Ling Chi - the most brutal method of torture 18+

Ling Chi was one of the cruellest methods of execution carried out in China. For 1000 years, until 1905, the unfortunates were tied to a stake and put on public display.  Then the executioner would approach with a whole bag or chest of tools - knives, files, shears, saws - and set to work. He would start cutting and slicing the convict and used to use various tools to inflict various wounds - minor or major mutilations. He would usually start with the earlobes, then move on to the nose, cut off the eyebrows... and we will stop here. Sometimes several dozen wounds were inflicted, sometimes, as chronicles mention, even three thousand. Sometimes a merciful blow was administered quickly, as the French would say a coup de grace, and the agony was cut short, but most often the ordeal lasted a few hours, but sometimes also a few days. No single cut was the final one, but all brought the inevitable end. This punishment was used in the case of more serious crimes, e.g. defying the emperor, murder of parents or the owner (slaves, servants). The severed parts of the body were exposed to the convict to increase his suffering. Also, to convict was often given drugs to enhance the perception of the senses so that he could not lose consciousness and would feel the pain more strongly. In the end of torture (even after 3 days) an executioner cut a head or extract of vital organ.

Ling Chi was not only punishment for this life– but for all future ones to come. Based on Confucian values, the body is not to be cut because it is an unfilial act. Ling Chi was not only death to the physical body, but also to the mental and the metaphysical one.

Ling Chi - it is from the description of this execution that the English idiom "death by a thousand cuts" originated, meaning the end of something, a fall, ruin, failure not as a result of one great event, but because of hundreds of small circumstances, each of which individually would seem relatively harmless. Officially, the execution of 1000 cuts was abolished 125 years ago, but it was also carried out by the Communists during the 2-decade-long civil war in China.