處於當代的我們，很容易透過媒體報導理解何謂「捉姦」；但在傳統社會，到底誰才有資格「捉姦」？被捉的通姦者僅限已婚者？在科學不發達年代，姦，又該如何捉？單憑研析傳統律法或裁判書類，恐難理解傳統社會捉姦全貌。清末民初「石版畫報」的經典——《點石齋畫報》，幫了我們還原傳統社會圖像的忙，也得以讓百餘年後的我們，有了描繪傳統社會「捉姦圖像」的基礎。 本文分析《點石齋畫報》中與捉姦相關的十個案例，發現傳統社會經常有超脫律法字義外的捉姦行為，「捉姦」也非如刻板印象中的隱晦與保守，甚至還有著特殊的社會控制意義，更與當代「捉姦圖像」有著相當歧異。

In contemporary, it is easy through the media reports to understand what is meant “catch adulterer”; but in traditional Chinese society, who was qualified to catch adulterer? The adulterer is limited to a married person? And, in scientific underdevelopment years, how to catch adulterer? It’s difficult to describe the whole traditional social image just by researching the traditional law or the legal files. Fortunately, the classic lithographic pictorial-“DianshizhaiPictorial”, which was published in the last phase of the Qing Dynasty, help us not only restore the image of traditional society, but also portray the image of catch adulterer in traditional society. This paper analyzes ten cases in “Dianshizhai Pictorial”, and found, in traditional Chinese society, neither the act of “catch adulterer” rules the traditional law, nor as conservative as we thought, and usually has a special social control meaning. Furthermore, it’s very different from the catch adulterer image in contemporary society.