1876 yang and little cabbage 楊乃武與小白菜

Mon, 07/31/2023 - 11:32

Two shackled together in Hangzhou China. Picture taken by a French photograph of Yang Naiwu and little Chinese cabbage 楊乃武 小白菜 who were involved in a famous murder case.

Yang Naiwu and little Chinese cabbage 楊乃武 小白菜 were involved in a famous murder case in the Qing dynasty. "little Chinese cabbage" was the nickname for the woman involved as she liked to dress in white jacket and green pants. Little cabbage and her husband rented a unit in Yang's house. The husband worked in a tofu shop. Yang's family and Little cabbage became close as Yang taught her to read and write. One day the husband died suddenly with blood coming out of his nose and mouth. It happened the local magistrate Lau held a grudge against Yang who previouly had filed a complaint against him. Therefore Lau decided to frame Little cabbage as the murderer and Yang as conspirator. He decided the two were involved in a extra marital affair. It resulted in a  verdict of death. Luckily Yang had connections. This case got the attention of Empress Dowager who ordered a retrial.
 The 1876 picture here was taken by a French photographer at  a temple where the coffin was opened and the body examined. They found the cause of death was a disease instead of poison. Lau and other higher officials who previously tried this case lost their jobs as a result. Here the shackle is around the neck instead of around the ankles which seems to be more common in Hong Kong.

Date picture taken
1876
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Picture taken by William Thomas Saunders (1832–1892), who was a British-born photographer who settled in China and became the leading photographer in Shanghai during the late Qing dynasty.

The photograph was not only misdated, but it is also often interpreted as depicting real life, portraying what it would have likely been like in 1907. However, this is not an accurate representation and probably never reflected daily life in the Shanghai Concessions. Instead, it is a fabricated scene created in a studio. This fact is confirmed by several elements: the setup in front of a Western window rather than on an actual street, the absence of a pasted slip of paper that would state the reason for the punishment (which would be a legal requirement), and the impeccable condition of the three women who could not have stood there for more than a few minutes needed for the exposure.

Furthermore, this photograph is part of a series of two images, with the other one featuring two men in the same location and situation.

Sources : 1) https://www.hpcbristol.sjtu.edu.cn/visual/os04-017 2) research by Régine Thiriez

Photographs taken by William Thomas Saunders
Photographs taken by William Thomas Saunders, by Alan Ho

The news reported that this photo was supposedly from Yang's descendants in 2004, but this photo has appeared on postcards for a long time. Moreover, I cannot find any academic background about this Chinese historian (俞金生), do you know anything about him?

postcard

俞金生

Not sure about the academic background of 俞金生. But his works are included in the following archive of the National Chekiang University China. 

国立浙江大学历史文库

History of National Chekiang University

http://www.ncku1897.net/history/2018/05/25/1429/

As for the location where the coffin was opened, it was a temple called 海会寺Hangzhou China. In that archive, it seems there are official reports from the Qing dynasty which one can use to verify that location.