A Chinese man lying on the ground is being scourged by order of a magistrate and his clerk; a man carrying the cangue around his neck as a punishment walks past. Engraving by T. Wallis after W.M. Craig, May 1805.

"Every mandarin may inflict the bastinado when any one forgets to salute him, or when he sits in judgment in public. The instrument of correction is called pan-tsee, and is a piece of bamboo, a little fatted, broad at the bottom, and polished at the upper extremity, in order to manage it more easily with the hand. When the punishment is to be inflicted, the magistrate sits gravely behind a table, having on it a bag filled with small sticks, while a number of petty officers stand around him, each furnished with these pan-tsees, and waiting only for his signal to make use of them. The mandarin then takes out one of the little sticks contained in the bag, and throws it into the hall of audience. On this the culprit is seized, and stretched out with his belly towards the ground; his breeches are pulled down to his heels, and an athletic domestic applies five smart blows with his pan-tsee. If the judge draw, another small stick from the bag another officer succeeds, and bestows five more blows, and so on until the judge makes no more signals. When the punishment is over, the criminal must throw himself on his knees, incline his body three times to the earth, and thank the judge for the care he takes of his education. For faults of a higber nature the carrying of a wooden collar, called by the Portuguese , the cangue, is indicted. This machine is composed of two pieces of wood, hollowed out in the middle, which, when put together, leave sufficient room for the neck. These are laid upon the shoulders of the criminal, and joined together in such a manner that he can neither see his feet nor put his hands to his mouth; so that he is incapable of eating without the assistance of another. This disagreeable burden he is obliged to carry day and night; its weight is from 50 to 200 pounds, according to the enormity of the crime, to which the time of carrying it is also proportioned. For robbery, breaking the peace, or disturbing a family, or being a notorious gambler, it is generally carried three months. During all this time the criminal is not allowed to take shelter in his own house, but is stationed for a certain space of time either in some public square, the gate of a city or temple, or, perhaps, even of the tribunal where he was condemned. On the expiration of his term of punishment he is again brought before the judge, who exhorts him in a friendly manner to mend; and after giving him 20 sound blows, discharges him."--Blomfield, loc. cit.