A study mentions that the removal of genital parts to eliminate the virility meant the discontinuation of his family name, which was understood as a total expulsion from his family and severe punishment under Confucianism, which values the service for the dead as its most important, moral act.
性器を切断して生殖能力を奪ってしまえば家系が絶える事になり、先祖に対する供養を人倫の最重要項目に置く儒教においては、宮刑は一種の追放刑として認識されていたとの説もある。