[297] See No. LI., [note 285].
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[298] That is, as to whether or not there were extenuating circumstances, in which case no punishment would be inflicted.
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[299] Such is the invariable result of confinement in a Chinese prison, unless the prisoner has the wherewithal to purchase food.
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[300] The provincial examiner for the degree of bachelor.
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[301] To worship at his tomb.
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[302] See No. XLIII., [note 248].
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[303] See No. LIII., [note 288].
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[304] Such is the Chinese idiom for what we should call “bitter” tears. This phrase is constantly employed in the notices of the death of a parent sent round to friends and relatives.
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[305] A disgraceful state of things, in the eyes of the Chinese. See the paraphrase of the Sacred Edict, Maxim 1.
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[306] An illegal form of punishment, under the present dynasty, which authorizes only bambooing of two kinds, each of five degrees of severity; banishment, of three degrees of duration; transportation for life, of three degrees of distance; and death, of two kinds, namely, by strangulation and decapitation. That torture is occasionally resorted to by the officers of the Chinese Empire is an indisputable fact; that it is commonly employed by the whole body of mandarins could only be averred by those who have not had the opportunities or the desire to discover the actual truth.
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