Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1884-09-09
CHINESE PUNISHMENTS.

|
Chinese punishments are severe and in
| many cases inhuman. These crueltcs were
even greater before the formation Of a writ
ten code, which prevented tyrants from ex-
ercising their ingenuity in devisng methods
of punishment at their own FREQ will. The
| most common instrument OF punishment Is
the bamboo rod, the thickness and number
of blows of which are nicely graduated ac-
cording TO the Nervousness of the offence
| to be expiated. In all cases, it is, howeve +,
Il painful castigation, unless the executloner
has been bribed to lay.on his blows in such
a manner as to make great sound but IN
nct little execution. The kea or cangue is
the next form OF punishment. This consists
in fastening a wooden collar around the
neck in such manner that it shuts OFT all
communication between the upper and
lower portions of the body, and as he can
not get his hands up to his mouth he has to
be fed bv Others 1t is often worn for two
or three months together. Every morning
the victim is taken to a public place and
exposed to the gaze Of the populace, and at
night is led back to prison for security.
Nothing is more common in Chinese town
than TO see individuals, with these wooden
millstones around their necks, being fed by
their children, wives or other relatives, and
even BY strangers; for it is accounted a
meritorious act to feed a prisoner in the
cangue. In each case Of a punishment the
name Of the crime for which it is inflicted
| is fastened about the criminals person. For
| n good humored race the Chinese are very
cruel, not only to prisoners taken in war,
but to offenders against the law. Among
the other methods Of punishment for minor
oIeuscs may be misunderstanding on q
coiled chain or on broken crockery with
the bare knees for hours at time, without
being once allowed to change their position;
and ankle squeezing and finger squeezing,
between four pieces of bamboo so arranged
that by pulling q string passed through one
end of them they can be so tightly COM
pressed as TO almost drush the unfortunate
| limb in their embrace. With the raScally
| mandarins this is favorto method Of tor
ture when they wish to extort money from
any person whom they suspect Of conceal
| ing treasure: in other words, when they
| wish either to squeeze" the population for
| their own behoof, or on the part of the gov
ernment. which requires certain sum oi
| money to be made up by the mandarin who
controls every district or department. The
inferior mandarins, though they cannot iu
| nct the punishment of death, yet exercise
the utmost ingenuity in inflictng the great
est amount Of torture compatible with full
filing the letter of the law, and even of
eventually ending the culprits life. For
instance, a case is related in which man
was caught stealing at Il lirc-a very helne-
Gus oflense He was confined in kind Of
upright cage, tied by the pigtail in such
manner that his feet could barely touch
the ground. In this guse he was ex
posed every day to public gaze until
exhaustion from pain want of sleep,
food and drink-for no one was al
| lowed 10 have access to him -terml-
mated his life. Another not uncommon
method Of torture is to coniine the criminal
| in All upright cage Of this description, but
with his head protruding through hole in
| the lid Q: roof, his toes just touching the
| floor end hi; hands tied behind him: SO
| that If the poor wretch wishes fora moment
| to rest himself, he must do so by causing
| the whole weight Of his body to bear upon
| his under jaws, at the risk of almost tearing
| his head from his body. Banishment for
| mild ollenses to u distance not over fifty
] leagues from the offenders home, or, III the
| case Of more severe oilenscs, to beyond The
Chinese frontier either temporarily or Tor
| life, is punishment awarded for crimes
more severe than those for which beating
with the bamboo or confinement in the
cangue is considered sufficient cNpation.
There are three modes of capital punish.
meu,: 1st strangulation; End, decapitation;
3rd the punishment that Europeans incor,
rectly style cutting into ten thousand
pieces. This consists in the prisoner hav-
| Ing his face and other parts of the body so
slashed before the final blow is struck that
he expires not only headless, but with his
skeleton partially divested of flesh.