He was the last executioner in China and had to learn the craft of beheading in order to earn a living.
The first time he went to the execution ground, he was instructed by his master to "kill more than a hundred people, cut off his children and grandchildren", and repeatedly warned him not to kill more than 99 people.
For the sake of money, he ignored his master's advice and killed more than 300 people before retiring.
Later, he was indeed desolate in the evening, there were no descendants, the old man had nothing to say, he just wanted to take refuge in Buddhism, and no temple dared to accept it.
Who is he?
The only photo of Deng Haishan
He is Deng Haishan, the last executioner in China, whose ancestral home is Changsha, Hunan, and his birth year is no longer available. Originally, his family had been farming for generations, but because of the turmoil of the times, Deng Haishan's family was already broken at a young age, and he had to run out alone to make a living, and suffered from upheaval and displacement.
It's just that he was born with a fierce and evil appearance, and no matter where he went, no one was willing to give Deng Haishan a job.
By chance, Deng Haishan met a man named Tong Shaoji, who was an executioner in Huguanghang Province at that time, a famous local executioner, and it is said that no matter how much crying children hear his name, they will immediately stop crying.
Deng Haishan's fierce and evil appearance is not easy to find a job elsewhere, but in the eyes of Tong Shaoji, who was also born with a fierce appearance, such a look was born to be an executioner, and then asked Deng Haishan if he would like to learn art from him.
At that time, Deng Haishan, who was still young, did not know much about the profession of executioners, but only knew that work was related to killing people, which was very scary.
But at this time, Deng Haishan was already on the verge of being cornered, and in order to make a living, he did not hesitate to agree to Tong Shaoji. It was a long time before Deng Haishan realized that he had embarked on a road of no return.
At first, he thought that since this line of work was responsible for the work of killing heads, wasn't it something that could be done with a knife in his hand? He didn't think it would be much harder in this business.
After he really began to study with Master Tong Shaoji, Deng Haishan realized that the work of killing heads was also all doorways.
Although executioners must also kill people without blinking because of professional regulations, they are legal professions after all, and the pain of prisoners should be minimized when executing. The human neck is a very fragile part, but the execution requirements are clean and neat, and the blade is neat, which is not easy to do.
If you want to become a qualified executioner, the most important thing is "stability" and "accuracy", "stability" means that the knife should be stable, and the problem should be solved with a knife. And to achieve steady knife drop, first of all, you must have enough strength.
The machete used in the execution is very heavy, and it usually takes some effort for adult men to pick up the knife, not to mention swinging the decapitation. After Deng Haishan entered Tong Shaoji's door, he had to practice his arm strength every day with his sword.
This knife did not have a blade, and when Deng Haishan had achieved some results in training, Tong Shaoji would change him into a knife with a blade, and then bring a lot of winter melons, and all Deng Haishan had to do was to go down with a knife and cut it along a line in the middle of the winter melon. What is practiced here is another requirement "quasi".
Deng Haishan practiced year after year, day after day, and after sacrificing countless winter melons, he was finally able to meet Master's standards. At this time, Tong Shaoji promised to take Deng Haishan with him at the next execution.
The people who do this are all very superstitious, and there are many rules. After receiving the work, the executioners must first give the ancestors three incense sticks, then prostrate their heads nine times, and some will kill a rooster to donate blood.
The knife used by the executioner when executing, usually can not be moved randomly, once used, the executioner will clean the knife, to immediately put it in a fixed place, sealed, the next time you need to use, and then take the knife out to sharpen.
After the executioner came to the execution site with a knife, usually at the beginning of the execution, in order to strengthen the courage, he had to drink a mouthful of spirits, but he could not swallow it all, and he had to spray part of it on the blade.
And at the time of execution, the executioner basically had to find a partner, an executioner standing in front of the prisoner to attract his attention, and the executioner with the actual knife standing behind the prisoner.
When the execution was over, the executioner turned his head with a knife and left, no matter who called his name, he would not turn back, and when he returned, he had to find someone to pat his ass with a bamboo board to drive away evil spirits.
