Cangue
| Cangue | |||||||||||||||
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A man in a cangue in Shanghai, photographed by John Thomson c. 1870. The label reads "上海縣正堂，封," meaning "Sealed by the Shanghai County Magistrate." The offender had to rely on passersby for food. | |||||||||||||||
| Classical Chinese | |||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 枷 | ||||||||||||||
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| Modern Chinese | |||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 木枷 | ||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | wooden cangue | ||||||||||||||
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| Third alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 枷鎖 | ||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | cangue lock | ||||||||||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese | gông cùm | ||||||||||||||
A cangue (/kæŋ/ KANG), in Chinese referred to as a jia or tcha (Chinese: 枷) is a device that was used for public humiliation and corporal punishment in East Asia and some other parts of Southeast Asia until the early years of the twentieth century. It was also occasionally used for or during torture. Because it restricted a person's movements, it was common for people wearing cangues to starve to death as they were unable to feed themselves.
The word "cangue" is French, from the Portuguese "canga," which means yoke, the carrying tool has also been used to the same effect, with the hands tied to each arm of the yoke. Frequently translated as pillory, it was similar to that European punishment except that the movement of the prisoner's hands was not as rigorously restricted and that the board of the cangue was not fixed to a base and had to be carried around by the prisoner.
At times, the cangue was used as a general means of restraining prisoners along with manacles and leg chains; this was true particularly of those with grave sentences or low social standing.