Early in the reign of Tao Kang (1820–1851) the then governor of the province of Tche Kiang, believing that the expensive wedding gifts were the real cause of the child murder, decreed: “It is ordered that ornaments of gold, pearls, precious stones, and embroidered gowns are forbidden at all marriages. As for silver ornaments, silks, and other materials, this is the rule that we hereby establish: “For rich families the sum set out for such purchases must not be over one hundred taels. For people of medium fortune the expense must be limited to from forty to fifty taels. Those of inferior blood must not spend more than twenty or thirty taels and the poorest people must not go beyond two or five.[92] “As for gifts by the parents to the husband, the quantity is left to their discretion; this being the means to avoid all dispute. After the marriage, on certain occasions, it is permitted to make one or two presents. The celebrations of three and seven days when the grandson is born or when he attains his first year are hereby forbidden and henceforth the people should not have any more difficulties about bringing up daughters. If, in spite of this, the poor are unable to bring up their female children, they must carry them to the orphanage or give them to other families.”[93] On the 19th of February, 1838, the Lieutenant General Ki of the province of Koang Tong instituted an investigation to find out what the actual conditions were in his provinces, and after receiving his reports, issued a proclamation in which he said: “I am convinced that in the province of Koang Tong the custom of drowning and suffocating the girl babies is common and that the rich as well as the poor are guilty. The poor pretend that, not having sufficient means of existence, they are not able to bring up their female children, while the rich declare that there is no object in bringing up children that occupy a purely ornamental position in the household.” Ki then goes on to philosophize on the enormity of the crime and the folly of these reasons. Never, perhaps, did any single individual in China devote himself with more energy to trying to eradicate this evil than did Ki, both by verbal castigation of those who were guilty of the crime and by appealing to the sympathies of the inhabitants of his province. He distributed copies of the works of Ouang Ouan. He sent out advice and instructions to his subordinates that infanticide must be prevented; he enlisted the nobles and educated people in this fight and reiterated that those who were guilty of the crime would be seized, judged, and punished with sixty blows and a year’s banishment as the law directed. Throughout the province his efforts were regarded as extremely interesting, his proclamations as delightful literature, and there was no decrease in the number of murders.