Yu Tangchun's Misfortune in Hongdong County

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"Yu Tang Chun" is a particularly popular opera, and almost every opera fan can hum a few lines of the aria "Su San's Release.
" Su San, wearing shackles, is a deeply ingrained image of a masochistic beauty. As a lowly
prostitute, Su San suffered greatly in her wrongful imprisonment. Just a few
lines from her aria during the joint trial, recounting her torture in Hongdong County: "First forty strokes of the cane, several whips broke, a prisoner shouldn't confess, but the merciless finger-crushing torture is
unbearable!" These lines vividly depict the cruelty of her torture.
The phrase "whips broke" is an exaggeration used in the opera; whips, of course, cannot be broken. However,
under the dark prison system of the time, the inhuman suffering she endured in Hongdong County as a helpless and stunningly beautiful death row inmate
was far more than just the caning, whipping, and finger-crushing torture she received in court before sentencing. The torture she suffered
could be considered a culmination of ancient Chinese SM, and is therefore narrated in several chapters of a classical novel for the enjoyment of fellow enthusiasts.
Chapter One: Confession in the Courtroom, Bitter Jade Sister Suffers Various Tortures
... Shackled in the Dark Prison, the Evil Jailer Abuses Her Power.
The magistrate, having received three thousand taels of silver from the Pi family, was naturally focused on obtaining Su San's confession to close the case. He
convened court early the next morning and interrogated Jade Sister.
The entire court had obtained eight hundred taels of silver from the Pi family. As Jade Sister was brought before the steps, the bailiffs' command of authority was like a thunderclap
, terrifying Jade Sister. Her legs went weak, and she stumbled on the steps, nearly falling to the ground.
She saw the bailiffs lined up neatly on both sides, their hands firmly gripping the red and black torture sticks, their eyebrows raised and eyes glaring, behind them
large signs reading "Silence" and "Avoidance," resembling the solemn scene of the underworld. Yu Jie knelt before the judge's table
, but Pi Shi was nowhere to be seen, which filled her with even greater panic.
A gavel rang out in the courtroom, and the magistrate shouted, "Su San! If you don't confess today, the law will not spare you!"
Yu Jie lowered her head, trying to figure out how to respond, but the magistrate wouldn't allow her any explanation. He reached into the divination box, pulled out a slip of paper,
and threw it to the ground: "Come! Give this little whore thirty strokes of the cane!" Yu Jie cried out her innocence, but no one paid her any attention.
Several fierce-looking bailiffs came and began to manipulate this alluring young beauty. In an instant, the bailiffs had
firmly pinned her to the cold stone floor.
Lying on the stone, Yu Jie felt her white gauze skirt being torn off, and felt something hard pressing against her buttocks.
Turning her head, she saw that the bailiffs had placed two bamboo canes, each three fingers wide, against her buttocks, ready to strike.
Yu Jie had often suffered beatings from the madam in the brothel for Wang Gongzi's sake, but the girls
there were usually beaten with thin rattan canes or small leather whips; she had never experienced such a frightening beating.
Panicked, Yu Jie raised her delicate neck and cried out to the court, "Your Honor, have mercy! Allow this humble woman to plead her case!"
The magistrate ignored her, slamming his gavel and shouting, "This shameless prostitute doesn't need any
trousers to cover her shame. Besides, her slutty ass is used to being beaten in the brothel; today, we must strip her of her
trousers and give her a good beating so she'll know what's what!"
Which of the bailiffs didn't want to see Yu Jie's snowy buttocks and fragrant skin?
Having received this order, they hurriedly began to tear off Yu Jie's purple silk trousers. They also pulled off her close-fitting light red undergarment
, dragging it down to her knees. Yu Jie's snow-white, rounded buttocks and two smooth, silky thighs were completely
naked, laid bare.
Although Yu Jie came from a brothel, she had never been so humiliated in front of so many people. As she
frantically tried to grab her undergarments, the constables grabbed her hands and feet, pulled her hair, and
straightened her body. A large stick was firmly pressed against her slender waist.
Two constables swung their paddles on either side, striking Yu Jie's bare buttocks hard. The bamboo paddles made
a series of crisp cracking sounds as they struck her flesh. One constable loudly counted the blows, and Yu Jie's screams echoed throughout the courtroom. Red welts appeared on Yu Jie's bare buttocks from the first ten blows, turning her buttocks purple. Then, 　　they struck her two alabaster thighs
with each blow . 　　 The constables, having received their money, were determined to torture Yu Jie even more. They used a new bamboo 　　board that had been soaked in a chamber pot for days, and the beatings were brutal 　　 , hitting her raw flesh. How could Sister Yu endure it? Poor Sister Yu was filled with shame and injustice, and the excruciating pain of each stroke felt like her flesh was being ripped out; her suffering was unbearable! 　　Sister Yu's desperate screams gradually turned into low, mournful groans. 　　 Her body writhed like a fish, the delicate skin on her buttocks and thighs twitching and trembling. 　　 After twenty strokes, her legs were covered in bruises, so they began beating her buttocks. The already bruised skin 　　began to ooze blood with each blow. 　　 At this point, Sister Yu no longer cared about shame; she just writhed wildly, her bare, bloodied buttocks throbbing, screaming herself hoarse. After thirty strokes, Sister Yu's clothes were soaked with sweat, and there wasn't 　　a single patch of good flesh 　　left on her buttocks and thighs . 　　 After the beating, the bailiffs hastily helped Yu Jie put on her undergarments and dragged her up from the ground. 　　Poor Yu Jie, her legs were so badly injured she couldn't move an inch. She lay curled up before the table, trembling with pain. Her once 　　beautiful black hair, pulled and tangled from the bailiffs' tugging and her struggles during the beating, flowed down 　　the blue brick floor of the hall, rising and falling with her gasps and groans. After catching her breath, Yu Jie began 　　to sob uncontrollably. 　　 Seeing that she didn't defend herself, the magistrate assumed she was afraid of being beaten and shouted, "Do you know how severe official punishment is now? 　　Confess quickly, or you'll suffer further torture!" 　　 Upon being questioned, Yu Jie kowtowed repeatedly, crying, "I am utterly innocent! The noodles were made by the mistress, and she brought them to 　　me to eat. I didn't eat them, but the magistrate ate them and died. Why didn't you ask the mistress about the reason, but only tortured me 　　? How can I explain myself!" 　　 The magistrate roared, "You little slut, what a sharp tongue you have!" " I found a packet of arsenic in your room! Clearly, you took advantage of the mistress's 　　advances and told you to eat it, but you deliberately refused, poisoning the master and framing her! You still dare to deny it? Prepare 　　for severe torture!" 　　 Yu Jie recounted, "When Master Shen bought me, the madam tricked me into going to the temple to burn incense, robbed me on the way, and brought me straight to Hongdong 　　County. I arrived here empty-handed and have never even been to the streets. To accuse me of poisoning—where did the poison come from? Isn't this like the unjust death of Su 　　San?" She cried again. 　　 The magistrate, seeing that she had been beaten but remained articulate and articulate, hated her to the core.

