Waist Slashing Or Cutting Of Waist

Waist Slashing Or Cutting Of Waist

Waist slashing or waist cutting known as cutting the waist in two, was a form of execution used in ancient China. As the name implies, it involved the condemned being cut in two at the waist by an executioner. Many people did not die immediately after being cut.

Gao Qi, a poet of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), was sentenced by the Hongwu Emperor to be cut into eight parts for his politically satirical writing.

In the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), an episode not attested to in official histories relates that Yu Hongtu, Henan's education administrator, was sentenced to a waist slash. After being cut in two at the waist, he stayed alive long enough to write the Chinese character cǎn (慘; "miserable, horrible") 7 times with his own blood before dying.

After hearing this story, the Yongzheng Emperor abolished this form of execution.