A brochure on resisting corruption, which the Zhejiang Higher People's Court sent to all judges in the province this week, is significant - but not necessarily for the reason its authors intended.
One legal scholar said it was unlikely to be of any use in stamping out rampant corruption within the judiciary, and instead inadvertently highlighted the size of the problem.
On the mainland, the first thought that pops into the heads of most litigants is to bribe the judges hearing the case.
The brochure handed to Zhejiang judges this week, titled 'To deal with bribery flexibly and refuse bribers politely - a brochure advising judges to refuse gifts, invitations and lobbying', was supposedly aimed at teaching judges how to preserve their judicial impartiality without putting too much stress on their social networks.
It lays out 24 scenarios and gives detailed suggestions about what judges should do in each situation.
For example, a judge who finds shopping coupons or cash hidden in the litigation materials sent to his office is told he should, in concert with the court's anti-corruption officials, return the gifts to the person who sent them, tell the person who sent them to collect them within 10 days, or remit the money to the sender's bank account. If the briber refuses to accept the return of the money, the judge is told to hand it in to anti-corruption officials and let the briber know what has happened to it.