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In ancient China, there was a form of execution called waist chopping. As the name suggests, a person is literally cut in half from the waist down. It was reserved for criminals who committed the most serious crimes, as many people were not executed this way.
During the Qing Dynasty, an official was caught embezzling money and sentenced to waist chopping. However, he survived long enough to write the Chinese character ‘æ…˜’ (horrible/brutal) seven times before dying, using his own blood.
Upon hearing this story, Emperor Yongzheng was shocked and abolished this form of execution.