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49-452: King Wen of Zhou (r. 1099-1056 BCE) moved the Zhou capital eastward from Qíyì ( 岐邑 ) to Fēngjīng; his son King Wu later relocated across the river to Haojing, next to a certain lake Hao (鎬池). Fēngjīng became the site of the Zhou ancestral shrine and gardens whilst Haojing contained the royal residence and government headquarters. The settlement was also known as Zōngzhōu to indicate its role as

98-528: A central topic in Salvador Elizondo 's Farabeuf , where the procedure is carried out by the protagonist. Agustina Bazterrica mentioned the torture in her book Tender is the Flesh , as the method used by the sister of the protagonist to make the meat served at the memorial party fresh and tasty. The Chinese idiom "千刀萬剮" qiāndāo wànguǎ is also a reference to linchi . A scene of Lingchi appeared in

147-495: A fixture in the image of China among some Westerners. Lingchi could be used for the torture and execution of a person, or applied as an act of humiliation after death. It was meted out for major offences such as high treason , mass murder , patricide / matricide , or the murder of one's master or employer. (English: petty treason ). However, emperors used it to threaten people and sometimes ordered it for minor offences or for family members of their enemies. While it

196-498: 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 , to alter one's body or to cut the body are considered unfilial practices. Lingchi therefore contravenes the demands of filial piety. In addition, to be cut to pieces meant that the body of the victim would not be "whole" in spiritual life after death. This method of execution became

245-448: A knife was used to methodically remove portions of the body over an extended period of time, eventually resulting in death. Lingchi was reserved for crimes viewed as especially heinous, such as treason. Even after the practice was outlawed, the concept itself has still appeared across many types of media. The word was used to describe the prolonging of a person's agony when the person is being killed. One theory suggests that it grew to be

294-606: A man termed the ' Rousseau of China', and a major advocate of intellectual and government reform in the 1890s". Although officially outlawed by the government of the Qing dynasty in 1905, lingchi became a widespread Western symbol of the Chinese penal system from the 1910s on, and in Zhao Erfeng 's administration. Three sets of photographs shot by French soldiers in 1904–05 were the basis for later mythification. The abolition

343-526: A more general attitude opposed to "cruel and unusual" punishments (such as the exposure of the head) that the Tang dynasty had not included in the canonic table of the Five Punishments , which defined the legal ways of punishing crime. Hence the abolitionist trend is deeply ingrained in the Chinese legal tradition, rather than being purely derived from Western influences. Under later emperors, lingchi

392-514: A photograph that obsessed the philosopher Georges Bataille , in which a Chinese criminal, while being chopped up and slowly flayed by executioners, rolls his eyes heavenwards in transcendent bliss." Bataille wrote about lingchi in L'expérience intérieure (1943) and in Le coupable (1944). He included five pictures in his The Tears of Eros (1961; translated into English and published by City Lights in 1989). Naked City 's album Leng Tch'e

441-505: A significant role in shaping Chinese culture. King Wen is also credited with having stacked the eight trigrams in their various permutations to create the sixty-four hexagrams of the I Ching . He is also said to have written the judgments which are appended to each hexagram. The most commonly used sequence of the 64 hexagrams is attributed to him and is usually referred to as the King Wen sequence . In 196 BC, Han Gaozu gave King Wen

490-594: A specific torture technique. An alternative theory suggests that the term originated from the Khitan language , as the penal meaning of the word emerged during the Khitan Liao dynasty . The process involved tying the condemned prisoner 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. The punishment worked on three levels: as

539-402: A traditional relative chronology, the absolute date calculated by modern scholars of the celestial phenomena that formed the seed of what has been called the Zhou dynasty's most important contribution to Chinese political thought cannot be securely slotted into King Wen's timeline. Ah! Solemn is the clear temple, reverent and concordant the illustrious assistants. Dignified, dignified are

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588-426: A truly awful description of a punishment whose cruelty has been extraordinarily misrepresented ... The mutilation is ghastly and excites our horror as an example of barbarian cruelty; but it is not cruel, and need not excite our horror, since the mutilation is done, not before death, but after." According to apocryphal lore, lingchi began when the torturer, wielding an extremely sharp knife, began by cutting out

637-653: Is about this form of torture. The tenth song on Taylor Swift 's seventh album, Lover , is entitled "Death By A Thousand Cuts" and compares the singer's heartbreak to this punishment. The "death by a thousand cuts" with reference to China is mentioned in Amy Tan 's novel The Joy Luck Club , and Robert van Gulik 's Judge Dee novels. The 1905 photos are mentioned in Thomas Harris ' novel Hannibal , in Julio Cortázar 's novel Hopscotch and are also

