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Singapore and caning
ray scupin (scupin@LC.LINDENWOOD.EDU)
Sat, 14 May 1994 08:29:35 -0500
someone mentioned that caning was introduced by the British in Singapore.
The British may have introduced it as a part of their colonial policy,
however, caning itself was a traditional punishment within the Chinese
legal system.
The earliest fully preserved law code in China is the
seventh-century 'Tang Code with Commentaries' (Tanglu Shuyi). The legal
codes of the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties are based on it; and it was
also adopted in Korea and Japan. In the criminal law each offense had one
and only one punishment that was prescribed. The punishments varied from
the lightest (ten blows with a cane) to execution by strangulation
or decapitation. An even more extreme punishment, the death by slow
slicing was preserved into the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Please contact me if you need references on this.
Ray Scupin
Sociology/Anthropology Dept.
Lindenwood College
209 S. Kingshighway
St. Charles, MO 63301
314-949-4730 (Office)
314-949-9244 (Home)
314-949-4910 (Fax)
Not chaos-like, together crushed and bruised,
But, as the world harmoniously confused:
Where order in variety we see,
And where, though all things differ, all agree
Alexander Pope
"Windsor-Forest."
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