CHINESE TORTURE: WHEN THE JESUIT MISSIONARIES CAME TO BEIJING, THEY WERE SURPRISED.....

   Chinese Torture: When the Jesuit missionaries came to Beijing, they were surprised at how low the crime rate is,

Witnesses would give the evidence to the magistrate who would then pronounce his verdict. 

Chinese Torture 酷刑 Kù xíng

When the Jesuit missionaries came to Beijing in the early 17th century they were amazed at how low the crime rate was compared to back home in Europe.

 There was a good reason for this, China had developed a system of torture that frightened people into obeying the law.

 There was no real concept of defense, once arrested you were more or less condemned; a confession would be routinely extracted by torture (for example hanging by thumbs or kneeling on chains or crushing ankles). 

Your only real hope of acquittal would be the rapid intervention of influential family and friends.

For most crimes the Imperial official (the magistrate) stood in judgment at his ‘yamen’.

Each town would have a yamen which contained living accommodation, prison cells and the court room.

 There was no concept of defense or prosecution lawyers arguing the case and no jury system.

 Witnesses would give the evidence to the magistrate who would then pronounce his verdict. 

There were five categories of punishment: light beating, heavy beating, servitude, exile and death. 

Although there was an appeals system this was primarily used to challenge the category of crime rather than determine guilt or innocence. 

The ‘Doctor Dee’ series of crime novels set back in the Tang dynasty are based on the life of 狄仁杰 Dí Rénjié, a senior magistrate. 

His life was made popular by the books of Robert van Gulik ➚ and made into many films. They give a fairly accurate portrayal of the Chinese justice system.

The brutality of the system shocked Western visitors, for the top crimes the ultimate punishment was the 凌迟 Líng chí ‘death by a thousand cuts’ or ‘death by slow slicing’. 

This gruesome punishment followed a prescribed order starting with flaying off pieces of skin, muscles and then removal of body parts in order to maximize pain but keep the vital organs functioning. 

It ranged from 8 to 120 cuts – ‘death by numerous cuts’ is a better translation.

 This punishment was reserved for high treason (for example Zeng Jing ➚ and Hu Weiyong ➚) as well as the killing of a father or husband.

 The duty to parents was so strong in China that killing a parent was punished particularly severely.

 It was not only the culprit who suffered, his house was demolished, his teacher would be executed (obviously a bad influence!) as well as the local magistrate; even the provincial governor would often be demoted.

 If a husband killed his wife then the punishment was much less severe - often only a severe beating which reflected the much lower status of women in Imperial China.

The Ling chi punishment was available by Emperor’s decree from around 1000CE up until 1905. 

With such a gruesome punishment, another notch up from the British ‘hanged, drawn and quartered ➚’ (1238-1803), people must have thought twice or three times before committing such crimes. 

Often the Emperor would use his prerogative to be merciful by commuting the sentence to banishment to a remote province - by many considered still a death penalty as the majority would die in exile.

 It was also quite usual to lessen the punishment by paying appropriately large bribes.

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