笞杖の變遷--漢の督笞から唐の笞杖刑

Abstract

Punishments had five levels in the Tang Code. They were, beginning with the most severe, capital punishment, banishment, compulsory labor, beating, and whipping. Beating and whipping were applied to misdemeanors in general. But in the Han period, they were not formal punishments prescribed in the Han Code, but were used as sanction or admonition. That is to say, they didn’t belong to the category of punishments, which were based on the principle of mutilation. Although they were applied as an admonition in the case of additional penalties, beating and whipping did not have their own positions as light punishments. And the reason why there was no difference in carrying out beating and whipping was that they were not in the category of punishments in the Han dynasty. From when did beating and whipping gain formal position as punishments below the death penalty, banishment and compulsory labor? Why could they change the character of a sanction as admonition to the formal punishments as the five kinds of punishments in the code? This is the main theme of this article. The establishment of the punishments of beating and whipping originated in the Wei (北魏) Statutes of 481 AD. It was a departure from the system of punishment under the Han, and the start of establishing a syncretic system of punishment based on Chinese and nomadic systems.