"decapitation" was a capital punishment in the past. Although it seems that decapitation is an inhuman method of execution now, in fact, decapitation is a relatively "humane" death penalty in ancient times, such as cutting off the head with a knife. After all, people usually die immediately without any pain.
However, many people will surely wonder why ancient prisoners were always so obedient when they were beheaded, and knelt down to "wait for death". Won't you do "last resistance" and struggle for survival again?
beheading is a kind of death penalty in ancient times, and it also appeared quite early, and it became one of the "five punishments" as early as the Xia Dynasty.
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, "The time has come, execute immediately".
Then drop a token. If a villain is beheaded at this time, it must be the executioner who cuts off the prisoner's head with a knife, and the onlookers will give a cheer of "making people happy". And if it is a positive character or even a protagonist who will be executed at this time, then it must be followed by a "stay by the sword". In the end, the good people must be saved and the bad people will be punished.
However, in fact, beheading was not so simple in ancient times. With the continuous improvement of the dynasties, beheading has formed a set of perfect processes, which not only prevent people from robbing the court, but also ensure 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 of beheading is for the executioner to sharpen his knife. When the executioner receives the notice from the court, he will start all the preparatory work in advance, and the most important step is to sharpen the knife.
It's called sharpening a knife. In fact, executioners in the Qing Dynasty used two-handed swords. This weapon is wider than ordinary swords, and it is very powerful when chopping. It can chop off the heads of prisoners with one sword, which is crisp and neat.
Sharpening a knife is to sharpen this two-handed sword as quickly as possible. The faster the knife is, the simpler the execution process will be, which will not only alleviate the pain of the prisoner, but also reduce the "psychological damage" to the executioner. After all, if a knife is not cut off, it will be quite painful if it has to be mended.
The second and third steps of beheading are the lifting of punishment and sentencing, which are basically carried out in a coherent way.
Since the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court has mostly adopted the method of "asking questions after the autumn" for death row. Therefore, some prisoners may have been in prison for quite a long time before the execution, so they need to be taken out of the death row before the execution, attended another court and announced the execution of prisoners in public.
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 the sentence is pronounced, the prisoner will be put into the 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 not to end up in the same fate.
After the parade, the prisoner will be taken to the execution ground for execution.
On the execution ground, the sixth step must be carried out, that is, identifying the right body. This is mainly to prevent killing the wrong person, or it may be to prevent prisoners from being "switched" and other behaviors.
After being identified, prisoners basically have to "wait for death". At this time, the supervisor and executioner should arrive at the execution ground in advance and wait until the execution time-usually at 3: 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 of whom is the chief executioner, and the other is the "assistant", who is the chief executioner with hands in the air sword, and the assistant has to hold the prisoner's braid to make sure his neck is straight. After the beheading officer gives the order, the chief executioner takes the knife and beheads the prisoner.
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 take the body and take it away for burial. If not, the court will also be responsible for burying the body, and the execution process will end.
Although beheading is the simplest capital punishment in ancient times, actually beheading is also a technical activity, because although the neck is a 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 chop off the prisoner's head with one knife if it is not an executioner who is bold and cautious, powerful and skilled. It is recorded in ancient books that once an executioner chopped off the prisoner's head with 17 knives in succession, which is enough to show that beheading is actually a technical job.
Moreover, according to some unofficial history's miscellaneous notes, there were some "strange people" among the ancient prisoners, and it took some skill to chop off their heads.
For example, a story is recorded in Xiao Ting Miscellanies written by Aisingiorro Zhaoyong, 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 Arima was sentenced to the death penalty of beheading by the emperor shunzhi because he was rampant in the city.
Alima may be a person with some real skills. On the way to Caishikou for execution, Alima suddenly hooked the urn hole of the city gate with his foot when he passed Xuanwu Gate, so that the prison car could not move forward. He also said that although he was going to die, he was a Manchu and could not be seen by the Han people. The executioner could only execute in this city 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 the sake of everyone being Manchu, so he decided to execute him at the city gate.
Strangely, the executioner cut it with one knife, only to find that Alima's neck was as hard as iron and could not be cut at all. Just when everyone was surprised, Alima said that he should cut off his neck muscle with a knife before beheading. After the executioner did it, he successfully cut off Alima's head with a knife.
It sounds very 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.
In the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, there was another execution that sounded even more cruel. It is said that the Qing army once arrested dozens of pirates in the coastal areas of Fujian, and according to the law, these pirates were all sentenced to beheading.
But at the time of execution, I don't know why-some people guess that these pirates can "kung fu", and many pirates can't cut off their heads with one knife, and some can't even cut off several knives.
