Death by a Thousand Cuts

Blue, Gregory, Brook, Timothy, Bourgon, Jerome

ISBN 10: 0674027736 / ISBN 13: 9780674027732

Verlag: Harvard University Press, 2008

Former library copy. Pages intact with possible writing/highlighting. Binding strong with minor wear. Dust jackets/supplements may not be included. Includes library markings. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 12949597-6

Inhaltsangabe:

In a public square in Beijing in 1904, multiple murderer Wang Weiqin was executed before a crowd of onlookers. He was among the last to suffer the extreme punishment known as lingchi. Called by Western observers “death by a thousand cuts” or “death by slicing,” this penalty was reserved for the very worst crimes in imperial China.

A unique interdisciplinary history, Death by a Thousand Cuts is the first book to explore the history, iconography, and legal contexts of Chinese tortures and executions from the tenth century until lingchi’s abolition in 1905. The authors then turn their attention to an in-depth investigation of “oriental” tortures in the Western imagination. While early modern Europeans often depicted Chinese institutions as rational, nineteenth- and twentieth-century readers consumed pictures of lingchi executions as titillating curiosities and evidence of moral inferiority. By examining these works in light of European conventions associated with despotic government, Christian martyrdom, and ecstatic suffering, the authors unpack the stereotype of innate Chinese cruelty and explore the mixture of fascination and revulsion that has long characterized the West’s encounter with “other” civilizations.

Compelling and thought-provoking, Death by a Thousand Cuts questions the logic by which states justify tormenting individuals and the varied ways by which human beings have exploited the symbolism of bodily degradation for political aims.

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren: Timothy Brook is Professor of History and Republic of China Chair at the University of British Columbia.

Jérôme Bourgon is Researcher at the Institut d'Asie Orientale / Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Lyon.

Gregory Blue is Associate Professor of History, University of Victoria.

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Death by a Thousand Cuts
Verlag: Harvard University Press
Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
Einband: Hardcover
Zustand: Very Good