Slow Slicing Penalty From A Perspective Of Legal Culture

The slow slicing penalty in ancient China has a long history.Originated from the West Liao in Five Dynasties,it is applied in the administration of the Empire Song Renzong and became common in Empire Xining,known also as Shenzong.By the Southern Song Dynasty,the slow slicing penalty was officially listed in the "Qingyuan legal affair" to become a legal punishment.And it was abolished under the " Qing criminal law in force".Even this penalty has experienced a long process of evolution,it still has a negative impact in the contemporary era,which is represented by the detailed description in the "Sandalwood Penalty" and other works.In this thesis,the slow slicing penalty is selected to be a subject,listing and summarizing the development of such penalty with a “longitudinal” order of times and a transverse order of records in various generations of the dynasties.And the “essence” of this thesis is the legal culture and meaning represented by the slow slicing penalty.It exists and develops into an unavoidable and harsh issue to study the formation of the legal order.It is a primary object embodying penalty and ethics of legal culture in ancient China.It is the confusion of moral and legal boundaries that results in the double destruction of morality and law.Since the modern times,Westerners have observed China with bias and have formed an unjust knowledge of sympathy or misunderstanding,but we must not deny influences arising from that.Modern civilization has applied the democracy,the slow slicing,an inhumane penalty in the ancient feudal autocratic period,therefore,is inevitably abolished.As human develops and an era of respecting for life and human rights comes,we must enter a society in which life will be respected and human rights will be guarded.