As long as the case was closed quickly, he slammed his gavel and said, "Stop your sophistry! Not only were there
physical evidence found in your room, but there were also witnesses. Do you think I'm afraid you won't confess? Bring her maidservant here for questioning, and let's see if you still dare to deny
it!" He immediately summoned Qiulan, a maidservant from Pi's room, to the court.
Qiulan was a maidservant Pi had brought from her maiden home, so naturally, she would testify however Pi wanted.
She knelt beside Yu Jie in court and said, "Little Aunt, the bloodstains on your trousers terrify me
! Why suffer like this? That day, I peeked through your window and saw you put something in the noodles
. You didn't eat it yourself, but took it to the master's room. If you didn't poison the master, who else could it be? It's
better if you confess now, Little Aunt. You'll suffer less punishment, and I won't have to endure all that filth in jail with you
."
When Yu Jie saw Qiu Lan come to testify, she understood that Pi Shi had framed her. She was filled with bitterness and anger and
couldn't speak for a moment. Seeing that Yu Jie was speechless, the magistrate pounded his gavel repeatedly: "The evidence and witnesses are all here. Does this little shrew
still dare not confess?"
Yu Jie, however, did not know why Pi Shi had killed Shen Hong to harm her. She only asked Qiu Lan, "Sister Qiu Lan, I, Su
San, have no grudge against you in this life or the past. You falsely accuse me of murdering my husband. Aren't you afraid of going to
the Hell of Tongue-Pulling?"
The maid dared not look at her again and muttered, "Auntie, I saw what you did with my own eyes.
You can't deny it!"
Seeing that Yu Jie still refused to confess, the magistrate was furious and said, "You shrew, you must have been beaten into a lowly
thief in a brothel. You still want to be beaten. Come on, put this little prostitute on the rack and give her a hundred lashes! Let's see if she still dares
to talk back!"
The yamen runners then set up the scales in the middle of the hall. A yamen runner took two leather whips from the torture chamber and
threw them on the stone floor. Yu Jie couldn't help but glance at the leather whip. It was long and black,
much longer than the whips used by the girls in the courtyard. A small iron ring was inlaid at the end of the handle, and a red silk cord was attached to the joint between the whip and the handle.
A bailiff brought over a bucket of well water and soaked the whip in it. Several bailiffs worked together, stripping Yu Jie
of her apricot-red blouse and white crepe undergarment, leaving her only in a pink silk undergarment.
Yu Jie's fair and smooth back was completely naked, and half of her round, glistening breasts were exposed. Yu Jie felt
extremely ashamed and tried to struggle, but having endured the torture, she was already limp and unable to move an inch.
The bailiffs dragged Yu Jie to the rack, spread out her two fair arms, and tied them to the crossbar with leather straps. They then
rolled up her trousers above her knees and forced her to kneel naked on the base of a frame made of round logs. A thick hemp rope was used to
tightly bind her waist to the pillar, causing her breasts to bulge out from under the crossbar and on either side of the pillar
. A bailiff pulled all her long hair, which had been hanging down her back, to her chest.
The magistrate ordered, "Since this little shrew is enduring torture and denying her crimes, she must not be spared! Interrogate
her carefully, but don't let her faint, and certainly don't kill her by accident. She must confess to poisoning her master's husband, so that this wicked whore
can suffer the agony of being skinned alive!"
A bailiff in charge of the torture rolled up his sleeves and picked up a leather whip from a bucket. He stared at Yu Jie's slender,
fair upper body for a moment, stretched the whip a few times, and then began to lash her left and right.
Short, sharp whistles and the woman's pitiful cries echoed throughout the hall.
On Yu Jie's fair and delicate back, purplish-red welts appeared. Yu Jie threw her head back and forth
, screaming incessantly. The whip, soaked in cold water, felt like burning and cutting her naked flesh, the pain piercing her very soul!
The bailiff in charge of the punishment was clearly skilled at whipping female prisoners; each lash was neither too fast nor too slow, yet each one was vicious.
In the yamen, whipping was mainly applied to the prisoner's back, also known as "beating the back flowers," but the bailiff deliberately
lashed Yu Jie's ribs from time to time, so that the whip tip would fall on her prominent breasts, making Yu Jie's screams particularly
shrill.
Yu Jie's body was bound, and unable to bear the pain, she struggled and twisted desperately, even causing the frame to creak. Her
feet rubbed wildly against the round wooden base of the balance, causing one small, pale yellow soft-soled shoe to slip off and fall to the ground.
