I’ve been reading a bit about slow-slicing a.k.a. Ling-chi, Leng T’che, the slow process, the lingering death, or death by a thousand cuts. There’s a lot of hype and bullshit about what this Chinese form of execution entailed, most common being that the process literally had the condemned being strategically sliced anywhere from 1,000-10,000 times, kept alive through careful cutting and drugs. This is more than likely complete and total bullshit. But, Ling-chi was a real method of execution. In fact, there’s a good number of photos out there.

Used for little over a thousand years in China, until it was outlawed in 1905, Leng-Chi was an extreme punishment usually reserved for treason, murder or crimes against one’s parents. Judging from existing photos of Leng-Chi executions that I’ve found, the convicted was brought out into a public area and tied upright to a stake. First, the prisoners breasts were removed, exposing the ribs, then the arms were removed at the bicep. Both legs were cut off at the knees and finally the head was removed. Some existing photos show the victim seeming to be lost in an ecstatic state, eyes cast to the sky and grinning. This could be caused by the prisoner being given a large amount of opium prior to the execution.

If you have the stomach for some old, black and white photos of several Ling-Chi executions as well as a plethora of beheadings, check out this gallery. There’s a ton of images, spanning many pages. Just start sifting through, be patient and you’ll find plenty of stuff.

Human sacrifice is a surefire historical pisser. However, if you’re building that dream house, castle or whatever…you may want to consider having a hitobashira or “person-post”—literally a human being, usually a woman, that’s buried alive in the foundations or walls of a structure to ensure stability and protection.

“Legend says an old peasant woman is the hitobashira of Maruoka Castle. She allowed herself to be built into the castle’s base on the condition her son would be made samurai. The daimyo reneged on his promise and the locals say that when the moat floods (which it often does) it is the old woman weeping for her son. Another tale of hitobashira says a beautiful maiden was sealed into the walls of Matsue Castle. She was said to be fond of dancing and after her death a law had to be passed forbiding girls to dance in the streets. The spirit of the young girls [sic] would become jealous and it is said the castle would shake and shudder.” [Link]

There’s no real evidence to support these stories, but you have to admit, it’s kind of cool. I’ve also read of a legend that tells of hundreds, thousands…sometimes up to ten-thousand people being buried alive within the Great Wall of China, facing outward towards the rest of the world to protect and stand watch. However, that story has almost no basis in fact, or so I’ve read.

I was reading in the news this morning that Sichuan Airlines in China will now require it’s flight attendants to have martial arts training as part of their prerequisites.

To work as a flight attendant, young women, for the first time in the country, are to be required to have martial arts skills, sources close to Sichuan Airlines confirmed this week.

Next Thursday, the airline is to recruit 70 hostesses from Chengdu and Chongqing to work for a new flight route from Chengdu to Seoul in South Korea.

One of the priority conditions for candidates will reportedly be knowledge of kung fu, as staff with such experience are believed to be able to help the airlines further secure its aviation safety.

I think this is the best fucking idea I’ve heard in a long time. Screw air marshalls with low-impact guns. Screw those motherfucking snakes on the motherfucking plane—give me deadly kung-fu bitches on a plane any day!

I can just imagine some dude jumping up with his Gatorade-and-Ipod bomb, all ready to blow things to pieces, only to have both his arms broken and larynx torn out by the stewardess, who then calmly returns to doling out little packages of peanuts. Now that’s an airline with balls!