J udge Fang didn't torture people frequently. This was for several reasons. 
Under the new system of Confucian justice, it was no longer necessary for every 
criminal to sign a confession before a sentence was carried out; all that was 
needed was for the magistrate to find him guilty on the strength of the 
evidence. This alone relieved the Judge of having to torture many of the people 
who came before his bench, though he was often tempted to force confessions 
from insolent Western thetes who refused to take responsibility for their own 
actions. Furthermore, modern surveillance equipment made it possible to gather 
information without having to rely on (sometimes reticent) human witnesses as 
the magistrates of yore had done.