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[103] As we went out of the west gate, I was shown the spot where a few days before a young woman, taken in adultery, was clone to death in a cage amid a crowd of spectators, who witnessed her agony, for three days. She had to stand on tiptoe in the cage, her head projecting through a hole in the roof, and here she had to remain until death by exhaustion or strangulation ensued, or till some kind friend, seeking to accumulate merit in heaven, passed into her mouth sufficient opium to poison her, and so end her struggles.
On the gate itself a man not so long ago was nailed with redhot nails hammered through his wrists above the hands. In this way he was exposed in turn at each of the four gates of the city, so that every man, woman, and child could see his torture. He survived four days, having unsuccessfully attempted to shorten his pain by beating his head against the woodwork, an attempt which was frustrated by padding the woodwork. This man had murdered and robbed two travellers, on the high road, and, as things are in China, his punishment was not too severe.
No people are more cruel in their punishments than the
[104] Chinese, and obviously the reason is that the sensory nervous system of a Chinaman is either blunted or of arrested development. Can anyone doubt this who witnesses the stoicism with which a Chinaman can endure physical pain when sustaining surgical operation without chloroform, the comfort with which he can thrive amid foul and penetrating smells, the calmness with which he can sleep amid! the noise of gunfire and crackers drums and tomtoms and the indifference with which he contemplates the sufferings of lower animals, and the infliction of tortures on higher.
Every text-book on China devotes a special chapter to the subject of punishment. Mutilation is extremely common. Often I met men who had been deprived of their ears: they had lost them, they explained, in battle facing the enemy.
It is a common punishment to severe the hamstrings or to break the ankle-bones, especially in the case of prisoners who have attempted to escape. And I remember that when I Was in Shanghai, Mr. Tsai, the Mixed Court Magistrate, was reproved by the papers because lie had from the bench expressed his regret that the foreign law of Shanghai had not permit him to punish in this way a prisoner who had twice succeeded in breaking from gaol. The hand is cut off for theft as it was in England not so many years ago. I have seen men with the tendon of Achilles cut out, and it is worth noting that the Chinese say that this acquired deformity can he cured by the transplantation in the seat of injury of the tendon of a sheep. One embellishment of the Chinese punishment of flogging might with good effect be introduced into England. After a Chinese flagellation, the culprit is compelled to go down on his knees and humbly thank the Magistrate for the trouble he has been put to to correct his morals.
