ដូចពួកតាលីបង់ដែរ ជនជាតិចិនធ្លាប់បង្ហាញជាសាធារណៈនូវសាកសពអ្នកដែលត្រូវប្រហារជីវិត ក្នុងទម្រង់មួយហៅថា 'បោះបង់ចោលក្នុងទីផ្សារ'

Examples of the ancient Chinese form of punishment suggest the victims’ bodies were left for public display as an indication of the severity of their crimes

One famous case involved the vice-censor-in-chief of Empress Wu Zetian, whose corpse was left in the open and mutilated by his enemies.

Weeks after the United States abandoned Afghanistan and allowed the Taliban to take over, the acts for which the latter were infamous were put on display, literally. Taliban authorities in Herat executed four alleged kidnappers and hung their bodies in public. A note on the chest of one of the corpses read: “Whoever kidnaps others, will end up like this.”

Most people in the modern world will be shocked and disgusted by the brutality of the spectacle, but the Taliban seems to be very keen on bringing back the medieval practice where executions were not only performed in public, but their results were deliberately displayed in public to warn and deter.

There were notable examples in England, such as Henry VIII’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell (circa 1485–1540) whose decapitated head was placed on a spike on London Bridge; and Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658), a descendant of Thomas and England’s first and only republican head of state, whose head was posthumously removed from his exhumed body and displayed outside Westminster Hall from 1661 to 1685.

The most horrible punishment of hanging, drawing and quartering saw the victim hanged until almost dead, and then vivisected to remove his intestines, which were burnt before him. Finally, his head was cut off and the body hacked into four pieces, which would be publicly displayed.

The Chinese had the form of punishment called qishi (literally “abandoned [in the] marketplace”). There is some debate over what it entailed but the examples suggest the victims’ bodies were left for public display as an indication of the severity of their crimes.

One famous example was Lai Junchen (AD651-697). A commoner of no fixed abode, Lai by chance won the favour of Empress Wu Zetian, who used him to attack those who opposed her. As her vice-censor-in-chief, Lai persecuted senior officials with accusations that were exaggerated or downright false. His methods for extracting “confessions” were notoriously savage and he often ordered executions without a trial.

Relatives of the empress were not spared his viciousness. However, he messed with the wrong person when he went for the empress’ daughter Princess Taiping, who convinced her mother of Lai’s treachery.

Lai was sentenced to qishi. He was so reviled that “all the people at the time rejoiced at his death”. His corpse was left in the open and his enemies rushed forward to mutilate his body.

Fortunately for most of us today, such punishments have been consigned to history. But for the people of Afghanistan, public executions or the display of their outcomes may sadly become common.

SCMP