巾帼女状元 The Female Top Scholar

 These are from a micro web series called 巾帼女状元 The Female Top Scholar (China 2024) 1. Guards MM/MM spies / surveillance agents belonging to Prime Minister Wang's private intelligence network, beating with long paddles on their bums, position of lying on benches, in the presence of other people. The physical punishments were ordered by Prime Minister Wang Yunzhang and his daughter, Wang Mei.

Prime Minister Wang had personally tasked these two agents with keeping the estate of the newly appointed Top Scholar, Xie Qing, under strict round-the-clock surveillance.

The two agents completely botched their mission: right under their noses, Xie Qing secretly tracked down dozens of wronged scholars whose exam results had been stolen or altered, safely escorted them into the imperial capital, and organized a massive joint petition.

Because of their negligence, Xie Qing was able to ambush the court with these scholars, leading directly to the Emperor exposing the examination fraud, sentencing Minister Ye Wenguang to death, and stripping Prime Minister Wang's son-in-law, Xu Zhongrong, of all titles and status.

Furious at this catastrophic failure, Prime Minister Wang orders them severely beaten and gotten rid of.

2. Guards MM/F named Jiang Li, posing as Lady Xie (Xie Qing’s wife), 20 strokes of long paddles on her buttocks, position of lying on the bench, in front of witnesses. The corporal punishment was ordered by the Emperor.

This Lady Xie, preparing for the spanking with long paddles, voluntarily lies down on the punishment bench on her own.

According to imperial law, when a commoner bypasses lower judicial authorities and strikes the Dengwen Drum to appeal directly to the throne (known as leapfrog litigation), they must first endure twenty heavy blows with a wooden paddle. This beating is legally required to verify that the petitioner is willing to risk before the Emperor is facilitated to hear the case.

In this scene, a crucial legal debate takes place inside the imperial throne room regarding the social standing of the woman entering the court. She Is an Official’s Wife, Not a Commoner. 

General Shen Xiu directly intervenes and confronts the Emperor: “She is the family member of an official, not an ordinary commoner! Why are you applying a double standard?”

Despite the General’s defense, she was still flogged.

Xu Zhongrong immediately fired back: “Xie Qing himself is shrouded in suspicion! Who can guarantee this woman is genuinely his lawful wife?” The corrupt faction used this pretext to strip away her legal protection and reduce her to an unverified civilian to block her petition.

Recognizing that the ministers were using legal technicalities to stall and bury the case, the woman deliberately stepped forward, bowed, and referred to herself as a humble civilian woman. By voluntarily accepting the punishment as a commoner, she completely disarmed her opponents, leaving the court with no procedural excuse to silence her testimony.

Within the overarching plot, Lady Xie is neither an aristocrat nor a real wife. Her real name is Jiang Li and she is an ordinary civilian woman. Posing as Xie Qing’s wife was part of a coordinated scheme planned by the protagonist. Jiang Li agreed to take part because she had her own deeply personal vendetta against Xu Zhongrong: he had previously abducted her younger sister, Jiang Yue, branded her with a hot iron, and sold her into servitude as a minister’s concubine.

Once the 20 blows are completed, the Emperor summons the imperial physician to administer reviving medicine, allowing Jiang Li to present her damning evidence regarding the abduction, branding, and trafficking of innocent young women. Chinese language and English subtitles https://vkvideo.ru/video-229942838_456239886?list=ln-Ag0TI4q5dzASj5fJeH and https://en.webshare.cz/#/file/DzK8n3aRdQ