The "Hulan Prison" once slaughtered the former general of Yuan Gong in the Ming Dynasty. Zhao Yi, a historian in Qing Dynasty, commented on "Hulan's Prison" in Notes on Twenty-two Histories: The hero of Henkel's murder was cruel, but those who had to go to Han and Peng would be punished for it. Lu Wan and Han Wangxin also ended their rebellion and conquered it. The rest are Xiao, Cao, Yi and Guan. , is leaning on his heart, want to entrust his loneliness, send his life, never suspicious. (Zhu Yuanzhang) Using all heroes to seize the world and the established world is to kill all those who seize the world. Its cruelty is unprecedented!

In the Ming dynasty, the punishment of peeling was the most used and the most cruel. From Zhu Yuanzhang in the early Ming Dynasty to Zhang in the late Ming Dynasty, many people used the punishment of peeling. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhu Yuanzhang used harsh means to consolidate his dominant position, and "peeling grass" was one of his important inventions. According to Ye's Caomuzi, Zhu Yuanzhang was very strict with local officials. If officials are corrupt and tyrannical, people can go to Beijing to complain. If an official embezzles more than 60 taels of silver, he will be put to death. After beheading, they will be beheaded, skinned and irrigated with grass. This "human purse" will be placed next to the official position in the yamen, which will play a deterrent role and serve as a warning to later officials. There should be a hall near the yamen in Fuzhou county to worship the land god. If someone needs to be skinned, it will be performed here, so this hall is called "Pichang Temple" 1. During the Hongwu period, the eunuch in the palace committed a capital crime and deserved to be punished by death. Generally speaking, you don't have to behead, but you are dead or skinned. It was forbidden in Zhu Yuanzhang's palace, and eunuchs who married wives were also sentenced to skinning: Lan Yu, a founding hero in the early Ming Dynasty, was also skinned after being executed, and Zhu Yuanzhang also ordered his skin to be spread to various provinces. Because Aquamarine's daughter is a princess of Shu, King Chun Zhu of Shu preserved the skin of Aquamarine. When Zhang occupied Chengdu in the late Ming Dynasty, he saw a portrait on the gatehouse, dressed in luxurious clothes, with skin and hands and feet full of human flesh. I didn't know it was aquamarine until I asked.

If anyone is the "chief butcher" in ancient China, Zhu Yuanzhang is the first choice. In ancient times, it was inevitable to compete for hegemony in troubled times. Qin Shihuang killed people without blinking an eye, and Cao Cao killed people like hemp; The hero of establishing a new dynasty may end up with a bloody guillotine, such as Han Xin's literary genre of "hide the birds and cook the rabbits". The Ming Dynasty was the cruelest and most heroic massacre in all previous dynasties. Zhu Yuanzhang spared no expense to slaughter the "iron buddies" who fought the world with him, in order to let future generations sit firmly in the country. Liu Bang in the Han Dynasty killed heroes one by one, and Zhu Yuanzhang killed heroes in batches. He successively created two major "rebellion" cases, Hu and Aquamarine, which were implicated in each other and were slaughtered. Nearly 50 thousand people were killed in the two cases, and the founding fathers and civil servants of the Ming Dynasty were almost slaughtered.

Saying that Zhu Yuanzhang is the "chief butcher" is also reflected in that he used a butcher knife to punish corrupt officials, and even used the appalling torture of "peeling off the skin for public display". Punish corrupt officials severely, those who should be killed should be killed, and those who should be sent to jail. This is something that makes people applaud, but peeling people alive is what the "butcher" who destroys human nature does.

Zhu Yuanzhang was born in poverty, understood the sufferings of the people and hated corrupt officials. "Ming History Judicial Supervision Volume" contains: In the fourth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered all officials to commit bribery and go to hell to pay. He also promulgated the most severe law in history: anyone who embezzles more than 62 yuan will be put to death! According to the History of the Emperor of China, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that beheading corrupt officials and banishing the army were not enough to punish those who came later, so in the middle of the year, he implemented a "skinning" criminal law that was more cruel than the "thousand-piece" execution, peeling off the skin of corrupt officials alive, filling the skin with grass, sewing it up and hanging it outside the official's sons at all levels.

So, how is this "skinning" torture carried out? Perhaps I was too stupid to search through the compilation of Ming History and Ming Shi Lu, but I found a specific description in the essay after Jiejieting's illness in the sixth volume of Lu Xun's Complete Works. Lu Xun quoted Qu Dajun's The Story of Enron. Although he mentioned Li Yong's rule in Nanming, his "skinning" death sentence should belong to Ming Dynasty. At Li's suggestion, the impeachment of the king of Qin failed, and Li Yingke, a confidant, was ordered to peel Li for public. Yingke asked someone to tie Li out first, and then brought a basket of lime and a bundle of straw. Yue Ru asked, "How to use this?" Answer: "It's your grass!" Yueru scolded: "blind slave, this plant is an article and loyal to the intestines!" " It should be possible for someone to press Yueru's face to the ground and cut her back and buttocks with a sharp knife. Yueru shouted, "What a happy death!" Scold Sun Kewang; Hands and feet were cut off, turned to his chest, such as the moon, but also hate to scold; Until his neck was cut and he died. Party member dried the peeled skin with lime stains, sewed it with thread, stuffed it with straw, and moved it to the thoroughfare pavilion in the north gate to hang it. From this, we can easily see how cruel this "skinning" torture is! Being a corrupt official in Zhu Yuanzhang, a butcher, is also a bit sad. After Zhu Yuanzhang, the punishment of peeling was not only aimed at corrupt officials. After Judy seized the throne, she skinned Jing Qing, a loyal minister of Jianwen Emperor. Jing Qing failed to assassinate Judy. After being captured, Judy was very angry and ordered "skin him, grass him, and crush his flesh and blood with Chang 'an Gate". Zhu Houzhao of Ming Wuzong skinned the captured rebel leader and made a saddle for him to ride.

"In the Ming Dynasty, it started with peeling and ended with peeling." This is what Lu Xun said in "Miscellaneous Talks after Illness", which I think is very incisive!