Leng Tch'e

leng tch'e, also known as "death by a thousand cuts" in western culture, was a method of torture and execution practiced in China before the modern era. people who committed acts of treason and murderers were punished with this slow and humiliating method. it was banned in 1905.

the method consisted in the following steps. the offender was mounted and tied to some sort of cross. then he would be cut in different parts of the body, including the face, chest and at last its legs and arms where cut off. sometimes the chest was cut open and finally, the person was decapitated or killed with a stake through the heart. this form of execution was done in public, so everybody would witness the criminal's slow death. an important factor that has been documented was that the person was given large doses of opium, putting him in a sort of trance, decreasing the pain considerably, or at least, confusing his pain and not letting the offender be completely aware of what was being done... and consequently, prolonging the execution.

luckily, this cruel form of execution was witnessed by some french soldiers in 1905 in beijing and the pictures survive to this day, being one of the few images in the world documenting this method. the french writer georges bataille wrote in his book the tears of eros about the "pleasure" found in the victim's face, due to the opium in his body and his delight with the tourture that was being inflicted upon him. pleasure and pain, two words that have been together for a long time were possibly experienced during leng tch'e... and that terrifies me.

the only time when pain and pleasure have been together in my life is probably when i'm taking off a bandaid. oh, just marvellous.

have a nice weekend everybody. cheers.