Present Conditions in China 



659 



of the happy efforts of the great and 

 noble virtues of our illustrious progeni- 

 tors."* 



This later code, however, while pre- 

 serving the enlightened principles which 

 distinguished the ancient jurisprudence, 

 was, we learn from the imperial edict of 

 last year, disfigured and degraded by the 

 introduction of the cruel and more severe 

 punishments of the Manchus — a race 

 more barbarous than the refined and en- 

 lightened Chinese. It is this portion of 

 the code which has recently undergone 

 radical modifications. 



THE HORRIBLE METHODS OF CAPITAL PUN- 

 ISHMENT ABANDONED 



The forms of capital punishment here- 

 tofore in practice have been changed to 

 simple decapitation and strangulation. 

 They were horrible in their methods and 

 largely based upon superstitious ideas of 

 the future life. The execution by dis- 

 memberment was termed in Chinese 

 "death by slicing," or "lingering death." 

 The offender was tied to a stake or cross 

 and the body gradually sliced beyond 

 recognition. It is said, however, not to 

 have been a lingering death, as the third 

 cut was usually the fatal one. The pur- 

 pose of this sentence was not so much 

 the torture of the criminal in this world 

 as to make his fate more dreadful in the 

 world to come. As his body was un- 

 recognizable here, so his spirit will be 

 unrecognizable in the other world, unless 

 the fragments of his body can be brought 

 together again. This form of punish- 

 ment was reserved for such heinous 

 crimes as high treason, parricide, or the 

 murder of a husband. 



The punishment of "decapitation, with 

 exposure of the head," was one degree 

 more severe than simple decapitation. In 

 the latter case the body is delivered to 

 the relatives, who are permitted to have 

 the head sewn on, so that the deceased 

 may not wander headless in the land of 

 shades. "Beheading the corpse" was the 

 practice of carrying into execution the 



* For further examination, see Chinese in 

 Law and Commerce, by T. R. Jernigan, 1905. 



sentence of decapitation when the con- 

 demned had died in prison and been 

 buried. Cases are cited where the body 

 was exhumed and cut to pieces. Stran- 

 gulation is regarded as less igonminious 

 than decapitation, as there is no dismem- 

 berment. 



Lesser forms of punishment have been 

 branding on the arm or the face, applied 

 to hardened criminals, which has been 

 abolished ; and corporal punishment by 

 beating with the bamboo, which has been 

 lightened. 



It has been customary in the case of 

 certain serious offenses to punish the rel- 

 atives of a criminal as well as the crimi- 

 nal himself for his crime, as the Chinese 

 law proceeded upon the assumption of 

 the responsibility of the family for the 

 acts of each of its members. It was an 

 unjust procedure, but it often operated 

 as a deterrent of crimes. This has been 

 entirely abolished by the imperial edict. 



EXAMINATION BY TORTURE AND INDEFI- 

 NITE DETENTION IN PRISON ABOLISHED 



It has been a common practice in the 

 Chinese courts to examine the accused 

 with the aid of torture. It is based upon 

 the theory that the prisoner must ac- 

 knowledge his guilt before he can be pun- 

 ished. The same practice has been re- 

 sorted to respecting witnesses. All this 

 has been done away with likewise. Steps 

 have also been taken to put a stop to 

 another serious abuse, the detention in- 

 definitely in prison of persons charged 

 with offenses and of witnesses alleged 

 to be important for the conviction. Many 

 have languished for years without a trial. 

 It was a crying evil, especially in civil 

 cases, as where a debtor was kept in 

 prison until some settlement could be 

 forced out of his relatives. The same 

 word in Chinese is used for "prison" and 

 "hell." 



The places of confinement are said to 

 be usually of the most wretched and filthy 

 character. The imperial edict directs 

 that a rigid and frequent inspection be 

 made of them for the purpose of pre- 

 venting unjust imprisonments and for- 



