"Eat, eat, eat, eat enough to go on the road..." This line must have been heard in costume TV dramas, before sending the death row inmate to the execution ground, the jailer will send him an incomparably rich meal, and then take him on the road when he is full, this meal is commonly known as "guillotine meal" (or "Ciyang rice").
But many people do not know that there is a piece of raw meat buried at the bottom of this "guillotine", why is this? Does this raw meat have to be eaten?
Before saying this, we must first understand the origin of the "severed head meal" in our country.
According to historical records, the first case of "guillotine meal" given to death row prisoners in China was in the Spring and Autumn Period, when King Chu Zhuang, one of the five hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period, quelled a rebellion, and in order to show his generosity and win the hearts and minds of the people, king Chu Zhuang "generously" confessed to his subordinates, prepared a hearty meal for each death row prisoner, and then went on the road after eating enough. You really don't have to say that this "guillotine meal" did make King Chu Zhuang get a lot of praise, so the princes rushed to follow suit.
In the development of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin explicitly stipulated that the "severed head meal" should be made of a food standard of 5 yuan (that is, 5,000 yuan), which shows that the last meal of the death row prisoners is quite sumptuous, after all, "people will die, and their meals are also good." Since then, this "habit" has continued and is still practiced today.
So why did the jailer put a piece of raw meat in the "guillotine"?
The first reason is very realistic, the money for the "guillotine" has been embezzled. 5,000 yuan is a large amount for ordinary people, from the top down, layers of corruption, to the hands of the jailer is certainly not much, and in addition to the jailer no one to see what the death row inmates ate before they died, the death row inmates can not go to file a complaint, so they casually get some meals perfunctory.
As for this piece of "raw meat", it was put in by the jailers with uneasy conscience, covered at the bottom of the rice, and used for several purposes, which were raw and cooked, fragrant and smelly.
The second reason is more superstitious, which is to say "Meng Po". According to Chinese legend, people have to take Huangquan Road after death, there is a forgotten river on the road, there is a Naihe Bridge on the river, walking through the Naihe Bridge will meet Meng Po, drink Meng Po soup to forget the past and reincarnate.
But there is a vicious dog next to the bridge, which will prevent these people who have committed the most evil sins in their lives from reincarnating, so the raw meat in the "guillotine meal" is prepared for the evil dogs, and when the vicious dogs eat meat, they can take the opportunity to reincarnate, so when they see the raw meat, they have to thank the jailer. (There are similar legends in the West, such as putting gold coins in the mouths of dead people, and after death, bribing the boatman of the underworld to take people across the river.)
In fact, in addition to China, many countries in the world have a tradition of letting death row inmates eat a good meal, such as this American prisoner, whose "guillotine meal" includes lobster, fried shrimp, fried oysters, garlic bread and 32 ounces of alcohol-free beer. Of course, the United States will not release raw meat in meals, and countries have different habits.