However, many people will certainly wonder why ancient prisoners were always so obedient when they were beheaded and knelt down to "wait for death". Won't you make a "last resistance" and fight for survival again?
Decapitation is a kind of death penalty in ancient times, and it is also a kind of punishment that appeared quite early. As early as the Xia Dynasty, it had become one of the "five punishments".
In film and television dramas, the beheading we can see is usually that after the prisoner is taken to the execution ground, the beheading officer looks up at the time and says, "When the time is up, execute it immediately."
Then throw a token. If the villain is beheaded at this time, the executioner must have cut off the prisoner's head, and the onlookers will also give a "big joy" cheer; And if it is a positive figure, even the protagonist who will be executed at this time, then it must be followed by a "sword waiting for death." Finally, good people must be saved and bad people must be punished.
However, in fact, beheading was not so simple in ancient times. In the continuous improvement of the past dynasties, beheading has formed a set of perfect processes, which not only prevents people from "robbing the court", but also ensures the "standardization" of the execution process, which has the significance of warning the people.
Take the Qing Dynasty as an example. In the Qing Dynasty, there were usually nine procedures for beheading, and the execution was not over until all of them were executed. The first step in beheading is for the executioner to sharpen his knife. When the executioner receives the notice from the imperial court, he will start all preparations in advance, and the most important step is to sharpen the knife.
It is said to be sharpening a knife. In fact, the executioner of the Qing Dynasty used a two-handed sword for execution. This weapon is wider than a common sword, and it is very powerful when chopping. It can cut off the prisoner's head with one sword, crisp and neat.
Sharpening the knife is to sharpen this two-handed sword as soon as possible. The faster the knife is, the simpler the execution process will be, which not only reduces the pain of the prisoner, but also reduces the "psychological harm" to the executioner. After all, if a knife is not cut down, it will be made up. This process will be quite "painful".
The second and third steps of beheading are to lift the punishment and sentence, which are basically carried out in a coherent way.
Since the Tang dynasty, the court has mostly adopted the way of "asking for sin after autumn" for death row prisoners. Therefore, some prisoners may have been in prison for a long time before the execution of the death penalty, so it is necessary to take them out of death row and publicly announce the execution of these prisoners before the execution.
At this time, prisoners have no right to appeal, and going to court again will play a "notice" role.
The fourth step is to swim the streets. After sentencing, the prisoner will be put on a prison van and paraded in the main streets of the city. This step is mainly to warn other ordinary people not to commit crimes, so as to avoid the same fate.
After the parade, the prisoners will be taken to the execution ground for execution.
Above the execution ground, the sixth step will be to identify yourself. This is mainly to prevent the wrong person from being killed, and it may also be to prevent prisoners from being "exchanged".
After being identified, the prisoner can basically "wait for death". At this time, the supervisor and the executioner should arrive at the execution ground in advance, and wait until the execution time-usually three o'clock at noon-when the supervisor gives the order, the executioner is ready to execute.
The eighth step of beheading is execution. Generally speaking, there are two executioners present at the execution, one is the chief executioner, and the other is the "assistant", that is, the chief executioner holding the air sword in both hands. The assistant should hold the prisoner's braid and ensure his neck is straight. After the beheading officer gave the order, the chief executioner beheaded the prisoner with a knife.
The last step is for the executioner to report the end of the execution. Then, if the prisoner has family members, the family members will collect the bodies and take them away for burial. If not, the court is also responsible for burying the body, and the execution process is over.
Although beheading is the simplest capital punishment in ancient times, it is actually a technical job, because although the neck is a very thin part of the body, it is not so easy to cut off a person's head cleanly because of the existence of the spine.
It is basically impossible to cut off the prisoner's head with one knife if it is not a courageous, cautious and skilled executioner. It is recorded in ancient books that an executioner once cut off the prisoner's head with a 17 knife, which is enough to show that beheading is actually a technical job.
Moreover, according to some records in unofficial history's Miscellaneous Notes, there were also some "strange people" among the ancient prisoners, and beheading required certain skills.
For example, a story is recorded in Xiao Ting Zalu written by Zhao Aixin, a member of the imperial clan of the Qing Dynasty. It is said that in the early years of the Qing Dynasty, a military commander named Youma was beheaded by the emperor shunzhi because he was lawless and evil in the city.
Arima may be a truly capable person. On the way to Caishikou for execution, Alima suddenly hooked the urn hole of the gate with her foot when passing through Xuanwu Gate, which made the prison car unable to move forward. She also said that although she was going to die, she was Manchu and could not be seen by Han people. The executioner can only execute the death penalty at this gate.
Because the prison car could not move forward, Batulu, the military attache in charge of taking Arima to the execution ground, agreed to his request for everyone was Manchu, so he decided to execute him at the city gate.
Strangely, the executioner cut it off with one knife, only to find that Alima's neck was as hard as iron and could not be cut open at all. Just when everyone was surprised, Alima said that the muscles around his neck should be cut off with a knife before beheading. After the executioner did it, he successfully cut off Arima's head with a knife.
It sounds strange, but it's hard to say. Maybe there is such a "coincidence" in this world, but in any case, Alima's head was cut off smoothly.
During the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, there was another execution, which sounded even more cruel. It is said that the Qing army once caught dozens of pirates off the coast of Fujian, and according to the law, these pirates were all beheaded.
