UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Performance of Power and the Administration of Justice: Capital Punishment and the Case Review System in Late Imperial China Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9770p5n3 Author Poling, Kathleen Margaret Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The Performance of Power and the Administration of Justice: Capital Punishment and the Case Review System in Late Imperial China By Kathleen Margaret Poling A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Wen-hsin Yeh, Chair Professor Matthew Sommer Professor Carla Hesse Professor Shannon Steen Fall 2012 The Performance of Power and the Administration of Justice: Capital Punishment and the Case Review System in Late Imperial China Copyright 2012 by Kathleen Margaret Poling Abstract The Performance of Power and the Administration of Justice: Capital Punishment and the Case Review System in Late Imperial China by Kathleen Margaret Poling Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Wen-hsin Yeh, Chair This study illuminates the spectacular rituals of Qing justice, the administration of capital punishment in particular, by focusing on the administrative, physical and performative work that made them possible. I approach this topic via a thematic history of the system of Autumn Case Review (sometimes called “the Autumn Assizes”) in the 19th century. By considering government documentation from both local and central judicial authorities, I pay attention to the action that took place behind the scenes of execution in Qing China in order to both illuminate the paths that criminals and officials walked in the time between crime and punishment and to understand the lengths to which the Qing powers went to enact not blind, arbitrary, ritualized power but their own particular brand of justice. I argue that the purposes and values of the Qing death penalty are not simple, and that, when viewed through the lens of judicial administration, the late Qing can be seen as a complex and dynamic regime committed to performing both imperial power and imperial benevolence. Following an introduction that places Chinese and Western interpreters of Qing justice in historical and theoretical context, chapter two describes the Case Review system in detail, outlining the flow of paperwork that made the emperor’s review of capital cases possible. By looking at the unintentional death of prisoners, chapter three investigates one moment when this review system failed to either punish or release prisoners. Chapter four outlines the transfer of prisoners that helped on a quotidian basis to perform the empire’s power and benevolence to an audience outside the bureaucracy. Chapter five considers the reduction and commutation of capital sentences in order to understand more clearly how the empire used un-executed criminals to emphasize the benevolent nature of its rule. Finally the conclusion returns to some of the historiographical questions that motivated this study to look at the way that Chinese punishment was perceived by Western (and some Chinese) critics at the beginning of the 20th century. Ultimately, I argue that the definition of justice in the Qing was based on a belief that punishment could be meted out properly, that benevolence was a constitutive part of that process and that the proper performance of the death penalty took place on and in many stages, stages that stretched well beyond the forbidding spectacle of the execution ground. 1 Table of Contents DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................ III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................................................... IV CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................1 THE SETTING: EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURY QING ................................................................................ 2 EXECUTION IN LATE IMPERIAL CHINA: OFFICIALS AND CRIMINALS ......................................................................... 4 THE ACADEMY: PREVIOUS LITERATURE ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, THE CASE REVIEW SYSTEM, AND THE PERFORMANCE OF POWER ......................................................................................................................................... 6 TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY LEGAL STUDIES: LAW FROM THE BOTTOM UP............................................................... 12 CHINESE-LANGUAGE APPROACHES TO THE QING CASE REVIEW SYSTEM .............................................................. 14 THE HISTORY OF WESTERN CAPITAL PUNISHMENT................................................................................................. 15 PERFORMANCE STUDIES .......................................................................................................................................... 18 THE STORY: HOW NOT TO BE EXECUTED IN LATE IMPERIAL CHINA....................................................................... 20 THE SOURCES: TRACES OF PUNISHMENT ................................................................................................................. 21 CHAPTER 2. DISAPPEARING ACTS: THE ADMINISTRATION OF CASE REVIEW 25 QING JUSTICE BASICS .............................................................................................................................................. 25 OFFICIAL CASE REVIEW PROCESS AND TIME TABLE ............................................................................................... 28 DISAPPEARING ACTS................................................................................................................................................ 31 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................................................ 44 CHAPTER 3. NO OTHER CAUSE: DEATH IN JAIL BY ILLNESS..................................46 DEATH IN JAIL: BROAD CATEGORIES AND ISSUES ................................................................................................... 46 LOCAL PROCEDURE AND ERRORS: THE CASE OF ZHANG ENRONG .......................................................................... 50 PHYSICAL EVIDENCE IN MID-LEVEL REPORTS: THE CASE OF LIN GUI .................................................................... 57 TESTIMONY IN MID-LEVEL REPORTS: THE CASE OF BAO DEZHANG ....................................................................... 60 FINAL NARRATIVE: THE CASE OF ZHANG MING ...................................................................................................... 64 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................................................ 66 CHAPTER 4. THE EVERYDAY PERFORMANCE AND EXPENSE OF EMPIRE: ROUTINE PRISONER TRANSFER ........................................................................................71 THE GRAVE ROBBERS WEI ...................................................................................................................................... 72 TRANSFER PROCEDURE............................................................................................................................................ 75 OLD YU.................................................................................................................................................................... 82 THE TROUBLE WITH PRISONER TRANSFER............................................................................................................... 85 REVISING TRANSFER: ONE LOCAL RESPONSE ......................................................................................................... 90 CHAPTER 5. PERFORMING BENEVOLENCE: COMMUTATION, DELAY AND REDUCTION OF CAPITAL SENTENCES IN AUTUMN CASE REVIEW.......................94 REDUCTION OF SENTENCES: GENERAL CATEGORIES............................................................................................... 96 BENEVOLENT IDEALS IN PRACTICE.......................................................................................................................... 99 CONCLUSION: THE POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES OF COMMUTATION BY DELAY.................................................... 109 CHAPTER 6. EPILOGUE: WESTERN OBSERVERS, QING JUSTICE .........................113 EARLY REPORTS: MASON’S THE PUNISHMENTS OF CHINA ................................................................................... 115 “PRISONS, EXECUTIONS, AND EXCURSIONS IN CHINA:” NINETEENTH CENTURY TRAVEL ACCOUNTS ................... 118 TWENTIETH CENTURY TECHNOLOGY: WESTERN PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHINESE PUNISHMENT .................................. 123 CONCLUSION: A JUST EMPIRE? .............................................................................................................................. 126 i SOURCES CITED BY ABBREVIATION..............................................................................129 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................................130 ii Dedication For my parents, Emmie