Secret Art of Water the Thousand Stinging Needles of Death
Chinese Torture 酷刑 Kù xíng
When the Jesuit missionaries came to Beijing in the early 17th century they were amazed at how low the criminal offense rate was compared to back dwelling in Europe. There was a good reason for this, China had developed a system of torture that frightened people into obeying the law. There was no real concept of defense, once arrested you were more or less condemned; a confession would exist routinely extracted by torture (e.1000. hanging by thumbs or kneeling on bondage or burdensome ankles). Your but real hope of acquittal would exist the rapid intervention of influential family and friends.
For most crimes the Imperial official (the magistrate) stood in judgment at his 'yamen'. Each town would accept a yamen which contained living adaptation, prison cells and the court room. In that location was no concept of defence or prosecution lawyers arguing the case and no jury system. Witnesses would requite the evidence to the magistrate who would then pronounce his verdict. There were v categories of punishment: low-cal beating, heavy beating servitude, exile and death. Although there was an appeals system this was primarily used to claiming the category of crime rather than determine guilt or innocence. The 'Doctor Dee' series of offense novels set back in the Tang dynasty are based on the life of 狄仁杰 Dí Rénjié, a senior magistrate. His life was made popular by the books of Robert van Gulik ➚ and made into many films. They give a fairly accurate portrayal of the Chinese justice organisation.
Death by a thousand cuts
The brutality of the organization shocked Western visitors, for the acme crimes the ultimate punishment was the 凌迟 Líng chí 'death by a thousand cuts' or 'death by slow slicing'. This gruesome punishment followed a prescribed guild starting with flaying of pieces of skin, muscles and so removal of body parts in order to maximize pain only go on the vital organs functioning. It ranged from 8 to 120 cuts – 'death by numerous cuts' is a better translation. This punishment was reserved for high treason equally well equally the killing of a father or hubby. The duty to parents was and so strong in Prc that killing a parent was punished particularly severely. It was not only the culprit who suffered, his business firm was demolished, his teacher would be executed (plain a bad influence!) equally well every bit the local magistrate; fifty-fifty the provincial governor would ofttimes be demoted. If a husband killed his wife then the punishment was much less severe - often only a severe beating which reflected the much lower status of women in Imperial Communist china.
One description of a 24 cut procedure is as follows:
1,2: Cut off eyebrows; 3,4: Cut off shoulder muscles; five,6 : Muscles of the chest; seven,8: Muscles of lower artillery; nine,10: Muscles of upper artillery; 11,12: Muscles of thighs; thirteen,xiv: Muscles of calf; xv: Pierce the heart (and so death); sixteen: Decapitation; 17,18: Cut off hands; xix,20: Cut off arms; 21,22: Cutting off anxiety; 23,24: Cut off legs.
Nosotros have plant a photograph of someone existence tortured by Lingchi. It is so distressing that it will only be shown if you click on this button: .
The Ling chi punishment was available by Emperor'due south decree from effectually 1000CE up until 1905. With such a gruesome punishment, another notch upwardly from the British 'hanged, drawn and quartered ➚' (1238-1803), people must have thought twice or three times before committing such crimes. Often the Emperor would use his prerogative to be merciful by commuting the sentence to adjournment to a remote province - by some considered a fate worse than expiry (equally the majority would dice in exile). Information technology was also quite usual to lessen the punishment by paying accordingly big bribes.
Legendary tortures
The tales of torture go back a long fourth dimension in Cathay. Perhaps the most evil reputation from early on history is the story of Da Ji the seducer of the last Shang dynasty Emperor 帝 辛 Dì xīn (c. 1050BCE). 妲己 Dá jǐ was considered a play a trick on demon. The Emperor indulged her sense of taste of the macabre. She is said to have wondered why a human being could apparently walk over the frozen lake without apparent discomfort, so he had his feet cut off to investigate. She made similar gruesome investigations on pregnant women and how the heart functioned. She patently liked to hear the screams of the tortured and devised the heated cauldron on which victims were tied, slowly baking them to death. As history was written by the Zhou who succeeded the Shang such stories probably circulated to discredit the last Shang loyalists.
An equally lamentable story of torture concerns China's only Empress, Tang Empress Wu Zetian. Once again the story may have been concocted to discredit the rule of the unsafe precedent of a female ruler. She managed to depose Tang Emperor Gaozong (649-683)'s Empress ( 王 玉燕 Wáng yù yān) and his favorite concubine (Espoused Xiao). At commencement she had them imprisoned only when she believed the Emperor became distressed at their handling she had their hands and feet chopped off. They were then left to briefly live on every bit 'pigs'. Empress Wang's dying curse was to exist reincarnated equally a cat and come to the palace and rip out Wu Zetian'due south throat. Consequently cats were banned from all the Royal palaces.
Possibly the credence of torture is in someway related to the belief in a Buddhist Hell. Rather similar the visions of hell dreamed up by Dante ➚ the hell was full of unlike punishments considered advisable for each misdemeanor. King Yan 阎王 Yánwáng is the god of death and ruler of hell who deals out the punishments. In Buddhism a malefactor is punished in hell for a few years before rebirth as some kind of creature. For example someone who steals or defaces a good book is flayed alive and someone who breaks upwardly a union or engagement is impaled on spears.
