“幽闭”考辨

A Study on “Youbi” as the Castration for Women in Ancient China

自东晋梅赜向朝廷献书以来,出自《尚书孔传》的“宫,淫刑也,男子割势,妇人幽闭,次死之刑”便被后世当作了历史上的宫刑,“幽闭”也因此被视为针对淫乱妇女的女子宫刑。然而,这一“幽闭”究竟是什么,迄今为止却无人能够说清楚。其实,与割势不同,“幽闭”源于《尚书孔传》的作者对《吕刑》之“宫”的注释,属于“纸面上的刑罚”,现实中却不存在。

Since Mei Ze submitted his collection of documents to the royal court in the Eastern Jin dynasty , the citation “as the penalty for licentiousness, castration, which consists of geshi(割势)for men and youbi(妇人幽闭)for women, is the penalty next to death penalty” from Kong Anguo s Commentaries to the Book of Documents has been regarded as the proof for ancient castration in later generations, thus “youbi” has been regarded as the castration for licentious women.However, nobody has made clear about what is “youbi” until now.In fact, unlike “geshi”,“youbi” comes from the annotation of “gong” in “Marquis of Lv on Punishment” in The Book of Documents by Kong Anguo in his book, is a “penalty on paper” and has never existed in reality.