Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768 Read Online Free PDF Page A

three men were
    persons of no fixed abode, who got together to beg. They are definitely
not respectable types. However, having put them to torture, there is still
no hard evidence of queue-clipping. Ku Ch'en-nan could not identify
them positively. The paper charms seized at the time of the arrest, we
have found, are not things for stupefying people, and nobody has made
complaints against these criminals.19 Apparently these men are not
guilty ofqueue-clipping. We have now released Ch'en, Chang, and Ch'iu
to return to their home jurisdictions, there to be placed under the
supervision of the local security authorities. We shall continue to search
for the real criminals.
    But the public temper was so disturbed that Magistrate Tu could not
consider the case closed. On May 9 he posted proclamations that read, "We have found that there are queue-clipping criminals perpetrating illegal and harmful actions." Investigations were continuing. Though the beggars' guilt had not been proved, persons
who might have suffered at their hands were urged to come forward
without fear of harassment, in case the criminals had been lying.

    One prisoner, it turned out, could not be released. The two county
policemen who had made the original arrests (and who were held
responsible for the prisoners throughout their custody by the county)
reported on May 5 that criminal Chang had contracted a high fever
and could not eat. Magistrate Tu ordered immediate medical care,
and physicians were summoned. A jail death meant irksome paperwork, a possible investigation, and a fine to be docked from the
magistrate's salary, should he be found guilty of negligence or mistreatment. Chang's condition worsened, the police reported; by May
20 he was near death. The physicians found his pulse weak, his skin
hot and dry, and his tongue yellow. Herbal medicines were administered without effect, the report continued, and the patient died that
night.
    That a beggar died in jail surely surprised nobody. Although
Ch'ing jails were probably not much worse than contemporary jails
elsewhere, they tested even the stiff upper lip of a British prisoner
who was confined briefly in the Board of Punishments' jail in i86o:
    The discipline of the prison was in itself not very strict, and had it not
been for the starvation, the pain arising from the cramped position in
which the chains and ropes retained the arms and legs, with the heavy
drag of the iron collar on the bones of the spine, and the creeping
vermin that infested every place, together with the occasional beatings
and tortures which the prisoners were from time to time taken away
for a few hours to endure,-returning with bleeding legs and bodies,
and so weak as to be scarce able to crawl,-there was no great hardship
to be endured.20
    A Chinese literatus who spent a year in the same prison (1712-13)
described the treatment of his fellow inmates: "Their ordinary standards of sleeping and eating are disregarded, and should they fall
ill, no doctor or medicine is provided. That is why they so often meet
their death."21
    The file of the late beggar Chang in Soochow was now meticulously
furnished with testimony to certify the cause of death. Depositions
were obtained from the police ("we by no means mistreated him"), from
a fellow prisoner (the police "by no means mistreated him"), the county doctor ("an incurable illness"), and the coroner ("died of
disease"). A coffin was provided at county expense, and his native
county was notified in case relatives wanted to claim the body.

    One criminal dead, two more released for lack of evidence: hardly
a memorable piece of judicial work. Yet Magistrate Tu must have felt
relieved that a troublesome matter had been disposed of. Though he
was obliged to protect himself from later charges of negligence by
issuing a public proclamation about queue-clipping, there was no
reason to hold beggars Ch'iu and Ch'en. A silly and trivial business.