True Crimes - Late Imperial Chinese Crime Reports

Robert Hegel's book True Crimes in Eighteenth-Century
China: Twenty Case Histories presents a sample of crime
reports from eighteenth-century China in English
translation. All are capital crimes. Since all capital
crimes might carry the death penalty, detailed reports of
all levels of investigation had to be forwarded to the
Emperor for his final decision on sentencing. Capital
crimes required investigation and review at local,
prefectural, provincial, and central levels of the
imperial Qing period (1644-1911) administration. These
reports include information about the victims and what
happened to them, testimony from the accused and various
witnesses, and official correspondence between judicial
officials about the crimes. This project is a supplement
to Professor Hegel's book, an archive of the cases
transcribed in the original Chinese.