"A sealed brick wall, about three and a half meters high." This is the experience of watching the execution in 1851, written by the guangzhou representative in Britain. For those who watch the execution at the execution site, life and death are nothing more than the moment the executioner's knife falls. But for the executioners, who are already accustomed to life and death, will they also have a little hesitation and uneasiness when they are executed? In feudal society, many people pay attention to accumulating yin virtue, and the executioner has been killing people with a different eye. If so, why are so many people flocking to this seemingly ominous profession?
The death penalty is the most cruel of all, but there is a profession that witnesses the execution of the death penalty and even participates in its execution. That's the executioner. On November 4, 1895, the press published a news that the government was recruiting executioners. It is common sense that there is no need for additional recruitment. Because the executioner is a relatively special industry, it has a closedness and inheritance that other industries do not have.
If someone in a family works as an executioner, future generations in the family will generally do the same job. But that doesn't mean it's easy. Because for the vast majority of people, killing people and beheading is a very courageous thing. So if you want to engage in this line, the first thing to overcome is your own psychological problems.
Not only that, but executioners also need to master a certain physiological knowledge, only if they can accurately judge the position of human bones, in order to be able to cut off the knife. A qualified executioner can guarantee that the suffering of the prisoner during the execution is minimized. Conversely, a relatively inexperienced or unfamiliar executioner may not be able to complete such a task qualified. In addition to the technical requirements, due to the special nature of the executioner's work, the government will also take into account their height and weight when selecting the executioner.
Because of the possibility of various unexpected situations on the execution ground, if the executioner's physique is not tall and strong enough, it is impossible to deal with the danger in a critical situation. The executioner, who was too thin, needless to say to deal with these contingencies, could not even lift the large knife used to cut people. So at certain special times, the government will even pick the right executioner in the army.
During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, such an interesting story occurred. The long-time executioner in Shanghai died of illness in 1894, but his colleagues were reluctant to take his place. Because in everyone's traditional cognition, it is still detrimental to the profession of executioner. Therefore, this also leads to the fact that there are no executioners in the county court.
However, at that time, the county court urgently needed to execute a death row prisoner, and in desperation, they decided to borrow a tall and strong soldier from the army. Although the soldiers would undergo various kinds of harsh training on weekdays, this experience was the first time for them. On the day of the execution, the improvised executioner failed to reach the knife.
The death row inmate gasped for breath with his eyes open, and it took a long time before he was completely dead. At that time, many people were gathered outside the court, and they all saw such a bloody and embarrassing scene, so everyone talked about it. When the leaders of the barracks saw such a scene, they felt that there was no light on their faces, so they would not lend the soldiers to the county court again in the future.
The executioner first originated in the Qin and Han dynasties. But at the time it was only a part-time job, and any staff member of the state system could apply to act as an executioner. Moreover, the laws of the Qin State are quite strict, so such a part-time job hardly has any oil and water. But by the time of the Han Dynasty, the situation had changed.
In 202 BC, Liu Bang won the victory in the Chu-Han War of Supremacy and established the Great Han Dynasty. For himself, Liu Bang was originally a figure who gradually climbed from the bottom to the peak of power step by step. Therefore, to some extent, Liu Bang can perceive the people's feelings. Therefore, he carried out certain reforms to the more stringent legal system at that time.
Nevertheless, a certain number of death row inmates are executed every year, and they only work for three months a year, but at this time, the families of death row inmates will inevitably stuff some black money into the executioners in order to make them go all the way. And from that time on, professions such as executioners had emerged independently of the bureaucracy and were not part-time. So compared to the peasant class, which faces the loess with its back to the sky, the executioner can get several times the fixed salary every month, which is equivalent to that of ordinary people.
Coupled with the fact that the criminals' families will stuff them with a certain amount of black money, the income obtained by the executioner in these three months can fully offset the income of ordinary people's families for half a year. Some families want the executioners to inflict as much pain on death row as possible during executions. But some families want the executioners not to completely decapitate them. Because then they can also save the body. Moreover, this phenomenon was more prominent and obvious in the Qing Dynasty.
Because everyone thinks that killing is something that hurts and deserves, almost no one wants to engage in such a profession except for hereditary executioners. That being the case, the government is obliged to provide some financial care and subsidies to the executioners who are engaged. Since you can get the income of ordinary people for more than half a year with a knife, why not enjoy it? So although the profession of executioner is not particularly auspicious, there are still many people who want to join.
In fact, it is not only China in the Chinese period that there were executioners and death penalties in history. From the end of the 17th century to the middle of the 19th century, there was even a Sansson family in France that was dedicated to the royal family. There are even seven generations in the family who have been acting as specialized national shavers. The French writer Bernard also wrote a book specifically for the Sansson family of executioners. However, it is fortunate that with the development of the times, the death penalty, especially the beheading death penalty, has gradually withdrawn from the stage of history.
Beginning in 1914, a special decree was issued stipulating that the death penalty should be carried out by shooting. This means that there may be no need for executioners like executioners on the execution ground. Although the law has introduced new provisions, the punishment of beheading has not completely disappeared. In 1932, the Complete Book of Six Laws was officially promulgated. It was also from that time that the punishment of beheading completely withdrew from the stage of history.