Since the Opium War in 1840, the ancient feudal civilization of the Qing Dynasty began to contact with Western civilization, a process that cannot be said to be good or bad, but it is certain that the collision between the East and the West has brewed a lot of conflicts and contrasts.
Among them, there are naturally Qing dynasty governments who believe in Western industrial civilization, and at the same time use feudal superstitions to overthrow the stupidity of foreigners. But equally, there are many Westerners who have witnessed the barbarism of the feudal era, so much so that they have a biased definition of the entire Chinese civilization.
For example, in the memoirs of some foreigners, the scene of the Beheading of the Qing Dynasty government has been highlighted. For these Westerners, they had never seen such a bloody scene, and the executioners beheaded them incredibly quickly. So what kind of scene is this?
Regarding the scene of beheading, as a modern person, we certainly can't witness it with our own eyes, but we can peek at the leopard from the TV series. Basically, it seems to be an executioner dressed in red, and then spits a sip of wine on the big knife of the ghost head, followed by a knife to cut off the other person's head.
Because TV dramas often use ps pictures or use cameras to turn the scene, we can only see the fall of the large knife and the blood of the turn shot, so in our opinion, although the beheading seems to be very cruel, it does not have such a big visual impact.
However, in real historical records, beheading can be much more brutal than in TV dramas, and beheading is still a craft.
According to some documents in the late Qing Dynasty, all beheading people need very exquisite skills, and they need to be carefully cultivated by teachers and masters for several years. First of all, if you want to be a beheading person, you must have strong arms, but also have a fierce and evil temperament.
Because in ancient society, it was generally believed that beheading was a matter that was easy to provoke ghosts, so it was necessary to have a temper and calm the field, otherwise it was very dangerous.
Secondly, during the period of studying with the teacher, all the beheading people had to practice chopping winter melons every day. But what is more interesting is the process of cutting winter melons, not simply relying on brute force, but to pay attention to ingenuity, they will draw a line on the winter melon, and they must be able to cut this line anytime and anywhere to qualify.
After the practice of cutting the line, they began to contact some old animals for knife operations, and the process of beheading must be simple and fast, without the slightest shame, at least not jamming.
So back and forth for several years or even more than a decade, so that we can cultivate a qualified beheading person. But it is only a qualified degree, because cutting animals and cutting winter melons is just a normal operation, and once you really go to cut off people's heads, this process will be accompanied by fear and excitement, and blood, and many novices really can't cope.
Therefore, the process of going from novice to veteran also requires a fierce tempering, and it also requires the teacher to keep an eye on it.
Therefore, from the perspective of the feudal era at that time, beheading was a craft and a very authentic profession. The government actually respected these people, and the remuneration given to them was relatively high, and there were also a few silver rewards for not cutting off a head.
But all this is only more normal in the feudal system, and it will appear more masculine, but it seems a little out of place in the eyes of Westerners.
After the outbreak of the Opium War, a large number of Westerners, especially missionaries, began to come to China's territory and live inland. In the beginning, these foreigners only gathered in missionary churches and embassies, and basically did not communicate with Chinese.
However, with the continuous deepening of semi-feudal and semi-colonial, more and more foreigners have gained extraterritorial jurisdiction and have begun to move around the Chinese territory at will, even deep into it.
So these curious Westerners began to trace the Oriental civilization depicted in the book, hoping to see the great porcelain and the philosophy of Confucius. But unfortunately, what these foreigners saw had nothing to do with these things, but instead saw horrific killing scenes.
According to the memoirs of a foreigner, after coming to the Qing Empire, everything was boring, although they had philosophy, porcelain, silk, and great poetry, but those who read books did not like to communicate with us. However, on this boring occasion, the imperial court would also engage in some large-scale activities, they would beat gongs and drums everywhere, and even post red notices everywhere for everyone to watch the liveliness.
This foreigner also thought that it was a large-scale entertainment activity, so he also crowded with the people to watch, only to see that there was a large platform in the center of the crowd, and there were 33 prisoners tied to the platform. I saw that the eyes of these people were dead gray, with chains tied to their bodies and tokens with Chinese characteristics inserted in their heads.
I saw that the county magistrate who looked more obscene in the hall slapped the wooden board, and a big man standing next to the prisoners took off the tokens on the heads of these people with a large knife, and then killed people one by one.
It should be said that foreigners were once bandits and robbers, and they were once known as full of martial virtue, so they were not afraid of the scene of killing. But these people were still frightened by the horrors of the Qing Empire, and only saw a rub, and a person's head fell. Then the standard big man did not stop, and continuously wiped 33 people, so that 33 heads fell to the ground one by one, and the whole process lasted only three minutes.
Looking at the scene of blood flying, looking at the crisp and sharp knife, and the ruthless big man, this foreigner felt uncomfortable for the first time, and even began to vomit.
But unlike the foreigner's antipathy, the surrounding people were shouting, they seemed to like blood very much, and the Qing Dynasty people, who had been numb at this moment, seemed more enthusiastic.
This phenomenon stimulated the foreigner greatly, he repeatedly mentioned this in his memoirs, and also said how long a person's life is, about only 6 seconds, we can't imagine what people will experience before they die in 6 seconds, whether they will be painful, whether they will remember their own lives, and the cold executioner is like the god of death, more terrible than the ruler of the Qing Empire.
From the memoirs of this foreigner, it can be seen that in the eyes of Westerners who have moved from barbarism to civilization, the brutality of the Qing rulers is really something that makes them unable to accept the scene of rapid beheading, and the happy masses around them seem to imply that there is something wrong with the government.
Of course, after many years of history, we cannot make a detailed comment on right and wrong, but it should be affirmed that the Qing Dynasty was indeed somewhat brutal at that time, and this brutality was normal relative to the feudal system, but it was indeed a bit unsightly for the civilized society that was equivalent to the overall progress. Perhaps it is precisely because of this scene that Westerners define the Qing Dynasty as barbaric, linking their image to ugly braids. I have to say that the fusion of Eastern and Western civilizations at that time was really disappointing.
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