Creepy custom! Did not take apples and oranges to sick relative’s house, fed them fresh thigh meat

There was a custom in the ancient history of China, which today’s generation shivers upon hearing. This was called ‘ge gu liao qin’, which literally means ‘healing the parents by cutting the flesh from one’s thigh’.

This was the most extreme form of filial piety (extreme devotion to parents). In which children, especially daughters or daughters-in-law, used to cut a piece of meat from their thigh (or sometimes arm, liver, chest) to save their sick parents, in-laws or husband, make soup, medicine or cake and feed them.

part of ancient civilization
This practice began in the pre-Qin period, but became very popular after the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). In the Tang period, a man named Wang Zhidao cut about 250 grams of meat from a thigh and cooked it and fed it to his mother to save her from tuberculosis. It is said that after this the mother recovered and the government honored her. This practice continued from Tang to Song, Yuan, Ming. The government encouraged this, such people got official titles, tax exemption or government jobs. This became the path of social mobility. Even in marriage, those who showed such ‘devotion’ got better relationships.

Why did this happen?
Before the advent of antibiotics, diseases like TB were a death sentence. Doctors used to say that eating meat gives strength. When animal meat was not available during war, famine or poverty, one’s own meat became a ‘substitute’. Chen Zangqir of the Tang period wrote in ‘Bencao Shi Yi’ that ‘human flesh cures tuberculosis’. Due to this, common people started accepting it. But the real reason was more superstition than medical belief. In those times, service to parents was considered the biggest religion. One’s own body was considered ‘given’ from the parents, but ‘using’ it during illness was considered true devotion. This practice was more common among women because in that society the daughter-in-law had to serve her mother-in-law and father-in-law. It is recorded in many local gazetteers that women used to cut meat from the thigh and feed it to their mother-in-law. A painting found in a tomb from the Liao period shows a woman cutting her thigh with a knife. This practice was banned in the Yuan period, diminished in the Ming but continued until the Ming-Qing. Even in the 20th century, people like Cai Yuanpei, Li Hongzhang’s son, Jiang Baili have done this for their mothers.