 Execution of Boxers at the execution ground. | |
| Simplified Chinese | 菜市口法场 |
|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 菜市口法場 |
Caishikou Execution Grounds (traditional Chinese: 菜市口法場; simplified Chinese: 菜市口法场; pinyin: Càishìkǒu Fǎchǎng), also known as Vegetable Market Execution Ground,[1] was an important execution ground in Beijing during the Qing dynasty era. It was located at the crossroads of Xuanwumen Outer Street and Luomashi Street.[2] The exact location is under debate today. However, contemporary sources and photographs put it across from the Heniantang Pharmacy (Chinese: 鶴年堂藥店).[3]
Executions were usually carried out at 11:30 AM.[4] On the day of the execution, the convict would be carted from the jail cell to the execution grounds. The cart stopped at a wine shop named Broken Bowl (Chinese: 破碗居) on the east side of Xuanwu Gate, where the convict would be offered a bowl of rice wine.[5] The bowl would be smashed after it was drunk. During the executions of infamous convicts, it was common for a large crowd to gather and watch. The torture death by a thousand cuts was also carried out at the execution grounds.[6]
The Catholic bishop Alphonse Favier wrote about the execution ground in the 1890s:[7]
The convicts, on their knees, are executed one after the other, their bodies carried to the dump, their heads hung in little cages on a tripod frame made of poles. Passerby can view the bloodless heads, their huge, terrified eyes half eaten by magpies and crows that peck through the rungs; each queue trails down to the ground; dogs look on and stand on their hind legs trying to get to them
— Alphonse Favier, Péking: histoire et description
Most of these executions were carried out by beheading, with only specific crimes being punished by death by a thousand cuts.
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