Chinese Torture Chamber Story Wikipedia
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A Chinese Torture Chamber Story is a 1994 Hong Kong erotic (Category III) black comedy film produced by Wong Jing and directed by Bosco Lam. Plot edit This article needs an improved plot summary. In fact, humiliation and suffering were important aspects of torture and execution, and no one did this better than the ancient Chinese. They were highly creative and seriously sadistic in their methods, and liked to do things slow and steady, often prolonging death for days.

When the Jesuit missionaries came to Beijing in the early 17th century they were amazed at how low the crime rate was compared to back home 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 be routinely extracted by torture (e.g. hanging by thumbs or kneeling on chains or crushing ankles). Your only real hope of acquittal would be 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 have a yamen which contained living accommodation, prison cells and the court room. There was no concept of defense or prosecution lawyers arguing the case and no jury system. Witnesses would give the evidence to the magistrate who would then pronounce his verdict. There were five categories of punishment: light beating, heavy beating servitude, exile and death. Although there was an appeals system this was primarily used to challenge the category of crime rather than determine guilt or innocence. The ‘Doctor Dee’ series of crime 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 system.

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Death by a thousand cuts

The brutality of the system shocked Western visitors, for the top 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 order starting with flaying of pieces of skin, muscles and then removal of body parts in order to maximize pain but keep 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 as well as the killing of a father or husband. The duty to parents was so strong in China that killing a parent was punished particularly severely. It was not only the culprit who suffered, his house was demolished, his teacher would be executed (obviously a bad influence!) as well as the local magistrate; even the provincial governor would often 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 China.

We have found a photograph of someone being 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’s decree from around 1000CE up until 1905. With such a gruesome punishment, another notch up 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 appear merciful by commuting the sentence to banishment to a remote province - by some considered a fate worse than death (as the majority would die in exile). It was also quite usual to lessen the punishment by paying appropriately large bribes.

Legendary tortures

The tales of torture go back a long time in China. Perhaps the most evil reputation from early 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 fox demon. The Emperor indulged her taste of the macabre. She is said to have wondered why a man 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 apparently 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 distressing 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 dangerous 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 (Consort Xiao). At first she had them imprisoned but when she believed the Emperor became distressed at their treatment she had their hands and feet chopped off. They were then left to briefly live on as 'pigs'. Empress Wang's dying curse was to be reincarnated as a cat and come to the palace and rip out Wu Zetian's throat. Consequently cats were banned from all the Imperial palaces.

Perhaps the acceptance of torture is in someway related to the belief in a Buddhist Hell. Rather like the visions of hell dreamed up by Dante ➚ the hell was full of different punishments considered appropriate 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 before rebirth as some kind of creature. For example someone who steals or defaces a good book is flayed alive and someone who breaks up a marriage or engagement is impaled on spears.

Relations between Korea and China

A history of the long and eventful history of Chinese relations with Korea. Chinese settlement first began two thousand years ago and at times since then China has intervened in Korean affairs, most recently in the Korean War 1950-53.

Neck tower and other tortures

One 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 so the poor prisoner dies slowly from strangulation.

In the Imperial administration a senior official would dread the receipt of an Imperial letter containing a piece of red silk as this had the clear meaning 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 punishment as the Chinese believe it is important to keep the body intact to ensure the immortal spirit lived on after execution. So many would see death by hanging as much more merciful than death by beheading.

Slow drip torture

Perhaps a better known form of Chinese torture was the slow dropping of water onto the forehead with the body firmly strapped down. The incessant and regular dropping of water 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 skin into the brain. This increased the terror as the prisoner would not know if the next 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 common that it has own character in the language 劓 yì.

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