Waist chop

Waist chop (腰斬; 腰斩; yāo zhǎn) or waist cutting was a form of execution used in ancient China.[1] As its name implies, it involved the condemned being sliced in two at the waist by an executioner.

A prisoner is executed on a wooden bench with a huge blade.

History

Waist chopping first appeared during the Zhou dynasty (c. 1046 BC – 256 BC). There were three forms of execution used in the Zhou dynasty: chēliè (車裂; quartering the prisoner alive), zhǎn (斬; waist chop), and shā (殺; beheading).[2] Sometimes the chopping was not limited to one slice.

Gao Qi, a Ming dynasty poet, was sentenced by the Hongwu Emperor to be sliced into eight parts for his politically satirical writing.[3]

An episode not attested in the official histories recounts that in 1734, Yu Hongtu (俞鴻圖), the Education Administrator of Henan, was sentenced to a waist chop. After being cut in two at the waist, he remained alive long enough to write the Chinese character cǎn (慘; "horrible") seven times with his own blood before dying. After hearing this, the Yongzheng Emperor abolished this form of execution.[4]

In the modern Chinese language, "waist chop" has evolved to become a metaphor for the cancellation of an ongoing project, especially cancellation of television programs.

See also
  • Hemicorporectomy, a surgical procedure
  • Lingchi, another torturous form of execution used in China

References
  1. American Association for Chinese Studies (1998). American Journal of Chinese Studies. American Association for Chinese Studies.
  2. "揭秘古代酷刑："腰斩"的历史从产生到消失_资讯_凤凰网". news.ifeng.com. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
  3. 祝允明《野记》：“魏守（观）欲复府治，兼疏溶城中河。御史张度劾公，有‘典灭王之基，开败国之河’之语。盖以旧治先为伪周所处，而卧龙街西淤川，即旧所谓锦帆泾故也。上大怒，置公极典。高太史启，以作《新府上梁文》与王彝皆与其难。高被截为八段-{云}-。”
  4. 林濤《正說清朝三百年》
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