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.

[加]蔔正民（Timothy Brook） 當代最著名的漢學傢之一。多倫多大學文學士、哈佛大學文學碩士、哲學博士。曆任多倫多大學、斯坦福大學等校教授，英國牛津大學邵氏漢學教授，現為加拿大英屬哥倫比亞大學聖約翰學院院長、曆史係教授。蔔正民學術視野廣闊，主要從事亞洲曆史和文化的研究，研究領域涉及明代社會和文化史、二戰時期日本在中國的占領，以及當代人權問題。編撰著作（含閤著閤編）數種，主要有：《縱樂的睏惑：明代的商業與文化》《為權力祈禱：佛教與晚明中國士紳社會的形成》《中國與曆史資本主義：漢學知識的係譜學》《民族的構建：亞洲精英及其民族身份》《明代的社會與國傢》《維梅爾的帽子：從一幅畫看全球化貿易的興起》《鴉片政權： [此處多一空格]中國、英國和日本，1839—1952年》《通敵：戰時中國的日本代領與地方精英》《明清曆史的地理動因》《亞細亞生産方式在中國》《中國公民社會》等。

[法]鞏濤（Jérôme Bourgon） 法國國傢科學研究中心研究員，法國裏昂東亞學院高級研究員。

[加]格力高利•布魯（Gregory Blue） 加拿大維多利亞大學曆史係副教授。

譯者簡介：

張光潤 四川劍閣人，華東師範大學曆史係博士研究生。

樂 淩 浙江湖州人，上海社會科學院曆史研究所碩士研究生。現為浙江省嘉善高級中學教師。

伍潔靜 上海人，上海社會科學院曆史研究所碩士研究生。