The following bit of 300-year old Chinese wisdom was found in the June, 1927 National Geographic Magazine. I tried to verify its source when I was in China a couple of years ago, but didn't have enough time to locate an original source. However, the author of this piece was the President of Johns Hopkins University, so it should be genuine.

There was a complaint during the reign of the Emperor Kanghsi, one of the greatest Manchu Emperors, about the corruption and tyranny of the courts. The Emperor received a petition, considered it awhile and issued this decree:

"The Emperor, considering the immense population of the empire, the great division of territorial property and the notoriously litigious character of the Chinese, is of opinion that lawsuits would tend to increase to a frightful extent if people were not afraid of the tribunals and if they felt confident of always finding in them ready and perfect justice.

"As man is apt to delude ‘himself concerning his own interests, contests would then be interminable and the half of the empire would not suffice to settle the law-suits of the other half. I desire, therefore, that those who have recourse to the courts should be treated without any pity and in such a manner that they shall be disgusted with law and tremble to appear before a magistrate.

"In this manner the evil will be cut up by the roots; the good citizens who may have difficulties among themselves will settle them like brothers by referring to the arbitration of some old man or the mayor of the commune. As for those who are troublesome, obstinate and quarrelsome, let them be ruined in the law courts; that is the justice that is due to them."

(From "The Geography of China," by Frank Goodnow Johnson, President of Johns Hopkins University, National Geographic Magazine, June, 1927.)

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