The case of Yang Naiwu and Little Cabbage (), officially the death of Zhejiang commoner Ge Pinlian (), was one of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in the Qing dynasty of China. Yang Naiwu (), a juren who has just passed the provincial civil service examination, was falsely accused of poisoning Ge Pinlian () to death in conspiracy with Ge's wife nicknamed Little Cabbage () in 1873. This case became a cause célèbre as both were forced to admit guilt and continuous coverage by newspaper Shun Pao. Following multiple appeals and re-trials, the Ministry of Justice handed lenient sentences for Yang, Mrs. Ge, and witnesses accused for perjury. The ministry also fired multiple officials responsible for the unfair convictions.
Scholars considered this as a landmark case in Qing's legal development due to large-scale involvement from the imperial court to local bureaucrats, and the widespread attention from the public and media which extensively recorded the development of this event.
Background
Death penalty China had long established the Five Punishments since ancient times: whipping, caning, penal labour, banishment, and death. The Great Qing Legal Code authorised execution by hanging or beheading, although other kinds of death penalty were also implemented. Unless immediate execution was ordered, otherwise inmates remained on death row, pending review and final judgement by the imperial court known as the autumn trial system. The law empowered only the emperor to issue a death penalty. Governors can sentence defendants to penal labour or banishment, while local officials may only order caning or whipping.:2-6
Lawsuits that carry execution as penalty were usually investigated first at the local level. Public may file lawsuit on the 3rd, 6th, 8th, or 9th day of a Chinese calendar month, but major lawsuits can be lodged at anytime, such as the initial proceeding of this case which happened ten days after the death of Ge. Serious matters that involve punishments apart from whipping and caning, which cannot be enforced at county-level, would require review by prefectural and provincial governments before being transferred to the imperial court. Capital punishments would go through three stages in Peking, with the Ministry of Justice delivering the verdict, the Censorate to supervise, and the Judicature to review and correct any mistakes. Nonetheless, most of the power fell to the ministry, as the Judicature rarely quashed convictions, and so did the Emperor.:20-37
The imperial court delegated power of execution to local officials in order to quell unrests in the aftermath of the Taiping Rebellion. Unjust verdicts sharply increased to an unprecedented level with officials, now so powerful that can end one's life, harbouing one another and even interfering trials at the central government.
Appeal
Appeal () must be lodged step by step, first to prefecture, then circuit, province, and finally to the Censorate. Leapfrogging would face whipping. Apart from hearing the appeal, the superior court may revert the case back to the court of first instance, or transfer to other county court, although in reality most of the bids were re-tried at the court of first instance. If the appeal was rejected at all four levels, it may be lodged directly to Censorate, , or Nine Gates Infantry Commander known as "appeal to the capital" (). The last resort is to send a petition to the emperor ( or ) with a stringent hearing threshold. Lawsuits unrelated to important matters of the state and the military, grave corruption, and serious miscarriages of justices were barred from petitioning, and petitioners would be caned for troublemaking. The threshold was slightly lowered in 1668 to allow petitioning of any monumental matters.
Death Ge Binlian, born in Yuhang, Hangzhou of Zhejian Province, married Little Cabbage, stepdaughter of his distant maternal cousin in around April 1873. Little Cabbage was born in 1855:4 in , a neighbourhood of Yuhang.:4 Her birth name is Bi Shengu () and later known as Mrs. Ge-Bi (). "Little Cabbage" was believed to be named after her beauty and her favourite outfit of white shirt and green dress.:2-3 Mrs. Ge was suspected of adultery just few months into the marriage after she was found to have a close companionship with Yang Pinlian. Yang, also a Yuhang local who was in his late 30s at the time of slaughter, was the only juren of Yuhang in the 1873 provincial exam.:11:49 His house was damaged during the Taiping Rebellion, and after renovations, was rented to Ge and his newlywed a month after their wedding because Ge was unable to afford one.:49 For most of the time Ge Binlian worked at a shop and rarely returned home.:45-47
Ge began to suspect his wife's disloyalty in around September after he witnessed multiple times Little Cabbage sitting with Yang for dinner. Although having no evidence of adultery, he told his mother Madam Shen of his concerns. Madam Shen saw the pair's close relationship and started spreading the news with other villagers. Few months later, Ge moved to another house as Yang planned to increase the rent. Yang also stopped meeting Madam Ge.:2-4
On 15 October, Little Cabbage was assaulted by her husband for not buying pickles. Furious and angered, Little Cabbage threatened to become a nun. Ge Binlian defended his violence as a retaliation of his wife's disloyalty. Few days later, on 28 October, Yang's wife, who was said to have a heated argument before her obstructed labour, died, fuelling the stories between Yang and Little Cabbage.:49:9
On 26 November, Ge, who once had erysipelas, found out his knees were swelling. Ignoring his wife's plea to take a leave, he started vomiting when he walked back home from work next morning. Soon after, he was foaming at the mouth and ranting on bed. His relatives and friends visited him and asked for medical attention. A doctor diagnosed Ge with shaqi () and attempted to rescue him with sacred lily, but to no avail. At the hour of shen (, after 3 p.m.), Ge was pronounced dead.
