II.5 Memorials register summary of a routine memorial (2), QL 33.10.20

The memorial summarized here was a report of a judicial finding by the provincial court (the governor-general of Zhi-li acting as chief judge) in a homicide case.

All provincial judgments in capital cases were automatically reviewed by the Three High Courts (san-fa-si 三法司). Summaries like this one from the memorials register of the Punishments Section 刑科史書 are a major resource for studies of the imperial legal system.

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Glossary

為報明事 - wei baoming shi - report clearly (This was a standard summary-headline for a report on a provincial judgment, one of a number of set phrases for different kinds of routine memorials.)

緣 - yuan -"It all began when . . . " (This is a standard formula to start recounting an event.)

聘娶. . . 為妻 - pinqu weiqi - to marry

姪女 - zhinü - niece (brother's daughter)

王氏 - Wangshi - née Wang (the standard way to refer to a married woman, i.e., by her maiden name.)

先王與☐皮臉 - xian Wang yu [ ] Pilian - "First, with Wang Pi-lian, Wang ..." (yu is inserted between Wang and another illegible character. These were not formal, public documents, but a file record that could be less than letter-perfect)

通姦 - tongjian - fornicate; consensual sexual intercourse between persons not married to each other

先與王☐皮臉 - xian yu Wang [__] Pilian - first, with Wang [ ] Pi-lian . . .

宿 - su - spent the night

叔 - shu - uncle (father's brother)

查知 - chazhi - found out

控縣 - kongxian - filed a lawsuit at the county yamen

*the miscreants were sentenced to wear the change (probably the woman) and be beaten (probably the man). Fines were paid in lieu of these punishments, and they were released.

責令 - zeling - put under the charge of

聽其去留 - ting qi quliu - let him decide whether to get rid of her or keep her

媳 - xi - daughter-in-law

犯姦 - fanjian - to commit adultery

嫁賣 - jiamai - sell as a bride [to someone else]

潛 - qian - secretly

姑母 - gumu - aunt (father's sister)

躲避 - duobi - to hide

浼 - mei - requested (as: a middleman, a mediator)

說情 - shuoqing -speak on her behalf

許 - xu - (extract a) promise

跟回 - genhui - return with him

勸阻 - quanzu - urged him to refrain

爭詈 - zhengli - struggle and curse

頂心 - dingxin - the top of the head (Judicial reports on bodily injury are always very specific.)

後肋 - houlei - the ribs in the back

殞命 - yunming - died

將李明 - jiang Li Ming… - (This begins the governor-general's recommendation of punishment.)

擬 - ni - recommend a criminal sentence

絞候 - jiaohou - deferred strangulation (The complete term is ni-jiao jian-hou qiu-hou 擬絞監候秋後處決, "sentenced to strangulation, to wait in jail until after the Autumn Assizes to be executed." Most such felons were never executed.)

乾隆 - Qianlong… - Date the original ti-ben was sent. The next date, fourteen days later, was that of the imperial edict in reply.

奉旨 - fengzhi - an edict was received (The seven characters that follow would have appeared in red on the first fold of the original ti-ben.)

三法司 - sanfasi - The Three High Courts, the highest appeals tribunal, to which all capital cases were referred

核擬 - heni - investigate [the case] and recommend [a sentence]