The Most Torturous Method of Execution - Lingchi

Also known as slow slicing, Lingchi was reserved for crimes viewed as especially severe, such as treason and killing ones parents. Also translated as slow process, lingering death or death by a thousand cuts, was a form of execution used in China from roughly AD 900 until its abolition in 1905. The process involved tying the person to be executed to a wooden frame, usually in a public place. The flesh was then cut from the body in multiple slices in a process that was not specified in detail in Chinese law and therefore most likely varied. In later times, opium was sometimes administered either as an act of mercy or as a way of preventing fainting. The punishment worked on three levels: as a form of public humiliation, as a slow and lingering death, and as a punishment after death. In variable forms, it also involved dismemberment i.e cutting, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise removing, the limbs of the condemned.