686-442: Is difficult to obtain accurate details of how the executions took place, they generally consisted of cuts to the arms, legs, and chest leading to amputation of limbs, followed by decapitation or a stab to the heart. If the crime was less serious or the executioner merciful, the first cut would be to the throat causing death; subsequent cuts served solely to dismember the corpse. Art historian James Elkins argues that extant photos of

735-615: The Classic of Poetry are praises to the legacy of King Wen. Some consider him the first epic hero of Chinese history. Although frequently confused with his fourth son Duke of Zhou , also known as "Lord Zhou", they are different historical persons. Chinese scholars (e.g. Wang Yunwu ( 王雲五 ), Li Xueqin ( 李学勤 ), etc.) identified King Wen with a 周方白 ; Zhōufāng bó ; 'Elder of Zhou region' mentioned in inscriptions H11:82 & H11:84 among oracle bones excavated at Zhouyuan ( 周原 ), Qishan County . Born Ji Chang ( 姬昌 ), Wen

784-531: The Song dynasty under Emperor Renzong and Emperor Shenzong . Another early proposal for abolishing lingchi was submitted by Lu You (1125–1210) in a memorandum to the imperial court of the Southern Song dynasty . Lu You there stated, "When the muscles of the flesh are already taken away, the breath of life is not yet cut off, liver and heart are still connected, seeing and hearing still exist. It affects

833-573: The inscription on the Da Yu ding , describe Heaven's Mandate in terms of an actual astronomic event: "the great command in the sky" ( 天有大令 ). The transmitted record does not place King Wen's receipt of the Mandate in his biography, although the widespread traditions that hold the idea of its existence to be true universally agree that he did receive it at some point during his career. While his conquests, imprisonment, establishments, and rebellion form

882-473: The 1966 film The Sand Pebbles . Inspired by the 1905 photos, Chinese artist Chen Chieh-jen created a 25-minute, 2002 video called Lingchi – Echoes of a Historical Photograph , which has generated some controversy. The 2007 film The Warlords , which is loosely based on historical events during the Taiping Rebellion , ended with one of its main characters executed by Lingchi. Lingchi is shown as

931-656: The Shang at Muye , founding the Zhou dynasty . The name "Wen" now means "the Cultured" or "the Civilizing" and was made into an official royal name by King Wu in honor of his father. He was the only noble to bear the posthumous name "Wen" for almost the entire first half of the Zhou dynasty, despite its common usage as an epithet of eulogy, suggesting a special privilege. The theory of political legitimacy that prevailed during

980-402: The Zhou dynasty and found adherents throughout the following millennia was known as the Mandate of Heaven. According to this theory, Heaven established the sovereign lexically the same way a sovereign would establish a vassal, legitimacy flowed from Heaven's will through the person of the ruler to his lords and his family. The sovereign was held to be Heaven's eldest son in a manner analogous to

1029-524: The abolition of lingchi . Lingchi remained in the Qing dynasty 's code of laws for persons convicted of high treason and other serious crimes, but the punishment was abolished as a result of the 1905 revision of the Chinese penal code by Shen Jiaben. The first Western photographs of lingchi were taken in 1890 by William Arthur Curtis of Kentucky in Canton. French soldiers stationed in Beijing had

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1078-558: The capital of the vassal states. During the reign of King Cheng of Zhou (r. 1042–1021 BCE), the Duke of Zhou built a second settlement at Luoyi , also known as Chengzhou ( 成周 ), in order to reinforce control of the eastern part of the kingdom. From then on, although King Cheng was permanently stationed in Chengzhou, Haojing remained the main operations center. At the time of King Zhao of Zhou (r. 996–977 BCE), further reinforcement of

1127-465: The conflagration. The newly enthroned King Ping of Zhou (r. 770-720 BCE) thereafter had no choice but to move the capital east to Chéngzhōu. For sometime after, there were still people who referred to themselves as "Western Zhou" and to Chéngzhōu as Zōngzhōu. King Wen of Zhou King Wen of Zhou ( Chinese : 周文王 ; pinyin : Zhōu Wén Wáng ; 1152–1050 BC, the Cultured King)

1176-606: The deceased were then put on a parade for a show in the public. Some victims were reportedly given doses of opium to alleviate suffering. John Morris Roberts , in Twentieth Century: The History of the World, 1901 to 2000 (2000), writes "the traditional punishment of death by slicing ... became part of the western image of Chinese backwardness as the 'death of a thousand cuts'." Roberts then notes that slicing "was ordered, in fact, for K'ang Yu-Wei ,

1225-576: The eastern part of the Zhou kingdom took place thus Chéngzhōu became the major center of operations. In King You of Zhou 's reign (r. 781–771 BCE), the Marquess of Shen with support from Quanrong nomads from the west overran Hàojīng heralding the end of the Western Zhou dynasty. All the royal buildings in the settlement were razed to the ground although it is not known if those in Fēngjīng survived

