101-868: The Guangxi Massacre ( simplified Chinese : 广西大屠杀 ; traditional Chinese : 廣西大屠殺 ; pinyin : Guǎngxī dàtúshā ) comprised a series of lynchings and massacres in the Chinese province of Guangxi between 1967 and 1968, during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). The official record shows an estimated death toll between 100,000 and 150,000. Methods of murder included beheading, beating, live burial, stoning, drowning, boiling, and disembowelling. In specific areas, including Wuxuan County and Wuming, Nanning , hundreds of incidents of human cannibalism occurred—even though no famine conditions existed. According to initial records available, at least 137 people were eaten, with thousands of people having participated in
202-516: A central topic in Salvador Elizondo 's Farabeuf , where the procedure is carried out by the protagonist. Agustina Bazterrica mentioned the torture in her book Tender is the Flesh , as the method used by the sister of the protagonist to make the meat served at the memorial party fresh and tasty. The Chinese idiom "千刀萬剮" qiāndāo wànguǎ is also a reference to linchi . A scene of Lingchi appeared in
303-424: A character or a sub-component called a radical —usually involves either a reduction in its total number of strokes , or an apparent streamlining of which strokes are chosen in what places—for example, the ⼓ ' WRAP ' radical used in the traditional character 沒 is simplified to ⼏ ' TABLE ' to form the simplified character 没 . By systematically simplifying radicals, large swaths of
404-434: A conversion table. While exercising such derivation, the following rules should be observed: Sample Derivations : The Series One List of Variant Characters reduces the number of total standard characters. First, amongst each set of variant characters sharing identical pronunciation and meaning, one character (usually the simplest in form) is elevated to the standard character set, and the rest are made obsolete. Then amongst
505-417: A death toll of over 1,000, while the average death toll was 526 among all the counties which reported massacre. Moreover, Song Yongyi pointed out that there were many differences between published official data and classified official data . For example, the published county annals of Lingshan County shows only eight people died, but in its classified document there were 3,220 victims; for another example,
606-407: A few revised forms, and was implemented for official use by China's State Council on 5 June 2013. In Chinese, simplified characters are referred to by their official name 简化字 ; jiǎnhuàzì , or colloquially as 简体字 ; jiǎntǐzì . The latter term refers broadly to all character variants featuring simplifications of character form or structure, a practice which has always been present as
707-493: A long life". While some research indicates that it was communism that compelled the perpetrators in this area towards cannibalism, on the other hand, Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals disputed that communism was to be blamed for this incident, noting that similar incidents occurred under pressure from the Kuomintang secret police in the republican period . A number of people publicly spoke about their reminiscences of
808-541: A man termed the ' Rousseau of China', and a major advocate of intellectual and government reform in the 1890s". Although officially outlawed by the government of the Qing dynasty in 1905, lingchi became a widespread Western symbol of the Chinese penal system from the 1910s on, and in Zhao Erfeng 's administration. Three sets of photographs shot by French soldiers in 1904–05 were the basis for later mythification. The abolition
909-514: A more general attitude opposed to "cruel and unusual" punishments (such as the exposure of the head) that the Tang dynasty had not included in the canonic table of the Five Punishments , which defined the legal ways of punishing crime. Hence the abolitionist trend is deeply ingrained in the Chinese legal tradition, rather than being purely derived from Western influences. Under later emperors, lingchi
1010-599: A newly coined phono-semantic compound : Removing radicals Only retaining single radicals Replacing with ancient forms or variants : Adopting ancient vulgar variants : Readopting abandoned phonetic-loan characters : Copying and modifying another traditional character : Based on 132 characters and 14 components listed in Chart 2 of the Complete List , the 1,753 derived characters found in Chart 3 can be created by systematically simplifying components using Chart 2 as
1111-518: A part of the Chinese writing system. The official name tends to refer to the specific, systematic set published by the Chinese government, which includes not only simplifications of individual characters, but also a substantial reduction in the total number of characters through the merger of formerly distinct forms. According to Chinese palaeographer Qiu Xigui , the broadest trend in the evolution of Chinese characters over their history has been simplification, both in graphical shape ( 字形 ; zìxíng ),
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#17328691888311212-450: A peacock. Be careful, because humans are the most horrible animals ... I saw people eating people, and people hurting people, just like nowadays. Nowadays people can hurt you anytime, yet they don't even know why they hurt you." A very different reaction came from an inhabitant of the region who stressed the need to leave the past behind and move on. When interviewed by Agence France-Presse (AFP) in 2016, he responded, "Cannibalism? I
