The Five Punishments (Chinese: 五刑; pinyin: wǔ xíng; Cantonese Yale: ńgh yìhng) was the collective name for a series of physical penalties meted out by the legal system of pre-modern dynastic China.
[2][3] Following the Sui and Tang dynasties (581–907 AD), these were changed to penal servitude, banishment, death, or corporal punishment in the form of whipping with bamboo strips or flogging with a stick.
Other sources claim they originated with Chiyou, the legendary creator of metalwork and weapons and leader of the ancient Nine Li (九黎) ethnic group.
During the subsequent Xia dynasty (c. 2070 BC – c. 1600 BC), Qi of Xia, son of Yu the Great, the dynasty's founder, adopted the Miao's punishments of amputation of one or both feet (刖; yuè), cutting off of the nose (劓; yì), chiseling (琢; zhuó), tattooing the face or forehead (黥; qíng) and other types of punishment.
Tattooing, amputation of the nose or feet, removal of the reproductive organs and death became the main five forms of the punishment system during this period.