Last evening I finished watching the
absolutely superb PBS series
The Story of China. In the final episode, Michael Wood makes reference to an ancient form of extreme punishment:
The nine familial exterminations or nine kinship exterminations... was the most serious punishment for a capital offense in Ancient China. A collective punishment typically associated with offenses such as treason, the punishment involved the execution of all relatives of an individual, which were categorized into nine groups. The occurrence of this punishment was somewhat rare, with relatively few sentences recorded throughout history.
The punishment involved the execution of close and extended family members. These included:
The criminal's living parents
The criminal's living grandparents
Any children the criminal may have, over a certain age (which is usually variable depending on the time period) and if married their spouses
Any grandchildren the criminal may have, over a certain age (which is usually variable depending on the time period) and if married their spouses
Siblings and siblings-in-law (the siblings of the criminal and that of his or her spouse, in the case where he or she is married)
Uncles and aunts of the criminal, as well as their spouses
The criminal's cousins (in case of Korea, this includes up to second and third cousins)
The criminal's spouse
The criminal's spouse's parents
The criminal himself
