THE CHINESE OATH.

Evening Star, Issue 3463, 28 March 1874, Page 3

THE CHINESE OATH.

; •^■ s a great deal of uncertainty jippeais to exist as to the true meaning yfthe oath administered to the Chinese witnesses, as well as to the construction £he Chinese themselves put upon the form by which they are sworn in our courts, the following translation 'is given as literally as the Chinese idiom frill admit ‘ Gim gate—To-day/ ‘Ner loi gar morn—You come court-house.’ * Gong" she * Tmufie'—'Sp'eakj witness/ ‘Ne gong chun—You speak truth/ ‘ Mow gong iwar— Do not speak a lie/ ‘iGack gine um.—lf seen not/ ‘ Gong chun-^Speak truth/ ‘Tsin Min Qne of the sub-deities of an evil kind whose office is to punish as far. as corporal infliction of diseases, &c., is concerned.: ‘ Cam charck will inflict bodily misfortune andill-luckgenerally/ It may however be observecl that each, Chinese interpreter; lias his particular form of interpretation, which varies considerably in verbal phraseology, though the .-.ajs'. in theforegoipg. Sometimes - .‘ Tsin Min icanv charck’ is substituted by-thaf of i ‘ Lui Gung tar ne (May the gpd of, thunder strike you dead if you tell a lie).’ The reason assigned for substituting an inferior s ‘ deity,’ or devil, for that of God, which, according to a : literalinterpretation,' ought to be employed, is that the attributes of ‘ Quorn 1/ the supremp heiqg of the Chinese/is at variance with, the infliction of punishment, Jiis attribute b t e f n g to dispense good to all, whereas that' 1 of‘Tsin Ming and Lui Gung is to. dispense ; evil; The: Chinese assert: .that-; in their own courts' no form of verbal oath is used. The practice for the same purpose is to decapitate a cock, which is, held by them, to,'h,e the sacred bird of the gods, fn this Colony, their own affairs'are settled amongst themselves in the same my, and which are' never afterwards questioned. * In' .important oases, in to the ceremony being performed in court, it is gone through at the graves of their 5 forefathers, and abo , ,v 7 $, e r ®,? a ., shore, believing by this: me.aps to . expite the ire, of the . spirits of all their good ancestors, and -of ‘ W°ng;' Ti Vaung,’ the god of the winds and waves, probably pur English Neptune, if the witnesses should speak an untruth. The ceremony is regarded with the profoundest veneration and awe.”—‘Ballarat Courier/