The punishment of dismembering five horses, also known as car splitting, was usually executed after death before the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and most of them directly dismembered the living after the Ming Dynasty. As the name implies, "dismembering five horses" is to tie a person's limbs and head to five carriages with ropes, and then let five horses run in five different directions to achieve the purpose of splitting the human body. In fact, this criminal law was first applied in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and it was only in the Qin Dynasty that it was formed and popularized.

According to historical records, the car cracks in this period were basically executed after people died. For example, Shang Yang of Qin State was "killed by Zheng Taiji, and Qin was partial to crack", indicating that Shang Yang was sentenced to a car crack after being killed. The ancients attached great importance to their parents, and they hoped to keep their whole bodies even after death. Therefore, although prisoners can no longer feel the pain, dismemberment is the last severe and humiliating punishment for prisoners on death row, which is extremely oppressive and deterrent.

After the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the dismemberment of five horses slowly began when people were alive, which was a frightening torture for prisoners. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, a scholar was sentenced to this punishment, probably by cutting off one hand and foot first, then his head, and finally the other hand and foot.

In order to make people's bodies more easily torn, prisoners' bones will be broken before execution, and then their muscles will be torn alive. The pain and suffering suffered by the prisoners in the whole process is unimaginable.

In ancient times, torture was really more cruel than one, such as dismembering five horses, increasing rank and rank in the middle of the year, and so on. Every time is a cruel punishment that makes people stand upright. However, it is this abnormal means that has achieved the purpose of deterrence and repression.