In this year, Henry Norman came to Guangzhou in the Qing Dynasty, he was from England, a scholar specializing in the study of the Far East. In Guangzhou, he witnessed an execution, which impressed him so much that he bought the executioner's knife for 9 yuan and wrote the following sentence in the book "The Subjects under the Dragon Banner": "To this day, this knife is still hanging on the wall of my house, and it reminds me all the time not to believe the articles that say that Chinese civilization has progressed!" ”
At four o'clock that afternoon, the streets were crowded, the streets were crowded, the streets were empty, people were waiting for something, as if they were expecting a performance, people were not afraid, just stood there with their necks extended, their eyes shining. Outside the execution ground is a huge wooden door, at the door stood some brave soldiers and officials, they stood at the door, solemn look, threatening to refuse any idle people to enter, but if you can hand a few coins, a miracle will happen, the gate of the execution ground will open for you, and the onlookers will rush in, the officers and soldiers will not try to block! Henry said: "If you believe what these officers and soldiers say, you will feel that they will be desperately blocking your way." ”
The execution ground is actually a vacant lot, tens of yards in length and width, just yesterday, here is a place for pottery craftsmen to dry pottery, today it has become a crowded execution ground, and today once it passes here, it will return to its original purpose. The ground was so dirty that Henry and his partner were squeezed into a central position, about 4 feet or so from the place of execution, which allowed them to clearly see the executioner and the prisoner.
The soldiers also seemed to be somewhat ragged, and when they pressed a group of prisoners into the execution ground, the crowd erupted in a burst of enthusiastic cheers. The prisoners were handcuffed and shackled, the executioner commanded the officers and men to take the prisoners to different positions, and there were two executioners on the scene, who looked no different from ordinary people, no professional clothing and neat hairstyles, and their clothes were ragged like two refugees.
The 15 criminals were lined up in two rows, all seemingly indifferent to their fate, appearing to be so numb that only one of them sang until the head landed. When the knife was opened, one executioner took the bamboo piece from the prisoner's hair, and the other held the knife, which was very large, the body of the knife was extremely wide, the back of the knife was very thick, and the executioner raised the large knife, and fell down after a slight pause in the air, looking effortless, just letting the knife fall naturally. However, when the knife landed on the prisoner's neck without the slightest obstacle, it cut open the prisoner's neck like this, and the head rolled forward like this. Then the executioner who took the bamboo piece "hehed" and pushed the prisoner's body forward, and the headless body immediately fell to the ground.
When the first criminal was beheaded, the whole place was suddenly as silent as death, and the other criminals also raised their heads and looked forward, not knowing what was in their hearts. The mood of the crowd was very good, and they slowly and neatly issued a cheer of "Oh" to express their joy at witnessing this "perfect knife", and they tried to keep their eyes open in fascination, for fear of missing any details.
Ignoring the audience, the executioners stepped over the corpse to the next man, raised the large knife and fell with another hand, and the crowd cheered again, and so on and on.
In the whole process, each prisoner with animal curiosity watched the person in front of him be cut off his head, and then put on his neck, and finally, the blood on the execution ground was barefoot, and the onlookers shouted more and more selflessly, but when the last person's head landed, the crowd quickly quieted down and quickly dispersed, and only a few mischievous children played around the corpse, pushing each other into a pool of blood...
The bodies of prisoners were thrown into ponds and their heads were hung on the walls for public display, and before that, many heads had been hung on the surrounding walls. When the officers and soldiers had taken care of the scene, Henry stepped forward to talk to the executioner, who told the Englishman: "The executioner is not my profession, it is just a temporary job, make some extra money!" Now the executioner's job is not as good as before, before cutting one or two dollars, now only half a dollar. ”
Henry listened without comment, but asked, "Can you sell me your knife?" ”
The executioner replied, "Of course! Nine dollars! ”
In this way, the Englishman bought the executioner's knife and hung it in his home. And I never believed the descriptions of Chinese civilization in the book.
We cannot deny that the late Qing Dynasty was an era of ignorance and backwardness, and Lu Xun once said that this was an era of cannibalism, but this is not a reason for us to deny ancient civilization. The guillotine during the French Revolution also cut down kings and queens! Don't people cheer the same way? The so-called barns are full of etiquette, the people of the late Qing Dynasty were oppressed and exploited by feudal landlords and imperialism, and when people did not have enough to eat, did not wear clothes, and were not educated, how noble can you expect them to behave?
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