24 May 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Researchers may have found 3,000-year-old evidence of Yue (Amputation), one of the five punishments practiced in ancient China

According to the South China Morning Post, researchers in China believe a skeleton discovered in a tomb in the country’s northwest is the first documented case of foot amputation (Yue) as a punishment for a crime.

According to the Peking University researchers, a biological investigation of the woman’s bones ruled out medical or other grounds for the amputation, and the victim survived for at least five years after the punishment was carried out.

In ancient China, amputating one or both feet was a practice known as the Yue and was one of the five punishments of ancient China. The “Five Penalties” system, was in place for at least a thousand years till about 200 BC.

Li Nan, pictured with her team, subjected the bone to a biomedical analysis.
Li Nan, pictured with her team, subjected the bone to biomedical analysis.

The so-called Five Punishments (wuxing) were the capital punishments in ancient China. According to legend, either the Yellow Emperor or the Xia dynasty (17th – 15th cent. BCE) adopted these as they were common penalties used by the southern Miao tribes.

The Confucian Classic Shangshu” Book of Documents” (chapter Lüxing) says that when Chi You brought chaos onto the earth, the Miao tribes created the five punishments: “They made the five punishments engines of oppression, calling them the laws. They slaughtered the innocent, and were the first also to go to excess in cutting off the nose, cutting off the ears, castration, and branding.”

In historical archives and artwork, there is plenty of proof supporting the practices. For instance, in the earliest Chinese written records, the Shang dynasty’s (circa 1600-1050 BC) bone inscriptions seem to show some images of a foot being cut off with a saw, which is the earliest form of the character for Yue.

Zhou dynasty bronzes show amputees, who were typically made to work as gatekeepers.

Western Zhou (from around 1046 to 771 BC) bronze vessels have some engravings showing people with one or both legs missing acting as gatekeepers. In the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC), foot amputation became such a common form of punishment that demand and prices for special shoes shot up.

The skeleton of the woman who is thought to be the earliest known punitive foot amputation case was found in a tomb at a cemetery at the site of Zhouyan near Baoji in China’s northwestern province of Shaanxi.

The amputee’s corpse was discovered during excavations that began in 1999, but it was pushed aside without any in-depth investigation because archaeologists were more interested in locating artifacts, of which there were few discovered at the site.

The location, which was the cradle of the Zhou civilization, is renowned as the “hometown of bronzes” because of the huge quantity of containers, oracle bones, and tombs that have been discovered there.  Oracle bones and tombs have also been discovered at the site.

The skeleton was found in 1999, but more recent technology helped scientists determine that the amputation had been carried out as a punishment.
The skeleton was found in 1999, but more recent technology helped scientists determine that the amputation had been carried out as a punishment. 

Li Nan, a postdoctoral researcher at Peking University, studied the bones. She said recent scientific and technological developments had made a further study of the remains worthwhile.

“People only regarded this human bone as an incomplete bone before, but when I had a certain knowledge reserve, I thought at first sight that it might be a case of amputation,” she said.

An X-ray study revealed that the bones belonged to a lady in her 30s or 35s who had her right foot amputated.

Sometimes patients with diseases such as diabetes, leprosy, and cancer, who had suffered frostbite or burns, had their limbs removed.

But a study of the bone density and structure of other parts of the skeleton ruled out disease.

The amputation had also caused serious deformities to the tibia and fibula – something that suggested it was not a medical operation because those leaves wounds that are relatively flat and smooth.

“Combining the biomedical analysis of the tomb occupier and the Yue amputees images engraved on bronze vessels unearthed from nearby tombs, it can be basically determined that this is an example of the Yue penalty and is the earliest known example,” Li said.

The team of researchers from Peking University, led by postdoctoral researcher Li Nan, has published a paper in Acta Anthropologica Sinica on the findings of their study.

Cover Pic: China Underground

Related Articles

Peru finds perfectly preserved a wooden figure in the Americas’ largest mud-brick city

29 June 2022

29 June 2022

A perfectly preserved wooden figure has been discovered at the Chan Chan archaeological site, in northern Peru, the Ministry of...

3500-year-old ceramic oven discovered in Turkey’s Tepecik Mound

24 August 2021

24 August 2021

A 3,500-year-old ceramic oven was unearthed in Tepecik Mound in the Çine district of Aydın, in western Turkey. Tepecik Höyük,...

An ancient melon genome from Libya reveals interesting insights regarding watermelon relatives

2 August 2022

2 August 2022

The earliest known seeds from a watermelon related were discovered during an archaeological dig in Libya, going back 6,000 years...

Remarkable discovery of Iron Age and Roman treasures found near a boggy area on Anglesey

29 February 2024

29 February 2024

Metal detectorist Ian Porter unearthed sixteen historical artifacts in a boggy field on Anglesey. Among the items found were Iron...

Excavations at Meir Necropolis have turned up funerary artifacts from two distinct eras of ancient history

16 May 2023

16 May 2023

An Egyptian team of archaeologists has uncovered a collection of structural relics dated to the Byzantine and Late Period in...

At a dig site in western Turkey, a centuries-old Byzantine fortress will be revealed

24 December 2021

24 December 2021

Excavation of vast Byzantine-era fortifications considered to be about 900 years old has begun at a dig site in western...

A Chapel was Found Under the Madonna Tal-Hniena Church in Qrendi, Malta

21 May 2021

21 May 2021

Underneath the Madonna Tal-Hniena church in the village of Qrendi in the south of Malta, the remains of an ancient...

Environmentalists react to the rehabilitation works in the Assos ancient port

2 October 2021

2 October 2021

Among the continuing landscaping and restoration works at the historic city of Assos in the northern province of Canakkale, a...

Storms uncover precious marble cargo from a 1,800-year-old Mediterranean shipwreck in Israel

15 May 2023

15 May 2023

Numerous rare marble artifacts have been found at the site of a 1,800-year-old shipwreck in shallow waters just 200 meters...

Saxon ‘London’ was Bigger Than Previously Believed

23 February 2024

23 February 2024

Archaeologists digging at the northern end of Trafalgar Square found evidence that Saxon London’s center was bigger and extended further...

Archaeologists unearthed a pot of copper coins in first major discovery at Mohenjo Daro in Pakistan, in 93 years

18 November 2023

18 November 2023

A pot full of copper coins was discovered from a stupa (a dome-shaped building erected as a Buddhist shrine) at...

Excavations at Körzüt Castle unearth 2 cuneiform inscriptions and a new Urartian Susi temple

25 October 2023

25 October 2023

During the rescue excavations carried out at the Körzüt Castle in the Muradiye district of Van province in eastern Turkey,...

Archaeology team discovers a 7,000-year-old and 13-hectare settlement in Serbia

30 April 2024

30 April 2024

Researchers have discovered a previously unknown Late Neolithic settlement near the Tamiš River in Northeast Serbia. The discovery was made...

Bronze Age Wedge Tomb Discovered on the Dingle Peninsula maybe Even Older

22 April 2021

22 April 2021

A wedge tomb recently discovered on the Dingle Peninsula of Ireland was described by archaeologists as “quite unusual”. Wedge tombs...

Underwater Archaeologists Discover a 7,000-Year-Old Road in Croatia

8 May 2023

8 May 2023

A team of underwater archaeologists from the University of Zadar has discovered the sunken ruins of a 7,000-year-old road that...