1313-511: A photograph that obsessed the philosopher Georges Bataille , in which a Chinese criminal, while being chopped up and slowly flayed by executioners, rolls his eyes heavenwards in transcendent bliss." Bataille wrote about lingchi in L'expérience intérieure (1943) and in Le coupable (1944). He included five pictures in his The Tears of Eros (1961; translated into English and published by City Lights in 1989). Naked City 's album Leng Tch'e
1414-609: A planned and systematic matter. In Nanning , the capital of Guangxi, eight out of fourteen counties saw a death toll of over 1,000, with Binyang County alone losing 3,777 people. In 2006, Su Yang ( 苏阳 ) of University of California, Irvine , argued that the Guangxi massacre was the most serious massacre during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. He stated that among the 65 accessible official county documents of Guangxi, 43 counties report local massacres with 15 of them recording
1515-417: A punishment whose cruelty has been extraordinarily misrepresented ... The mutilation is ghastly and excites our horror as an example of barbarian cruelty; but it is not cruel, and need not excite our horror, since the mutilation is done, not before death, but after." According to apocryphal lore, lingchi began when the torturer, wielding an extremely sharp knife, began by cutting out the eyes, rendering
1616-407: A stab to the heart. If the crime was less serious or the executioner merciful, the first cut would be to the throat causing death; subsequent cuts served solely to dismember the corpse. Art historian James Elkins argues that extant photos of the execution clearly show that the "death by division" (as it was termed by German criminologist Robert Heindl ) involved some degree of dismemberment while
1717-663: A total of 421 people who were eaten. There were reports of cannibalism across 27 counties in Guangxi; that's two-thirds of all the counties in Guangxi. There was one man who was said to be in the so-called fifth category , who was beaten to death where he stood. He had two kids, one of 11 and one of 14. The local officials and armed militia said that it was important to eradicate such people, and so they not only killed those two children: they ate them too. This took place in Pubei county , Guangxi, where 35 people were killed and eaten in total. Most of them were rich landowners and their families. There
1818-634: Is about this form of torture. The tenth song on Taylor Swift 's seventh album, Lover , is entitled "Death By A Thousand Cuts" and compares the singer's heartbreak to this punishment. The "death by a thousand cuts" with reference to China is mentioned in Amy Tan 's novel The Joy Luck Club , and Robert van Gulik 's Judge Dee novels. The 1905 photos are mentioned in Thomas Harris ' novel Hannibal , in Julio Cortázar 's novel Hopscotch and are also
1919-440: Is actually more complex than eliminated ones. An example is the character 搾 which is eliminated in favor of the variant form 榨 . The 扌 'HAND' with three strokes on the left of the eliminated 搾 is now seen as more complex, appearing as the ⽊ 'TREE' radical 木 , with four strokes, in the chosen variant 榨 . Not all characters standardised in the simplified set consist of fewer strokes. For instance,
2020-454: Is derived. Merging homophonous characters: Adapting cursive shapes ( 草書楷化 ): Replacing a component with a simple arbitrary symbol (such as 又 and 乂 ): Omitting entire components : Omitting components, then applying further alterations : Structural changes that preserve the basic shape Replacing the phonetic component of phono-semantic compounds : Replacing an uncommon phonetic component : Replacing entirely with
2121-809: Is now discouraged. A State Language Commission official cited "oversimplification" as the reason for restoring some characters. The language authority declared an open comment period until 31 August 2009, for feedback from the public. In 2013, the List of Commonly Used Standard Chinese Characters was published as a revision of the 1988 lists; it included a total of 8105 characters. It included 45 newly recognized standard characters that were previously considered variant forms, as well as official approval of 226 characters that had been simplified by analogy and had seen wide use but were not explicitly given in previous lists or documents. Singapore underwent three successive rounds of character simplification , eventually arriving at
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#17328691888312222-609: Is referred to as the " big seal script ". The traditional narrative, as also attested in the Shuowen Jiezi dictionary ( c. 100 AD ), is that the Qin small seal script that would later be imposed across China was originally derived from the Zhou big seal script with few modifications. However, the body of epigraphic evidence comparing the character forms used by scribes gives no indication of any real consolidation in character forms prior to
2323-540: Is used instead of 叠 in regions using traditional characters. The Chinese government stated that it wished to keep Chinese orthography stable. The Chart of Generally Utilized Characters of Modern Chinese was published in 1988 and included 7000 simplified and unsimplified characters. Of these, half were also included in the revised List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese , which specified 2500 common characters and 1000 less common characters. In 2009,
2424-892: The Secret Archives about the Cultural Revolution in Guangxi in the United States in 2016 (and its Supplement in 2017). In April 1981, an investigation group of over 20 people was formed under the arrangement of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection , the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party , the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party , the Ministry of Public Security,
