‘Punishing the innocent and the guilty in the same way’ — Phrase of the Week
Two women involved in a fight on a train are both given the same punishment, which most people disagree with.
Our Phrase of the Week is: Punishing the innocent and the guilty in the same way (各打五十大板 gè dǎ wǔshí dà bǎn).
The context
An argument between two female passengers on a train led to widespread attention online last week.
The “high-speed-rail slapping incident” (高铁掌掴事件 gāotiě zhǎngguó shìjiàn) happened on a train traveling between Meishan and Chengdu on May 2.
One woman, whose surname is Wáng 王, turned to the two kids sitting behind her and asked them to stop kicking the back of her seat. She then asked the mother, named Yáng 杨, to get control over them.
The mother responded aggressively, first verbally and then by slapping her in the face. Wang slapped her back once, and then again a few seconds later.
Later, Wang posted the video of the incident on social media. Yang’s family asked her to remove it, but she refused. So the family reported Wang to the local police. Wang was summoned to the police station that evening.
The police verdict was “mutual assault”: Both women were found equally guilty, with Wang fined 200 yuan ($28), and the other woman fined 500 yuan ($71).
“Mutual assault” is a common verdict used by police to settle disputes such as this in China, and is described with a particular phrase:
The way in which the police are resolving this issue now is to hit each party with 50 lashes.
警察现在的处理方式，就是各打五十大板。
Jǐngchá xiànzài de chǔlǐ fāngshì, jiùshì gè dǎ wǔshí dà bǎn.
And with that, we have our Phrase of the Week.
What it means
To hit each party with 50 lashes is a six-character idiom.
The criminal punishment was handed down during ancient times in China to parties involved in low-level crimes where both were determined to be in the wrong. Both sides received the same punishment and took the same level of responsibility, regardless of who started the situation.
Although the phrase describes an ancient punishment, it is credited to a contemporary Chinese author, Liú Xīnwǔ 刘心武. Born in 1942, Liu is regarded as one of the first post-Mao writers to openly condemn the Cultural Revolution, in what is sometimes referred to as “scar literature” (伤痕文学 shānghén wénxué).
To hit each party with 50 lashes appears in Liu’s 1980 novel, The Bell and the Drum Tower (钟鼓楼 zhōnggǔlóu), which is centered on a story of a wedding celebration in Beijing. Through the 12 hours of festivities, Liu observes the lives of different people from across Beijing society, highlighting the huge social changes happening during the 1980s.
The phrase is first found in the following lines:
Qigu commented in a sharp voice, blaming each of them equally, saying: “What is this? Look at these people you invited!”
七姑“各打五十大板”地尖声评论说：“这是怎么回子事哟？瞧你们请来的这些个人！”
Qīgū “gè dǎ wǔshí dà bǎn” de jiānshēng pínglùn shuō: “Zhè shì zěnme huí zi shì yo? Qiáo nǐmen qǐng lái de zhèxiē ge rén!“
Since then, it’s become a common way to describe police verdicts that choose not to take sides by declaring the people involved as “mutually responsible” — in other words, one person alone is not responsible.
In the slapping incident on the train, the phrase is used critically, hinting that the police are being lazy. The woman who was hit first and then defended herself was found just as guilty as the woman who attacked her.
The correct translation should be: “Punishing the innocent and the guilty in the same way.”
