wtf?

[telophase]

"In 682 or 683 the throne ordered another son of a prince to commit suicide for bestiality, specifically for committing the sin of incest."

From China's GOlden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty by Charles Benn, part of a list of crimes and cruel acts committed by aristocrats. No further explanation given. No footnotes, either; just a list of works for further reading. I wouldn't exactly consider this book an academic source of information.

Comments

[octopedingenue]

I KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING FISHY WITH THOSE CHINESE DRAGONS IN TEMERAIRE.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Ya gotta wonder.

[cicer.livejournal.com]

...Well, now I'm wondering if he was related to the animals he had sex with. Which is not something I want to be thinking about, frankly. WTF.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Because it seems that there's at least one other person here who's escaping punishment.

[octopedingenue]

If you gave birth to a peacock, wouldn't that be punishment enough?

(Somewhere I have poems snarking about Leda and the Zeuswan.)

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

At this point I am reminded of one of the crackiest trials documented in the remarkably cracktastic history The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals (http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/4/animalsontrial.php). In a 1750 French bestiality case involving a farmer and a she-ass: ...the unfortunate quadruped was sentenced to death along with her seducer and appeared headed for the gallows until a last minute reprieve was issued on behalf of the parish priest and citizenry of the village, who had "signed a certificate stating that they had known the said she-ass for four years, and that she had always shown herself to be virtuous and well-behaved both at home and abroad and had never given occasion of scandal to anyone."

(Not to be confused, clearly, with all those OTHER she-asses who were just ASKING for it, did you SEE that slutty harness, hrmph, no better than she should be...)

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Perhaps on the same lines as 'sodomy = oral, anal, or anything but P in V preferably with the P on top'? Bestiality = unnatural crimes. including screwing your sister.

Just a thought.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

It's the most likely case, but I'm left wondering who was the instigator of the wording: the author, his source, a translator? Seeing as how the author mixes legend with fact in the same sentence, just about,* I'm inclined to suspect him, but I doubt he cross-checks his sources.



* He makes no difference between actual facts substantiated by evidence and things found in Chinese compendiums of strange tales. Thus, the book ends up being academically useless on two levels, because you can't read it as a strict ethnography of daily life or as an account of the Tang mindset, since you don't know which bits are which.

[chibi-nasu.livejournal.com]

I kind of interpret it as a very poorly written sentence that he was forced to commit suicide because of bestiality, and the suicide punishment was usually held specifically for committing incest. Or something.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

But you have to admit that the idea he was punished for sleeping with his sister, who just happened to be a peacock, is intriguing, right?

[chibi-nasu.livejournal.com]

Oh absolutely.

[octopedingenue]

And was she a half-sister (or brother, manga compels me to note) or a full sister, and for either, how did that work, genetically? Why allowing him suicide and not a more dishonorable punishment? What happened to the sister? Was this an out-of-wedlock incident, or was there a marriage ceremony or a human wife involved? Who was the unfortunate-yet-traitorous person responsible for witnessing/reporting the act? If this was "another son" of a prince, had there been a rash of princes' sons (all of this one prince, or many princes?) comporting themselves with their animal-sisters, and if so, what happened to them? What did the princes' human daughters (and human wives, and the prince himself) think about it?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that I know tha answer to any of that, but my knowledge of Chinese drama compels me to point out that it's all very complicated, there's lots of acrobatic martial arts involved and at the end EVERYONE DIES, dramatically and very, very prettily.

[octopedingenue]

Even the loyal royal peacock keepers?! (Unless of course one keeper played Cupid for the lovers, or was jealous of their romance...)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. Especially them. Because they were secret half-brothers of the prince in disguise because they were the true heirs to the kingdom.

[octopedingenue]

Half brothers on the peacock side or the keeper side? A half-peacock as a peacock keeper, I dunno, that's like cannibalism.

[lady-noremon.livejournal.com]

and they wanted the sons to be shamed and have to commit suicide...

Also peacocks burst out of some guy's chest at the end, because of the sheer angst.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

And I dare you to say loyal royal peacock keepers ten times fast.

[octopedingenue]

The loyal royal peacock keepers dared not share the sinning lovers' secret meeting sleeping hidden in the garden growing by the fizzing fountain where the fattened pheasants fluffed their feathers and the peevish peacocks preened their pearly plumage.

NOW YOU

[lady-noremon.livejournal.com]

jealous because they 'got-with' the sons instead of the keepers.

I also demand aerial sword-fights!!!!! >:D

[myrabidpetspoon.livejournal.com]

And then the exceedingly chipper ending theme plays, despite the fact all the footage shown in the ending is depressing at best.

Apparently I had the crappy tour guide while in China. Why didn't she tell us this??? It's so obviously crucial to all of Chinese history!!!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!one! XD

[oyceter]

Maybe it is a variation on the legend of the white snake, in which the white snake (or another color snake) married into the royal family and had little half snake children and then...

Um, yes.

Or maybe it was just the peacock.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

(Right now I'm reading Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, which is a collection of stories this guy wrote which range from short stories with proper beginnings, middles, and ends, to completely random anecdotes, such as the one I just read which boils down to: "There was this guy who liked to eat snakes. A lot. One time he bit the head off one." Er, that's what your snake story reminded me of. XD)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Oddly...I watched a drama of this earlier this year...

This entire post makes me think I watch too many wuxia dramas.

And makes me want to watch another.

(btw, no drama is complete without multiple poisonings, miracle acupuncture needles, and at least one mountain or cave hermit and one hidden kung fu manual)

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

"These guys smoke. Yeah! And you know what? They taught a dog to smoke!"

I am now YEARNING TRAGICALLY for Kids In The Hall skits redone as Chinese dramas.

Somehow, I think the Chicken Lady is involved with this whole peacock thing...

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

The white snake portion of the family has been trying to outwit the peacock side of the family for years. The death of the prince's son was their EVIL PLAN brought to fruition.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Yes of course! Of course!! Because snakes and birds = dragons and phoenixes = NATURAL ENEMIES. Like, dynastic succession infighting isn't bad enough with men, women and eunuchs? Try throwing animals into the mix and see where it gets you.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

They should've known it would all end in tears!

[lady-noremon.livejournal.com]

It was the peacock's fault for seducing the Prince's sons ;P

...because they were jealous of the King or something....maybe they were personified?

[fuchsoid.livejournal.com]

So this sister, is she adopted? Because if she is, then is it still incest, and if she isn't doesn't it suggest that bestiality was already popular in the family?