The yamen runner was a seasoned executioner, only recognizing money; he had no compassion for a beautiful woman. No matter how pitiful Yu Jie's cries were, the executioner
remained merciless.
In the courtroom, the lashes were not counted; the severity was entirely at the discretion of the officials. After about twenty or thirty lashes
, the yamen runner, fearing she would faint, temporarily stopped to allow her to catch her breath.
A nearby bailiff used a ladle to fetch some well water from a bucket and splashed it on Yu Jie's face to sober her up. The magistrate, annoyed that she continued to cry out her innocence without confessing, ordered 　　the lashes to continue. So another bailiff took over the execution, and another leather whip,
soaking in water, was brought from the bucket, and the lashes resumed. 　　 It was nearly noon, and the area in front of the yamen was crowded with men and women eager to see the trial. Word spread quickly; everyone wanted to see 　　the beautiful face and fair skin of this stunning prostitute bought from the brothel in the capital. The crowd gradually pushed 　　into the courtyard inside the gate. Sunlight streamed into the hall, illuminating Yu Jie's body. Her back, 　　bruised and swollen from the whipping, glistened with sweat—a horrifying sight! 　　 Yu Jie, stretched taut on the rack, endured the lashes not only on her bare back, but also on her 　　buttocks and thighs, raw and bleeding from the blows, the pain excruciating with every twist and turn of her body! She knew that if she were accused of poisoning 　　Shen Hong, she would be executed by slow slicing. Therefore, she preferred death by the whip to the inhuman agony of being branded a traitor. 　　 Poor Yu Jie gritted her teeth and endured the beating. The executioners changed three times, and cold water was poured over her head several times, 　　yet she couldn't die even if she wanted to. Her back was covered in purple welts and bloodstains, and the back of her trousers was also stained with blood. Yu Jie felt 　　as if all the tendons had been removed from her body; she had no strength left, and waves of dizziness washed over her. 　　 But then the magistrate pressed her for a confession, and she steeled herself, forcing a breath, and cried out again, "Su San, I'm innocent! I'd 　　rather die quickly than confess!" 　　 The magistrate flew into a rage: "This little whore is so resilient! Bring the bar and press her down hard!" Seeing her 　　still stretched taut on the balance beam, her calves smooth as snow, he slammed his fist on the table and ordered the bailiffs to bring the bar to press down on her calves. 　　 This was a common form of torture used in the yamen, known as "pressing down the bar." 　　 The clerk in charge reported, "Your Honor, this little whore is truly wicked, especially those slender little legs..."

" She can't withstand pressure. Breaking her bones and tendons wouldn't be a pity, but if she were killed, the officials would be implicated and it would hinder their careers.
In my humble opinion, we should just give this bitch a good beating and she'll confess."
The magistrate, knowing this clerk was experienced and seasoned, said, "As you wish." He ordered the bailiffs to take Yu Jie down from the rack
, still bare-backed and shirtless, and then ordered the torture.
He instructed the executioner, "Don't torture her until she's unconscious. If she doesn't look well, loosen the torture. If she doesn't confess today, watch
out, you dogs!"
The bailiffs obeyed and forced Yu Jie to kneel on the ground. Another bailiff brought a red-lacquered hardwood torture device from the torture chamber and
threw it at the stone slab in front of Yu Jie with a "thud!" Yu Jie shuddered; she had
heard of the device's power.
The magistrate shouted, "Begin the torture!" Several bailiffs grabbed Yu Jie's hands and placed the finger-crushing instruments on her delicate
fingers.
Yu Jie wept uncontrollably, pleading, "I'm innocent! Please, Your Honor, have mercy on me!
Please, officers, have pity on me!"
One bailiff sneered, "Hands as soft as yours can't withstand this. I'll give you a
piece of advice: confessing will only lead to death, but if you don't, the torture will be worse than death. Why suffer
this torment?"
Yu Jie sobbed, crying pitifully, "I'm truly innocent! I'd rather die than confess!"
The two bailiffs in charge of the torture had both received money from Pi Shi, and the magistrate had ordered that anyone who didn't confess would be punished with a beating. Although
they saw Yu Jie crying like a baby, they hardened their hearts and were determined to be ruthless.
Seeing that she still wouldn't confess, the officer immediately shouted and pulled the thin hemp rope up, tightening it twice. Yu Jie's face
turned pale with pain, her body twisted wildly, and she screamed like a pig being slaughtered.
The officer loosened the rope, letting her catch her breath, and asked again, "Will you confess or not?"
Seeing that Yu Jie still wouldn't confess, the rope was tightened again, and another series of screams echoed in the courtroom. Finger-crushing was
a form of official torture specifically used on women in court.
As the saying goes, "the ten fingers are connected to the heart," and when a woman was subjected to finger-crushing, she would soon be drenched in sweat, her muscles
trembling uncontrollably, until she fainted. Fainting was considered a relief, because according to court rules, after a prisoner fainted
twice, the punishment had to be changed or the trial rescheduled.
Therefore, this method of tightening and loosening the rope intermittently was the most unbearable, truly a state of wanting to live but also wanting to die
. There is a song that specifically describes the suffering of women subjected to finger-crushing, saying:
Pain! Though the hardwood stick was thin, it was wedged between her delicate hands, her jade wrists raised high, her hands dangling in the air.
Pain! The hemp rope tightened, her slender hands trembled wildly, her hair disheveled, her peach-blossom cheeks turning white then red. Pain!
Her cherry lips uttered a mournful groan, her waist twisting like a willow in the wind, her pink neck arching back like a drawn bow. Pain!
