There is indeed a tradition that stupefying drinks are served out by the officials to the batches of malefactors as they pass to the execution ground at Peking.

It would still remain to find executioners capable of performing in cold blood such a disgusting operation as the "lingering death" is supposed to be.
The ordinary Chinaman is not a fiend; he does not gloat in his peaceful moments, when not under the influence of extreme excitement, over bloodshed and cruelty.
The generally lenient spirit in which the Penal Code of China was conceived is either widely unknown, or very often ignored.

For instance, during the excessive summer heats certain punishments are mitigated, and others remitted altogether.

Prompt surrender and acknowledgment of an offence, before it is otherwise discovered, entitles the offender, with some exceptions, to a full and free pardon; as also does restitution of stolen property to its owner by a repentant thief; while a criminal guilty of two or more offences can be punished only to the extent of the principal charge.

Neither are the near relatives, nor even the servants, of a guilty man, punishable for concealing his crime and assisting him to escape.