Fox-spirit Daji invents the Paoluo torture

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Title: Fox-spirit Daji invents the Paoluo torture (ID: 190)

Extrait de:
  1:Name: ANONYM Fengshen yanyi 封神演义
  2:Name: GU Zhizhong Creation of the Gods
   Note(s): pp.58, 60-61

Internal_Type: OCR
Textual_Type: Fiction
Publication_Type: Printed
Genre: Novel
Date_of_event: End of Shang Dynasty 1765-1122 B.C.; (fictional)
Original_Text_Language: Chinese

Text_Interest: Prototype of the extraordinary modes of execution used by tyrants.

Comment: Cruel and unusual modes of execution have long been associated with tyrants in Chinese historiography. The paoluo iron pillar is the peculiar tool of evil King Zhou, last ruler of the Shang dynasty (1765-1122 B.C.). His use of paoluo to burn people to death is reported – and condemned – in the official histories, but early texts give few details about the actual use of the tool. In the semi-mythical versions of modern vernacular novels such as the16th century novel Fengshen yanyi (“Enfeoffment of the gods”), however, the paoluo torture is lengthily described. Furthermore, its invention is attributed to Daji, King Zhou’s concubine, who’s actually a fox-spirit sent to the king by a goddess in order to hasten his fall by inducing him into committing ever more atrocities. Daji likewise makes Zhou inventing the snake pit (chapter 17), cutting open the bellies of pregnant women after guessing the sex of the embryo, etc.

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Derniére modification le : 2005-11-15