Case of Shi Robbing Yu

After Yu's husband died, she concealed part of the estate to avoid taxes. The man Shi discovered this and threatened to report her unless she gave him property. Fearing exposure, Yu handed over money and goods but later reported Shi to the authorities. The local court convicted Shi of robbery by intimidation, a capital offense. The case was submitted to the central judiciary for review because of legal ambiguity over whether the threat-based taking constituted violent robbery. The higher court ultimately reclassified the crime as a lesser offense, sentencing Shi to tattooing and hard labor instead of execution.

The initial sentence of death by dismemberment was overturned upon review. Shi was ultimately sentenced to qing (tattooing on the face) and chengdan chong (hard labor as a wall-builder or grain-pounder).

The central debate was whether Shi's act of obtaining property through threat of reporting a crime legally constituted the capital crime of "robbery by force" (jie) or a lesser form of extortion, given that no physical violence was used.

The case illustrates the sophisticated judicial review system of early imperial China, where capital cases were carefully scrutinized. It also demonstrates how the law protected private property, even when the victim had committed a minor infraction, and set a precedent for distinguishing robbery from non-violent extortion.