What does punishment mean?

Ink punishment, also known as "black punishment" and "black face", is a kind of punishment in ancient China, in which characters or patterns were tattooed on the prisoner's face or forehead, and then ink was used as a symbol of the prisoner.

Ink punishment has little effect on prisoners' physical condition, but tattoos on their faces will make prisoners lose their dignity. Carving people's skin is not only a concrete punishment, but also a humiliating punishment, which makes the prisoners humiliated and different from ordinary people. Ink punishment is the lightest of the five punishments of slavery.

Ying Bu in Qin and Han Dynasties was called "Qing Bu" because he was hanged. In the Tang Dynasty, Shangguan Waner was disfigured because she offended Wu Zetian, leaving a tattoo on her forehead. Later, she imitated the plum blossom makeup of Princess Shouyang of Liu Song, and decorated the tattoo on her forehead into a plum blossom shape.

Extended data:

A drill or chisel is used to torture people. Other books talk about ink punishment, all of which are carved with a knife. These show that when the ink punishment was first stipulated as a punishment, it was executed with a knife, not acupuncture.

Although ink punishment is a light punishment, people's facial nerves are extremely sensitive, and it is also very cruel to carve thorns on it with a knife. And some people will be life-threatening because of wound infection.

Ink punishment can also be divided into "Yi" and "Qu". It means tattooing and smearing ink on cheekbones and covering your head with a black scarf. The prisoner not only lost his status as an official of the slave owner's grass-roots political power, but also became a slave who committed the most heinous crimes.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-torture