In ancient times, the most common way of death is beheading, for this reason, the executioner as a special industry in the Chinese feudal era has been handed down, but with the end of the Qing Dynasty, this cruel and bloody way of execution has gradually stepped off the stage, in the long historical development, the executioner also has its own rules, such as must be executed at noon, before the execution must be smeared with chicken blood, in order to dress up as a ghost sent by the King of Yan, to deter the undead, if you are interested in this, you can read Mo Yan's novel "Sandalwood Punishment" , which describes in detail the life of an executioner.
In fact, in the feudal society of ancient China, the occupation discrimination was very serious, with the saying of "the lower nine streams", the master, the servant, the tailor, the shaved head and other industries were all classified in this category, and they were not very popular, and the status of the executioner was more unbearable in the eyes of the public than the lower nine streams, and many people believed that the mutilation of human limbs, harm to people's lives, too yin morality, would be punished. Therefore, unless it is a person who cannot eat in order to seek a way to live, he will do this industry, and the executioners are basically taught by teachers and apprentices, not the son inherits the father's business, and many of them cannot get a wife and cut off the incense. He could only let the apprentice take the ghost head knife in his hand.
Deng Haishan was the last executioner of the Qing Dynasty and the last in Chinese history, in the late 19th century, Deng Haishan was born in a rural family in Hunan, because of the war, he could not find a way out, he could only join the military service, worshiped under the door of Tong Shaoji, the executioner of the then master Huguangxing Province.
Tong Shaoji began to teach him this technique hand in hand, and Deng Haishan knew that the knowledge in this was great? How to simply and neatly decapitate the prisoner's head, and try to avoid his pain, and at the same time it is best to leave a whole body for the prisoner's family.
At the beginning, Tong Shaoji asked Deng Haishan to use a large iron knife heavier than the usual execution knife every day to exercise his arm strength, this big iron knife did not open the light, but Deng Haishan wanted to use it to split hundreds of winter melons, Tong Shaoji would draw a line on the winter melon, a knife down, the winter melon in half, the knife just cut this line, so that it can be counted as qualified. Then, Deng Haishan followed his master to the execution ground, volunteering to help slaughter livestock in the slaughterhouse, and only a few years later did he leave the division and take up his post alone in Yamen, Changsha County (now Changsha City).
Deng Haishan always remembered a few words passed down to him by his master: "Don't talk to people and criminals, ignore people and criminals, don't look at them." In front of the guillotine were dead men, receding the heavenly road from the peak. "Deng Haishan's work is very smooth, his murderous name has spread all over the world, after the end of the Qing Dynasty, in the first few years of the Republic of China, many places are still insisting on beheading executions, Deng Haishan also continued to be hired, during which he executed a total of 300 times. However, with the government in 1914 completely ended the punishment of beheading, Deng Haishan, who was over the age of flower armor, lost his job, but he did not accumulate too much wealth when he worked, the situation was turbulent, and no apprentice could give him a pension and send him to the end, Deng Haishan wanted to run to the temple several times, but the Buddha Gate did not accept him because Deng Haishan put down the butcher's knife, and many temples refused Deng Haishan's pleading.
In 1925, Deng Haishan died alone and desolate in a thatched hut, and before he died, he was still indignant when he told the reporters who came to interview him, he said: "The person he killed is against the law of the land, what is the crime with me?" With the closure of Deng Haishan's eyes, it also announced that the executioner's profession has officially come to an end, and they will also become history, so that future generations will comment on right and wrong, about Deng Haishan's life, some people think that he is very pitiful, forced to make a living, and some people feel that he deserves this fate. What do you think of this netizens?