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When a magistrate is about to leave, cases are sometimes withdrawn, ch'ou an (抽案), for fear he should unduly hasten a decision or should leave them undecided to a successor who may shelve them.
Signs of Authority, Followers, etc.
When the magistrate is judging a case a duplicate of the seal box is hung behind him. A jar of bamboos stands on the table; if he throws down one tally, it means a hundred blows; if he tumbles out all the tallies it means unlimited beating. There are other tallies for other uses; aud there is
