As the social hierarchy shook and a monetary economy developed, a practice called “Maepum-pali” (selling the act of being beaten) emerged in late Joseon
img
  • 404 points socialistRanter

    They could’ve just made it into a fine, and skip the middleman being beaten.

    But guess they wanted to keep the spirit of the punishment.

    parent
    170 points Wild-Tale-257

    it's not about the money it's about sending a message

    parent root
    41 points Mr_Zaroc

    What if some dude paid to punish other people, can't kill that market opportunity

    parent root
    6 points Jesse_God_of_Awesome

    It's also about the money

    parent root
    48 points Skygazer_Jay

    Caning executioner: Hey! Then how am I supposed to get my cut, "swinging power adjustment fee"?

    parent root
    11 points Skebaba

    And steal jobs from honest working men??? I don't think so, commie!

    parent root
  • 183 points Parker813

    I've been hearing alot of stories about these "taxes" during late Joseon. There was an incident where a family ended up getting taxed higher after another son was born and the father proceeded to castrate himself in response.

    parent
    85 points animeAJ

    There are two things certain in life: Death and Castration(?)

    parent root
    44 points Ivorytower626

    Damn my dad sacrifice his balls for mine

    parent root
    41 points Skygazer_Jay

    More like a statement: "No more brothers and sisters for you, can't afford the taxes anymore"

    parent root
    6 points Rare_Reality7510

    Yield his balls to claim his taxes

    parent root
  • 66 points Skygazer_Jay

    There's an 18th-century record that tells us how much they were paid. 7냥, which could buy you about 200 kg of rice at the time. In the record, the "caning seller"'s wife urged her husband to do more, and he did 3 jobs that day.

    He died of rhabdomyolysis.

    parent
    6 points Iamnotburgerking

    Keep in mind doing this once allowed one to earn a month’s wages in a single day, so you can see the temptation.

    parent root
    3 points Ok_Dot_7498

    i think after the second beating you would probabaly be so numb that you think you can take the third.

    parent root
  • 24 points Level_Low6101

    Korea still does this in some places. Those with money can bribe officials to evade the draft. I'm not sure if there have been cases of someone paying someone else to do it for him though.

    parent
    18 points CrystalSorceress

    Rich northerners did this during the American Civil War, pay someone else to be drafted instead of you.

    parent root
    9 points Slow-Distance-6241

    Isn't that basically how feudalism switched to absolutism? Fewer and fewer nobles actually did preparations for war and the state itself was interested in nobles having no war experience too, and that related to the switch from feudal levies to standing armies and at some point state just took away the middlemen and implemented the tax on nobles that avoided draft

    parent root
    6 points Level_Low6101

    That was one thing, but it's usually many smaller things adding up

    parent root
    5 points FI00D

    I heard a lot of former french nobility fought in WW1 and faced disproportionate casualty rates.

    parent root
    3 points ahses3202

    Surprisingly common. You could either pay someone to serve in your place or just pay a fine to the government to avoid your number in Napoleonic France.

    parent root
  • 29 points DogiumOfficial

    Nowadays, people would willingly want this to happen to them.

    parent
    59 points Pitiful_Net_8971

    You're assuming that humans were different back then? Some of them were definitely masochists.

    parent root
    34 points Global_Algae_538

    Garuentee some guy seemed way to eager to sell his body for punishments

    parent root
    1 points PrimeusOrion

    Man must have ended up either Rich or dead but either way he was a mess to clean up after.

    parent root
  • Hacker News
    • Top
    • Best
    • New
    • Ask
    • Show
    • Jobs
  • beta Hugging Face
    • Posts
  • Reddit
    • r/programming
    • r/technology
    • r/science
    • r/news
    • r/gaming