What is the most obscure historical fact you know?


Waist chop or waist cutting (腰斬; 腰斩; yāo zhǎn) , known as cutting in two at the waist, was a form of execution used in ancient China. As its name implies, it involved the condemned being sliced in two at the waist by an executioner. Many people did not die immediately after being cut.

Gao Qi, a Ming dynasty (1368–1644) poet, was senteced by the Hongwu Emperor to be sliced into eight parts for his politically satirical writing.

In the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), an episode not attested in the official histories recounts that, Yu Hongtu, the Education Administrator of Henan, was senteced to a waist chop. After being cut in two at the waist, he remained alive long enough to write the Chinese character cǎn (慘; "miserable, awful" 7 times with his own blood before dying.

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