2525-524: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were expelled from the party and thirty-nine non-party officials were either demoted or had a salary cut. In May 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution. Starting from March 1967, two factions gradually formed among troops and civilians in Guangxi . One faction known as the "United Headquarters" unconditionally supported the leadership of Wei Guoqing , who
2626-528: The Ming dynasty there were records of 3,000 incisions. It is described as a fast process lasting no longer than 4 or 5 minutes. The coup de grâce was all the more certain when the family could afford a bribe to have a stab to the heart inflicted first. Some emperors ordered three days of cutting while others may have ordered specific tortures before the execution, or a longer execution. For example, records showed that during Yuan Chonghuan 's execution, Yuan
2727-520: The Song dynasty under Emperor Renzong and Emperor Shenzong . Another early proposal for abolishing lingchi was submitted by Lu You (1125–1210) in a memorandum to the imperial court of the Southern Song dynasty . Lu You there stated, "When the muscles of the flesh are already taken away, the breath of life is not yet cut off, liver and heart are still connected, seeing and hearing still exist. It affects
2828-562: The Supreme People's Court , and the Supreme People's Procuratorate . In June 1981, the investigation concluded that the death toll was over 100,000, while some officials and civilians claimed privately that the death toll was 150,000, 200,000 or even 500,000. In addition, Qiao Xiaoguang reported to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection that the death toll was 70,400. In March 1983, another investigation group of 40 people
2929-472: The sensationalised Western myth and the Chinese reality was noted by Westerners as early as 1895. That year, Australian traveller and later representative of the government of the Republic of China George Ernest Morrison , who claimed to have witnessed an execution by slicing, wrote that " lingchi [was] commonly, and quite wrongly, translated as 'death by slicing into 10,000 pieces' – a truly awful description of
3030-451: The "Dot" stroke : The traditional components ⺥ and 爫 become ⺈ : The traditional component 奐 becomes 奂 : Lingchi Lingchi ( IPA : [lǐŋ.ʈʂʰɨ̌] , Chinese : 凌遲 ), usually translated " slow slicing " or " death by a thousand cuts ", was a form of torture and execution used in China from around the 10th century until the early 20th century. It
3131-456: The "external appearances of individual graphs", and in graphical form ( 字体 ; 字體 ; zìtǐ ), "overall changes in the distinguishing features of graphic[al] shape and calligraphic style, [...] in most cases refer[ring] to rather obvious and rather substantial changes". The initiatives following the founding of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) to universalize the use of their small seal script across
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3232-465: The 1966 film The Sand Pebbles . Inspired by the 1905 photos, Chinese artist Chen Chieh-jen created a 25-minute, 2002 video called Lingchi – Echoes of a Historical Photograph , which has generated some controversy. The 2007 film The Warlords , which is loosely based on historical events during the Taiping Rebellion , ended with one of its main characters executed by Lingchi. Lingchi is shown as
3333-481: The 1980s: In 1968, 38 people in Wuxuan County were eaten, and 113 officials of the county participated in eating human flesh, hearts and livers. Chen Guorong, a peasant from Guigang County who happened to pass by Wuxuan, was caught and killed by local militia because he was fat; his heart and liver were taken out while his flesh was distributed to 20 people. A female militia leader ate 6 human livers in total, and cut
3434-476: The 1986 General List of Simplified Chinese Characters , hereafter the General List . All characters simplified this way are enumerated in Chart 1 and Chart 2 in the 1986 Complete List . Characters in both charts are structurally simplified based on similar set of principles. They are separated into two charts to clearly mark those in Chart 2 as 'usable as simplified character components', based on which Chart 3
3535-508: The 1986 mainland China revisions. Unlike in mainland China, Singapore parents have the option of registering their children's names in traditional characters. Malaysia also promulgated a set of simplified characters in 1981, though completely identical to the mainland Chinese set. They are used in Chinese-language schools. All characters simplified this way are enumerated in Charts 1 and 2 of
3636-403: The 2011 Samuel Johnson Prize : Throughout 1967 but also '68, there are factions in the countryside that start not just eliminating each other physically, but literally in a couple of small towns they start ritualistically eating each other. In other words, it is not enough to eliminate your class enemy. You have to eat his heart, so there are very well-documented cases of ritual cannibalism. There
3737-699: The CCP central leadership. In a span of approximately five years, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was re-organized and over 100,000 local officials were tasked with investigating and resolving the remaining issues from the Cultural Revolution. Between 1986–1988, the Guangxi CCP Regional Committee composed the Archives about the Cultural Revolution in Guangxi , which were later published as
