WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT The brutal form of execution involved slicing parts of the body off a criminal until they died in an unimaginably painful manner
Known as ‘death by a thousand cuts’ or ‘slow slicing’, this chilling method of execution was used in China, and the name barely scratches the surface of the horrors it entailed.
Until its prohibition in 1905, criminals across China, Vietnam and Korea could face execution by Lingchi, a form of torture resulting in a slow and agonising death.
Convicted criminals would have their body parts meticulously and systematically removed with a knife over an extended period until they eventually succumbed.
This gruesome method of execution was reserved for only the most egregious crimes in their culture, including treason. Despite being outlawed due to its extreme nature, its unique torturous methods have been depicted in various forms of media.
The horrifying process typically involved binding a prisoner to a wooden frame, often commencing the execution in public view.
Flesh would then be sliced from the body in numerous ways not limited or specified under Chinese law, allowing those carrying out the executions to vary their technique at will.
Not only did the punishment result in one of the most horrific deaths imaginable, inflicting immense pain on the criminal, but it also served as a form of public humiliation. The punishment would almost continue post-mortem, as their lifeless body would hang for all to gawk at.
The incidents didn’t end there. Some reports suggest that the victims’ flesh may have even been sold as medicine post-mortem.
Moreover, it’s believed that as an official punishment, death by slicing could have also involved the chopping of bones and even cremation after the body parts were cut one by one.
A historical photograph from China depicts the execution of Wang Weiqin in 1904, a former official who murdered two families. His death took place at the execution ground at Caishikou, Beijing, as the harshest form of punishment for treason and grave crimes against the family.
As savage as the method was, it did not discriminate across gender, with both men and women sentenced to death via slicing. In fact, one case stands out, as reported in the Beijing publisher the Peking Gazette in 1879: a woman and her lover were both punished after the pair killed her father-in-law.
It was suspected he was going to expose their affair, and so after murdering him to keep their secret, due to the strict anti-adultery laws, their own lives were in jeopardy. She was executed by lingchi, and her husband was exposed in a public humiliation device as a way of shaming him for not having control over his wife. This traditional method was referred to as cangue.
Several other individuals are recorded as victims of lingchi, including Cao Jixiang, a prominent eunuch who served under the Emperor and was executed for leading a military rebellion. Another supposed victim was Yuan Chonghuan, a renowned general during the reign of the Chongzhen Emperor, following an alleged attempt at insurrection.