Neck belfry and other tortures
I slightly less sadistic method of execution was the neck tower. A prisoner is put inside a wooden box frame with the neck protruding and only stones to stand on. However each day a stone or two is removed then the poor prisoner dies slowly from strangulation.
In the Royal assistants a senior official would dread the receipt of an Imperial letter of the alphabet containing a piece of red silk as this had the clear pregnant that the official was in severe disgrace and was expected to immediately hang or poison himself. Death by decapitation was considered a much more severe penalization as the Chinese believe it is important to keep the torso intact to ensure the immortal spirit lived on after execution. And then many would see death by hanging as much more merciful than death by beheading.
Ho-hum drip torture
Perhaps a better known form of Chinese torture was the slow dropping of water onto the forehead with the torso firmly strapped down. The incessant and regular dropping of h2o was a mental rather than physical torture, the victim never had any relief. If that wasn't enough there were occasions when acid was occasionally also dropped that would painfully burn through the peel into the brain. This increased the terror equally the prisoner would not know if the side by side drop would be water or acid. Branding with hot irons and the amputation of limbs, genitals or the nose was widespread. Chopping off the nose (without anesthetic) was so mutual that it has own graphic symbol in the language 劓 yì.
To ensure the extended family restrained all its members from criminal acts astringent punishments were meted out to the whole lot. In extreme cases the whole male person family unit would be executed miè zú ( 灭 族 ) - granddad, father, children, cousins and grandchildren. The virtually severe punished all relations within 'nine degrees' of relationship - including uncles, aunts and sisters-in-constabulary. Family members under 16 years quondam and women would be spared just taken every bit slaves so the whole family would effectively 'disappear' from history. The worst case is probably from 1380 when Ming Emperor Hongwu charged Hu Weiyong ➚ with high treason. Not merely was Hu's whole family slaughtered but anyone remotely associated with him, resulting in well over 30,000 executions - for one crime; although it was more of a purge of possible dissidents rather than criminal punishment.
By comparison the example of Fāng Xìaorú ➚ 1357-1402 is less severe, he refused to acknowledge Emperor Yongle as the Emperor after a civil war with his nephew (the rightful heir). This so enraged the Emperor that the whole extended family of 873 members were slaughtered. This form of collective punishment was seen as important as families would themselves ensure there was no talk or fifty-fifty thought of treason. For lesser crimes the whole family would endure through a drop in social esteem. The author Lu Xun suffered forth with his whole family unit because his grandfather had been institute guilty of cheating at examinations.
Beatings and mobile stocks
The legal organisation had complex written rules with gear up punishments for all possible forms of crime (numbered in the thousands). For more petty crimes it was common to put a wide wooden cangue ➚ around the neck for weeks or months, this prevented the convicts from existence able to feed themselves or even sleep comfortably. The cangue had details of the crime pasted onto information technology for all to see. The weight of the cangue was determined by the severity of the crime. This is rather similar to stocks ➚ that were used in Europe. Some were punished by forced labor, for example pulling the royal barges on the Grand Canal for three years. However most punishments were in the form of beatings with bamboo sticks. In the Yuan dynasty this was codified for a low-cal stick (seven to 57 beatings in steps of 10) and with a heavy stick (67 -107 beatings). Death was common after heavy beatings - often due to infection setting in through the ruptured skin. An appropriate ransom would normally be paid to lessen the force of the beatings and there was fifty-fifty an official scale of charges that would permit richer prisoners to escape the penalisation altogether.
The Confucian doctrine of due deference was at the heart of the penal code. Attacks of a son against his male parent was one of the worst crimes. If a daughter attacked her parents causing injury she would be strangled to death.
Effective deterrent
All these gruesome descriptions may give the impression of a brutal system but that was exactly what was intended. The legal system was one of fearfulness and so rumors of the horror of torture proved a most effective deterrent. The Mongol invasion of China is remembered as a conquest by a particularly brutal people, and even so under their brief spell of dominion the severity of punishments lessened. By the accounts of Western visitors to China the system of lurking threat worked well - they saw very little law-breaking.
Modern times
The system of torture came to an official terminate with the foundation of the Republic in 1912 merely hints remain to the present twenty-four hour period. Cathay still lacks an independent judiciary and and then questioning a criminal charge continues to be seen as challenging the government that set the laws - making the culprit an enemy of the state. There are allegations that members of Falun Gong sect ➚ including Tang Yongjie and Gao Rongrong were tortured in a similar style to the ling chi. The centuries of threat of barbarous punishment tin still exist seen have an impact on everyday life, Chinese people are reticent almost committing themselves to a view or revealing their truthful opinion as in quondam years information technology could have had tragic repercussions.
China retains the death sentence (by lethal injection or gunshot). Although the number executed is a country secret, organizations estimate that thousands are executed each year, more than the rest of the world put together. The crimes with this punishment can be almost annihilation judged to be subversive from calculator hacking to arson as well as rape and embezzlement.
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