1274-597: The entire process could not have included more than a "few dozen" wounds. In the Yuan dynasty , 100 cuts were inflicted but by the Ming dynasty there were records of 3,000 incisions. It is described as a fast process lasting no longer than 4 or 5 minutes. The coup de grâce was all the more certain when the family could afford a bribe to have a stab to the heart inflicted first. Some emperors ordered three days of cutting while others may have ordered specific tortures before

1323-456: The execution clearly show that the "death by division" (as it was termed by German criminologist Robert Heindl ) involved some degree of dismemberment while the subject was living. Elkins also argues that, contrary to the apocryphal version of "death by a thousand cuts", the actual process could not have lasted long. The condemned individual is not likely to have remained conscious and aware (even if still alive) after one or two severe wounds, so

1372-498: The execution, or a longer execution. For example, records showed that during Yuan Chonghuan 's execution, Yuan was heard shouting for half a day before his death. The flesh of the victims may also have been sold as medicine. As an official punishment, death by slicing may also have involved slicing the bones, cremation, and scattering of the deceased's ashes. The Western perception of lingchi has often differed considerably from actual practice, and some misconceptions persist to

1421-464: The eyes, rendering the condemned incapable of seeing the remainder of the torture and, presumably, adding considerably to the psychological terror of the procedure. Successive relatively minor cuts chopped off ears, nose, tongue, fingers, toes and genitals preceding cuts that removed large portions of flesh from more sizable parts, e.g., thighs and shoulders. The entire process was said to last three days, and to total 3,600 cuts. The heavily carved bodies of

1470-442: The harmony of nature, it is injurious to a benevolent government, and does not befit a generation of wise men." Lu You's elaborate argument against lingchi was dutifully copied and transmitted by generations of scholars, among them influential jurists of all dynasties, until the late Qing dynasty reformist Shen Jiaben (1840–1913) included it in his 1905 memorandum that obtained the abolition. This anti- lingchi trend coincided with

1519-462: The many officers, holding fast to the virtue of King Wen. Responding in praise to the one in Heaven, they hurry swiftly within the temple. Greatly illustrious, greatly honored, may [King Wen] never be weary of [us] men. Many of the older odes from the Classic of Poetry ( Shijing 詩經) are hymns in praise of King Wen. He was additionally a great hero of Confucius , whose followers played

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1568-561: The mouth of someone dying in agony, thus hastening the moment of decease." At the very least, such tales were deemed credible to Western observers such as Morrison. Lingchi existed under the earliest emperors, although similar but less cruel tortures were often prescribed instead. Under the reign of Qin Er Shi , the second emperor of the Qin dynasty , various tortures were used to punish officials. The arbitrary, cruel, and short-lived Liu Ziye

1617-543: The opportunity to photograph three different lingchi executions in 1904 and 1905: Accounts of lingchi or the extant photographs have inspired or referenced in numerous artistic, literary, and cinematic media: Susan Sontag mentions the 1905 case in Regarding the Pain of Others (2003). One reviewer wrote that though Sontag includes no photographs in her book – a volume about photography – "she does tantalisingly describe

1666-410: The patrilineal kin-based society of Predynastic Zhou. If the sovereign was insufficiently virtuous, Heaven would choose a new successor, portended by various omens or disasters. King Wen was said to be mandated by Heaven because the virtue of the Shang kings had declined too greatly. While this political theory gained a great deal of sophistication over time, it seems to have begun with King Wen reading

1715-485: The present. The distinction between the sensationalised Western myth and the Chinese reality was noted by Westerners as early as 1895. That year, Australian traveller and later representative of the government of the Republic of China George Ernest Morrison , who claimed to have witnessed an execution by slicing, wrote that " lingchi [was] commonly, and quite wrongly, translated as 'death by slicing into 10,000 pieces' –

1764-597: The regular way to perform this penalty was not specified in detail in the penal code. Lingchi was also known in Vietnam, notably being used as the method of execution of the French missionary Joseph Marchand , in 1835, as part of the repression following the unsuccessful Lê Văn Khôi revolt . An 1858 account by Harper's Weekly claimed the martyr Auguste Chapdelaine was also killed by lingchi but in China; in reality he

1813-423: The skies. In 1059 BCE , two unusual celestial phenomena took place. In May, the densest clustering in five hundred years' time of the five planets visible to the naked eye could be seen in the constellation of Cancer, followed a few seasons later by an apparition of Comet 1P/Halley . One or more of these was interpreted by King Wen as a visible sign indicating his divine appointment. Early records, such as

