'Fine laughs' - Scary and painful torture in ancient times

The "fine laugh" sounded very funny, but in fact, this was a torture method that did not require any weapons, nor did it shed blood but tormented prisoners until death.

Since ancient times, criminals have been subjected to appropriate punishments to pay for their faults and at the same time to deter others in society, including death, imprisonment or beating. . However, there are also many forms of torture that are more formidable and haunting, even though they do not cause pain or bloodshed, but make the prisoners feel tormented, live without death. One of them is a tickle torture , usually causing itching at the soles of the death row inmates, causing them to laugh forever to death.

The origin of torture by laughing

"Fine smile" is also known as "Tickle torture " or "Laughing image" in Chinese. This is an ancient form of torture, the earliest appearance in the Han Dynasty in China. "Penalty smile" is a punishment for nobles because it leaves no trace, but the executor can hide the torture of the victim.

Another example of a "laugh punishment" was used in ancient Rome, where the offender's foot was dipped in salt, honey, or white sugar and one would take a goat to lick his heart. their feet. This kind of torture will initially be just like people tickling each other to make fun of it as usual, but will eventually cause the inmate to become extremely miserable.

This depiction of this seemingly mild form of torture.

There are many other ways to make "laughs" such as: Using goose feathers to tickle the feet or armpits, positions that can be amusing on the human body. During World War II, a persecuted man in Flossenburg concentration camp recounted witnessing a prisoner tortured by laughing to death. This incident has been described in Heinz Heger's The Men With The Pink Triangle : "They used goose feather to tickle the soles of the feet, between their legs, between the armpits and many other parts of the prisoner body. At first, he would try to force himself to remain silent, while his eyes twitched in fear and torment, then he could not control himself anymore and finally laughed. , very quickly, the laughter turned into a painful cry. "

Why is this punishment so scary?

In the book Sibling Abuse, Vernon Wiehe published the results of her research on the 150 adults abused by their siblings in childhood. Some said that tickling (tickling) is a common type of physical abuse they had to go through. And based on these reports also revealed that tickling is likely to cause extreme physiological reactions in victims, such as vomiting, loss of control (loss of bladder control) and loss of consciousness due to able to breathe.

According to the analysis, if a person continues to laugh non-stop, the air in the lungs will become less and less and they will lose their ability to breathe. As a result, the body will be extremely deficient in oxygen and cause choking to death. Most ancient punishments were carried out for a very long time. Therefore, prisoners will not be able to stop laughing, leading to the final tragic end that they will die in their own endless laughter.

To this day, people often jokingly say to each other "laughs and can't breathe", but in fact it is the cause of death for many people in the Middle Ages or ancient Chinese feudalism. . In addition to the forms of torture such as: Mausoleum, the five code of braking . "Punishment for smiles" is always the punishment that causes fear even more terrible than bloody punishment. The image of a person being tied up, completely fixed on his limbs, but still laughing until he can no longer stand it and die, will surely leave a deep obsession for those who witness it.

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