chi 笞, beating with the light stick

Beating with the light stick (chi 笞) was a common form of corporal punishment (see also penal tools) in ancient China and formed part of the five capital punishments (wuxing 五刑). It was carried out by striking the back or the backs of the legs of the delinquent with bamboo sticks (zhuban 竹板) or bundles of thornbush rods (jing 荊, vitex). The law code Tanglü shuyi 唐律疏議 regarded the penalty as a means to humiliate (chi 恥; a homophone of 笞) and to castigate with the aim of "educating" (xun 訓). The penalty is mentioned in the law codes of the Qin period 秦 (221-206 BCE, see Qin Bamboo Texts), and was used more extensively after Emperor Wen 漢文帝 (r. 180-157 BCE) of the Han dynasty 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) commuted the traditional mutilations (rouxing 肉刑) into blows with thorn rods. Cutting off the nose (yi 劓), for instance, was commuted to 300 blows with the thorn rod bundle, and cutting off the left foot (fei 剕) to 500. Nevertheless, this "less severe" kind of punishment was still so harsh that persons usually died before the process was finished.

Emperor Jing 漢景帝 (r. 157-141 BCE) therefore reduced the number of strokes to 300 and 200, respectively, and shortly after to 200 and 100. In the "Flog statute" (Chui ling 箠令), the thorn rod bundle was replaced by a bamboo stick. It was 5-chi 尺 long and 1-cun 寸 wide (see weights and measures), but it tapered at the end to half a cun. The nodes of the bamboo were rasped away to obtain a smooth surface. The stick was flogged on the buttocks (men) or on the back (women), and the punishment was carried out in one go.

The term chi was, from the Sui period 隋 (581-618) on, also used for one type of the heavy stick (zhang 杖). Legal texts are thus sometimes unclear about these two penalties. Blows with the stick were regularly applied in addition to other penalties, such as exile (liu 流) or penal servitude (tu 徒), or were used in combination with lashes by the whip (bian 鞭). The Northern Zhou dynasty 北周 (557-581), for instance, decreed that exile was punished in addition with 100 lashes with the whip, and between 60 and 100 blows with the light bamboo, depending on the distance of exile.

The Sui dynasty commuted lashes with the whip to blows with the bamboo. From then on, beating with the light stick was the lowest in the canon of the five capital punishments. It was also permitted to commute 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 blows by payment of money (shuzui 贖罪). The Tang dynasty 唐 (618-907) followed this precedent, but developed more detailed rules. The thornbush rod bundle (then called chu 楚) was reintroduced, and the law courts discerned between the "light stick" (chi 笞) with a small head (xiaotou 小頭) of 1.5 fen 分 wide, and the "heavy stick" (zhang 杖) with a large head (datou 大頭) 2 fen wide. There was a difference in punishment between beating on the legs and beating on the buttocks.

The Song dynasty 宋 (960-1279) allowed commutation of blows with the light stick (chi, on the back or the legs) to a lower number of blows with the heavy stick (zhang) on the buttocks. 50 blows with the light stick were commuted to 10 blows on the buttocks with the heavy stick; 30 or 40 blows with the light stick to 8 with the heavy stick; and 10 or 20 with the light stick to 7 with the heavy one.

The Liao dynasty 遼 (907-1125) did not use bamboo as a punishing instrument, but instead applied blows with a wooden sword (mujian 木劍) or a great stick (dabang 大棒) to the back. The penal system of the Jin dynasty 金 (1115-1234) used blows with bundles of with willow twigs (liutiao 柳條). The large-head version of the stick from the Yuan period 元 (1279-1368) was 2.7-fen thick, while the small-head version was 1.7 fen. Blows to the buttocks were administered in six possible grades, with the peculiar numbers of 7, 17, 27, 37, 47, and 57 blows.

The sticks used by the Ming dynasty 明 (1368-1644), made of smoothed rod bundles of the thornbush, were 3.5 chi 尺 long. The large head measured 2.7 fen, and the small head 1.7 fen. These sticks were usually applied to the legs, but the Qing dynasty 清 (1644-1911) allowed commutation to blows with the heavy stick on the buttocks. The Kangxi Emperor 康熙帝 (r. 1661-1722) ordered that 10 blows with the light bamboo stick could be commuted to 4 with the heavy stick, 20-odd with the light one to 5 with the heavy one, 30-odd with the light one to 10 with the heavy one, 40-odd with the light one to 15 with the heavy one, and 50 blows with the light bamboo to 20 with the heavy one. The thornbush rod bundle, previously used as the "light" version of the stick, was again replaced by a bamboo stick 5.5 chi long. The width of the large head of the light bamboo measured 1.5 cun, and the small head 1 cun. The weight should not exceed 1.5 jin 斤.