This year’s Dragon Boat Festival is coming up on the 31st May, so I thought it might be fun to discuss a boat race that went very badly wrong during the early 13th Century in China. Were there laws governing the racing of boats during the Southern Song? Of course!! Are they extant? Of course not! But let’s see what happened anyway.
And it’s a chance to see Song Dynasty criminal sentencing in action. Magistrates were allowed a certain amount of flexibility in dealing with civil matters such as marriages, inheritance, and contractual disputes but they had to be very careful in dealing with criminal matters as these were strictly supervised & their judgements often reviewed in higher courts. That being said, there are some unusual sentences here…
At the garrison town of Stream Bend Outlet (probably in Zhedong) a race between the red boat and the white boat had been planned for days – as well as bets taken. It had become such a serious matter for the teams involved, that when there was no outright winner of the race tempers quickly frayed.
The two boats collided and leader of the red boat pulled a knife. In response, two men from the white boat, Zhang Waner and Yu Wanyi, both pulled out their knives. After which there was a general melee of rock-throwing and stabbing during which the red boat capsized and thirteen men drowned, most likely including the leader of the red boat who is never named.
This case was either too messy or too complicated for the local magistrate to sort out – he might have been useless – & he couldn’t even come up with a preliminary recommendation. Therefore, the surviving boat racers ended up awaiting judgment in pokey for longer than they should and their families suffered accordingly as no doubt they were their families’ breadwinners.
Then along comes our judicial hero, Cai Hang (1193-1259), Judicial Commissioner in Zhedong at the time. His grandfather was Cai Yuanding, a follower of Zhu Xi, and indeed Cai Hang was most certainly a neo-Confucian as well. He was also an extremely clever lad, jinshi 1209 – at the age of 16!!!!
Despite the conflicting legal suits & complaints that had arisen from the fight between the red and white boats and the subsequent drownings, Cai Hang quickly decided on who had done what and came to a decision – taking into account 2 directives on the reduction of sentences from central government. Amnesties were often granted during the Song Dynasty, which in terms of ongoing cases often resulted in reduced sentences.
Cai Hang decided that though Zhang Waner and Yu Wanyi were not engaged in a concerted cooperative act (this is legally very important as prior agreement to commit a crime would be punished much more harshly) three men were wounded by their knives, & though these wounds were not mortal they were serious enough that these men could not save themselves from drowning.
For wounding two men, Zhang Waner is sentenced to 20 blows, tattooing, and penal registration at a distance of 3000 li in the ‘loathsome’ prefectures of Lingnan. He is also, unusually, to be kept chained in jail. Yu Wanyi, who only wounded one man, received the same sentence. Note that incarceration is not one of the usual five punishments: beating with light rod, beating with heavy rod, penal servitude, exile, and death.
Two men who had been taking bets on the race, Wu Baishiqi and Wang Rixuan, were sentenced to 12 blows on the back and house arrest at 500 li. Five men from the white boat who had picked up wooden staves in the melee were sentenced to 15 blows on the back & penal registration at 500 li, and one man who picked up a knife but did not use it, sentenced to penal registration at 1000 li.
Other ‘irregular’ members of the white boat team who picked up wooden clubs, oars, or stones – these may not have been part of the official team – were sentenced to 12 blows and penal registration at 500 li, and the helmsman of the white boat (had he caused the collision?), Zhan Shengsan, to be beaten 100 blows & escorted over the border of the prefecture.
Five men from the red boat who had absconded should have been sentenced, but Cai Hang chose not to punish them. Presumably, Cai Hang decided, because of all the deaths from the red boat, that the scales of justice should weigh more heavily on the white boat. Seven men from the white boat who had absconded were sentenced to 100 blows, to be issued when they were caught.
Cai Hang was scathing about the local market inspector, Zhang Baoyi, stating that not only did he do nothing to prevent the boat race from happening, he also watched on uselessly as men drowned. His case would be referred up to the prefectural level.
Only one man escaped punishment, even though Cai Hang had decided he had helped stir up trouble: Zhuwan Dashiguan, a local aristocrat. But why? Cai Hang certainly had form in other investigations for sparing members of the elite. Did Cai Hang choose to privilege the gentry to maintain their prestige? Or did he worry about losing elite support? Or was Zhuwan Dashiguan a friend, in his social circle? Who can say?
As for Cai Hang’s future career, he would go on to become a classical scholar of some note and take up positions as Vice Director of the Ministry of Works, Vice Director of the Ministry of Personnel, and Vice Grand Councillor. He was granted the posthumous name Wensu – ‘literary and respectful’.
As you would expect, none of this work is my own. To read more on this case, check out the paper, Riot at a Song Dynasty Boat Race: A Settlement of Legal Cases from the ‘Minggong Shupan Qingming Ji’ by Brian E. McKnight (1995). Sadly, Brian McKnight passed away in 2021, leaving some mystery stories he had been writing set during the Song Dynasty unfinished….
