Reflections | Justice in domestic violence cases has never been easy to deliver; China’s early laws against it didn’t pretend to be fair
- Recently screened footage of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs physically assaulting Cassie is a reminder how hard it’s always been to punish perpetrators of domestic violence
- Imperial China had laws against domestic violence that dated back 2,200 years, but right up until 1911 the punishments for men and women were grossly unequal
The video of Sean “Diddy” Combs physically assaulting Cassie is hard to watch. The surveillance footage, from 2016 but recently released, shows the American rapper and record producer punching, kicking and stamping on his then-girlfriend in a hotel.
Combs’ vile actions were those of a coward, which is what most perpetrators of domestic violence are.
In spite of a social milieu that was steeped in patriarchy, victims of domestic violence in premodern China could seek legal recourse against their abusers. The same patriarchy, however, also informed the laws and punishments that didn’t even pretend to be fair.
An early injunction against domestic violence is found in the statutes of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC): “A wife is fierce, and her husband beats her to discipline her. If he tears her ear, or breaks her limb or finger, or injures her skin or body, what is the punishment for the husband? His beard shall be removed.”
While it might be considered humiliating for the man, or even unfilial (one’s hair was the gift of one’s parents and mustn’t be cut off), as a punishment for injuring one’s wife sporting a clean-shaven face was a slap on the wrist.
Besides, the wording of the law suggests that a man beating his wife was normal and expected if she was “fierce”. It was considered a crime only when the beating resulted in fractures or bleeding ears, for example.