But at the time of execution, I don't know why-some people speculate that these pirates can "kung fu", and many pirates can't cut off their heads with one knife, and some even can't cut off several knives.
So the executioner found a carpenter's big saw, and two men pulled the saw to cut off the prisoner's neck. The death row wailed, and the scene was very cruel and terrible.
Of course, many people will be "curious". If the executioner was skilled and beheaded, how did the condemned man feel at that time? It is impossible for ordinary people to know this, and they can only guess by imagination.
For example, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio once mentioned that if a person's head is cut off with a sharp knife, his head can still speak after leaving the body.
This is obviously just an illusion. After all, because of the vocal cords, it is impossible for people to speak only with their heads.
However, there are also historical records. After Qu Shizhen, an anti-Qing hero in the late Ming Dynasty, was killed by the Qing court, his family members saw that his eyes were still open when they received the body. Thinking that he was worried about his son, they told his head that his son was safe and sound, but Qu Shizhen's eyes were still open, and his family said that Jiao Lian was also safe and sound. At this point, his eyelids are closed.
Some people think that this is the soul of Qu Shizhen. Although he has no head, he is still thinking about the important events of the imperial court. But now we can't confirm what Qu Shizhen thought at that time, or how his brain worked.
However, this idea may be similar to that of some French doctors. There used to be two French doctors who thought that although a person's neck was broken, his "brain qi" did not disappear immediately, and he might have a weak consciousness.
Not long after, a doctor committed a crime and was sentenced to beheading. The two agreed that if the other party held his face and called his name after the head fell to the ground, he would open his eyes and have a look.
After being punished, the doctor held the head of the torturer and called his name. Sure enough, the doctor opened his eyes and looked at him, then closed it again. His head stopped responding when he called for the second time. This may indicate that people can still have a little weak consciousness in a short time after being beheaded.
But there is no way to prove it. What we may be able to guess is another equally "curious" question, that is, why do prisoners always kneel consciously when they are beheaded, instead of resisting?
It stands to reason that people may have a great desire to survive before they die, but why did ancient prisoners usually kneel down or even stop struggling before execution?
To sum up, there are probably three reasons. The first point is that "kneeling down" is a compulsory requirement, which embodies the supremacy of imperial power and the prisoners' awe of the court.
In ancient times, breaking the criminal law was tantamount to breaking the imperial power. In order to show the supremacy of imperial power, prisoners are required to kneel before execution. The ancients or ancient prisoners would not have our concept of equality. Most of them think that it is "natural" to kneel to the imperial power, and of course they don't think there is anything wrong with kneeling.
Even if the prisoner doesn't want to kneel, he will be forced to kneel, otherwise he will despise the imperial power. For example, Ji Kang, one of the seven sons of Jian 'an, played a song "Guangling San" before he died, but the executioner forced him to kneel before executing it.
For another example, even Tan Sitong, one of the six gentlemen in the Reform Movement of 1898, finished reading "I Laughed at Heaven from a Cross Knife" before he died, and finally knelt down and was punished. This kneeling is the imperial power.
Of course, some people think that letting the prisoner kneel is in itself to make him "atone", which is also an extra punishment when executing.
The second reason is more practical, that is, the prisoner kneeling is conducive to the executioner's execution. As I said before, beheading is a technical job, and it is not easy to be clean. You can't cut off your head with one knife, but it's the prisoners who suffer. Therefore, the prisoner's posture is very important.
If the prisoner is punished standing, it is difficult for the executioner to find the focus, and it may be difficult to cut off his head with one knife. If more knives are needed, the scene will be ugly.
Moreover, if the prisoner is tall, it will be inconvenient for the executioner to behead, and it will be embarrassing for the executioner not to behead. So when beheading, the prisoner will be asked to kneel.
Others think that if the prisoner is punished standing, the prisoner's blood will splash around and may be sprayed on the onlookers, and the scene will be very chaotic, while kneeling will better control the scope of blood spatter, which is not easy to cause confusion.
The third reason is that prisoners really don't have the strength and spirit to "survive" when they are interrogated in autumn. They are basically at the mercy of others on the execution platform and do whatever they are asked to do.
On the one hand, the conditions in ancient prisons were very difficult. Prisoners not only have to live in dark cells, but also have poor food every day. Basically, they can only live to the day of execution.
In addition, lynching was also common in ancient prisons. Prisoners not only can't eat well and sleep well, but also have to be punished. After living in such an environment for a period of time, by the time he was beheaded in autumn, the prisoner had no strength to toss again.
On the other hand, death row inmates are usually mentally tortured, because the process of waiting for death in prison is very difficult, and ancient prisons are not "humanitarian". They just need to make the prisoners obey. As a result, most prisoners have been tortured in prison and do not want to "resist".
Although there will be a "broken head meal" before the execution, it will not save anything. People who have been tortured for a long time will not suddenly have the power to resist because of this cruelty. So most of them can only be "slaughtered" on the execution ground.
In addition, although most prisoners have the courage to commit crimes, when they really face their own death, they are very weak and even afraid. When they are really tied to the execution ground, they are full of fear of death and have no intention of resisting. Some people may even be too scared to stand up and kneel before the executioner makes a move.
Perhaps because of these three reasons, most of the ancient prisoners knelt and waited for the execution without resisting. In contrast, although China still retains the death penalty, it is mostly executed by injection, which fully guarantees the rights of prisoners before execution, which can be said to be very "humane".