Tears streamed down her face, her bound feet twitched frantically, her embroidered shoes slipping and loosening.
Pain! Her delicate body trembled
like a leaf, her whole body drenched in sweat, as if a knife had pierced her heart and lungs, causing her soul to crumble! Poor Sister Yu suffered even more than described in the song, and soon she urinated, soaking her trousers.
The stain made the wounds on her legs from the beatings burn even more intensely, becoming increasingly unbearable! Sister Yu's slender fingers could not withstand
the cruel officer's repeated tightening and loosening of her grip.
Overwhelmed by pain, she could not utter a word of pleading: "Aiya! Spare me! Kind brother
, please have mercy! Stop torturing me! You've wronged Su San! It's an injustice!"
Yu Jie was kneeling during the torture, her knees pinned down by the guards, her arms gripped tightly
, unable to move an inch. In excruciating pain, she could only twist her waist. Her desperate struggles and twists did little to alleviate the agony. Each tightening brought
a piercing pain, her head snapping back, her beautiful hair soaked with sweat and clinging to her face.
Not only was Yu Jie's face covered in sweat and tears, but even her pink bodice was soaked, clinging to her chest,
accentuating her shapely figure and alluring curves as she struggled. But the more she struggled and screamed,
the more leisurely the guards seemed to revel in the torture, loosening and tightening the ropes as if taking pleasure in tormenting her.
The men and women watching the interrogation seemed to feel their breathing become heavier; the more timid ones turned their heads
away, trembling uncontrollably.
This torture continued for half an hour, but Yu Jie remained unyielding. The magistrate grew increasingly furious: "This little
bitch enduring torture! Give her a good beating! If she doesn't confess, beat her to death!"
The executioner tightened the ropes, and a bailiff used a wooden paddle to strike the paddle, lightly, then heavily.
At first, each strike pierced her heart and lungs; later, each strike seemed to penetrate to her very brain! How could Yu Jie endure such pain
?
Her lower body twisted and writhed on the bluestone ground, crying out, "Heavens above—! Su San is innocent—! Save
this humble servant—!" But her voice grew hoarse from crying, and no divine intervention came.
Only the hard-hearted bailiffs continued their merciless beating of the wooden paddle.
Yu Jie was in so much pain she was half-conscious, yet she couldn't die. Unable to endure it any longer, she begged for mercy, "Stop hitting me
! Stop hitting me! I'll confess! I'll confess—!"
The magistrate, seeing Yu Jie pleading for a confession, didn't stop the torture. He slammed
his gavel and demanded, "You little harlot, what will you confess?"
Yu Jie cried out incoherently, "Poisoning! Poisoning!"
He asked her who she had poisoned, and Yu Jie cried, "Poisoning Master Shen!"
The magistrate asked, "Who poisoned him?"
Yu Jie cried out again, "Stop hitting me—! I poisoned him—!"
Only then did the magistrate order his men to stop the torture. The finger-crushing torture device remained clamped to Yu Jie's hands.
Yu Jie continued to beg for mercy, and the magistrate asked again, "You little whore! Now that you've confessed, do you dare to recant?"
Yu Jie cried out, "I dare not!! Please, Grandfather, have mercy on me!"
The magistrate ordered his men to loosen the finger-crushing device. As the rope loosened, Yu Jie felt a sharp pain in her eight fingers, which had been pinched for some time
, and almost fainted.
Seeing that Yu Jie had confessed to poisoning, the magistrate pressed her for the source of the poison. Yu Jie thought for a moment and could only offer a flimsy excuse
: "When I stayed at an inn on the way, I stole arsenic used to poison rats."
The magistrate immediately ordered a clerk to write a confession and demanded that Yu Jie sign it in court.
As the clerk began writing, he hesitated, then reported, "This confession must include a section explaining why the poison was administered;
it must be detailed to meet the proper format." The magistrate then continued to question Yu Jie.
Yu Jie said, "He colluded with the madam to force me into prostitution, and I want to kill him to vent my anger!"
The magistrate said, "Nonsense! You are a prostitute, and selling smiles is your duty. That Mr. Shen paid three thousand taels of silver
to buy you, which is an honor for you, yet you hate him? Do you have another lover? Quickly confess the truth!"
Yu Jie thought that since she was already facing a death sentence, she must not implicate Mr. Wang's affair and ruin his reputation.
She had no choice but to fabricate a story: "This young woman is young and does not wish to sell herself to old man Shen Hong as a concubine. If I poison him,
I can find another way out. Even if I go back to the brothel, it will be more enjoyable than spending every night alone with a boring old man."
The magistrate only wanted her to confess to poisoning her master and did not ask any other questions. He just ordered the clerk to quickly write down the confession and had Yu Jie
sign it.
The poor girl, having endured unimaginable torture, lay crawling before the executioner's table, her hands, bruised and bleeding from the knuckles,
trembling as she pressed her fingerprint onto the confession. She wept uncontrollably, nearly succumbing to her grief.
The magistrate ordered his men to drag Yu-jie to her knees, clothe her, and put on her shoes. He then sentenced her
to death by a thousand cuts (lingchi). A review and approval from the Ministry of Justice were required before Yu-jie was to be executed in Hongdong County.
Reader, this was the most severe form of death penalty. A female prisoner like Yu-jie, who had murdered her husband, would be
stripped naked, bound hand and foot, mounted on a wooden donkey, paraded through the four gates of the palace, and then taken to the execution ground to suffer the excruciating pain of being sliced alive with thirty-six cuts
.
After signing her name, Yu Jie's slender body deflated as if sluggish, and she collapsed to the ground. Hearing
the words "death by a thousand cuts" in the magistrate's verdict, she shuddered, cried out hoarsely, "Heavens—!" and then lost consciousness
.
