HOW A CHINESE DIES.

Western Star, 21 August 1936, Page 4

HOW A CHINESE DIES.

TIIE TWENTY-ONE DEATHS. Chinese methods of punishing criminals are not to be smiled at, write* Philip Nesbitt, in the 'San Francisco Chronicle.' Such a positive wealth of imagination upon the part of tie exe. cutioners goes into their work that glint of morbid humour is ruled from the issue. Tlie man who does the punishing js the niost horrific of Chinamen. Hi 9 very appearance strikes terror into the . craven hearts of evil and ill-doers ijt< that vast country of China across the sea. In America what is called justice is frequently mitigated with compassion and relenting, but in China, to have had the impulse to rob a mission (if 6ne happened to be a highwayman) and to have accidentally done away with one of the opposing citizens means that, if caught, the culprit, receives what is delicately termed "death on the cross "

I do noj. know whether it be wise to attempt a description of this fiendish: and artful torture, which is put of all proportion to any possible and mere crime, and would shame the simplicity of the Inquisition o r the Bastille. The impoverished bandit of the dusty ways of China, having accidentally despatched an onlooker during a hold-up, must face the following music. First, the poor devil is spreadeagled upon a crude cross, with Ms feet within 3ft of the ground. Those game feet, for fear they might rest upon anything, are burdened down with heavy stones. This itself should he sufficienjl torture for any possible crime, even kidnapping, but it istt't in China.. A keen-edged knife, whetted beyond the sharpness of a razor blade, is us,ed in making a deep criss-cross incision upon the middle of the culprit; I leave the rest to the imagination of the reader. Other degrees of punishment are al< lotted in proportion to what the Chinese term crime.

There is the extreme penalty, a ter» rible and quite indescribably awMform of mutilation and torture called 'death) by a thousand cuts," which in ite detail is inspired by only the most de« vious and brutal conception of the ways and means of inflicting pain upon, the human form. I shall not attempt to outline it, except to say that during the process of punishment all the tendons of the victims are severed, and such part? as the knee caps are removed, and operations a re conducted • upon the eyes, the ears, and' the tongue, etc., etc In crimes of a single and ordinary nature the punishment is by ""gun shot." The several prisoners • are chained together, luiuds tied behind backs, and kneeling. Erected belunl each is a picket bearing a placard with the detail of the crime committed. When this elaborate and unstable portrayal of error is thoroughly comprehended by the inevitable audience the prisoners are eliminated', one by one, by a riße bullet. In China a criminal never escape* without punishment if he is caught. This description should constitute a great moral lesson to the criminals of America, and should allow them to appreciate their choice of hunting oTOiuid. In. contrast to China, America I'eals with her criminals as though they were star boarders or frantically whimmed mistake-makers. Then again, in China they have a penalty termed the "twenty-one deaths ." Iu this phase of punishment for sin the victim is subjected to the use of a tourniquet—around-the neck When this piece of rope and wood has been twistei till the victim falla prone and unconscious he is .revived with Kiao lang, a potent Chinese com Avine, until his eyes flicker once more. At this moment a resume of his error is read to him and also a count of the remaining number of times he niust* bear the tourniquet. Twenty-one times in all do his captors do this awful thing, unt'il, of course, the prisoner's soul takes flight towards another and perhaps better world of Chinese fabrication.

Only when a criminal kills a magistrate or an official do they apply this neat and ingenious form of torture. I suspect that most capital punis&fcieirfc is a form of "blood-lust revenge''npoa the part of organised society.