ETHAS 058789

Chine placard jugement criminel illustré

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058789
Notice of the condemnation of a couple to be flayed alive
China, Hubei
1865
Paper
Gift of Dr Kuhne in 1901
The sentences for breach of filial piety inflicted on a man and his wife who had attacked the man's mother: the couple will be flayed alive in front of the mother, the great uncle of the criminal, decapitated, his uncle and his elder brothers, strangled. His teachers, neighbours and father-in-law are to be given 80 strokes of the bamboo cane and exiled; his mother-in-law is to be tattooed and publicly exhibited in seven provinces. The prefect and the sub-prefect will be dismissed and sent into exile. The victim will be given a litre of rice and 75 centimes in silver every month.

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Power

Power within a society is expressed firstly by the superiority of physical force and weapons. It is then consolidated by the development of administrative, governmental and economic systems and a hierarchy, which may be highly centralised, as in China and Japan, or more diversified, as in India or the former East Indies.

Imperial China

Despite the immensity of its empire, the Chinese court was the most centralised and one of the most sumptuous in the world until its downfall in 1911. Its power depended on a formidable administrative pyramid and the uniform use of Chinese writing throughout the empire.

Empress Dowager Cixi escorted by eunuchs, around 1903-1904 © Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M.

Empress Dowager Cixi escorted by eunuchs, around 1903-1904 © Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution

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