the court made strict considerations on sentencing and execution. Unless it is a person with great crimes or who commits the "ten evil deeds", the death penalty of will be applied to . Most ordinary cases will be handed over to . The Ministry of Justice and the relevant departments for repeated review.
" Zhenguan Zhengyao " records: "Everyone who has a death penalty, even if the order is ordered to be executed, they must be punished five times. The officials in the capital will punish the death row. It is advisable to report five times in two days, and all states in the world will report three times."
In 631 AD, after Emperor Taizong of Tang killed Dali Temple Chief Zhang Yungu , he felt regretful, so he ordered the relevant departments to repeatedly confirm the death row before the death row prisoner was executed to prevent wrong killing.
The death row prisoner in the capital (Chang'an) needs to report to the emperor twice in a row the day before his execution. He had to report three times on the day of his execution, reminding the emperor that he would be killed and whether there was still a possibility of saving him.
If the emperor temporarily changes his mind, announces the cessation of execution, and continues to hand over the criminal to the Ministry of Justice for trial, then the criminal will have a lucky life.
This is the prototype of the story of "retaining people under the knife" in costume TV series.
There is also a short story. " New Tang Book " records that in the fourth year of Zhenguan, twenty-nine people were sentenced to death in the world. In the sixth year of Zhenguan, three hundred and ninety people were killed.
In order to calm the hearts of the people, Emperor Taizong of Tang decided to release the more than 300 death row prisoners home to reunite with their relatives, so that they could be sentenced after returning to the seventh year of Zhenguan.
I didn't expect that these prisoners were very trustworthy and came back on time by the fall of the next year. In the end, Emperor Taizong of Tang was very moved and pardoned all the prisoners.
Is there such a possibility? In the ancient costume film and television drama, someone rides a fast horse to the execution place and shouts "Keep people under the knife", which will really appear in ancient society. There are also cases in
! During the Tang , Wu Zetian's period, Prime Minister Wei Yuanzhong was framed by a traitor, arrested and imprisoned, and was later sentenced to death.
Li Shimin Set up a mechanism for resumption of the death penalty at this time. On the day of the execution, Wu Zetian, thinking of Wei Yuanzhong's previous contributions, ordered people to go to the execution place to pardon Wei Yuanzhong's death penalty, and changed it to "exile".
" Old Tang Book ": "Yuan Zhong promoted the official of the official for his merits and was slightly transferred to the Luoyang ruling. He was arrested by Zhou Xing Prison and went to the city to be punished. Zetian said that Yuan Zhong had made great contributions to pacifying peace and was especially exempted from death and was sent to Guizhou."
What's more interesting is that neither the prison officer nor Wei Yuanzhong had ever experienced "retaining people under the knife". Wei Yuanzhong was afraid of fraud and insisted on dying, and the two sides froze.
In the end, Wei Yuanzhong was exempted from his death, and after going around, he was restored to his post.
"Old Book of Tang": The prisoner suddenly released Yuanzhong and ordered him to start. Yuanzhong said, "If you don't know the truth of the order, how can you make a mistake?
Wei Yuanzhong was rescued by Wu Zetian on the day of his execution, which is almost no different from the plot of "remaining the sword under the knife" in costume dramas.
Of course, in addition to others coming to save themselves, prisoners can also "rescue themselves".
Song Dynasty " Song Dynasty Punishment " stipulates: "A dead prisoner called an injustice before he was executed, and then questioned Chen's memorial. ”
roughly means that if a criminal complains about his injustice before his death, the executioner has to stop the punishment and hand it over to the Criminal Prison Department for handling.
During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song , a scholar named Wang Yuanji lost his mother in his early years, and his father married him a stepmother. Wang Yuanji was filial and obedient to his stepmother.
Later, Wang Yuanji reached the age of marriage, and his father decided to marry a girl from his hometown.After this girl married into the Wang family, she quarreled with Wang Yuanji's stepmother for three days.
As a wife, she must have sought help from her husband Wang Yuanji. At first, Wang Yuanji was unwilling to get involved in the "mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflict", but she could not resist the daughter-in-law's quarrel, and in the end she could only give some tactful opinions to her stepmother.
I thought the matter would end like this, but I didn't expect that my stepmother sued Wang Yuanji and his wife for "abuse of the elderly."
The laws of the Song Dynasty had strict regulations on "unfilial piety", and Wang Yuanji was finally sentenced to death. On the day of the execution, Wang Yuanji was unwilling to accept it and kept shouting for injustice.
happens to be a private visit to Song Taizong heard Wang Yuanji’s cry for justice, so he stepped forward to suspend Wang Yuanji’s punishment and sent someone to investigate the whole story.
The result was that under the intervention of Emperor Taizong of Song, Wang Yuanji was exempted from death, and he also became a model of "self-rescue".
Ming Yongle Emperor Zhu Di During his reign, he once stipulated that death row prisoners must be sentenced to death by the judicial department for five re-report.
Zhu Di took Li Shimin as an example and reproduced the "five repetitions" of the Tang Dynasty in law.
During the Qing Dynasty, the review of the death penalty was more stringent. In addition to the new case and the death penalty review by the prison guards, it was also subdivided into autumn trial and court trial. The autumn trial will be held in the autumn, and the local officials will sort out the case list and then hand it over to their superiors for review.
directly under the superior verification office will be handed over to the inspection department. The inspection department will be divided into five categories according to the verification situation: the situation is true, is suspended for execution, , can be polite, suspicious, and keep the inheritance, and then handed over to the governor for review, which will largely avoid unjust, false and wrong cases.
If the death row prisoner who has not passed the review is difficult to overturn the case, it will be useless no matter how he calls for justice.
In addition to pardoning a prisoner alone, there was also the saying "Abuse of the World". Generally, when a new emperor ascends the throne, enthrones the queen, celebrates his birthday, etc., the court will issue an order to "commit the world to the general public", reflecting the "magnanimity of the emperor".
The Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty immigrated the world more often, and The Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty The number of emperors immigrated the world more often decreased.
Therefore, there was a story about the swords left behind in ancient times, and it happened a thousand years ago during the Wu Zetian period of the Tang Dynasty. When no one comes to save the prisoner, the prisoner will complain to his own injustice. After a complete set of review procedures, if the prisoner is really wronged, then he will be exempted from death.
References:
[1] Can I really "keep people under the knife" before the execution in ancient times? Citizens and Law (Comprehensive Edition) 2017 Issue 09
[2] "Old Book of Tang", alias "Tang Book", author Zhao Ying, Later Jin jin
[3] "Song Zhengtong", author, author, Dali Temple, Dou Yi and others,
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