# Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills/Book 3/Chapter 1. Punishments

BOOK III—POLITICAL
CHAPTER I.
Punishments (刑法), hsing fa
I. Punishments not involving death (活刑), huo hsing.
Ch'ih (笞), to beat with the small bamboo rod. This rod is about three feet long, and one inch wide, and is applied to the thighs over a space of about six inches. A few thousands of strokes may be given till the thigh bone is made bare. This punishment is inflicted mostly upon the thief. Scholars or dignitaries are exempt from this humiliation. A permanent scar is made which officials make a point of examining when investigating a case. The runners are sometimes bribed by friends to lay on lightly, or reduce the number of blows, or beat the ground. This is a parental form of correction and the prisoner has to thank the magistrate for inflicting it. Tartars, as the conquering race, were exempt from this punishment.
The heavy bamboo, chang (杖), about 4 feet long and about 4 inches wide, sometimes made of wood and at other times of bamboo. The punishment meted out varies from 80 to 200 blows. This chastisement is generally to the disobedient and unfilial. The prisoner is bound and held down while being beaten. Another kind of beating is called t‘ou hsing (頭刑) or mao pan (茅板). The instrument used is a large bamboo split in two halves and not polished in the least; a pile of bricks is made, over which the prisoner is bent and this instrument of correction applied to the buttocks. A few tens of blows may be sufficient to cause death. Li pi chang hsia (立斃杖下) means to die under the bamboo.
​There are three kinds of banishment: one is liu (流), transportation for a few hundreds of miles; this punishment is frequently inflicted on persons guilty of adultery, manslaughter, or incendiarism. T‘u (徒) or liu t‘u (流徒), is also transportation; but the punishment is often to be confined by night and free by day; this is called tso t‘u (坐徒). The individual thus punished is neither reckoned worthy of death nor of life; a useless wastrel.
Ch‘ung chün (充軍) is banishment beyond the Great Wall, or to the frontier military posts without any hope of a return. This is a heavy military punishment and mostly imposed upon officials and soldiers.
Penal servitude (監禁), chien chin, may be for three, eight or for twenty years, or for life. The life sentence is called lao fan (牢犯) or lao chien, and also yung yüan (永遠) chien chin. Prisoners on entering jail have their heads shaved, the hair afterwards being left to grow long. No barber is allowed in jail except at New Year times when some favored few may have their beards shaved. The only knife allowed in jail is a piece of broken crockery.
Criminals just taken into custody and awaiting trial, whose offences are slight, and who await the payment of fines or a surety to bail them out, are confined in a guardhouse, ch‘ia chin (卡禁). A place of confinement better than the guardhouse, into which gentry and scholars are put while waiting for judgment or bail, is called in some cities tai-chih so (待質所); in others, tzŭ-hsin so (自新所), a penitentiary.
One of the most painful of beatings is termed t‘iao-tzŭ (條子) or niu chin (牛筋), ox sinew stripes. It is inflicted mostly for indecent behaviour. Women are stripped of their upper garments and beaten across the shoulders and back, while men are stripped and suspended by the arms and beaten.
Sometimes a man is kept in custody in the inn, ya pao tien (押保店) till the matter is settled. The prisoner in this case has to feed the yamen underlings and give them sufficient opium; if he does not bribe them his chains will not be taken off at night.
​A form of punishment meted out to scholars and gentry is beating on the hands with a piece of polished board, such as is used in schools.
To beat on the cheek with a thong of leather fixed to a wooden handle is called ta tsui pa (大嘴巴). The instrument is shaped something like the sole of a Chinese shoe. By this punishment the teeth are not infrequently knocked out and the face swells to a great size.
The punishment called yang pan (仰板), to beat on the front of the thigh, is reserved for priests, nuns and loose women, and is administered in the public courtyard.
Cages in which prisoners are kept, lung chin (籠禁), are of several kinds. Chan lung (站櫳) is a standing cage, the height of a man. The top is composed of two boards fitting exactly together, in the centre of which a round hole is cut, the size of a man's neck. The prisoner is put in, and this cover put on and nailed down. The prisoner can just manage to put his hand round and convey some food to his mouth. If he bribes the yamen runners he may get release at night, if not he may be left to stand all the night through.
The tso (坐) lung or ai (矮) lung is a kind of cage in which the prisoner may sit on a cross bar or put his legs through the bottom or walk slowly; the neck part is the same as the former.
The cat cage, mao (貓) lung is too low for the prisoner either to straighten his back or stretch his limbs. A month or two in this and he is turned into a deformed, useless creature. If food is stopped, as is frequently the case, the man dies very quickly. Chia chin (枷禁), the cangue, is a heavy wooden frame which divides in the centre into two halves, where a round hole is made to fit the neck. It is carried as a collar by the criminal. If food is allowed it is very difficult to convey it to the mouth. When food is forbidden the prisoner cannot survive more than a few days. The weight of the cangue varies from 20 to 100 catties.
There is also a double cangue for two people. This punishment is for brothers who quarrel, or in cases of adultery.
​These criminals are exposed to the public gaze with their offence written on the pillory.
There is even a three-hole cangue into which three people are fixed. This is generally inflicted on gamblers and the smart-fingered gentry.
The boy's cangue is used for boys addicted to gambling or who have entered the boys' secret society known as the 棒棒會.
The chüeh p‘ên (脚盆) chia or pan t‘ou (蟠頭) chia, foot tub or dish cangue, is light, and can easily be carried about the streets. Such is sometimes put on the tax gatherer when he fails to collect the taxes; and he carries it from market to market.
A chain is fastened to a heavy stone and the criminal is chained all day and released at night to sleep in the guardhouse. This is t‘ieh lien shih têng (鐵鍊石磴).
The hand cangue, shou chia (手枷), confines the hands as well as the head; the foot cangue, chüeh (脚) chia, is a wooden block round the two ankles; the wearer can move about slowly. The yüan yang (鴛鴦) chia confines one foot and one hand of each of two persons. The yüan and yang are the mandarin drake and duck which never leave their mates.
Cutting off the ears, hsüeh êrh to (削耳朶) , was a punishment in use up to the present year.
Branding on the forehead, mei hsing (墨刑), or ts‘ŭ tsŭ (東字), is an ancient punishment and was still in use until the revolution. A needle is used to prick the characters on the skin, then indigo is rubbed into the wound, and when healed the blue characters are seen. The punishment is generally inflicted on pickpockets and swindlers.
Ko chüeh chin (割脚筋), to cut the tendons at the back of the foot is also a very ancient punishment and is still practised. It is generally inflicted upon robbers only, as the man is lamed for life.
Another punishment is to carry an iron bar of from 30 to 40 catties in weight, pei t‘ieh kan (背鐵杆). An iron ring is welded round the neck and the bar is attached to this with ​a chain. If the criminal bribes the blacksmith and runners he may get released from it at night. The man who has suffered this penalty often bears the nick-name of t‘ieh kan for life.
Other punishments are ch‘a êrh chien (插耳箭), to double the ears and put a bamboo needle through the cartilage; ts‘o ching (剒脛), breaking the ankle bone, and the t‘ieh ch‘ien (鐵鉗), or iron tongs. This is an iron frame-work into which the hands and feet are fastened, and the whole is suspended from the neck; the part at the back of the neck being sharp, immediately the hands let go, or the feet move, it cuts the flesh. This is a punishment for the gambler.