Death by Laughing

A Mr. Sun Ching-hsia, a marshal of undergraduates,[1] told me that in his village there was a certain man who had been killed by the rebels when they passed through the place. The man’s head was left hanging down on his chest; and as soon as the rebels had gone, his servants secured the body and were about to bury it. Hearing, however, a sound of breathing, they looked more closely, and found that the windpipe was not wholly severed; and, setting his head in its proper place, they carried him back home. In twenty-four hours he began to moan; and by dint of carefully feeding him with a spoon, within six months he had quite recovered.

Some ten years afterwards he was chatting with a few friends, when one of them made a joke which called forth loud applause from the others. Our hero, too, clapped his hands; but, as he was bending backwards and forwards with laughter, the seam on his neck split open, and down fell his head with a gush of blood. His friends now found that he was quite dead, and his father immediately commenced an action against the joker;[2] but a sum of money was subscribed by those present and given to the father, who buried his son and stopped further proceedings.

Translator's notes (H. A. Giles, 1880)

Note 1. Or “Director of Studies.”

Note 2. The Chinese distinguish five degrees of homicide, of which accidental homicide is one (see Penal Code, Book VI.) Thus, if a gun goes off of itself in a man’s hand and kills a bystander, the holder of the gun is guilty of homicide; but were the same gun lying on a table, it would be regarded as the will of Heaven. Similarly, a man is held responsible for any death caused by an animal belonging to him; though in such cases the affair can usually be hushed up by a money payment, no notice being taken of crimes in general unless at the instigation of a prosecutor, at whose will the case may be subsequently withdrawn. Where the circumstances are purely accidental, the law admits of a money compensation.