Ancient execution ground
The first time Deng Haishan came to the execution ground, he just watched, and the picture of the knife falling in his hand and the blood splashing everywhere made him look frightened.
Tong Shaoji also did not forget to tell him the most important rule of the bank, "Kill more than a hundred people, cut off children and grandchildren", because this line of killing is too heavy to continue for a long time, he repeatedly warned Deng Haishan that once he killed enough 99 people, he must not kill any more people, otherwise he would be punished in his old age.
After all, Deng Haishan was young and vigorous, and he was a little dismissive of Master's advice, but he verbally agreed.
After that, Deng Haishan studied with Tong Shaoji for a few years, and after learning all of Tong Shaoji's skills, Deng Haishan bid farewell to his master. As an apprentice taught by a "famous teacher", Deng Haishan quickly found a place to work.
The ancient executioners were all iron rice bowls, which were called "eating imperial grain" in the past, which was equivalent to the civil servants in our current society, and this line of work was small in ancient times, and the salaries were generally very high.
Deng Haishan, who had received the true transmission of his master, had a smooth journey, and soon, his image in the hearts of the locals was similar to that of his master, and even Deng Haishan's craftsmanship was stronger than Tong Shaoji's.
He also remembered that Master had told him that after going to the execution ground, no matter what happened, he could not be soft on the prisoner. Once the heart is soft, it will be soft again and again in the future, in today's terms, this is called a violation of professional ethics.
Some prisoners committed crimes and were sentenced to execution, and their families hoped that it would be easier to collect the body afterwards, so they would secretly stuff some money for Deng Haishan, so that when he was executed, instead of making the prisoner's head different with a knife, but it looked separated, but there was still a little skin attached to his neck.
Deng Haishan's craftsmanship was good, and he received a lot of such "extra money", plus the money that the imperial court would have given him, he even lived a very rich life.
As Deng Haishan killed more and more people, he could make more and more money, and Tong Shaoji's advice to "kill more than a hundred people and cut off his children and grandchildren" had long been deliberately left behind by him and indulged in the pleasure of getting money.
Although he had money to squander, Deng Haishan never married a wife. In ancient society, although the executioner was the leader, he killed according to the order, and the people who killed were basically the most evil people.
It was just that the people in the feudal period were quite ignorant and backward in their thinking, and even if they knew that the executioners killed the people who deserved to be killed, they still felt that the hands of the people who did their work were not clean.
Even if the executioner himself had a good character and was a good man, the people would still respect them, for fear of becoming obscure, and even more afraid to marry their daughter to such a person.
Deng Haishan grew older and began to think of retreating. At first, he wanted to make money himself, so he kept taking the life to the execution ground, and then the imperial court needed a craftsman like him, and refused to agree to let him quit.
Deng Haishan had to harden his scalp and continue to deal with prisoners for the imperial court. It was not until the collapse of the Qing government, the establishment of the Republic of China, and the complete abolition of the beheading penalty in 1914 that Deng Haishan finally got rid of this line. And he has already killed more than 300 people in his career.
At this time, he was old and did not have a family, because of the broadcast of progressive ideas at that time, no one was willing to give him an apprentice, and Deng Haishan had no job and no income. Others were afraid of his past identity, did not dare to approach, and finally had no one to rely on, and when he was sick, no one came to take care of him.
Deng Haishan realized that the retribution that Master said back then seemed to be being realized little by little. He moved his mind to become a monk, so he searched all over the Shaolin Temple, but the Buddhist family thought that he had killed a lot of evil, and no temple dared to accept him.
The white-haired, dying Deng Haishan was finally found dead in 1925 in a deserted thatched hut, and he did not die well.
Maybe not all of them can become Buddhas by putting down the butcher's knife. However, Deng Haishan's miserable life was not entirely his own fault, which was even more the result of the subtle environment at that time.
What Deng Haishan got was not retribution, and he himself was just a victim of the feudal system.