Death by a thousand cuts is an ancient Chinese torture that has different meanings, including slow change being perceived as less negative than big change, and the literal sense that a thousand small cuts will kill a person. It was abolished in 1905, but photographic records still exist. The phrase is also used in business and strategy, referring to something being slowly destroyed or the idea of creeping normality.
Death by a thousand cuts is an ancient form of Chinese torture that has been preserved in iconic black and white photographs. This form of torture, sometimes known as slow slicing, has different meanings depending on the context. Susan Sontag and Georges Bataille were interested in this form of torture because of the relationship between pain and ecstasy, but many people in business and other industries refer to this type of torture when they talk about creeping normality. Creeping normality is the idea that slow change is not perceived as negative as big change, and that big institutional changes can occur invisibly in this way. A final meaning of death by a thousand cuts is the literal sense that a small cut may not be harmful, but a thousand small cuts will kill a person.
The form of torture known as death by a thousand cuts was used in China until 1905, when it was abolished. It was a painful and slow way of executing a person, and was considered a more severe form of punishment because, according to Confucian principles, the body would not be whole in the afterlife.
Photography was invented before this form of torture was abolished, and photographic records still exist of this type of public execution. This record of torture has played a large part in its historical relevance, because most scholars who have come across this form of torture have done so through its horrific photographic preservation.
While other uses of the phrase are related to the ancient Chinese form of torture, not all of them knowingly refer to torture. For example, when a business person talks about death by a thousand cuts, it typically means that something is slowly being destroyed rather than being destroyed all at once. This can apply to many different situations, including splitting investments or slowly killing the opposition. In terms of strategy, death by a thousand such cuts is often secret, with the final plan known only to the person making the cuts.
It’s also possible to talk about death by a thousand cuts when discussing the idea of creeping normality, or the idea that small changes over time seem less dangerous than one big change. In some cases, the final result does not even appear reprehensible to the injured party. A similar commonly used example involves boiling a frog, because presumably a frog can only sense that the temperature is changing, not how hot or cold the water is regardless. The creeping normality is at least partially applicable to the Chinese form of torture, although it is unclear what the psychological experience of this form of death must be.
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