3838-470: The Chinese government published a major revision to the list which included a total of 8300 characters. No new simplifications were introduced. In addition, slight modifications to the orthography of 44 characters to fit traditional calligraphic rules were initially proposed, but were not implemented due to negative public response. Also, the practice of unrestricted simplification of rare and archaic characters by analogy using simplified radicals or components
3939-518: The Cultural Revolution , Su proposed the "community model" to explain the massacre in Guangxi, challenging the prevailing models of genocide and mass killings. Human cannibalism occurred in Guangxi during the Cultural Revolution. According to Zheng Yi ( 郑义 ), a scholar who conducted detailed research on the topic in the late 1980s and later smuggled some copies of official documents to the United States , at least 137 people—perhaps hundreds more—were eaten by others and thousands of people participated in
4040-543: The Five Black Categories) and an extreme massacre towards the lower class from the upper class; 2) the revenge from the local officials and military towards the rebel group who challenged their interests. On the other hand, according Song Yongyi, the motive behind cannibalism was personal desire. Song stated that these people engaged in cannibalistic activities because they "believe that when they eat other people's livers, other people's hearts, it will help them to have
4141-470: The Guangxi Massacre after the Cultural Revolution, there were three stages of the massacre. In the massacre, methods of slaughter included "beheading, beating, live burial , stoning, drowning, boiling , group slaughters, disemboweling, digging out hearts, livers, genitals, slicing off flesh , blowing up with dynamite, and more". In one case, according to official records, a person had dynamite bound to
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4242-523: The Guangzhou Military Region at the time, declared that the "4.22" faction was a " reactionary organization " and launched massive suppression against the rebel faction (at the same time, a closely related massacre also took place in the nearby province of Guangdong ). According to Yan Lebin ( 晏乐斌 ), a member of the Ministry of Public Security who participated in the official investigations of
4343-515: The abolition of lingchi . Lingchi remained in the Qing dynasty 's code of laws for persons convicted of high treason and other serious crimes, but the punishment was abolished as a result of the 1905 revision of the Chinese penal code by Shen Jiaben. The first Western photographs of lingchi were taken in 1890 by William Arthur Curtis of Kentucky in Canton. French soldiers stationed in Beijing had
4444-591: The back and was blown up into pieces by other people ( 天女散花 )—just for fun. This crime was led by Cen Guorong ( 岑国荣 ), who was once the Director of the Trade Union of Guangxi and had served as a representative in the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh National Congresses of the Chinese Communist Party. In another case of 1968, "a geography instructor named Wu Shufang ( 吴树芳 ) was beaten to death by students at Wuxuan Middle School. Her body
4545-507: The bloody summer of 1968, people in Hong Kong and Macau all knew that there were corpses floating down from Xi River to Pearl River ." Simplified Chinese characters Simplified Chinese characters are one of two standardized character sets widely used to write the Chinese language , with the other being traditional characters . Their mass standardization during the 20th century
4646-406: The cannibalism. Documents also record a variety of forms of cannibalism, including eating people as an after-dinner snack, slicing off the meat in big parties, dividing up the flesh so each person could take a large chunk home, barbecuing or roasting the liver, and so on. According to Yan Lebin ( 晏乐斌 ), a member of the Ministry of Public Security who was part of the official investigation teams in
4747-466: The cannibalism; subsequent published official archives showed at least 302 people were eaten. Independent researchers have since identified 421 named individuals in total who were eaten, with there having been reports of cannibalism across dozens of counties in Guangxi. Although the cannibalism was sponsored by local offices of the Communist Party and militia, no direct evidence suggests that anyone in
4848-428: The character set are altered. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms that embody graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms. In addition, variant characters with identical pronunciation and meaning were reduced to a single standardized character, usually the simplest among all variants in form. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification and are thus identical between
4949-407: The chosen variants, those that appear in the "Complete List of Simplified Characters" are also simplified in character structure accordingly. Some examples follow: Sample reduction of equivalent variants : Ancient variants with simple structure are preferred : Simpler vulgar forms are also chosen : The chosen variant was already simplified in Chart 1 : In some instances, the chosen variant
5050-444: The condemned incapable of seeing the remainder of the torture and, presumably, adding considerably to the psychological terror of the procedure. Successive relatively minor cuts chopped off ears, nose, tongue, fingers, toes and genitals preceding cuts that removed large portions of flesh from more sizable parts, e.g., thighs and shoulders. The entire process was said to last three days, and to total 3,600 cuts. The heavily carved bodies of
