- Young Chinese Boy
- Painting a rock
Painting a rock - Rooster divider
- Reading a scroll
- Prince Chin Pa tried in vain to hold his followers
- Rough Sea Divider
- When Ah Tcha had eaten his Evening Rice, he took lantern and entered the largest of his mills
- Of course, they wore hideous false faces
- Old Chinese Man Divider
- Man working at the table
- Then he seized the plaques and flung them from him
- Meng Hu could imagine a knife at his throat
- We are the Shen, demons of the sea
- Tiao Fu snatched up her little-used embroidery scissors. Snip, Snip, Snip
- So the seventh demon sped away taking the sea with him
- Three Old Men
- So Chai Mi sat beside the river and sewed and wept
- Therefore—upon his donkey—the contrary husband started for Tsun Pu
- More and more sad came the music
- This nice large one is for your dinner a
- The first portrait he painted was that of Ying Ning, a monstrous ugly maiden
- The house of Weng Fu was luxurious in the extreme
- The king and his generals gazed across the river
- This nice large one is for your dinner
- Three children and the old man
- The king crawled under his throne
- The royal generals . . . knelt before Hai Low and bumped their heads in the dust
- It was the howl of a wolf
- Divider
- Kneeling before a tree
- It was a well-plucked traveler who returned
- Chinese street scene
- Flowers in the rain
- Drinking Tea
- Dragon
- Floral Divider
- He made a V of the bowstring
- How could she make beds when her hair needed burnishing
- Twisting a man's Ears
He is held securely by two men, in the service of a tribunal, who are instructed to give pain, by a particular method of twisting the cartilages of the ears . - Dragon Divider
- 'I—I—I—am hungry,' stammered Han Hsin
- Torturing the Fingers
This is effected by placing small pieces of wood betwixt them, and then drawing them very forcibly together with cords. It is frequently inflicted as a punishment upon disorderly women . There are no people existing, who pay so sacred an attention to the laws of decency as the Chinese ; habituated in preserving the constant appearance of modesty and self -controul, nothing is more uncommon amongst them, than deleterious examples of unblushing vice ; and if there be truth in the old maxim , that want of decency, either in action , or in word, betrays a deficiency of understanding, they certainly indicate more sense than some other nations , who affect to excel them in education and refinement. The general manners of people of every condition in China wear as modest a habit, as their persons. They discover no gratification in wresting their proper language into impure meanings; and grossly offensive phrases are only to be heard amongst the very dregs of the community, and at the risk of immediate and severe judicial correction . - 'Broooomp'
- House under a tree
- Han Hsin raised a bridge from island to mainland
- By look and action he was a maiden
- He was a weighty elephant—amid the cabbages
- Doctor Chu Ping beamed upon him
- Chinese man rowing divider
- He kept his forehead tight-pressed to the floor
- At that same hour a basket was found in the garden
- A whanging of wings that lifted . . . Up . . . Higher . . . Swifter
- Young Chinese Divider
- . . . And cut leaf-shaped pieces
- A necklace
- A helping hand
- The Rack
This horrible engine of barbarity and error is not peculiar to Roman Catholic countries, it is used even in China , for the purpose of extorting confession . The method of employing it, in torturing the ankles, is exhibited in this Plate . The instrument is composed of a thick , strong plank, having a contrivance at one end to secure the hands, and at the other a sort of double wooden vice . The vice is formed of three stout uprights, two of which are moveable, but steadied by a block , that is fastened on each side. The ankles of the culprit being placed in the machine, a cord is passed round the uprights, and held fast by two men . The chief tormentor then gradually introduces a wedge into the intervals , alternately changing sides . This method of forcing an expansion at the upper part, causes the lower ends to draw towards the central upright , which is fixed into the plank , and thereby compresses the ankles of the wretched sufferer ; who, provided he be fortified by innocence, or by resolution, endures the advances of the wedge, until his bones are completely reduced to a jelly. - A Culprit before a Magistrate
