Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 12.pdf/114

 Life of a Chinese Mandarin.

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THE LIFE OF A CHINESE MANDARIN. AT two or three o'clock the mandarin shakes himself up, and if business is so moderate that he can afford to postpone the hearing of cases so late, he robes him self and proceeds to the second or third court to sit as judge. Of course, in a busy city, the mandarin has to hurry over his mid-day meal and go without a snooze; as I said before, it all depends upon how many superiors there are " knocking around." The -court" is literally a court; that is to say, it is a courtyard partly or entirely roofed in. The paraphernalia of justice consist of a large table, perhaps ten feet by three, covered with a red cloth, or painted red. On this table are set black and red ink slabs, brushes, and the other usual writ ing materials, besides a sort of hammer, with which the mandarin occasionally knocks on the table. Behind are what look like " stands of arms," and indeed they are; they are stands containing spears, hatchets, and other strange objects usually carried by lictors. Even- one addressing the court, be he plain tiff, defendant, or witness, must kneel; the only exceptions are official personages, or those holding titular rank. There is no limit to the city magistrate's jurisdiction; it ex tends over all matters,- — civil, criminal, politi cal, social, religious. In all cases sentence of death is pronounced by the city magistrate before the matter is taken to a higher court. The mode of procedure is, from our point of view, decidedly undignified. The ma gistrate speaks in a loud, impatient voice, abuses the accused, asks unfair and leading questions, goes into matters irrelevant to the issue, takes cognizance of hearsay, and, in short, outrages every sentiment of fair ness and impartiality. It is beneath the dignity of a mandarin to speak publicly in any but one form or the other of the socalled " mandarin dialects." Hence, in order to maintain his position, an official will go

through the form of having an interpreter for a language — sometimes even his native tongue — he understands perfectly well. On one occasion I sat as assessor to a Manchu mandarin who spoke Cantonese perfectly. The witnesses were mostly Can tonese, but the mandarin roared out his questions preted in in a corrupt Pekingese; southern theymandarin were inter dia lect, through which medium, again, the Can tonese answers were returned. Things went on so unsatisfactorily that I at last conducted the examination myself in Cantonese, and, although the mandarin understood every word that was said, explained it to him in Pekingese. It need hardly be hinted that, what with secretaries, interpreters, taking down written depositions, and total absence of rules of evidence, the chance of obtaining justice is infinitely small where bribery is at work. An attempt to administer rough jus tice is, however, as often the rule as the exception. There is another safeguard. The Chinese, if unscrupulous, are easy going, and dislike pushing things too far. Thus, if a gaoler finds he really cannot squeeze any more money out of a prisoner, he usually treats him with reasonable hu manity; if a "warrant-holder" has been billeted upon a family and sees clearly that he has ruined them, he generally leaves them enough to re-commence in life. In the same way the family men and gatekeepers, through whom the bribes commonly pass, endeavor not to kill entirely the goose with the golden eggs. Unless political malignity or private spite is aroused, even-body manages to square everybody else, and things jog along pretty well. Still, the yamcns have such a villainous reputation that most respectable people prefer to carry their disputes before a family or village tribunal; and if these agree, the law takes no cognizance of any crime whatever except treason against the