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Although the Chinese empire applied a sophisticated codified legal system for centuries, very few attempts have been made to measure its impact on society. Digitization now provide for data to be collected on a scale wide enough to allow assessment on how the penal system operated in practice. As a blueprint for further research, the scope of the present study is limited to the executions by dismemberment (lingchi), the most deterrent form of death penalty, as it is the best-documented and easiest to find in the archives. A data-set of around 1,140 lingchi sentences executed over 260 years under the Qing dynasty provides the statistical basis for examining the frequency of this punishment, as well as its evolution over time, its repartition across the territory, and the nature of the crimes targeted. While the original purpose of this penalty was to deter crimes against the State, such as rebellions or banditry, our data show that lingchi was increasingly employed to strengthen the hierarchy within the family by primarily targeting unfilial children and murderous wives. Instead of being the rudimentary instrument to crush social upheavals, as claimed by many historians, lingchi functioned as a sophisticated device to maintain a complex Confucian agenda.

Figures of Deterrence in Late Imperial China. Frequency, Spatial Repartition, and Types of Crimes Targeted by Dismemberment under the Qing Dynasty