4. Li Si invented the ‘Five Punishments’ and when he was charged with treason, that’s the way he was killed
According to Stanford University scholar, Li Si was “one of the two or three most important figures in Chinese history”. He was Chancellor of the ancient country for four decades, serving under two different Emperors between 246BC and 208BC. His achievements were legion. Above all, Li Si is credited with pacifying China’s enemies. And one way he did this was by brutally surprising both internal and external enemies. The politician famously invented the ‘Five Punishments’ and, just as famously, Li Si himself was killed by this brutal method.
Li Si was arrested in 208BC and charged with conspiring to prevent Fusu from becoming the next Emperor. This was despite the fact that the recently-deceased Emperor Qin Shi Huang had named Fusu as his successor. Charged with treason, Li Si was sentenced to die by the Five Punishments – the method he himself had devised. To begin with, his face was tattooed. His nose was then cut off and he was further tortured, though whether his genitals were chopped off is open to debate. In the end, Li Si was sliced in half at the waist.