大刑 (dà xíng) — severe punishment, torture (esp. in historical Chinese legal contexts); torture instruments

Definition

Historical/literary term for severe corporal punishments or the instruments used to inflict them. Common in classical and legal-historical texts, not modern usage.

noun
severe punishmenttorture (esp. in historical Chinese legal contexts)torture instruments
Easily confused

Examples

  • 大刑。
    Gǔ dài fǎ lǜ zhōng yǒu hěn duō cán kù de dà xíng.
    There were many cruel severe punishments in ancient laws.
  • 大刑。
    Zhè ge gù shi lǐ tí dào le jǐ zhǒng bù tóng de dà xíng.
    This story mentions several different types of severe punishment.
  • 大刑。
    Xiàn dài de sī fǎ zhì dù yǐ jīng fèi chú le dà xíng.
    The modern judicial system has abolished severe punishments.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

大dàgreat/severe
刑xíngpunishment

大 means great or severe, and 刑 means punishment, so the word refers to severe penalties or torture.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

Open 大 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
刀刀dāo
Sound part声符shēngfú
井
井jǐng刑xíng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

刑 puts 刀 (knife) beside 井. The knife part shows the punishment idea, and 井 gives the sound.

Open 刑 →

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