The Lucretia of Badong County

File under Republic: Ancient Rome & Modern China. Here is how the story went the first time around, from Titus Livy:

58. When a few days had gone by, Sextus Tarquinius, without letting Collatinus know, took a single attendant and went to Collatia. Being kindly welcomed, for no one suspected his purpose, he was brought after dinner to a guest-chamber. Burning with passion, he waited until it seemed to him that all about him was secure and everybody fast asleep; then, drawing his sword, he came to the sleeping Lucretia. Holding the woman down with his left hand on her breast, he said, "Be still, Lucretia! I am Sextus Tarquinius. My sword is in my hand. Utter a sound, and you die!"

   In fear the woman started out of her sleep. No help was in sight, but only imminent death. Then Tarquinius began to declare his love, to plead, to mingle threats witll prayers, to bring every resource to bear upon her woman's heart. When he found her obdurate and not to be moved even by fear of death, he went farther and threatened her with disgrace, saying that when she was dead he would kill his slave and lay him naked by her side, that she might be said to have been put to death in adultery with a man of base condition. At this dreadful prospect her resolute modesty was overcome, as if with force, by his victorious lust; and Tarquinius departed, exulting in his conquest of a woman's honour.

In case you don't know the rest of the story, Sextus Tarquinius was the son of the last Roman king, back when Rome had kings. After her rape, Lucretia called her husband and his noble allies to her house. She informed them of the crime and, to make certain that no one could doubt her virtue, plunged a knife into her breast. She was simultaneously killing herself and giving birth to the Roman Republic.

59. Brutus, while the others were absorbed in grief; drew out the knife from Lucretia's wound, and holding it up, dripping with gore, exclaimed, "By this blood, most chaste until a prince wronged it, I swear, and I take you, gods, to witness, that I will pursue Lucius Tarquinius Superbus and his wicked wife and all his children, with sword, with fire, aye with whatsoever violence I may; and that I will suffer neither them nor any other to be king in Rome!"

That, gentle readers, is what I call a story. Here is another, from the New York Times:

BEIJING — On the night of May 10, [Deng Yujiao] said, she was in the room washing clothes, when a local official, Huang Weide, came in and demanded that she take a bath with him. She refused, and after a struggle fled to a bathroom.

But Mr. Huang and two companions — including a second official, Deng Guida, who was not related to Ms. Deng — tracked her to the bathroom, then pushed her onto a couch. As they attacked, Ms. Deng said, she took a fruit knife from her purse and stabbed wildly. Mr. Deng fell, mortally wounded.

Ms. Deng was arrested, investigated for involuntary manslaughter and, after the police reportedly found pills in her purse, variously described as sleeping pills and antidepressants, sent her to a mental ward.

But when a blogger, Wu Gan, publicized her case, a cascade of posts crowned her a national hero for resisting official abuse of power and demanded a fair trial.

Those who blog with contempt for bloggers, put that in your cue and download it.

There was a time when the story of the 21-year-old waitress who fatally stabbed a Communist Party official as he tried to force himself on her would have never left the rural byways of Hubei Province where it took place.

Instead, her arrest last month on suspicion of voluntary manslaughter erupted into an online furor that turned her into a national hero and reverberated all the way to China's capital, where censors ordered incendiary comments banned. Local Hubei officials even restricted television coverage and tried to block travel to the small town where the assault occurred.

On Tuesday, a Hubei court granted the woman, Deng Yujiao, an unexpectedly swift victory, ruling that she had acted in self-defense and freeing her without criminal penalties.

Laying aside a few dramatic details, and the hindsight of that indispensable historian, this is the same damn story. Apparatchik Deng Guida tried to have his way with Ms. Deng and she opened him up like the can of crap he was. Better outcome, says I.

Better yet (though I wouldn't get too excited yet) the sons of Brutus in China seem all to be online now. The outrageous abuses of communist party officials are frequently exposed by internet campaigns which the government tries but is increasingly unable to control.

Most such cases, says Mr. Xiao, the Berkeley professor, spawn tens or hundreds of thousands of mentions on Internet blogs and other forums.

But Ms. Deng's case eclipsed them all, racking up four million posts and counting, he said. Her story resonates with millions of Chinese who not only are fed up with low-level corruption but also prize chastity in young women, causes that transcend politics.

There are those who say that republican government is a mere western conceit, one which we would be unwise to encourage in other peoples. This is the speech of worm tongues. Livy's story of the rape of Lucretia, and the story of one Deng Yujiao, are not ambiguous. There is no mistaking their meaning. Republican government means putting the blade to tyrants. It's both or neither. Take your pick. Meanwhile, God bless Ms. Deng.

Comments

[Chester]

Well said, interesting comparsion between Rome and China. I am glad that even in authoritarian China, there will be those who cannot tolerate official injustice.

[A.I.]

"There are those who say that republican government is a mere western conceit, one which we would be unwise to encourage in other peoples." Who says that? Some crackpot maybe, but no one I know who has any broad credibility Left or Right in this country.

Would I be presumptuous or thin-skinned in inferring the Left is being criticized here for being to timid in use of the "blade" against tyrants. If not, I would note both stories you cite relate to internal struggles against tyranny and for justice. Yes, the Left is hesitant to exert military force against tyrants in other lands, not because they think it unwise to encourage democracy, but because they understand external threats can be counterproductive.

And, the Left is no more shy than the Riight about getting rid of domestic tyrants. The real difference tends to be how tyranny is defined.

[KB]

A.I.: My friend, the American Left has fallen in love with one murderous tyrant after another since, well since 1917. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Ho, Castro, were actively supported by large sections of the Left. That tendency is much less pronounced today because so many of Red Tyrannies no longer exist.

But it hasn't gone away. Colombian soldiers were able to rescue French hostage Ingrid Betancourt without firing a shot. How? They landed in helicopter flying the flag of an international relief organization. The Communist rebels assumed that meant they were friends. And when Castro cracked down on independent librarians, and threw a bunch of them in the slammer for (hold your breath) lending books, the American Library Association sided with ...Castro. In fact, the ALA leadership and a good portion of its membership has long been smitten with Fidel. So I think there are other reasons beside a concern for counterproductive strategies that makes a good part of the Left loath to intervene in favor of democracy abroad.

I am not saying that everyone on the American Left supports communist dictators. I am sure it is well below 50%. But among the activist Left, it is very common. The ALA isn't a small organization. Just like Pat Buchanan has a soft spot for Nazis, the Left has a soft spot for strong men flying red flags.

As for domestic tyrants, when was the last time we had one of those? Some on the right will point to Obama, but they are, as you put it, crackpots. The same word is appropriate for those who point to George the Second or any other American President.

Finally, my point was precisely that the definition of tyranny is not hard at all and is not subject to cultural bias. Lucretia and Ms. Deng defined it quite nicely with their respective blades.

[debt relief]

she should get a fair trial and that is b.s. she got in trouble for stabbing the man who was going to rape her

[KB]

debt relief: I should have pointed out that she got her hearing, and was let off without charges. One more happy ending, in addition to her fruit knife.

[gao]

just a comment that with Chinese laws rape is in par with other crimes like murder, poisoning, arson etc that can invite a death penalty.

[KB]

gao: If what you say is true, and I certainly have no reason to doubt it, then the surviving pair of the gang of three who tried to rape Ms. Geng should be in deep doo doo. I wouldn't hold my breath for that one.