血濺烏紗

河陽縣吏賴都頭，因覬覦珠寶商人蘇玉的鳳鐲，乘其熟睡，盜其鳳鐲，卻被蘇玉發現，咬斷大拇指，糾纏之際蘇玉被賴都頭殺死。為掩飾罪行，賴都頭以鳳鐲賄通縣官賈水鏡，誣陷客店主人劉松殺人，劉不服在柙。巧逢河陽知府嚴天民上任在途，劉松女兒少英攔輿上告，嚴天民為官清正，決定翻案重審。賈、賴二人知悉，恐事敗招罪，以劉松女兒性命逼劉松認罪，誓不翻供。賈又把鳳鐲送贈嚴天民之妻（賈之表姐，刑部尚書女兒），並乘其不覺在案卷中放下假供假證，令嚴天民冤斬了劉松，屈死了劉妻，劉女帶孝直闖公堂，欲撞死鳴冤，鮮血直濺嚴天民烏紗之上。嚴天民繼而深入調查，開棺驗證屍體口中所含指頭，才知錯斬無辜。嚴天民毅然處死罪犯，自己則刎頸謝罪。

The Bloodstained Black Gauze Cap

Lai is chief constable of Heyang County. He tries to steal jeweler Su Yu’s phoenix-patterned bracelet whenSu is sleeping. Awakened, Su bites off Lai’s thumb. During the fight, the greedy Lai kills the jeweler, and bribes County Magistrate Jia with the bracelet to cover up his crime. The thief frames the inn owner, Liu Song, for the murder, who pleads not guilty but is detained. Liu’s daughter, Shaoying, stops Yan Tianmingwhen he is on his way to take his post as magistrate of the prefecture of Heyang and presents her case. As an upright official, Yan decides to reopen the case. Learning the news and fearing the consequences, Jiaand Lai force the inn owner to plead guilty and vow never to change his testimonial; otherwise, they will kill his daughter.

Jia gives the bracelet to Yan’s wife, the cousin of Jia and daughter of the Minister of

Justice. At Jia’s request, Yan’s wife sneaks false evidence into the case files behind Yan’s back. As a result, Yan has Liuexecuted, and Liu’s wife dies of grief and indignation. The next morning, Liu’s daughter barges into the court and slams her head against the wall in protest against the unfair trial. Her blood splashes onto Yan’s black gauze cap. Yan is moved by the powerful gesture and decides to look deeper into the case. Yan orders the autopsy of Su’s body, and, having found and examined the finger in the mouth of the corpse, he realizes that he executed the wrong man. Yan orders the execution of the true criminal, Lai, and then commits suicide to compensate for his miscarriage of justice.