"This book is at the forefront of the next generation of scholarship on early 20th century China. Lean makes a number of important claims about sentiment and modernity, puts forward broader claims that go beyond China Studies, and poses stark questions about the place of 'rationality' in modernity that will compel others to defer to her study for many years to come."—John Fitzgerald, author of Awakening China: Politics, Culture and Class in the Nationalist Revolution

"This ingeniously crafted book provides intriguing ways of linking the past to the present, weaving debates that stretch as far back as the Qin with questions of contemporary Chinese culture and politics. Through exhaustive examinations of media, political, and judicial records, the author vividly shows how the debate on emotions that Shi's case engendered was a manifestation of a 'modern public' in China."—Ruth Rogaski, author of Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port China

Eugenia Lean is Assistant Professor of History at Columbia University.

Public Passions

The Trial of Shi Jianqiao and The Rise of Popular Sympathy in Republican ChinaBy Eugenia Lean

University of California Press

Copyright © 2007 The Regents of the University of California
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-520-24718-5

Contents

List of Illustrations...................................................................................................................ixAcknowledgments.........................................................................................................................xiIntroduction............................................................................................................................11. The Assassin and Her Revenge: A Tale of Moral Heroism and Female Self-Fashioning in an Age of Mass Communication.....................212. Media Sensation: Public Justice and the Sympathy of an Urban Audience................................................................493. Highbrow Ambivalence: Fear of the Masses and Feminized Sentiment.....................................................................774. The Trial: Courtroom Spectacle and Ethical Sentiment in the Rule of Law..............................................................1065. A State Pardon: Sanctioned Violence under Nationalist Rule...........................................................................1416. Beyond the 1930s: From Wartime Patriotism to Counter-Revolutionary Sentiment.........................................................180Conclusion..............................................................................................................................207

Chapter One

The Assassin and Her Revenge

A Tale of Moral Heroism and Female Self-Fashioning in an Age of Mass Communication

1. I dare not forget the revenge of my father for a single moment; It breaks my heart to watch my mother's temples turn gray. I am loath to let her suffer any longer, The opportunity should not be squandered.

2. I cannot bear to look back to ten years ago. Things have remained the same, only the scenery has changed. I arrive at the Society not to find the Buddha, I seek death, not immortality.

Just after killing Sun Chuanfang, Shi Jianqiao distributed the poem above to witnesses at the crime scene. Composed by the assassin herself, the poem was in the form of seven-character, regulated verse (qiyan lshi). As such, it was part of the tradition of lyrical poetry (shi), a literary genre long regarded as particularly effective both for expressing one's innermost thoughts and sincere feelings, and for arousing the emotions of others. To an audience familiar with this poetic tradition, Shi Jianqiao's poem brimmed with passion and sincerity. Shi's obsessive dedication to avenging her father is evident in the first line, and the mention of her mother's graying temples conveys her filial dedication to her mother as well. In noting how she was deeply troubled because the retribution had remained unfulfilled for ten years, the poem expresses the urgency of the matter and underscores the intensity of Shi's hunger for revenge. The mention of ten years, moreover, is meant to invoke the popular saying, "For a Gentleman seeking revenge, ten years is not too late," which alerts readers to the virtue of the act and suggests that one should bide one's time and wait for the right opportunity to seek revenge. In the next clause, "only the scenery has changed," is also significant, suggesting that the desire for revenge has remained unabated despite the passage of time. The last line dramatically turns the Buddhist temple, a site usually reserved for peaceful enlightenment, into a place of heroic karmic retribution. The poem presents filial devotion as the motive that drove Shi to such an extreme act of revenge.

This poem was part of a larger set of mimeographed materials that Shi Jianqiao had brought to the crime scene. In addition to the poem, Shi also distributed copies of a single-page statement of intent and a longer testament entitled Gao guoren shu (A letter to inform my countrymen [hereafter, GGRS]). The succinct statement of intent was a list of four points:

Gentlemen take note:

1. Today, Shi Jianqiao (given name Shi Gulan) has killed Sun Chuanfang in order to avenge the death of her father Shi Congbin.

2. For concrete details of the situation, please refer to Gao guoren shu.

3. I have accomplished the great revenge, and am immediately turning myself in to the courts.

4. As for splattering blood onto the walls of the Buddhist hall and shocking everyone, my deepest apologies.

She signed the piece with "Female Avenger, Shi Jianqiao" and imprinted her fingerprint as a sign of authentication. The longer testament described in detail the tragic events that had led up to this final episode, including how ten years earlier Sun Chuanfang had ruthlessly decapitated Shi Congbin, a model military man and Shi's father, at the Bangbu, Anhui, train station. Ten years later, thirty-year-old Shi Jianqiao, a native of Tongcheng, Anhui, had finally come to avenge his death.

These richly suggestive materials showed how thoroughly the female assassin had strategically orchestrated this act of revenge. In an age of mass media, her revenge was available for public consumption from the start. The assassination was not an anonymous murder done on the sly, but rather a planned killing carried out in a lay-Buddhist recitation hall filled with people. With dozens of worshippers as her witnesses, Shi Jianqiao killed her sworn enemy and then distributed her materials, ensuring that not only the witnesses at the crime scene but a larger audience would learn the daughter's version of events. Almost immediately, the material was reproduced word for word for urban China's reading public to consume.

Shi Jianqiao's knowledge of public relations was evident throughout the course of the affair. The assassin continued to court the press after the killing. Upon turning herself in to the police, Shi gave a public statement and handed to authorities a preliminary will in which she had arranged for her mother and her children to be taken care of in the case of her demise. Two days later, Shi held another press conference at the local police station and elaborated on the circumstances of the revenge. She began the meeting by saying, "There are discrepancies in each section of today's newspaper [coverage]," and went on to provide what she said was the true account of the event. This meeting with the press was the first of several that she would hold during the lengthy trial. Often right before the courts would announce a verdict, or at other crucial junctures in the legal case, Shi granted an emotional interview from her jail cell. She also on occasion released heartfelt poetry she wrote in prison. Some of the poems described how she spent her time in jail studying classical poetry or engaging in admirable behavior, including teaching fellow inmates how to read. Others professed her concern and yearning for her mother and family. The poems and jailhouse interviews punctuated the emotional peaks of her pursuit for justice, and were thus reminiscent of traditional opera, in which prose dialogue is often interspersed with poetry that was sung to represent the dramatic high points of the narrative. This tactic proved successful in gaining sympathy, with several observers lauding Shi's poems for powerfully conveying her genuine feelings. It also reveals the lengths to which the female assassin...