cipei 刺配, tatooing and exile

In ancient China, Penal tattooing (ci 刺, also called mo 墨 or qing 黥) was combined the penalties such as penal servitude (tupei 徒), exile (liupei 流配) or penal military service (chongjun 充軍). In addition, beating with the heavy stick (zhang 杖) was applied. The combination was called cipei 刺配, juepei 決配 or peifa 配法.

It is attested as early as the Later Jin 後晉 (936-946), one of the Five Dynasties 五代 (907-960). Elixe was, from the Southern Dynasties period 南朝 (420-589) on, a common means of commuting the death penalty.

Males unable to be sent into exile were condemned to very long penal servitude (changtu 長徒: salt boiling, wine production, service at state-owned kilns, mines or smelters), and females to penal "pestling" (peichong 配舂). The penal codes of the Sui 隋 (581-618) and Tang 唐 (618-907) dynasties included concrete regulations for criminals being exiled (ying pei zhe 應配者, pei liu zhe 配流者). At that time, exile to spots in the border regions (liupei 流配) was not combined with tattooing the face (cimian 刺面), but only with blows by the heavy stick (juezhang 決杖). Yet Shi Jingtang 石敬塘 (r. 936-942), emperor of the Later Jin, reintroduced in 938 the penalty of tattooing and chose the word ci 刺 instead of the word qing 黥 from antiquity.

The Song dynasty 宋 (960-1279) adopted this regulation, sentencing robbers and bandits to exile, together with corporal punishment and tattooing on the face and arm. This combination of punishments, called cipei, came to replace execution from the reign of Emperor Taizong 宋太宗 (r. 976-997) of the Song dynasty.

Regulations on the combined exile comprised as many as 46 paragraphs in the early 11th century and swelled to no fewer than 570 paragraphs in the late 12th century. These regulations fixed the designations of particular punishments, the number, position, wording (for instance, qiang dao 強盜 "robber") or marks, and size (ranging from 2 fen to 7 fen, see weights and measures) of the tattooing, the number of blows with the heavy stick, as well as the distances to which delinquents were exiled.

The judicial apparatus of the Southern Song 南宋 (1127-1279) recognised fourteen places of exile: absolute, lifelong exile (yong bu fang huan 永不放還); islands in the sea, such as Shamen Island 沙門島; distant prefectures like Qiongzhou 瓊州, Wan'an 萬安, Changhua 昌化 or Zhuya 朱崖 (today's Hainan); Guangnan 廣南 (i.e., Guangdong or Guangxi); places 3,000 li (c. 1,500 km) from the home prefecture; 2,500 li; 2,000 li; 1,500 li; 1,000 li; 500 li; a neighbouring prefecture; another city in the same prefecture; the prefectural city; and finally, no tattooing. For all punishments except "absolute exile", amnesty was possible.

The Yuan dynasty 元 (1279-1368) moved the location of the tattooing to the left or right upper arm, or the neck. The Qing 清 (1644-1911) used various different terms for the spots where penal tattoos were applied to. The Yuan and Qing did not apply tattooing to Mongolian and Manchu delinquents.

The combined punishment was abolished only in the very early 20th century.