Ancient China's Bizarre Laws of Height and Tears
Discover the shocking laws of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, where your height determined your innocence and crying could cost you your eyebrows.
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Discover the shocking laws of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, where your height determined your innocence and crying could cost you your eyebrows.
Full transcript of Ancient China's Bizarre Laws of Height and Tears
Did you know being short in ancient China meant you literally couldn't be arrested? In two hundred BC, Emperor Qin Shi Huang stood just four feet eleven inches. A true short king. His legal code stated you had to be as tall as the emperor to be considered an adult. Since birth records were basically non-existent, height was the only way to verify age. Shorter men could easily claim they were children and walk free. But if you passed the height test, you had a bizarre new problem. Men were strictly forbidden from crying. Shedding a single tear was viewed as the ultimate weakness. The punishment? Having your beard and eyebrows publicly shaved off. But while men were banned from weeping, women had the exact opposite rule. Before marriage, a bride had to cry for one hour every single day for thirty days. And she didn't do it alone. Her mother joined for three weeks, then her grandmother, and finally her sisters. It wasn't a punishment, but a mandatory display of familial love.