Translating Sloth

  Ding Ru Kui had been sentenced to death but it had not been carried out because over the last ten years Lu Bing had used the loophole of reviewing the death penalty, letting him live year after year. The power to review those sentenced to the death penalty in the Ming dynasty was in the hand of the emperor, at the end of every year they were collated and delivered to the emperor for a review. The emperor opened the file, confirmed there are no mistakes, with a tick of his red brush, the Ministry of Justice would make the arrangements, those who needed to be decapitated would be decapitated, hanged were hanged, dates were set and were announced to the public, letting the people know when to gather and watch the sentence be carried out, because the death penalty can have an enlightening effect on people, warning them to not break the law. If the emperor felt there was a problem, he would send it back to be reviewed, the criminal would temporarily not be sentenced to death, but ever...

  There were many ways to live off a woman, but Wang Da Xia was different from other men who lived off women. He didn’t have “chopsticks” 1 . In order to take a shortcut for power, he entered the palace as an eunuch, he paid the price to live with the chopsticks, this was his only shortcoming. On the face of things, it really literally meant shortcoming. He was an eunuch, a real eunuch, he couldn’t be a fake— if he was he would have been dragged out, decapitated for the crime of dirtying the palace. However, without chopsticks could he not live off a woman? Of course that wasn’t true, the humankind were able to rise up in the animal world to become the master of the world with dexterous hands they made use of tools, it is the crucial factor between primitive and civilised human being. Only a human’s thumb can make the agile bending movement— the thumb could touch the other four fingers attached to the palm, because of this humans could easily hold and grip. During evolution the fin...