This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Bdwilner (talk | contribs) at 19:42, 20 March 2006 (→noted modern Russian usage of tean zu). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 19:42, 20 March 2006 by Bdwilner (talk | contribs) (→noted modern Russian usage of tean zu)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Relatively few techniques of torture were in use in ancient China. For interrogation of female suspects without threatening life or limb, the tean zu was generally used. This consisted of a set of six wooden sticks positioned around and between the fingers and connected by strings. Each time the prisoner refused to testify or confess, the string was pulled, slowly, agonizingly squeezing the fingers between the sticks until their bones were crushed. Ironically for such an ancient and simplistic technique, even the Soviet KGB used a variant of this for crushing fingers or toes.