The weather in Wuhan Overseas Chinese Town

In the eighth year of Kangxi (1669), it was stipulated that prisoners wearing cangue weighed 70 Jin, 60 Jin lighter, three feet long and two feet nine inches wide. Although most local officials can abide by the regulations, some cruel officials are ingenious and change the pattern of cangue. Changzhou county ordered Peng Li to make a paper cangue, which was made of thin paper. He also made a "paper half arm", which is a vest made of paper. For those who lack food, Peng ordered them to put on paper cangue, put on paper arms and tie them in front of the yamen for public display. Although this paper instrument of torture is very light, Peng has stipulated that it is not allowed to be damaged at all, otherwise it will be severely punished with other instruments of torture. People who wear "cangue" must stand still all day, and this repressed pain is more unbearable than wearing a real wooden cangue. In ancient times, paper was thin and brittle, and it was difficult for paper flail and paper half arm to be intact, so people who were flail often broke after wearing it for a short time and were tortured. At that time, people in Cheung Chau hated this practice very much. An unknown scribe once wrote a poem and posted it on the wall of the county government, saying:

There are many wasteland in Changyi lowland,

After a long-term campaign to urge grain,

Paper flail torn into white butterflies,

Cloth pants dyed red cuckoo,

At sunset, the waiter knocked on the stool.

In the evening, I went back to the front door of jujube pear garden.

Life has something to sell,

Has a grain ever reached the mouth?

In the third and fourth sentences of the poem, people who wear paper cangue will tear it up by accident, and the paper will fly like a flying white butterfly, but in this way, they will be punished by heavy sticks or clips, and their pants will be beaten raw and red with blood. The whole poem is about the pain of Changzhou people who were forced to pay official grain and suffered criminal responsibility, reflecting the cruelty of ancient officials' management. As can be seen from this poem, the cruelty of paper cangue lies not in the paper cangue itself, but in the harsh conditions attached. Peng's atrocities aroused strong opposition from Changzhou people. The court had to dismiss Peng for investigation, and Peng died in Suzhou Overseas Chinese Lane apartment soon after.