A Memorial denouncing abuses in the use of torture
NoticeTitle: A Memorial denouncing abuses in the use of torture (ID: 323)
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AMICUS China: cruelties exercized
Internal_Type: OCR
Textual_Type: Legal Materials
Publication_Type: Printed
Genre: History
Date_of_event: 9 August 1817
Original_Text_Language: French
Text_Interest: China: cruelties exercized
The people of England are jealous of their liberties.They are right of being so; but I have sometimes thought, that they rather undervalue what they possess ( ...) As individuals may learn to be thankful to God, the giver of all good, by reflecting on benefits possessed by themselves, and denied to many others; so nations may learn to value blessings, by turning their attention to those who possess them not (...) (p. 85) Chinese justice has been a topic of high eulogium; and there is often a reasonable mode of talking, and a plausibility about it, which is now and then very imposing; but the want of truth and reality in these hypocritical and specious pretenses, is shockingly great. In confirmation of these remarks I beg to submit to the GLEANER the following translation of an original document.
Peking Gazette, August 9, 1817. Chow, the Yu-she (or Censor) of Ho-nan kneels to report ...:
The clear and explicit statement of punishments is a means of instruction to the people ; the infliction of punishments is a case of unwilling necessity. For all courts there are fixed regulations to rule their conduct by, when cases do occur that require punishments to be inflicted in questioning. Magistrates are not, by law, permitted to exercize cruelties at their own discretion.
But of late, district Magistrates, actuated by a desire to be rewarded for their activity, have felt and ardent enthusiasm to inflict torture. And though it has been repeatedly prohibited by Imperial Edicts, which they profess openly to conform to; yet they really and secretly violate them.
Whenever they apprehend persons of suspicious appearances, or those charged with great crimes, such as murder, or robbery, the Magistrate begins by endeavouring to SEDUCE the prisoners to confess, and by FORCING them to do so. On every occasion they torture by pulling, or twisting round the ears (the torturer having previously rendered his fingers rough by a powder) and cause them to kneel a long while upon chains. They next employ what they call the Beauty’s bar *[ *footnote: a torture said to be invented by a Judge’s wife, and hence the name. The breast, small of the back, and legs bent up, are fastened to three cross bars, which causes the person to kneel in great pain]; the Parrot’s Beam+ [+ footnote: The prisoner is raised from the ground by strings round the fingers and thumb, suspended from a supple transverse beam]; the Refining Furnace ++ [++: Fire is applied to the body], and other implements expressed by other terms which they make use of. If these do not force confession, they double the cruelties exercised, till the criminal dies (faints), and is restored to life again, several times in a day. The prisoner unable to write down or sign a confession (of what he is falsely charged with) and the case any how is made out, placed on record, and with a degree of self glorying, is reported to your Majesty. The imperial will is obtained, requiring the person to be delivered to the Board of Punishments, for further trial.
After repeated examinations and undergoing various tortures, the charges brought against many persons are seen to be entirely unfounded.
As for example, in the case of the now degraded T’au-tae [daotai] who tried Lew-te-woo and of the Che-chow [i.e. ™æ¶{ = prefect ] who tried Pîn-ken-king. These Mandarins inflicted the most cruel tortures in a hundred different forms, and forced a confession. Lew-te-woo, from being a strong robust man, just survived — life was all that was spared. The other, being a weak man, lost his life: he died as soon as he had reached the Board at Peking. The snow-white innocence of these two men was afterwards demonstrated by the Board of Punishments.
The cruelties exercised by the local Magistrates, in examining by torture, throughout every district of Chih-le (Zhili), cannot be described; and the various Police Runners, seeing the anxiety of their superiors to obtain notice and promotion, begin to lay plans to enrich themselves. In criminal cases, as murder and robbery; in debts and affrays, they endeavour to involve those who appear to have the slightest connexion. (...) Those who have nothing to pay, are unjustly confined, or sometimes tortured, before being carried to a Magistrate [... summarized: it is certainly just to employ the severest means against bandits] But it is a common and constant occurrence, that respected persons not the least implicated, who are known to possess property and to be of a timid disposition, pretences are made by the Police to threaten and alarm them. If it be not affirmed, that they belong to the Pîh-leën-keaou [i.e. Bailian jiao] (a proscribed sect), it is said, that they are of the remnants of the rebels, and they are forthwith clandestinely seized, fettered, and most liberally ill-used, and insulted. The simple country people become frightened and give up their property to obtain liberation, and think themselves very happy in having escaped so. I have heard that in several provinces, Chî-le, Shan-tung, and Ho-nan, these practices have been followed ever since the rebellion; and wealth has been acquired in this way by many of the Police Officers. How can it be that the local Magistrates do not know it ? Or is it that they purposely connive at these tyrannical proceedings ?
I lay this statement with much respect before your Majesty, and pray that measures may be taken to prevent these evils...
Imperial reply: “It is recorded” (!)
Comment by Amicus [missionary translator): it is indeed “a very lamentable state of society. When my Monshe [concierge ?] read this paper, he said: ‘... this is what drives people to rebellion; in nine cases of ten, it is the Government causes rebellion’. There is I think much truth in the latter part ot the old gentleman’s remark ».
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Derniére modification le : 2007-02-11
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