In a public square in Beijing in 1904, multiple murderer Wang
Weiqin was executed before a crowd of onlookers. He was among the
last to suffer the extreme punishment known as lingchi. Called by
Western observers "death by a thousand cuts" or "death by slicing,"
this penalty was reserved for the very worst crimes in imperial
China.
A unique interdisciplinary history, "Death by a Thousand Cuts"
is the first book to explore the history, iconography, and legal
contexts of Chinese tortures and executions from the tenth century
until lingchi's abolition in 1905. The authors then turn their
attention to an in-depth investigation of "oriental" tortures in
the Western imagination. While early modern Europeans often
depicted Chinese institutions as rational, nineteenth- and
twentieth-century readers consumed pictures of lingchi executions
as titillating curiosities and evidence of moral inferiority. By
examining these works in light of European conventions associated
with despotic government, Christian martyrdom, and ecstatic
suffering, the authors unpack the stereotype of innate Chinese
cruelty and explore the mixture of fascination and revulsion that
has long characterized the West's encounter with "other"
civilizations.
Compelling and thought-provoking, "Death by a Thousand Cuts"
questions the logic by which states justify tormenting individuals
and the varied ways by which human beings have exploited the
symbolism of bodily degradation for political aims.
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