5151-465: The country's writing system as a serious impediment to its modernization. In 1916, a multi-part English-language article entitled "The Problem of the Chinese Language" co-authored by the Chinese linguist Yuen Ren Chao (1892–1982) and poet Hu Shih (1891–1962) has been identified as a turning point in the history of the Chinese script—as it was one of the first clear calls for China to move away from
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#17328691888315252-483: The credibility of the reports of widespread cannibalism during the massacre, as well as their meaning. Sinologist Gang Yue was sceptical, questioning in 1999 how "systematic" the cannibalism could have been, given the inherent factionalism of the Cultural Revolution. On the other hand, Donald S. Sutton, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University , wrote in 1995: Did cannibalism actually take place in Wuxuan? ... That
5353-590: The deceased were then put on a parade for a show in the public. Some victims were reportedly given doses of opium to alleviate suffering. John Morris Roberts , in Twentieth Century: The History of the World, 1901 to 2000 (2000), writes "the traditional punishment of death by slicing ... became part of the western image of Chinese backwardness as the 'death of a thousand cuts'." Roberts then notes that slicing "was ordered, in fact, for K'ang Yu-Wei ,
5454-458: The demands of filial piety. In addition, to be cut to pieces meant that the body of the victim would not be "whole" in spiritual life after death. This method of execution became a fixture in the image of China among some Westerners. Lingchi could be used for the torture and execution of a person, or applied as an act of humiliation after death. It was meted out for major offences such as high treason , mass murder , patricide / matricide , or
5555-435: The descriptions credible: "I believe Zheng's story [of cannibalism] . He's a writer of integrity, and the rich detail has the ring of authenticity." Key Ray Chong, a professor of history at Texas Tech University , compared the massacre with other events of mass murder and genocide, writing in 1997 in his review of Zheng Yi's Scarlet Memorial : "During the Cultural Revolution, quite a few Chinese officials knew of this horror,
5656-426: The early 20th century. In 1909, the educator and linguist Lufei Kui formally proposed the use of simplified characters in education for the first time. Over the following years—marked by the 1911 Xinhai Revolution that toppled the Qing dynasty , followed by growing social and political discontent that further erupted into the 1919 May Fourth Movement —many anti-imperialist intellectuals throughout China began to see
5757-539: The equivalent of the Nazi Holocaust in the 1940s and the killing fields of Pol Pot in the 1970s. But they remained silent about the subject." In 2013, Qin Hui, a professor at Tsinghua University , mentioned during a discussion with sociologist Ezra Vogel that the massacre had shaped his own youth: "My hometown is in Guangxi, where people were killed in massacres during Mao's era, and some of them were eaten by others! In
5858-616: The first official list of simplified forms was published, consisting of 324 characters collated by Peking University professor Qian Xuantong . However, fierce opposition within the KMT resulted in the list being rescinded in 1936. Work throughout the 1950s resulted in the 1956 promulgation of the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme , a draft of 515 simplified characters and 54 simplified components, whose simplifications would be present in most compound characters. Over
5959-463: The first round—but was massively unpopular and never saw consistent use. The second round of simplifications was ultimately retracted officially in 1986, well after they had largely ceased to be used due to their unpopularity and the confusion they caused. In August 2009, China began collecting public comments for a revised list of simplified characters; the resulting List of Commonly Used Standard Chinese Characters lists 8,105 characters, including
6060-465: The following decade, the Script Reform Committee deliberated on characters in the 1956 scheme, collecting public input regarding the recognizability of variants, and often approving forms in small batches. Parallel to simplification, there were also initiatives aimed at eliminating the use of characters entirely and replacing them with pinyin as an official Chinese alphabet, but this possibility
6161-503: The founding of the Qin. The Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) that inherited the Qin administration coincided with the perfection of clerical script through the process of libian . Eastward spread of Western learning Though most closely associated with the People's Republic, the idea of a mass simplification of character forms first gained traction in China during
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#17328691888316262-472: The genitals of 5 men and soaked them in alcohol which she would drink later, claiming that these organs were beneficial to her health. The behavior of eating human flesh, hearts and livers occurred in many counties of Guangxi including Wuxuan, Wuming , Shangsi , Guigang, Qinzhou , Guiping , and Lingyun ... After the revolutionary committee was established in Shangsi County, a "killing conference"
6363-442: The harmony of nature, it is injurious to a benevolent government, and does not befit a generation of wise men." Lu You's elaborate argument against lingchi was dutifully copied and transmitted by generations of scholars, among them influential jurists of all dynasties, until the late Qing dynasty reformist Shen Jiaben (1840–1913) included it in his 1905 memorandum that obtained the abolition. This anti- lingchi trend coincided with
