#DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS MOVIE QUOTE PORTABLE#

A 570-page English translation of the Qing penal code was published in 1810, while George Mason's The Punishments of China (1801) was in its fifth edition by 1830. This concern was particularly marked in Britain, whose Government was still smarting from the rejection of the McCartney Embassy of 1793. The import of this becomes apparent when the authors turn to the interest shown by Western countries in the Chinese system of punishments from around the start of the 19th century. The authors first situate lingchi within China's judicial traditions, from its emergence in the tenth century to the final imperial dynasty, by which point it could be invoked for such offences as striking a teacher. These photographs, and the varied uses to which they have been put, provide the starting point for this collaborative work.

#DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS MOVIE QUOTE PORTABLE#

Shortly before its removal from China's law books in 1905, a few photographs of the practice were taken by Western residents of Beijing, who, stirred up by lurid accounts of atrocities committed against foreigners during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, roamed the city in search of exotic subject matter for their up-to-date portable cameras. Few of those who now use the phrase 'death by a thousand cuts' will be aware of its origins in lingchi, a highly unpleasant form of execution used in Imperial China, which involved the slicing of the convicted criminal's flesh until death ensued.

Death by a thousand cuts movie quote