It is the custom in China , for a Mandarin of justice to administer it daily , morning and evening , in his own house, where he is attended by his secretary, or clerk, and by inferior officers, some of them bearing iron shackles, and others, pan-tsees . Upon his right hand stands the Prosecutor, or Informer ; and before him is a table with a covering of silk , and the implements of writing for the secretary to take down the depositions and defence . These having been written in black ink, the magistrate signs them with red, and seals them with the same colour. On the table there are, also, a number of small sticks, tipped with red ; these are kept in open cases , and are used in the following manner : if a culprit is convicted of a petty offence, the magistrate causes him to be immediately chastised, and released . The usual punishment, upon such occasions, is the pan -tsee, or bastinade, and the number of blows to be inflicted is signified by the magistrate's casting some of the above men tioned small sticks upon the floor : each stick denotes five blows. The culprit, who, during the examination , has awaited the decree upon his hands and knees , is then seized by the attendants, and punished as will be seen in a subsequent Plate . After the magistrate has thrown the sticks, he talks of other affairs, drinks his tea , or smokes his tobacco . It is only for trivial breaches of the Chinese Laws , such as drunken ness, cheating, squabbling, boxing, pilfering, insolence or inattention towards a superior, or the like, that any magistrate is empowered to administer punishment in a summary manner. Whenever the crime is of such a description as to call for severer notice, it is generally exa mined into by five or six tribunals, who not only require very particular information concerning the charge, but scrutinize with minute exactness, into the characters and manners of the accusers . Their proceedings in capital accusations are thus protracted in China , lest any man should be unjustly deprived of the inestimable benefits of honour or life : and no criminal can be executed , until his trial has been sent to court, and his sentence has been confirmed by the Emperor. - The Manner of Beheading
This sort of punishment, being deemed in the highest degree ignominious , is only inflicted for crimes, which are regarded by the Chinese government, as the most prejudicial to society ; such as conspiracy,assassination , committing any offence against the person of the Emperor, or attempting the life of any of the imperial family ; revolting, insurrection , striking a parent, or any other unnatural sort of crime. The malefactor, who is condemned to be beheaded, is made to kneel upon the ground, the board of infamy is taken from his back, and the executioner, by a single blow of a two - handed sword, strikes off his head with great dexterity. These headsmen , and indeed, the generality of inferior officers of justice in China, are selected from the soldiery, according to the custom of primitive barbarians ; neither is this employment considered more ignominious, than the post of principal officer of executive justice in other countries . Decapitation is held, by the Chinese, as the most disgraceful kind of death ; because the head, which is the principal part of a man , is separated from the body, and that body is not consigned to the grave as entire as he received it from his parents .. If a great mandarin be convicted of any atrocious offence, he is executed in this manner like the meanest person . After the head is severed , it is frequently suspended from a tree, by the side of a public road ; the body is thrown into a ditch , the law having deemed it unworthy the respect of regular funereal rites . When a sentence is submitted to the Emperor for his approbation, if the crime be of the first degree of atrocity , he orders the malefactor to be executed without delay ; when it is only of an ordinary nature, he directs, that the criminal shall be imprisoned until the autumn, and then executed ; a particular day of that season being allotted for such ceremonies. The Emperor of China seldom orders a subject to be executed , until he has consulted with his first law officers, whether he can avoid it, with out infringing on the constitution of his realm . He fasts for a certain period, previous to signing an order for an execution ; and his imperial majesty esteems those years of his reign the most illustrious and most fortunate , in which he has had the least occasion to let fall upon his subjects the rigorous sword of justice. - The capital Punishment of the Cord
The usual capital punishments in China are strangling, and beheading. The former is the most common , and is decreed against those, who are found guilty of crimes, which , however capital, are only held in the second `rank` of atrocity. For instance, all acts of homicide, whether intentional or accidental; every species of fraud, committed upon government : the seduction of a woman, whether married or single; giving abusive language to a parent, plundering or defacing a burying place ; robbing with destructive weapons : and for wearing pearls. It would not, perhaps, be possible to form any probable conjecture of the motive, which has induced the Chinese legislators to attach the pain of death to the wearing of a precious gem . The fact is, therefore, only stated from the information of various writers, and remains to be explained by some future commentator. Criminals are sometimes strangled with a bow -string, but on general occasions, a cord is made use of, which fastens the person to a cross, and one turn being taken round his neck , it is drawn tight by an athletic executioner. Men of distinction ,are usually strangled, as the more honourable death ; and where the Emperor is inclined to shew an extraordinary mark of attention towards a mandarin , condemned to die, he sends him a silken cord, with permission to be his own executioner .