The Chinese method of execution by Lingchi, “slow slicing” or “death by a thousand cuts: A female prisoner tied to a cross is having small areas of her body sliced away by an executioner. Gouache painting on rice paper, c. 1850. [3363×2180]

    by chubachus

    9 Comments

    1. TwoAlert3448 on

      Not a terribly accurate source, as lingchi was reserved for High treason, Parricide, and Mass murder.

      Women were rarely executed by this method; it was almost exclusively used for male political prisoners. Women’s corpses could be ‘cut’, but they’d be strangled to death first in keeping with the public decency laws.

      The Gouache painting was almost certainly created for the export market by a workshop in Canton, which mass-produced such prints, and they made what would sell in the West, not what was historically accurate in any way, shape, or form.

      The depictions of court life and battles aren’t any more accurate. (Though now that I look, the birds, landscapes, and botanicals were decent.

    Leave A Reply