6464-462: The incident truly occurred was independently confirmed by a recent visitor to Wuxuan, the scholar and journalist, John Gittings . An off-duty local clerk spoke airily of the killings and the cannibalism—obligingly writing down his name and address when asked—and added with a touch of pride, "In Wuxuan ... we ate more people than anywhere else in China".... In 2001, sinologist Perry Link of Princeton University likewise stated that he considered
6565-466: The increased usage of 朙 was followed by proliferation of a third variant: 眀 , with 目 'eye' on the left—likely derived as a contraction of 朙 . Ultimately, 明 became the character's standard form. The Book of Han (111 AD) describes an earlier attempt made by King Xuan of Zhou ( d. 782 BC ) to unify character forms across the states of ancient China , with his chief chronicler having "[written] fifteen chapters describing" what
6666-459: The left, with the 月 'Moon' component on the right. Li Si ( d. 208 BC ), the Chancellor of Qin, attempted to universalize the Qin small seal script across China following the wars that had politically unified the country for the first time. Li prescribed the 朙 form of the word for 'bright', but some scribes ignored this and continued to write the character as 明 . However,
6767-406: The massacre and how they affected their world views. In 2013, Yang Liping , a notable Chinese dancer, said that she had seen cannibalism during the Cultural Revolution (though she did not specify the exact location). She stated that "I am pessimistic about humanity and pessimistic about humans. Because we have been through the Cultural Revolution, we have become very alert. I am very alert, alert like
6868-402: The most prominent Chinese authors of the 20th century, stated that "if Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die" ( 漢字不滅，中國必亡 ). During the 1930s and 1940s, discussions regarding simplification took place within the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party. Many members of the Chinese intelligentsia maintained that simplification would increase literacy rates throughout the country. In 1935,
6969-509: The mouth of someone dying in agony, thus hastening the moment of decease." At the very least, such tales were deemed credible to Western observers such as Morrison. Lingchi existed under the earliest emperors, although similar but less cruel tortures were often prescribed instead. Under the reign of Qin Er Shi , the second emperor of the Qin dynasty , various tortures were used to punish officials. The arbitrary, cruel, and short-lived Liu Ziye
7070-414: The murder of one's master or employer. (English: petty treason ). However, emperors used it to threaten people and sometimes ordered it for minor offences or for family members of their enemies. While it is difficult to obtain accurate details of how the executions took place, they generally consisted of cuts to the arms, legs, and chest leading to amputation of limbs, followed by decapitation or
7171-628: The national Communist Party leadership including Mao Zedong endorsed the cannibalism or even knew of it. However, some scholars have pointed out that Wuxuan County, through internal channels, had notified the central leadership about the cannibalism in 1968. After the Cultural Revolution, people who were involved in the massacre or cannibalism received legal punishments during the Boluan Fanzheng period. In Wuxuan County, where at least 38 people were eaten, fifteen participants were prosecuted, receiving up to 14 years in prison, while ninety-one members of
7272-534: The opportunity to photograph three different lingchi executions in 1904 and 1905: Accounts of lingchi or the extant photographs have inspired or referenced in numerous artistic, literary, and cinematic media: Susan Sontag mentions the 1905 case in Regarding the Pain of Others (2003). One reviewer wrote that though Sontag includes no photographs in her book – a volume about photography – "she does tantalisingly describe
7373-507: The prolonging of a person's agony when the person is being killed. One theory suggests that it grew to be a specific torture technique. An alternative theory suggests that the term originated from the Khitan language , as the penal meaning of the word emerged during the Khitan Liao dynasty . The process involved tying the condemned prisoner to a wooden frame, usually in a public place. The flesh
7474-430: The public and quickly fell out of official use. It was ultimately formally rescinded in 1986. The second-round simplifications were unpopular in large part because most of the forms were completely new, in contrast to the familiar variants comprising the majority of the first round. With the rescission of the second round, work toward further character simplification largely came to an end. In 1986, authorities retracted
7575-473: The published document from Binyang County shows 37 victims only, compared to 3,951 victims in its classified document. In his book Massacres during the Cultural Revolution , Song argued that most Cultural Revolution massacres were the action of "state apparatuses", or the direct slaughter by the regime towards its citizens. On the other hand, in his award-winning book Collective Killings in Rural China during
7676-541: The rebel faction "4.22" received endorsement from China's Premier Zhou Enlai in August 1967, it was at a disadvantage throughout Guangxi except in the city of Guilin because the local military leaders endorsed the conservative faction, the "United Headquarters". In February 1968, Guangzhou Military Region ordered the troops who supported "4.22" to dislocate from the region, and subsequently in April 1968, Huang Yongsheng , head of
