So the early rulers adopted these Legalist penal laws in their governments. This system of laws that they developed was called “xing ming.”
Some of these laws of punishment were quite severe: cutting off legs or nose, branding with a hot iron, castration, etc.
One of the Legalists, named Shang Yang, proposed that punishments should be more severe in comparison to crimes to deter people from committing offenses (and enable the ruler to exercise more power over the people).