There seems to be no solid evidence either for or against on the internet. The same old Wikipedia article is copied and pasted on almost all the threads dealing with the subject.
The source cited on China is one Joachim Schliesinger, in an illustrated book entitled "Torture and Other Amenities in Asia".
Here's what he writes:
"Chinese tickle torture is an ancient form of torture practiced by the Chinese, in particular the courts of the Han Dynasty. Chinese tickle torture was a punishment for nobility since it left no marks and a victim could recover relatively easily and quickly"
This is all fine and dandy, except for the fact that the author does not supply any evidence for his claim, and I doubt that the book has a bibliography (it's not in the free-access section on google books at any rate, see the links below:
https://books.google.fr/books?id=DR...AXUQ6AEIQzAE#v=onepage&q=bibliography&f=false
Whereas some other listed punishments such as reverse hanging or foot whipping come with actual photographs or at least artistic representations of the punishments, the picture matching "Tickle torture"
is a dubious cartoon. It's almost as though they had picked a screenshot of Ramsay Bolton as evidence for the (barbaric) mediaeval practice of flaying.
The best course of action for anyone wanting to know more would be to get in touch with historians who have written on the subject of ancient punishments.
With luck, we might get access to primary source documents containing evidence of instances when tickling was used in the past. I'd say that's worth a shot !
Sadly, Mr Schliesinger has no academic email address to be found on the internet, nor does he seem to teach at any university. But that's not true of other authors
referenced on the wikipedia articled on "Tickle Torture".