7777-465: The recently conquered parts of the empire is generally seen as being the first real attempt at script reform in Chinese history. Before the 20th century, variation in character shape on the part of scribes, which would continue with the later invention of woodblock printing , was ubiquitous. For example, prior to the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) the character meaning 'bright' was written as either 明 or 朙 —with either 日 'Sun' or 囧 'window' on
7878-536: The regular way to perform this penalty was not specified in detail in the penal code. Lingchi was also known in Vietnam, notably being used as the method of execution of the French missionary Joseph Marchand , in 1835, as part of the repression following the unsuccessful Lê Văn Khôi revolt . An 1858 account by Harper's Weekly claimed the martyr Auguste Chapdelaine was also killed by lingchi but in China; in reality he
7979-426: The same set of simplified characters as mainland China. The first round was promulgated by the Ministry of Education in 1969, consisting of 498 simplified characters derived from 502 traditional characters. A second round of 2287 simplified characters was promulgated in 1974. The second set contained 49 differences from the mainland China system; these were removed in the final round in 1976. In 1993, Singapore adopted
8080-461: The second round completely, though they had been largely fallen out of use within a year of their initial introduction. That year, the authorities also promulgated a final version of the General List of Simplified Chinese Characters . It was identical to the 1964 list save for 6 changes—including the restoration of 3 characters that had been simplified in the first round: 叠 , 覆 , 像 ; the form 疊
8181-473: The subject was living. Elkins also argues that, contrary to the apocryphal version of "death by a thousand cuts", the actual process could not have lasted long. The condemned individual is not likely to have remained conscious and aware (even if still alive) after one or two severe wounds, so the entire process could not have included more than a "few dozen" wounds. In the Yuan dynasty , 100 cuts were inflicted but by
8282-427: The traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. The Chinese government has never officially announced the completion of the simplification process after the bulk of characters were introduced by the 1960s. In the wake of the Cultural Revolution , a second round of simplified characters was promulgated in 1977—largely composed of entirely new variants intended to artificially lower the stroke count, in contrast to
8383-817: The traditional character 強 , with 11 strokes is standardised as 强 , with 12 strokes, which is a variant character. Such characters do not constitute simplified characters. The new standardized character forms shown in the Characters for Publishing and revised through the Common Modern Characters list tend to adopt vulgar variant character forms. Since the new forms take vulgar variants, many characters now appear slightly simpler compared to old forms, and as such are often mistaken as structurally simplified characters. Some examples follow: The traditional component 釆 becomes 米 : The traditional component 囚 becomes 日 : The traditional "Break" stroke becomes
8484-516: The use of characters entirely. Instead, Chao proposed that the language be written with an alphabet, which he saw as more logical and efficient. The alphabetization and simplification campaigns would exist alongside one another among the Republican intelligentsia for the next several decades. Recent commentators have echoed some contemporary claims that Chinese characters were blamed for the economic problems in China during that time. Lu Xun , one of
8585-579: Was a hierarchy in the consumption of class enemies. Leaders feasted on the heart and liver, mixed with pork, while ordinary villagers were allowed only to peck at the victims' arms and thighs. Regarding the motive for cannibalism, Ding Xueliang ( 丁学良 ), a professor at the University of British Columbia and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , pointed out that "this was not cannibalism because of economic difficulties, like during famine. It
8686-461: Was abandoned, confirmed by a speech given by Zhou Enlai in 1958. In 1965, the PRC published the List of Commonly Used Characters for Printing [ zh ] (hereafter Characters for Printing ), which included standard printed forms for 6196 characters, including all of the forms from the 1956 scheme. A second round of simplified characters was promulgated in 1977, but was poorly received by
8787-457: Was also used in Vietnam and Korea . In this form of execution, a knife was used to methodically remove portions of the body over an extended period of time, eventually resulting in death. Lingchi was reserved for crimes viewed as especially heinous, such as treason. Even after the practice was outlawed, the concept itself has still appeared across many types of media. The word was used to describe
8888-596: Was apt to kill innocent officials by lingchi . Gao Yang killed only six people by this method, and An Lushan killed only one man. Lingchi was known in the Five Dynasties period (907–960 CE); but, in one of the earliest such acts, Shi Jingtang abolished it. Other rulers continued to use it. The method was prescribed in the Liao dynasty law codes, and was sometimes used. Emperor Tianzuo often executed people in this way during his rule. It became more widely used in
