exercising the profession; while those who do this designedly, and aggravate the complaint, in order to extort more money for the cure, shall be beheaded.
The offences of the inferior relations against the superior, are visited with a tenfold heavier punishment, while those of the latter against the former, are scarcely noticed. A parricide is to suffer the most lingering and shameful death that can be devised; and should the criminal even die in prison, the body is to be subjected to the same process, as if still alive; but if a parent put to death his own offspring, the offence is comparatively trivial. Whoever is guilty of killing a son, grandson, or slave, and charging another person with the crime, shall be punished by blows and banishment; but nothing is said about the crime of smothering female infants, which is so prevalent, because entirely unchecked, in China. Quarrelling and fighting is strictly prohibited in a country, where the rulers being few, and the subjects many, it is necessary to keep the people as quiet as possible. The bamboo is the remedy for the pugnacious propensities of the plebeians, and the number of blows is proportioned to the injury done, or the situation of the offending individual. A difference is observed, between striking with the fist or with a club; and the loss of an eye, tooth, finger, or toe, is visited with punishment, according to a graduated scale. A slave, beating or abusing his master, shall be put to death; while nothing is said about the master's beating his slave. A husband is not amenable for chastising his wife, except he inflict a wound; while a wife, striking her husband, is to receive one hundred blows. A child, striking or using abusive language to a father or mother, shall be put to death;