Although the many bailiffs in the courtroom had all received money from Pi Shi, seeing Yu Jie, a beautiful young woman, subjected to
such severe torture, and knowing she had confessed and was innocent, they couldn't help but feel some pity for her.
Only the corrupt magistrate, who only cared about money, had a heart of stone and showed no mercy to Yu Jie. He even ordered someone
to light paper wicks and smoke into Yu Jie's nostrils.
He wanted to wake her up so he could put her in a cangue according to the law and send her to the county jail.
Under the Ming Dynasty's criminal law, the cangue worn by condemned prisoners was five feet long and three feet wide, weighing forty pounds.
How could Yu Jie, already severely tortured, possibly bear such a cangue? Her hands, already bruised and battered,
were too weak to hold the shackles, and even the bailiffs hesitated to nail them on. They propped the ends of the shackles on the ground to lessen her suffering. The corrupt official, however, was furious that Yu-jie hadn't
confessed under torture and was determined to torment her further.
He declared, "According to the prison regulations of this dynasty, serious offenders are required to wear shackles, and chains must be added to them. This is the established rule for death row inmates awaiting sentencing.
This little harlot is so despicable; she cannot be spared any longer."
He added another ten-pound iron chain to the shackles. With this heavy shackle around her neck, and her back, buttocks, and legs all injured from the beatings
, Yu-jie was unable to exert any strength and could not stand up. The pitiful bailiffs had to support her, and she was carried,
half-dead, into the county jail, dangling in mid-air and dragging her legs.
At the tender age of blossoming youth, with a delicate and frail body, Yu Jie endured not only torture but also heavy shackles. In
Hongdong County, she received no aid to heal her wounds. Being imprisoned only prolonged her life ; how could she
possibly survive? How could she later be transferred to Taiyuan, where she met with the young master Wang at the provincial court to plead her case and have her
grievances redressed? The reason lies in the severely corrupt and entrenched system of prison administration in the late Ming Dynasty, which ironically saved Yu Jie's life.
At that time, corruption was rampant in the government. Prison chiefs and officials extorted prisoners for
their own enrichment. The wealthy could only afford to pay for temporary comfort, while the poor suffered even more. Female prisoners
faced an additional hardship: they carried a genital organ, which they
couldn't remove even while imprisoned. Any young woman with even a little beauty inevitably used her genitals as a form of payment.
Especially in county prisons, even the most upright magistrate couldn't personally oversee the prison day and night. Therefore, many
county prisons' female jails secretly became brothels for female prisoners to sell their bodies. Whether they were clerks or runners in the government offices,
or ordinary people, those who knew how to patronize women could pay half the price of a brothel, bribe the jailer and the matchmaker, and
have a beautiful female prisoner for a night of pleasure. The female jail in Hongdong County was such a place. The
old woman in charge of the female jail in Hongdong County, surnamed Niu, had been managing the jail for many years and had amassed a considerable fortune through the sale of female prisoners' bodies
. She had seen Yu Jie yesterday when she was detained in the official cell, and the old woman had never seen such a beautiful woman before
. She quickly inquired about Yu Jie's background. Now
that Yu Jie was sentenced to death in court, how could she let go of the opportunity to make a fortune off Su San? Moreover, Pi Shi's lover,
the student Zhao Ang, was well aware of this kind of corruption and lusted after Su San's beauty. He was just waiting for Su San to be released from prison so he could come and patronize her.
Although Pi gave him an additional two hundred taels of silver to bribe the prison guards so that once Yu Jie was imprisoned,
he could manipulate things to make it appear as if she had died suddenly, thus eliminating any possibility of a future reversal of the verdict, he secretly planned to wait until Yu Jie had had her fill of prostitution before making
his own plans. Therefore, he hid the two hundred taels of silver in his own home.
The jailer, having received no money, naturally only wanted to take good care of Yu Jie and make her a fortune. Yu Jie's survival was a stroke
of good fortune amidst misfortune.
Now, Yu Jie, having been brought into the women's prison, was, as was customary, first kneeling in the torture chamber to await the jailer's judgment. The torture chamber was extremely gloomy, with
the walls and floor filled with torture implements and various instruments.
Yu Jie, now somewhat conscious, felt utterly miserable upon seeing these instruments of torture. Unable to kneel due to the heavy shackles
, her buttocks involuntarily slumped downwards. As soon as she sat on her heels, the pain jolted her upwards, and she groaned incessantly. The
old woman saw that although she had been beaten for half a day and looked haggard, she still couldn't hide her charming appearance. Her tender cheeks, glistening with sweat, were exceptionally
radiant.
He thought to himself, "I've been in this prison for years, and I've never seen such a beautiful young girl. She's truly
a money tree that fell from the sky. Besides, she used to be a prostitute, so I don't need to bother training or guiding her;
I can make money right away. It's just that the torture in court was too harsh. I must take good care of her and make sure she recovers as soon as possible so I can start making
money."
Having made up his mind, he was about to pretend to subdue Yu Jie, pointing at her and cursing, "You vicious little bitch!
Now that you're in my hands, I'll naturally treat you well!
And you're still putting on airs, whining and moaning. Who's going to pity you? You must have saved up a lot of
money when you were a prostitute. Now, instead of showing it off to me, you'll get a beating first!" When Yu Jie heard that he was going to hit her again,
tears immediately streamed down her face, and her body trembled. She pleaded, "Good Mother! Poor Su San is innocent. Originally..."
Although she had some jewelry and ornaments, they were all taken away by Madam Pi before she was brought to the authorities. In Hongdong County, Su Sanju
had no relatives and no money to offer to the old woman. "Please, old woman, have mercy on me, I'm about to die, have mercy and spare this
beating!"
she pleaded, clasping her mangled hands together in a desperate act of pleading.
