Lingchi  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Slow slicing (transliterated Ling Chi or Leng T'che), also translated as the slow process, the lingering death, or death by a thousand cuts, was a form of execution used in China from roughly AD 900 until its abolition in 1905. In this form of execution, the condemned person was killed by using a knife to methodically remove portions of the body over an extended period of time. The term língchí derives from a classical description of ascending a mountain slowly. Lingchi was reserved for crimes viewed as especially severe, such as treason and killing one's parents. The process involved tying the person to be executed to a wooden frame, usually in a public place. The flesh was then cut from the body in multiple slices in a process that was not specified in detail in Chinese law and therefore most likely varied. In later times, opium was sometimes administered either as an act of mercy or as a way of preventing fainting. The punishment worked on three levels: as a form of public humiliation, as a slow and lingering death, and as a punishment after death.

According to the Confucian principle of filial piety or xiào to alter one's body or to cut the body is a form of unfilial practice. Lingchi therefore contravenes the demands of xiao. In addition, to be cut to pieces meant that the body of the victim would not be 'whole' in a spiritual life after death.

This method of execution became a fixture in the image of China among some Westerners.It appears in various accounts of Chinese cruelty, such as Harold Lamb's 1930s biography of Genghis Khan.

Famous executions

• Liu Jin — a eunuch during the Ming Dynasty.
• Yuan Chonghuan — a military leader.

See also

• Death by a Thousand Cuts (photo)
• Death by a Thousand Cuts (book)