| Capital punishment has been used for thousands of | | | | given to the accused, although it is unclear as to |
| years and is or was practiced all over the world. A | | | | whether this was an act of mercy or to prevent |
| few of the past methods were quick and merciful. | | | | fainting and prolong torture. The condemned |
| Most were not. Death by a thousand cuts is among | | | | fortunate enough to come from wealthy families |
| the most horrific. | | | | could offer the executioner a bribe to hasten death. |
| Also translated as slow slicing, lingering death, and | | | | For less serious crimes, the executioner would first |
| slow process, the true name for this ancient Chinese | | | | slice the victim's throat. The slicing away of flesh |
| style of execution is Lingchi. The term was derived | | | | then became symbolic rather than torturous. |
| from a classical description of ascending a mountain | | | | To the condemned, Lingchi was physical and |
| slowly. | | | | psychological torture, as well as publicly humiliating. |
| Lingchi's use as a form of execution began in China | | | | The principle behind the slicing of flesh lay in the |
| around the year 900 and continued until its abolition in | | | | spiritual belief that the victim's body would not be |
| 1905. Reserved for crimes considered particularly | | | | intact in the afterlife. For the Chinese of that time, |
| severe, such as treason and killing one's parents, the | | | | this may have been more horrifying than the actual |
| process entailed slowly slicing off chunks of the | | | | torture. |
| condemned person's flesh. Execution normally took | | | | In 1895, Sir Henry Norman witnessed a Lingchi |
| place in a public area, where the condemned would | | | | execution. In The People and Politics of the Far East, |
| be tied to a wooden frame or cross beside a table | | | | Norman wrote that the executioner sliced off pieces |
| holding a basket of razor-sharp knives covered by a | | | | by "grasping handfuls from the fleshy parts of the |
| cloth. Each knife bore the marking for a particular | | | | body, such as the thighs and the breasts". He went |
| part of the body. The executioner would reach | | | | on to state that "then the limbs are cut off |
| beneath the cloth and pull out a knife. He would then | | | | piecemeal at the wrists and the ankles, the elbows |
| slice the area designated by the knife's inscription. | | | | and knees, the shoulders and hip. Finally the victim is |
| The torture came to a merciful end only when the | | | | stabbed in the heart and his head cut off". |
| executioner pulled the knife with the marking for the | | | | In 1904, in a public square in Beijing, China, accused |
| heart. | | | | murderer Wan Weiqin was put to death by a |
| This method appears to have been later changed to | | | | thousand cuts in front of a crowd of onlookers. He is |
| a more deliberate procedure, using a specific | | | | among the last to have suffered this form of capital |
| sequence of slicing and only one knife. | | | | punishment. |
| In later years large amounts of opium would first be | | | | |