"In the case of rebellion and high treason [the perpetrator]...will be put to death by slicing. The paternal grandfather, father, sons, sons' sons, brothers, and those living in the same household and male relatives sixteen years or older, will all be beheaded. [The perp's male relatives] fifteen years or younger, as well as his mother, daughter, wife, concubines, and sisters will all be given into the households of meritorious officials as slaves." (1)
-Qing Code (photo)
No dinner party that.
The Qing dynasty was China's last, ending in 1911 with the establishment of Sun Yat-sen's Republic of China. The efficacious means of deterrence above was thus in effect well into the twentieth century.
There is no example of human behavior that exists only in one society. There is no imaginable means of pain infliction that has not been put into practice by some human being somewhere and probably a few that we cannot imagine. The differences in human behavior that exist between peoples are on a continuum. They are differences of degree and not kind. The foregoing is not de riguer genuflection to political correctness. I believe it, whether it's correct or not, and regardless of political politeness. I will add too that to view differences as of degree and not kind is not to diminish their significance: the difference between ice and boiling water is one of degree also, and hugely significant.
Death by slicing was a punishment of the state, codified, not an isolated act of an individual or group without official sanction. The practice also was not confined to the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). According to one source it existed in China as far back as 900 AD. Both it's official status and it's long standing justify its consideration as a potential marker to a part of China's soul.
There is also additional punishment prescribed in the section of the Qing Code excerpted above, the killing off of relatives of the perpetrator. It too was common enough to have a name, the Nine Exterminations (zhu lian jiu zu, or zu zhu), and if anything it has a longer history in China, going back to the Shang and Zhou dynasties (1600 BC-256 BC).
What is it in China's soul that makes the practices of death by slicing and the Nine Exterminations official punishment? The desire for stability, and the fear of chaos.
1. The Great Qing Code, William C. Jones (1994), 237, as cited in China's Legal Soul, John W. Head (2009), 37.