Trial Three days after the death, Ge's body started to decompose with thin blood found from the mouth and nose. Ge's mother and his foster-mother both believed Ge was poisoned to death. Although Little Cabbage denied killing her husband, Madam Shen filed a lawsuit for the uncertain death in the early hours on 30 November. On the same day, magistrate of Yuhang Liu Xitong (), in office for a month,:82 was told by his friend Chen Hu () of the troubled marriage and that Little Cabbage lived with Yang as rumours suggested. The neighbours concluded that it is likely the disloyal wife killed Ge. Liu ordered an autopsy later that noon. Coroner Shen Xiang () misidentified the thin blood as serious bleeding from seven openings (i.e., nostrils, mouth, ear canals, and nasolacrimal ducts) and the gray nails as abnormality in the corpse. He also forgot to wipe the needle and concluded wrongly that the black remains on it was as a result of poison consumption, which was in fact from the decayed body. Shen believed Ge died after having opium that made his body flaccid. Doorkeeper of Liu's house Shen Caicun () contradicted Shen and said Ge died of arsenic by the look of bubbles in the stomach, adding that opium is normally for suicidal use only. In the end the postmortem report played ambiguous and stated the death by poisons without specifying any.
Madam Ge was brought before the magistrate and repeated her innocence until she was tortured. Knowing that the drug test was unquestionable, she was forced to fabricate her adultery with Yang and that she gave Yang arsenic on 24 November to murder Ge. Yang denied the testimony when summoned for cross-examination. As a juren, Yang was exempt from torture. Liu decided the evidence was strong and, on the next day, wrote to the imperial court to strip Yang of his juren's status, which was approved by Tongzhi Emperor on 9 December. The emperor also ordered the case to be tried in the provincial capital of Hangzhou. Meanwhile, Yang's relatives dissented the verdict on the grounds that Yang was at his wife's house on 24 November. Mrs. Ge chose not to reveal the truth, fearing the repercussions, and Yang remained defiance.
When the case was tried by Chen Lu (), governor of Hangzhou prefecture, Yang was tortured and forced to admit guilt, claiming to have bought 40 wen worth of arsenic from Qian Baoshen ()'s Airentang () drug store on 22 November to kill rats, then gave them to Mrs. Ge. Chen therefore ordered Liu on 16 December to summon Qian. In fact there was no such person of "Qian Baoshen", and the owner Qian Tan () was eventually, albeit reluctantly, persuaded by Chen Hu and Zhang Jun (), a fellow countryman and son of linguist Zhang Binglin, into posing as Qian Baoshen and agreeing with the case on the defense that he had no knowledge of the murder plot. Qian was not cross-examined with Yang as Liu tried to avoid the blame of potentially delaying the investigation. Chen delivered the guilty verdict after Qian's admission was sent to Hangzhou.
As Madam Shen discovered her narrative differed from Ge's, she and Wang Xinpei (), one of her distant relatives' cousin who watched the death of Ge, rewrote their testimonies based on daughter-in-law Little Cabbage's claim. The discrepancy between defendant's testimony and the postmortem report was found by Liu, who rewrote descriptions of thin blood with serious bleeding. The new version of events was accepted by Chen without prior review from the lower court, and he announced death penalty for both defendants: Ge would be executed by slicing to death and Yang by beheading. "Qian Baoshen" was sentenced to caning. The sentencing was upheld by Zhejiang's justice minister and governor Yang Changjun on 25 December, which Ge and Yang both consented.
Initial appeals
In around May 1874, Yang's sister Madam Ye appealed to the Censorate on behalf of Yang, who wrote in jail that he was framed up by Mrs. Ge and forced to plea guilty under judge's torture. The case was sent back to Zhejiang governor, who reverted it back to Chen for retrial. Chen intended to reject to appeal as both Yang and Ge had admitted guilt. Yang's remarried wife appealed to local justice ministry and governor's office in June and July but did not succeed. She proceeded to Nine Gates Infantry Commander in September for a second attempt of Appeal to Capital.
On the other hand, more joined in demanding justice as Yang family sought help from other prominent local gentry endorsed by Yang. One of those was Wang Shupin (), who coordinated 18 jurens and planned to approach the Censorate together to protect the reputation of Zhejiang scholars. Wang also wrote to his brother, who was working in the Censorate. , a junior minister of the court, introduced Yang's relatives to dozens of Zhejiang-born officials. Lin Gongshu (), son of late Viceroy of Liangguang Lin Zexu, secretly retrieved the files for Weng Tonghe, who was told of the lawsuit by Xia, to further examine the case as Minister of Justice was about to report to the central court on rejecting the appeal and tried to prevent Lin from intervening. Weng found the suspicious statements by Yang and asked the ministry to probe. Relatives of Madam Ge in her maternal home were also said to have travelled to Peking and called for justice.:11-12, 38-39