Dismemberment by five horses
Dismemberment by five horses (五馬分屍), or chelie (車裂, lit. 'chariot-splitting'),[1] was an execution method used in ancient China that involved tying horses or chariots to the condemned's four limbs and neck and then violently pulling them apart by having the horses set off in different directions.[2] Prior to the Han dynasty, it was one of the various methods that fell under the death sentence, the fifth and last category of punishments,[1] and it was analogous to quartering in medieval Europe, save in five pieces instead of four.[3]
History
Although mutilating forms of punishment were abolished under Emperor Wen of Han in 167 BCE,[4] chelie was still used as late as the 8th century by the Yan state established by jiedushi An Lushan in rebellion against the Tang. In 757, the famous court musician Lei Haiqing was forced to perform for Lushan, who had crowned himself as Emperor Xiongwu (雄武皇帝). Haiqing dared to play songs implicitly lamenting the calamities that had befallen the Tang, a snub that was not lost on the Emperor, who furiously ordered that he be dismembered by five horses.[2]
Appearances
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1
Five Punishments on Wikipedia
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Assassin's Creed: Dynasty – Final Chapter: Assassination
- ↑ Dismemberment on Wikipedia
- ↑ Lewis, Mark Edward. (2007). "Law". The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Universiy Press, PP. 227–252