THE PUNISHMENT OF THE BASTINADO
Is frequently used in China, for slight offences, and occasionally inflicted on all ranks.
When the number of blows sentenced by the Mandarin are few, it is considered as a gentle chastisement or fatherlycorrection, and when given in this mild way is not disgraceful, though the culprit is obliged, on his knees, withhis forehead touching the ground, to thank the magistrate who so kindly ordered it to be administered.
Every Mandarin whose degree of nobility does not exceed the blue ball on his cap, is subject to this castigation, when ordered by his superior; but all above that rank can only be bastinadoed at the command of the Emperor.
The instrument used on these occasions is a split bamboo, several feet long, which is applied on the posteriors, and, in crimes of magnitude, with much severity. In petty offences, the offender (if he has the means) contrives dexterously to bribe the executioner, who, in proportion to the extent of the reward, mitigates the violence of the punishment, by laying the strokes on lightly, though with a feigned strength, to deceive the Mandarin; and it is said, that, for a douceur, some are ready to receive the punishment intended for the culprit; though, when eighty or a hundred blows is the sentence, it sometimes affects the life of the wretched criminal.
When a Mandarin is from home, he is generally attended by an officer of police, and perhaps one or more soldiers, who are ordered in this summary way to administer some half dozen blows on any careless person who might negligently omit the customary salute of dismounting his horse, or kneeling in the road before the great man as he passes by.
