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1 results

  • 1 - “Parents Can Never Be Wrong”

  • from Part I - Ruling the Empire through the Principle of Filiality
  • Yue Du, Cornell University, New York
  • Book:
    State and Family in China
    Published online:
    29 October 2021
    Print publication:
    11 November 2021, pp 23-59

  • Summary

    Chapter 1 examines three instances of Qing law that humiliated, tormented, or executed rebellious children as a didactic show: (1) mandatory concealment of parents’ crimes; (2) court assistance to parents in disciplining their grown-up sons in the form of beating, canguing, or exile; and (3) executing parricides by dismemberment under the imperial insignia in summary executions. The same message was conveyed in various forms of public punishment of unfilial children: Right and wrong was a matter of position, and parental instructions demanded unquestioning obedience. By identifying imperial authority with “infallible” parental authority at various stages of judicial performance, the imperial state strengthened its own authority and deterred rebellious thoughts and actions from its subjects.