8989-464: Was beaten to death. As Western countries moved to abolish similar punishments, some Westerners began to focus attention on the methods of execution used in China. As early as 1866, the time when Britain itself moved to abolish the practise of hanging, drawing, and quartering from the British legal system, Thomas Francis Wade , then serving with the British diplomatic mission in China, unsuccessfully urged
9090-568: Was carried to the flat stones of the Qian River where another teacher was forced at gunpoint to rip out the heart and liver. Back at the school the pupils barbecued and consumed the organs." Beginning 1981, at least three investigation teams were sent to Guangxi by CCP leaders in Beijing, including Hu Yaobang , then Chairman and General Secretary of the CCP . The investigation teams were led by Li Rui , Zhou Yifeng (周一峰) and other senior officials from
9191-541: Was formed by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party . In January 1984, the investigation concluded that 89,700 deaths could be identified by names and addresses, over 20,000 people were missing, and over 30,000 deaths could not be identified by names or addresses. In particular, due to the violent struggles between the two opposing factions, 3,700 people died during direct fighting, 7,000 were persecuted to death, while 79,000 were beaten or shot to death in
9292-418: Was heard shouting for half a day before his death. The flesh of the victims may also have been sold as medicine. As an official punishment, death by slicing may also have involved slicing the bones, cremation, and scattering of the deceased's ashes. The Western perception of lingchi has often differed considerably from actual practice, and some misconceptions persist to the present. The distinction between
9393-557: Was held at Pingshan Square ( 平山广场 ) on September 1, 1968, during which more than 10 officials and civilians were beaten to death. After the conference, a committee member, Li Hao ( 黎郝 ), removed the hearts and livers from the corpses, sauteing them and preparing them as dishes for other representatives who attended the conference. According to Song Yongyi, a Chinese historian who works at the California State University, Los Angeles : Independent researchers in Guangxi counted
9494-406: Was here then, I went through it. But Wuxuan has developed rapidly in recent years and now. That history 'has no meaning'." At the same time, a high-ranking member of an early 1980s official investigation told AFP that "[a]ll the cannibalism was due to class struggle being whipped up and was used to express a kind of hatred. The murder was ghastly, worse than beasts." A number of researchers discussed
9595-409: Was immediately enforced, and definite: no official sentences of lingchi were performed in China after April 1905. Regarding the use of opium, as related in the introduction to Morrison's book, Meyrick Hewlett insisted that "most Chinese people sentenced to death were given large quantities of opium before execution, and Morrison avers that a charitable person would be permitted to push opium into
9696-409: Was not caused by economic reasons, it was caused by political events, political hatred, political ideologies, political rituals." Qin Hui also showed with statistics that the cannibalism was not due to the traditions of local ethnic minorities; he argued that the cannibalism was mainly due to: 1) the extreme class struggle during the Cultural Revolution, which led to a modern " caste " system (such as
9797-430: Was one landowner called Liu Zhengjian whose entire family was wiped out. He had a 17-year-old daughter, Liu Xiulan, who was gang-raped by nine people [for 19 times] who then ripped open her belly, and ate her liver and breasts. There were so many incidents like this. According to Frank Dikötter , Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong , Senior Fellow at Hoover Institution of Stanford , and winner of
9898-453: Was part of an initiative by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to promote literacy, and their use in ordinary circumstances on the mainland has been encouraged by the Chinese government since the 1950s. They are the official forms used in mainland China and Singapore , while traditional characters are officially used in Hong Kong , Macau , and Taiwan . Simplification of a component—either
9999-539: Was reserved for only the most heinous acts, such as treason, a charge often dubious or false, as exemplified by the deaths of Liu Jin , a Ming dynasty eunuch, and Yuan Chonghuan , a Ming dynasty general. In 1542, lingchi was inflicted on a group of palace women who had attempted to assassinate the Jiajing Emperor . The bodies of the women were then displayed in public. Reports from Qing dynasty jurists such as Shen Jiaben show that executioners' customs varied, as
10100-509: Was the Chairman of Guangxi and a high-ranking CCP official, while the other faction known as the "4.22" opposed such unconditional support, asking Wei to do self-criticism first. The "United Headquarters" was an example of the conservative faction while the "4.22" was an example of the rebel faction . Intense clashes including " violent struggles " and even massacres soon broke out between the two factions in rural regions of Guangxi. Even though
10201-495: 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. The punishment worked on three levels: as a form of public humiliation, as a slow and lingering death, and as a punishment after death. According to the Confucian principle of filial piety , to alter one's body or to cut the body are considered unfilial practices. Lingchi therefore contravenes
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