The old woman replied, "If I pity you, will I starve? Every prisoner who enters doesn't pay their dues and
gets a beating every day. How can I break the rules here for you! Quickly take off your pants, don't trouble yourself
!"
Yu Jie sobbed as she hurriedly tried to untie her belt, but her eight fingers were so swollen she couldn't bend them. The head jailer
, Madam Niu, impatiently ripped off the belt and pulled down her inner and outer pants. Yu Jie's buttocks
and thighs were covered in welts from the beatings; there was nowhere left to beat her.
She clicked her tongue and said, "Tsk tsk tsk! This tender skin has been beaten like this, it's quite pitiful. Well, I see your
clothes are made of good material. You're a prisoner waiting to be tortured, you only deserve to wear prison clothes. When you're about
to be executed, you won't even be allowed to keep your undergarments. Just use these clothes to pay your prison allowance. Although I'll
suffer a loss, consider it accumulating good karma."
Yu Jie was greatly relieved to hear that she could be spared the beating. She then used the flattering words and tricks she was used to as a brothel madam
to fawn over the old woman.
Wanting to please her, she said, "My hands are injured from being tortured, so I can't take off my clothes. Since you
care about Su San, Madam, please take them off for me and change me into prison clothes."
Madam Niu stripped her of her clothes and underwear, saying, "You've been beaten like this; you really
can't wear clothes anymore. If you listen to me, you must endure ten days to half a month of nakedness while applying medicine and recuperating. That will help you heal faster. It will
also make it easier to relieve yourself." Yu Jie, naked, felt immense sorrow in her heart, but forced a smile and agreed.
Madam Niu was determined to help Yu Jie recover quickly. If she wore heavy shackles, she would be forced to sit all day, and when
would the injury on her buttocks heal? So, she secretly removed Yu Jie's shackles, took her to the backyard, and made Yu Jie struggle to crawl through a
doorway only half a person's height, into a prison cell with stone walls on all sides. There was only a small ventilation window high up, letting in some light through the iron bars
. This was the female death row cell in Hongdong County.
The cell contained only a wooden tub for relieving oneself and a straw mat covered with a tattered straw. Yu Jie crawled
in, lay naked on the mat, and could no longer move. Fortunately, the prison guard on patrol was unwilling to enter this death row cell
; he simply told the jailer that Su San was recuperating inside and didn't bother with whether she was in shackles or not.
Niu Shi brought a jar of ointment and had two of her jailer women apply it to the wounds on Yu Jie's back, buttocks, legs, and hands. This
ointment was a proven remedy for torture injuries, and thanks to it, Yu Jie suffered less after the severe punishment. In
addition to the usual prison food, the jailer provided her with some more palatable soups and broths to nourish her. Furthermore, she could relieve herself in
the cell, and since she was free of all shackles, she could manage on her own, so she wasn't suffering too much. It was the
beginning of summer, before the heat and humidity arrived and before mosquitoes arose. Although Yu Jie was naked, the nights were not too cold. This was a blessing from heaven that Yu
Jie had survived her ordeal.
The medicine was very effective; after five or six days, Yu Jie was able to put on her prison clothes and get up and move around. The wooden tub, originally
meant for the female prisoners on duty to carry out for washing, was no longer
needed after ten days; Yu Jie could go to the toilet herself. In less than half a month, the scabs had all fallen off. Niu ordered two prison women to fetch water for Yu Jie to bathe. Yu Jie's
body, which had endured the beatings and whips, was still smooth and lovely, with only a few faint scars. The swelling on her hands had subsided, but the
purplish-black bruises on her knuckles were not easy to fade. A poem testifies to this:
"A spring onion is wounded at the root, purple marks intertwine, a silent lament for the injury.
How many tears are stained on the bamboo of Xiang, one knows that the beautiful woman has been through the ordeal."
Seeing that she was recovering quickly, the jailer was already quite pleased and even more eager for her to enter the port as soon as possible. One day, she
summoned her to the torture chamber again and said, "To heal your wounds, I secretly removed my shackles, and these past few days I've faced immense interference.
Now that your injuries are mostly healed, I have no choice but to punish you according to the law."
Yu-jie, being so obedient, complied with the jailer's wishes and put on the shackles and chains. The jailer, worried that her delicate skin would chafe her neck from the shackles,
prepared an old shawl sewn from rags for her to place under the shackles, and also brought her a pair of old cloth shoes to
wear.
Sister Yu wept, saying, "Su San has suffered such a terrible fate! Fortunately, she has such a kind old woman taking care of her. I cannot
repay her in this life, but I will repay her even if I am reborn as a cow or a horse in the next."
The old woman said, "The next life is all meaningless; what you need now is money. The medicine I applied for you is expensive
, but your blood-stained clothes are worthless. And if you are forced to eat the moldy, stale rice in this prison, how
can you recover? I want to treat you well, but I am just a poor old woman and can no longer afford to.
And then… In two or three months, you'll have to go to the neighboring county for a retrial. If you want to clear your name, you'll have to recant your confession, but in a case like yours,
even if you don't, no matter which county magistrate you're in, you'll inevitably be given a severe beating, and they
'll definitely strip you naked. You'll be beaten until your skin is torn and bleeding, and then you'll have to wear a cangue on the way—how can you endure that! You'll inevitably have
to bribe the executioners before the trial to ask them to show leniency. After the trial, you'll immediately have to apply good medicine to prevent
further injury on the way—that would be the worst possible ordeal. " I don't want a single penny from you anymore. If you don't have some money on hand
, you'll be in big trouble before you're even taken to Taiyuan Prefecture for trial."
