Yáng Nǎiwǔ yǔ Xiǎo Báicài 楊乃武與小白菜
Yang Naiwu and Little Cabbage by 黃南丁
About the work
Yáng Nǎiwǔ yǔ Xiǎo Báicài 楊乃武與小白菜 is a late Qīng / early Republican true-crime narrative novel in forty-two huí 回 chapters, attributed to 黃南丁 (Huáng Nándīng), who is very likely a pen name. The text recounts, in novelistic form, one of the most famous miscarriages of justice in late-Qīng history: the case of the jǔrén 舉人 degree-holder Yáng Nǎiwǔ 楊乃武 and his neighbour Bì Xiùgū 畢秀姑 (nicknamed “Xiǎo Báicài 小白菜,” Little Cabbage), who were wrongly convicted in 1873 of adultery and of poisoning her husband Gě Pǐnlián 葛品蓮. Their eventual exoneration in 1877, after years of appeals reaching the Grand Council in Beijing and the intervention of Empress Dowager Cíxī 慈禧, resulted in the dismissal of more than three hundred officials.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The case (officially styled 浙江民人葛品連身死案) took place in Yúháng County 餘杭縣, Zhèjiāng, and its adjudication spanned the Tóngzhì and Guāngxù reigns (1873–1877). The county magistrate Liú Xītóng 劉錫彤, who had previously been reported by Yáng for corruption, used the suspicious death of Gě Pǐnlián to exact revenge, tampering with the autopsy to indicate arsenical poisoning and extracting confessions under torture. Provincial and prefectural courts upheld the conviction despite inconsistencies in the evidence. After sustained petitioning by Yáng’s sister and supporters — including influential Hánglín 翰林 officials with connections at court — Empress Dowager Cíxī ordered a full reinvestigation. Exoneration came after a three-board retrial, but Yáng had been tortured, lost his degree, and died (ca. 1914) in obscurity. Bì Xiùgū returned to Yúháng, became a Buddhist nun with the religious name Huìdìng 慧定, and died in 1930.
The novel is representative of the gōng’àn 公案 (court-case) fiction tradition as it evolved in the late Qīng print culture, interweaving fictional elaboration of documented historical events with social commentary on the abuses of the imperial legal system. The opening chapter frames the case explicitly as evidence of the failures of the autocratic legal system under which “人民未能得到法律的保障” (the people had no legal protection). This critical stance reflects the early Republican-era context of composition and publication.
The author 黃南丁 (Huáng Nándīng) is very likely a pen name — “南丁” could allude to “south” and “fourth” (丁 = the fourth Heavenly Stem), or it may be a homophone-based pseudonym. No historical individual with this name has been identified in bibliographic sources.
The case became enormously productive culturally: pingtan 評彈 performances were staged from around 1912, followed by Shanghai opera (1927), Píngjù opera (1932), Yuèjù opera (1938), and multiple films from 1929 onwards. Yáng Nǎiwǔ reportedly attended a 1912 performance in Shanghai and left in protest over its inaccuracies.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located in Western languages.
Other points of interest
The case is discussed in English at: Wikipedia, “Case of Yang Naiwu and Little Cabbage”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_of_Yang_Naiwu_and_Little_Cabbage
Links
- Wikipedia (Case of Yang Naiwu and Little Cabbage): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_of_Yang_Naiwu_and_Little_Cabbage
- Wikipedia (Bi Xiugu): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi_Xiugu