So, the executioner found a carpenter's big saw, and two men pulled it to cut the prisoner's neck, and the death row people howled. The scene was very cruel and terrible.
Of course, there will be many people who are "curious". If the executioner is good at cutting off the head of the death row, how would the death row feel at that time? It is impossible for ordinary people to know this, and they can only speculate by imagination.
For example, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio once mentioned that if a person's head is chopped off with a sharp knife, the person's head can still speak after leaving the body.
This is obviously just a fantasy. After all, people can't speak with their heads alone because of vocal cords.
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 collected his body. They thought he was worried about his son, so they said to his head that the son was safe and sound, but Qu Shizhen's eyes were still open, and his family members said that Jiao Lian was also safe and sound. At this time, his eyelids were closed.
Some people think that this is Qu Shizhen's soul, even though he has lost his 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 doctors in France. There used to be two French doctors who thought that although a person's neck was broken, the "brain qi" had not disappeared 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 person held his face and called his name after his head fell to the ground, he would open his eyes and have a look.
After being punished, the doctor called his name by holding the head of the criminal doctor. Sure enough, the criminal doctor opened his eyes and looked at him, then closed it. When he called the second time, his head stopped responding. This may indicate that people can still have a little weak consciousness in a very short time after being beheaded.
but this is also impossible to prove. 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 before execution, or even stop struggling?
To sum up, there are probably three reasons. The first point is that "kneeling" is a compulsory requirement, which reflects the supremacy of imperial power and the prisoners' awe of the court.
In ancient times, breaking the criminal law was equivalent to breaking the imperial power. In order to show the supremacy of imperial power, prisoners were required to kneel before execution. The ancients or ancient prisoners would not have our idea of equality. Most of them felt that it was "natural" to kneel down to the imperial power, and of course they would not feel anything wrong with kneeling down.
even if the prisoner doesn't want to kneel, he will be forced to kneel, otherwise it will be a contempt for 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 still forced him to kneel before executing.
For another example, even Tan Sitong, one of the six gentlemen who asked for the reform movement of 1898, finished reading "I smile to heaven from my horizontal knife before dying", and finally he knelt down to be punished. This kneeling is the imperial power Tianwei.
Of course, some people think that letting the prisoner kneel is in itself to make him "atone" for his crimes, and it can also be regarded as an extra punishment when executing.
the second reason is more practical, that is, it is beneficial for the executioner to be punished on his knees. As I have said before, beheading is a technical job, and it is not easy to do it cleanly. If you can't chop off your head with one knife, it is actually the prisoner who suffers. Therefore, the posture of the prisoner is very important.
If the prisoner is punished standing, it is difficult for the executioner to find a focus, and it may be difficult to chop off his head with one knife. If more knives are needed, the scene will not be very beautiful.
Moreover, if the prisoner is taller, it will be more inconvenient for the executioner to behead, and it will be embarrassing in case the executioner can't behead, so the prisoner will be asked to kneel when beheading.
Some people think that if the prisoner is punished standing up, the blood of the prisoner will splash around, which may spray on the onlookers, and the scene will be very chaotic, while if he kneels down, the scope of blood splashing will be better controlled and it will not easily cause chaos.
The third reason is that when the interrogators really wait until the autumn, the prisoners have no strength and spirit to "survive". They are basically at the mercy of others and do whatever they are told.
On the one hand, the conditions in ancient prisons were very difficult. Prisoners not only had to live in dark cells, but also had poor meals every day. Basically, they could only be guaranteed to live until the day of execution.
Moreover, lynching was also common in ancient prisons. Prisoners not only could not eat well and sleep well, but also had to be punished. After living in such an environment for a period of time, when they were beheaded in the autumn, they had little strength to toss about.
On the other hand, prisoners on death row are usually mentally tortured, because the process of waiting for death in prison is very difficult, and in addition, ancient prisons can't talk about "humanitarianism". They just need to make prisoners obey, so that most prisoners have been tortured in prison, and they don't want to "resist".
Although there will be a "decapitated meal" before the execution, it will not save anything. People who have been tortured for a long time will not suddenly have the strength 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, they are very weak and even afraid when they really face their own death. When they are really bound and taken to the execution ground, they are full of fear of death and have no intention to resist. Some people may even be too scared to stand, and they will kneel before the executioner forces them.
Perhaps it is for these three reasons that most prisoners in ancient times waited on their knees for execution without resisting. In contrast, although China still retains the death penalty, most of them are executed by injection, which fully protects the rights of prisoners before execution, which can be said to be very "humane".