chelie 車裂, tearing a criminal's limbs apart by carts

Tearing apart by carts (chelie 車裂, chehuan 車轘, huan 轘, huanlie 轘裂, chezhe 車磔) was a capital punishment in ancient China. It was colloquially known as "five horse [carts] dismembering a man" (wu ma fen shi 五馬分尸), and was the Chinese counterpart to quartering in the West, with an additional traction force applied to the head. The punishment was carried out in public and was applied in cases of very serious crimes.

It is first mentioned in the Classic Zhouli 周禮 (part Qiuguan 秋官, ch. Tiaolangshi 條狼氏). An early example is recorded in the chronicle Zuozhuan 左傳 (Huangong 18 桓公), which describes the execution of Gao Qumi 高渠彌 (d. 694 BCE) by this methodby this method. Another famous victim was Shang Yang 商鞅 (c. 390-338 BCE), the legalist politician. In 238 BCE, the king of the regional state of Qin 秦 and eventual First Emperor of China 秦始皇帝 (r. 246-210 BCE), had the rebel Lao Ai 嫪毐 (d. 238 BCE) executed in this way.

The Han dynasty 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) adopted this mode of execution, and it was known during the Northern Dynasties 北朝 (386~581), but not in the southern empires. It was abolished in 581 but was soon reintroduced, even though it was applied only in very rare cases. It is also mentioned in the history of the Five Dynasties 五代 (907-960), in the biography of Li Cunxiao 李存孝 (858-894), and remained valid under the Liao dynasty 遼 (907-1125).