Is the portrait on the ancient wanted order accurate? What if you arrest the wrong person?

There were no photos in ancient times, so if you want to find someone or catch a criminal, you can only give a rough description of people's appearance through portraits. However, there will inevitably be deviations in the way of drawing, and there is no guarantee that the portrait is exactly the same as the person you are looking for. Did the ancients have a high success rate in catching criminals through portraits? What if you arrest the wrong person? In fact, it is inevitable to catch the wrong person in this way, but this trick is mainly caught by people who are familiar with criminals in the form of reports, which is already a very effective way in ancient times.

I saw a slightly funny news two days ago: a man was told by a friend that he was wanted. If he didn't believe it, he went to the police station for verification. As a result, he was really wanted and arrested on the spot.

In modern times, if you want to arrest a criminal, it is very simple to spread information. Personal information and criminal information of wanted criminals are published on the internet, and the increasingly perfect Eye of the Sky system is very conducive to chasing after them.

In ancient times, it was not so convenient. Wanted criminals could only rely on "human eyes" to investigate, but can the "abstract" figures on the wanted list really catch fugitives?

What does it matter if Wen Tianxiang is arrested?

Don't say, being wanted is really wrong.

At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Mongolian army wanted Wen Tianxiang, and as a result, a scholar named Lin was arrested in Wuxi, not to mention that he was Wen Tianxiang. Of course, Lin Fufu can't admit it, but the Mongols held up the portrait of the wanted order and said, "Forty years old, wearing a hat, robes and black boots, clearly describing a person, and you are still arguing!" I got caught in Jingkou.

Fortunately, Wen Tianxiang, Prime Minister of Southern Song Dynasty, was also a celebrity. Many people know him, which also excused Lin's ancestors. If it is not a "public figure", I am afraid it will create a false and wrong case.

Later, when Wen Tianxiang heard about it, he wrote a poem "Fu Lin's Ancestor": "Painting and shadows catch the wind, and scholars unfortunately enter. Hu Erru suffered from dry eye in winter, and mistook Yan for Lu Gong. "

How unreliable do you think this portrait is?

I can get an arrest warrant. Please draw better.

There is also "man of iron Han" who went to the public security bureau to confirm the wanted information as in the "sand sculpture" news.

In the Song Dynasty, a robber named Wu Gao was wanted. On the way to escape, he saw the portrait he wanted, which was not only unlike, but also extremely ugly.

The earliest portraits of wanted criminals were drawn by painters according to the characteristics described, which are not as realistic as today's surveillance photos. It is not easy to express features clearly through painting. It is almost impossible to do it completely, so don't worry about beauty and ugliness.

Let alone that Wu Gao is an "iron handyman". He seemed to forget that he was a wanted man, so he went to the painter and told him that his painting was completely wrong and ugly, and asked for a new one!

Please show your "ID card" when you go through the customs.

Since portraits are useless, why do you still need portraits? In fact, there is really no portrait in the earliest wanted order.