Yu Jie was naturally frightened upon hearing this and said, "These past two days, when I went out to relieve myself, I saw female prisoners in the women's jail without shackles
. Some were doing laundry, others were doing needlework, saying they got the jobs from outside. I, Su San, was sold into a brothel as a child, and all I
've ever learned is playing instruments and dancing; I don't know any needlework. If you have pity on me, Madam, please allow me to be unshackled for a few hours a day to
do some laundry." "I'll do this kind of work to earn some money so I can support my mother."
Madam Niu laughed, "Foolish girl! Even if I were to take the blame and make you do laundry every day, how much money could you possibly earn?
I'm afraid you wouldn't even earn half the money needed for medicine these past few days, even if you rode the wooden donkey to the execution ground! I've decided that the
best course of action is to use your body for some kind of business! Do you think the women in prison only
support their mothers by working during the day? At night, they all have to take off their pants and sleep with men they fancy. You're from the capital..."
"The top courtesan in the city, wouldn't she make money much easier than them? Otherwise, what else would I use to pay you?"
Yu Jie, sensing the old woman's tone, was being asked to work as a prostitute. Poor Yu Jie, though a prostitute, was
a devoted lover of the young master Wang, how could she possibly do such a thing? She simply lowered her head and remained silent.
Seeing her displeasure, the old woman's face hardened. "I'm doing this for your own good, don't be ungrateful! All
this coyness and affectation. Do you think you can be a virtuous woman? I've been too good to you these past few days, spoiling
this little slut. Go to the jail, sit in the cangue all night and think it over. Tomorrow I'll have your answer
." She raised a rattan cane to shoo her into the half-person-high hole.
Yu Jie, wearing the long cangue, was crawling through this hole for the first time. She was hit more than a dozen times before finally stumbling through
. Upon arriving at the prison, she was forced to kneel against the stone wall, the front of the cangue propped on the ground. She could only sit, holding the cangue's
sides with both hands, a truly agonizing experience that kept her awake all night.
The next day, the prison official, accompanied by guards, came to patrol the prison. The jailer's wife reported to the official, "This Su San, sentenced to death by dismemberment, is very unruly.
Even sitting in prison, she constantly cries and protests her innocence, begging Your Honor to punish her severely so she will behave."
Without allowing Yu Jie a chance to explain, she was dragged to the women's exercise yard, turned over along with the cangue, and forced to lie face down on the blue brick floor.
Several guards pulled Yu Jie's bright red prison trousers down to her calves. Prisoners had no underwear, so Yu Jie's recently recovered
buttocks and thighs were once again completely naked.
The prison official ordered, "Give her twenty strokes first!" The canes used in the prison were thick, like thorny branches.
The guards held Yu Jie down, and Niu Shi herself began
whipping her, pulling the back of Yu Jie's prison trousers up to her waist. Yu Jie's bare buttocks and thighs were lashed twenty times with a wicker cane, leaving prominent red welts.
Niu Shi made Yu Jie pull up her trousers and kneel, then stripped her of her bright red prison clothes, leaving her shirtless, and added another twenty
lashes with a rattan cane to her back. The rattan cane was thinner than the wicker cane, but the pain was unbearable, turning her bare back into bright red welts.
Yu Jie knew the jailer was angry that she hadn't obeyed, but dared not argue. She could only cry out in pain and beg for mercy, shouting, "This prisoner
will never do it again!" Only after the beating was finished were she dressed and taken back to the cell.
She was forced to sit on the stone floor, her buttocks on the ground, legs outstretched. Her two tender, lotus-root-like calves were bound in
footholds, the front edge of the cangue pressing against her knees, making her legs ache terribly. The welts on her buttocks and legs were pressed against the stone floor
, increasing the pain! She sat there until it was almost dark when the jailer came to check on her.
Yu Jie dared not utter another word in protest, only weeping, saying, "This prisoner will never dare again! Please, Mother, forgive me this time!"
The woman surnamed Niu only wanted to temper Yu Jie's temper; she wasn't in a hurry for her to agree to serve customers. Seeing that nightfall was approaching,
she came and removed Yu Jie's shackles and leg irons, letting her lie face down on a mat to rest. She then instructed another prison woman to light a
lamp, applied medicine to the bruises on Yu Jie's buttocks and back, and gently advised her to obey the jailer's orders. Yu Jie silently wept without saying a word.
The next day, when the sun was high in the sky, Niu again brought two prison women to the cell, stripped Yu Jie
naked from her prison clothes, put her back in shackles, and drove her out of the cell.
She was pushed into the courtyard, her legs bound, and forced to kneel on a thick iron chain. Addressing the other female prisoners in the cell, she said,
"This death row inmate, since entering prison, hasn't paid me a single penny! From today onwards, I will make her
experience a different punishment every day, setting an example for those who don't pay their dues!"
She knelt until the prisoners were allowed to go out for fresh air, by which time Yu Jie was drenched in sweat.
Her delicate, pink knees were mottled with bruises, and the midday sun made them burn, making the suffering even more unbearable
. By noon, Yu Jie could no longer endure it; her vision blurred, and she collapsed by the well. Only then did Niu remove
the leg shackles and have two prison women help her up and feed her some rice gruel.
Yu Jie's starry eyes widened slightly, tears falling onto the blue brick floor. She pleaded with the jailer, "Though I am a
courtesan, since the arrival of Young Master Wang from Beijing, I have only shared a bed with him and never received any other
guests. Since he spent thirty thousand taels of silver on me and was about to return to Nanjing, I vowed to remain chaste for him until
he achieved his academic success and came to Beijing to fetch me. But the hateful madam tricked me, selling me to Master Shen as a concubine. For over a month since I bought her,
she hasn't let her near me. Now, though I am sentenced to death, I only hope to remain chaste for Young Master Wang. Please, Mother, grant my request!"
