There was something about this story, related by Roland (scroll down to "Beijing Courtroom Drama), that stuck with me from yesterday.  It is a sad tale of human pain and desperation:

In April 2005, the 6-year-old son of the Han family was strangled by the 13-year-old son of the Zhang family.  The court sent the murderer to three years of educational reform and also imposed more than 150,000 yuan in compensation from the Zhang family to the Han family. However, the Zhang family never paid a cent.  On November 25 last year, the mother of the dead boy poured acid on the eldest daughter of the Zhang
    family.  At the court trial, the mother was sentenced to 13 years in prison and fined more than 360,000 yuan to the victim.

     The first thing that struck me was the differences in the sentences.  The thirteen year old had committed the more serious crime, murder (though we would need to know more about the circumstances to determine if it was, in fact, manslaughter), yet he received  a much lighter sentence (three years of "educational reform" and a fine) than the mother of the initial victim, whose brutal retribution, which, as bad as it was, was not murder, brought her 13 years in prison and a much more substantial fine.

     Clearly, the message here is that the Chinese legal system (and this is true for other legal systems as well) expects more from adults than from children.  However, the punishment for the 13 year-old might be considered a bit lenient.  After all, he committed the worst kind of crime and may have done so intentionally (that is what "murder" implies).  If it is true that he meant to kill the six year old, then something more than three years, or, at least, a higher fine for his family, might have been more just.  The apparent lightness of that sentence points to an underlying Mencian sympathy on the part of the court.  Think about this passage:

…Human nature is inherently good, just like water flows inherently downhill.  There’s no such thing as a person who isn’t good, just as there’s no water that doesn’t flow downhill.

Think about water: if you slap it, you can make it jump over your head; and if you push and shove, you can make it stay on a mountain.  But what does this have to do with the nature of water?  It’s only responding to the forces around it.  It’s like that for people too: you can make them evil, but that says nothing about human nature." (11.2)

    I imagine the judge was willing to give the 13 year old the benefit of the doubt, to believe that he could be rehabilitated, that the forces around him could be changed through education and he could be set back into the proper moral current, just like water.  His failure was a failure of those around him responsible for his moral education, primarily his parents.  That is why more of a fine, which would have created a continuing social responsibility for his parents to fulfill, might have been appropriate.  Or, perhaps (and I think Mencius might agree with this) some sort of community service for the parents: impel them to help repay the social debt their son had created.  Working in the local schools, perhaps.

      The failure of the murder’s father is compounded, however, by his violation of his duty to atone for his son’s actions.  In not paying the fine, he was avoiding his duty, not just his legal duty, but also his moral duty in taking responsibility for his son’s education and his family’s shame.  And in not fulfilling his duty he was destroying his own Humanity.  Mencius, again:

Without the heart of Humanity and Duty alive in us, how can we be human?  When we abandon this noble heart, it’s like cutting those forests: a few axe blows each day, and pretty soon there’s nothing left.  Then you can rest day and night, take in the clarity of morning’s healing ch’i – but the values that make you human keep thinning away.  All day long, you’re tangled in your life.  If these tangles keep up day after day, even the clarity of night’s healing ch’i is not enough to preserve you.  And if the clarity of night’s healing ch’i is not enough to preserve you, you aren’t much different from an animal.  When people see you’re like an animal, they think that’s all the potential you have.  But does that mean this is the human constitution?

With proper sustenance, anything will grow; and without proper sustenance, anything will fade away.  Confucius said: "Embrace it and it endures.  Forsake it and it dies.  It comes and goes without warning, and no one knows its route."  He was speaking of the heart. (11.8)

     Mencius is defending here the innate goodness of human nature, even when considering immoral acts.  But his point about the possibility of losing one’s "heart," or moral compass, applies to the Beijing court case.

     This is essentially what the murder’s father allowed himself to become: a heartless person, losing his humanity.  As such, the the victim’s mother’s grief was exacerbated and she struck out against something that was dear to him, unfortunately choosing his innocent daughter.  That was obviously horrible.  She was losing her own heart of humanity in seeking to inflict the greatest pain possible on the father.  This is from the newspaper account:

During the proceedings, the Zhang father was glaring at the Han mother.  Afterwards, he wagged his finger at her and roared: "Do you have any humanity?  Why did you not come after me?  Why did you victimize my daughter?  Are you sorry now?"  She quivered as she said: "If the judge asked me if I am sorry, then I am sorry.  But if you ask me, then I will never be sorry!  I want you to look at your daughter every day and suffer the rest of your life!"

    Clearly, she should not have attacked the daughter.  But, I think Mencius might see mitigating circumstances here.  The Zhang father created, through his dereliction of Duty, the desperation of the Han mother.  His failure to provide sustenance for his heart diminished not only his Humanity, but also hers. 

      Thus, the sentence of 13 years and a hefty fine might be too harsh, from a Mencian point of view (this is not meant as a criticism of the local judge, who obviously had to apply the laws before her).   Better to give everyone a chance to return to the business of cultivating their hearts of humanity.