The Chinese box is a form of torture allegedly used in China in the last two centuries for execution.

Supposedly a wooden box, measuring roughly one meter, is filled to the brim with an assortment of stinging and venomous creatures, such as leeches, centipedes, scorpions, and spiders. The prisoner, stripped naked, was bound hand and foot and secured within the box, his head protruding through a hole at the top so that witnesses could observe his torment.

"There is no real evidence of the existence of such a device," asserts one writer after having consulted but one reference; "it does not appear in George Henry Mason's work on torture in China." One wonders whether the same critic doubts the existence of the kia quen and the te'an zu merely because, perchance, they appear in Mason's work under their English, not Chinese, names.

The critic who claims no such evidence should check the second reference, which could be listed under either Richard Sair (ghost author) or Arnold Hirsch, M.D. (typically credited author). Try the Library of Congress, under (partial) call number 'HV8593.S'.

There is no doubt possible that a similiar method of execution, known as scaphism, was used in ancient Persia AD.

References

George Henry Mason, The Punishments of China, illustr. by 22 engr., with explanations in English and French, (London, 1804)

Rishard Sair, The Book of Torture and Executions (1944)