Punishments in colonial times and ancient China were often brutal and meant to publicly humiliate and inflict pain. Some common punishments included branding with hot irons to mark criminals' bodies with the first letter of their crime, putting people in the stocks or pillory to be humiliated, and whipping or beating slaves and prisoners. In ancient China under legalism, punishments were meant to terrify people into obedience through torture. Punishments could include tattooing criminals, removing skin, cutting off limbs, or dismembering the body into pieces according to Confucian attention to detail. Both periods aimed to use harsh, public punishments to control populations through fear.