Speaker 1: Another solomon from the Chinese. At Taiyuan, there lived a
middle aged woman with her widowed daughter in law. The
former was on terms of too great intimacy with a
notably bad character of the neighborhood, and the daughter, who
objected very strongly to this, did her best to keep
the man from the house. The elder woman, accordingly tried
to send the other back to her family, but she
would not go, and at length things came to such
a pass that the mother in law actually went to
the mandarin of the place and charged her daughter in
law with the offense she herself was committing. When the
mandarin inquired the name of the man concerned, she said
she had only seen him in the dark and didn't
know who he was, referring him for information to the accused.
The latter, on being summoned, gave the man's name, but
retorted the charge on her mother in law, and when
the man was confronted with them, he promptly declared both
their stories to be false. The mandarin, however, said there
was a prima facie case against him and ordered him
to be severely beaten, whereupon he confessed that it was
the daughter in law whom he went to visit this
the woman herself flatly denied, even under torture, and on
being released, appealed to a higher court with a very
similar result. Thus the case dragged on until a mister Son,
who was well known for his judicial acumen, was appointed
district magistrate at that place. Calling the parties before him,
he bade his lictors prepare stones and knives, at which
they were much exercised in their minds, the severest tortures
allowed by law, being merely guides and fetters. However, everything
was got ready, and the next day mister Sun proceeded
with his investigation. After hearing all that each one of
the three had to say, he delivered the following judgment.
The case is a simple one, for although I cannot
say which of you to women as the guilty one,
there is no doubt about the man who has evidently
been the means of bringing discredit on a virtuous family.
Take those stones and knives there and put him to death.
I will be responsible. Thereupon, the two women began to
stone the man, especially the younger one, who sees the
biggest stone she could see, and threw them at him
with all the might of her pent up anger, while
the mother in law chose small stones and struck him
on non vital parts. So with the knives, the daughter
in law would have killed him at the first blow,
had not the Mandarin stopped her and said, hold, I
now know who is the guilty woman. The mother in
law was then tortured until she confessed, and the case
was thus terminated.