The jailer sneered, "This is truly a case of a prostitute trying to erect a monument to chastity! You..." "You'll live at most another year and a half
. That young master Wang is thousands of miles away, and who knows when he'll pass the imperial examinations. You'll never see him again in this life. You
say you want to repay that young master Wang's kindness by remaining chaste for him, which is quite a show of loyalty. But do
n't you consider that I just saved your life? Shouldn't you repay me? —Starting tomorrow, I'll use your body to
set an example for those ungrateful prison women in jail! Don't blame me for being heartless!"
Yu Jie cried, "I only beg you, Mother, to grant my request. I'll accept whatever punishment you give me!"
From then on, the jailer, along with two other women, dragged Yu Jie out of the death row every day to the courtyard for torture. This
was the method used by brothel madams to attract customers. As long as she suffered, her appearance wouldn't be ruined, and she'd have few scars.
For several days in a row, in front of all the female prisoners in the cell, Yu Jie, naked from the waist down and bare-chested, was subjected to
one cruel torture method after another by the wicked jailer. On the first day, Yu Jie's two thumbs were tied together with thin hemp rope
and she was hung from the eaves, her heels three inches off the ground.
Poor Yu Jie's entire weight was borne only by her two thumbs, with her big toes barely sharing some of the burden. The
agony was indescribable! This torture had a name: "Double Flying Swallows," which Yu Jie had experienced in the brothel years before
.
This jailer was a seasoned female devil who had been in charge of the prison for many years, and she had methods even more vicious than those of a brothel madam.
She was hung like this for two hours, and her calves were whipped with a thin rattan cane, called "Stewed Pork Knuckle";
her thighs and buttocks were whipped with a small bamboo stick, about two feet long and less than an inch wide, called "Bamboo Shoots Pounding Meat."
Such suffering was truly unbearable! Another day, the jailer bound Yu Jie's arms behind her back and tied her
feet together with hemp rope. Then she hung Yu Jie upside down from the eaves, with only the ends of her hair dragging on the ground. This
made her resemble a bat on a cliff, and her cries sounded much like a bat's, a situation described as "a stroke of genius."
On the third day, she stripped Yu Jie of her upper body, raised her arms, and bound them to a long wooden bar. Then
she tightly bound Yu Jie's body, along with the bar, to a pillar. She then slowly pierced Yu Jie's hands with embroidery needles from a box.
The fingernails under her fingers caused her to scream repeatedly; this was called "truly real." Then, an embroidery needle was used to
prick her nipples repeatedly, drawing a string of beads of blood. This method of pricking had a name: "Red Embroidered Ball."
In this way, Yu Jie was tortured to the point of near death, utterly helpless! Seeing that the time was right,
the jailer had a woman bring a wide bench and place it under the eaves in the courtyard. Yu Jie was ordered to take off her clothes and lie face up on the bench.
Her hands were bound with hemp rope, and then her waist was tied. Her ankles were also bound with hemp rope, and her bare legs were lifted
and spread wide, hanging high from the eaves.
Then, a small, round, bumpy object, about six inches long and the size of a hand,
was brought out and inserted into her vagina, moving in and out like a penis! Poor Yu Jie suffered such torture.
Being a woman by nature, she was easily aroused, her face flushed and her body trembling.
The jailer mocked, "I thought you were some virtuous and chaste woman, but you can't withstand any of this ! You've already
shown your true colors! Today, I'm going to teach this wanton little slut a lesson!"
She pulled out the penis, wielded a thin rattan cane, and whipped Yu Jie's large, swollen, and purplish
vulva with all her might. Yu Jie's vulva immediately swelled and turned red.
Seeing the situation was bad, Yu Jie cried out, "Mother, have mercy! Don't hit me anymore!"
The jailer stopped and said, "Hitting is one thing, but fucking is another. Today I'll fuck you to death, you
born slut!" She then inserted the penis again and thrust it in and out relentlessly.
Poor Yu Jie, as a death row inmate, had no choice but to accept her fate.
At first, she cried out a few times, but as the whipping intensified, fluid flowed out, and she couldn't hold back any longer, letting out a cry
. The jailer, wanting to humiliate her in public and break her spirit, whipped her nearly a thousand times, adding some sudden, forceful thrusts
. Seeing that Yu Jie showed no sign of giving up, she was secretly pleased.
Another two or three hundred whips later, Yu Jie was in a state of utter agony, more unbearable than any other torture! The jailer,
seeing this, understood perfectly well, but deliberately made her suffer.
Yu Jie couldn't speak, and instead cried like a child, feeling as if she had fallen into the deepest hell!
Later, Yu Jie's lower abdomen began to suckle like a baby nursing, her lower body arching
and pressing against the wound, making a scraping sound inside her vagina. After another five or six hundred thrusts, she was breathless and her eyes were closed, seemingly about to collapse from exhaustion. The jailer dared not torment her any longer and
finally let her go.
After Yu Jie got off the stool, she knelt on the ground and pleaded with the jailer, "This prisoner will never dare to be stubborn again. I will obey
your orders, Mother. Please, Mother, spare my punishment!"
After Yu Jie's submission, the jailer provided her with some meat every day to nourish her body. However, fearing she might relapse and attempt suicide
, she insisted on having her wear shackles. At night, her hands and feet were shackled, preventing her from approaching the stone wall. The jailer then began soliciting
customers outside. The first customer was none other than Zhao Ang, the very student who had plotted to frame Yu Jie. Truly, how lamentable!
It is said:
Money can bribe officials to bend the law; a weak woman, falsely accused, is sentenced to death by dismemberment. She
suffers endless whippings and torture in court; in the death row, she bears her injustice under long shackles.
To find out what happens next, please read the next chapter
.

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Yu Tangchun's Misfortune in Hongdong County

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