Ancient Chinese law extended beyond crime to social control, with some rules appearing bizarre today. Examples include punishing men for crying and forcing individuals with messy handwriting to drink ink.

Ancient China’s legal system was never only about crime and punishment. It was also a mechanism of imperial control, used to protect the throne, discipline officials and regulate social order. Across millennia, it gave rise to sophisticated codes such as the Tang Code, as well as rules that now appear bizarre or even absurd. Rules for public roads began to take shape more than 2,000 years ago. The Han Feizi records that people who threw ash onto the road could have both hands cut off. In later....