17. Women had their own scale of punishments in ancient China
For women who committed the same crimes as men a different scale of punishments evolved, and the manner in which they were carried out differed as well. All were forms of torture, and though women could be sentenced to death they were not ordinarily subject to public execution and humiliation. When women were sentenced to death they were required to take their own lives in a forced suicide, the manner of which was up to the offender and completed in private, after which it was confirmed by the prelate. In that manner the Chinese avoided the societal taboo of killing a woman, which was not because women were considered sacred, but because all women were the property of someone. Even a widow was the property of her late husband.
The mildest form of punishment for transgressing women was being forced to grind grain for a predetermined period of time, or a predetermined amount of grain. Since grinding of grain was by hand it was hard labor. More serious offenses led to the individual fingers of the hands being pressed between wooden planks or sticks to inflict pain, a process repeated several times until the sentence was deemed to be complete. Fourth was a beating upon the back, using heavy wooden bars, with the number of blows determined by the judge. The punishment for behaviors for which men faced the rest of their lives as eunuchs was for women what is now known as solitary confinement, for a length of time ordered by the judge.