Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills/Book 3/Presenting petitions or indictments
Presenting petitions or indictments.
There are official, appointed copyists who prepare and stamp nearly all documents going to the official.
The hung ping (紅稟), red petition, is a statement of public business, used in government circles only and costing only the price of the paper, since the government employees may write their own statements.
The pat ping (白稟), petition on white paper, is used by headmen or heads of bureaus in notifying business to the official.
The hung pai ping, red and white petition; if the official keeps the red and returns the white it means approval, the reverse means that trouble may be looked for.
A petition has to pass through the hands of eighteen persons before reaching the magistrate, and as many more afterwards before it reaches the archives.
There are men who live by stirring up strife and lawsuits; they are called sung kun (訟棍), pettifoggers, ch‘ien kou chiang (牽狗匠), dogleaders, and other names.
The yüan kao (原告), plaintiff, formerly paid some 3,200 cash official fees and the pei kao (被告) an indefinite amount to the runners.
Eyewitnesses, kan cheng (干證), are named in the indictment, but only after getting their consent.
An indictment or petition must be written on special, lined paper, ta kê shih (大格式), holding some 120 characters; it costs from 100 to 300 cash according to the official. A smaller sheet may be used by the poor. The magistrate keeps a copy, fu chuang (付狀), for reference, if necessary, after he has left the district.
A suit may often be stopped, lan liu (攔留), by payment of money even after the indictment has been written. In family quarrels this is common, even in life and death cases, as a mother-in-law beating to death her daughter-in-law.
Sometimes one goes straight to the magistrate and calls for redress of a grievance; he must come out or send a deputy; but the usual result is an order to present an indictment.
A first petition being rejected the litigant may try again, altering what the magistrate has objected to, adding necessary witnesses, etc.
Before going to a higher court there are eight ways in which a litigant may appeal to an official against his decision. Sending up documents to a higher court costs a great deal of money, both to the official and to the yamen bureaus.
Tzŭ kao (自稿) is a plea written by the petitioner himself; the language is generally forcible and the copyist adds these two characters.
Tzŭ ch'o (自戳) means stamped by himself. Sometimes a hand or a foot, but usually only the thumb, is put in the ink. The magistrate dreads such cases, for the petitioner will only be satisfied with a decision in his favor, and an appeal to a higher court is probable.
Sometimes litigants are requested to put thumbmarks to a document declaring each side will accept the magistrate's decision and end the case.
When a magistrate is about to leave, cases are sometimes withdrawn, ch'ou an (抽案), for fear he should unduly hasten a decision or should leave them undecided to a successor who may shelve them.