1862-490: The smaller states of Ruan and Gong, thus annexing the three of them. The following year, he attacked Li, a puppet of Shang, and the next year he attacked E , a rebel state opposed to Shang, conquering both. One year later he attacked Chong, home of Hu, Marquis of Chong, his arch-enemy, and defeated it, gaining access to the Ford of Meng through which he could cross his army to attack Shang. By then he had obtained about two thirds of

1911-588: The special rank of Overlord of the West (Western Shang). Wen offered a piece of his land in Western Luo to King Zhou, who in turn allowed Wen to make one last request. He requested that the Burning Pillar punishment be abolished, and so it was. . Subsequently, upon returning home Wen secretly began to plot to overthrow King Zhou. In his first year as Overlord of the West, he settled a land dispute between

1960-536: The states of Yu and Rui, earning greater recognition among the nobles. It is by this point that some nobles began calling him "king". The following year, Wen found Jiang Ziya fishing in the Pan River and hired him as a military counselor. He also repelled an invasion of the Quanrong barbarians and occupied a portion of their land. The following year, he campaigned against Mixu, a state whose chief had been harassing

2009-521: The title "Greatest of All Kings". Wives: Concubines: Sons: Lingchi Lingchi ( IPA : [lǐŋ.ʈʂʰɨ̌] , Chinese : 凌遲 ), usually translated " slow slicing " or " death by a thousand cuts ", was a form of torture and execution used in China from around the 10th century until the early 20th century. It was also used in Vietnam and Korea . In this form of execution,

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2058-565: The whole kingdom either as direct possessions or sworn allies. That same year he moved his administrative capital city one hundred kilometers east from Mount Qi to Feng , placing the Shang under imminent threat. The following year, however, the Overlord of the West died before he could cross the Ford. Nonetheless, that other sources suggest he died in battle during the Zhou campaign against the Shang. Four years after his death, his second son, known as King Wu , followed his footsteps and crushed

2107-607: Was apt to kill innocent officials by lingchi . Gao Yang killed only six people by this method, and An Lushan killed only one man. Lingchi was known in the Five Dynasties period (907–960 CE); but, in one of the earliest such acts, Shi Jingtang abolished it. Other rulers continued to use it. The method was prescribed in the Liao dynasty law codes, and was sometimes used. Emperor Tianzuo often executed people in this way during his rule. It became more widely used in

2156-469: Was beaten to death. As Western countries moved to abolish similar punishments, some Westerners began to focus attention on the methods of execution used in China. As early as 1866, the time when Britain itself moved to abolish the practise of hanging, drawing, and quartering from the British legal system, Thomas Francis Wade , then serving with the British diplomatic mission in China, unsuccessfully urged

2205-409: Was immediately enforced, and definite: no official sentences of lingchi were performed in China after April 1905. Regarding the use of opium, as related in the introduction to Morrison's book, Meyrick Hewlett insisted that "most Chinese people sentenced to death were given large quantities of opium before execution, and Morrison avers that a charitable person would be permitted to push opium into

2254-546: Was reserved for only the most heinous acts, such as treason, a charge often dubious or false, as exemplified by the deaths of Liu Jin , a Ming dynasty eunuch, and Yuan Chonghuan , a Ming dynasty general. In 1542, lingchi was inflicted on a group of palace women who had attempted to assassinate the Jiajing Emperor . The bodies of the women were then displayed in public. Reports from Qing dynasty jurists such as Shen Jiaben show that executioners' customs varied, as

2303-593: Was slandered by the Marquis of Chong. His eldest son, Bo Yikao , went to King Zhou to plead for his freedom, but was executed in a rage by lingchi and made into meat cakes which were fed to his father in Youli. However, many officials (in particular San Yisheng and Hong Yao) respected Wen for his honorable governance and gave King Zhou so many gifts – including gold, horses, and women – that he released Wen, and also bestowed upon him his personal weapons and invested him with

2352-520: Was the posthumous title given to Ji Chang ( Chinese : 姬昌 ), the patriarch of the Zhou state during the final years of Shang dynasty in ancient China . Ji Chang himself died before the end of the Zhou-Shang War, and his second son Ji Fa completed the conquest of Shang following the Battle of Muye , and posthumously honored him as the founder of the Zhou dynasty . Many of the hymns of

2401-813: Was the son of Tairen and Ji Jili , the Elder of Zhou , a vassal clan of the Kingdom of Shang along the Wei River in present-day Shaanxi . Jili was betrayed and executed by the Shang king Wen Ding in the late 12th century BC, leaving the young Chang as the Elder of the Zhou lineage. Wen married Taisi and fathered ten sons and one daughter by her, plus at least another eight sons with concubines. At one point, King Zhou of Shang , fearing Wen's growing power, imprisoned him in Youli (present-day Tangyin in Henan ) after he

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