Ping Yao 

Such officials would come to work here, at the Ya Men, or the local branch of the Qing Dynasty government. There are three gates into the central courtyard; the center gate was reserved for guests of honor and high-level officials, while the east gate was the entrance for the status quo. The west entrance was kept for suspected criminals and candidates for death row.

Now I'm in the central courtyard of Ya Men, and behind me is an old Qing Dynasty courtroom.

-Some one has sounded the drum!

Judge-Bring in the one who sounded the drum!

Advisor-Bring in the one who sounded the drum!

Prosecution- Your Honor, I'm from Xi Guan Cun, Ping Yao, My name is Mao Lao Liu, age 76. I want to prosecute my unfillial son.

Defendant- My name is Mao Tian Liang, greetings your honor.

Judge- You got a lot of nerve Mao Tian Liang, Lying and talking your nonsense in this court of law, If I don't punish you, you'll never learn, Guards! 40 lashes!

Right now, I'm an advisor to a Qing Dynasty court. The guy sitting over there on the stage is the magistrate, he's the local judge of this town, the person to my left, which is the east, is the "accuser," the person to my right, which is the west, is the accused, right now he's getting punished for his crimes DA!

Hold on! Hold On! What is it old man!

Prosecution-He's my only son; With out him I have nothing left.

Alright, now that my job as a court adviser is done, I can take off Hair, my hat and show you some of the interesting parts of this court room. This is the drum we saw in the beginning of the sketch. The drum is used to open the court. If you have a problem you want the magistrate to solve, you can bang on the drum and everyone will come out and listen to your case, but if your case is remedial and boring, and not important, they're gonna punish you, and this is what they usually punish you. This is a staff used for beating you, we saw that earlier, If you have a little money, you can pay them to hit you with the wide end, it doesn't hurt quite as much, but if you don't have any money, they'll hit you with this end, and this side hurts. And last but not least, we have the magistrate’s seal, and this seal was basically proof of his position, as well as his respect, it shows that he is a magistrate. So if I were to steal this thing, he wouldn't have a job anymore, So magistrates were very protective over their seals.

In the back of the Xian Ya, is a shrine for the "hu xian," a wily female Fox spirit, who the magistrate worshipped to protect their seals.

The fox spirit has always been my favorite character from Chinese folklore, but I never thought I'd actually find a shrine for her. If I ever run into the fox spirit, you might never see me again...