In ancient China, executioner can be regarded as an ancient profession. But compared to their long history, many details about their profession, and even what kind of weapons they use when working, are not recorded in detail in history books. Today, we are familiar with the image of the executioner dressed in red and holding a ghost sword. In fact, it comes more from the image of the executioner in the play. For example, what we often talk about today is Bao Gong's sealing of the government and the mowing machine. They actually come from the novel Three Heroes and Five Righteousnesses and do not exist in history.
But fortunately, Europeans who traveled in China in the late Qing Dynasty were not as taboo about executions as the Chinese at that time, so they used their cameras to record the images of executioners in the last few years of executions in China.
It can be clearly seen from the old photos that at least the real executioner in the late Qing Dynasty is still very different from the film and television images we are familiar with in the past. Except that these executioners don't wear red clothes like in the TV series, and the torture knives they use are not the ghost knives with rings in the TV series, but some very simple, thick and sharp knives with short waist knives and large blades. .
It may be that most of these torture instruments and knives are weapons provided by the executioners themselves, so they pay more attention to practicality. In addition, the human spine also has a certain degree of hardness, so only the heavy and sharp torture knives in the photo, although they look cheap, can be used for beheading for a long time. But beheading was not an exclusive patent of the Chinese in ancient times, so other countries also liked to execute people by beheading.
China’s close neighbor Japan also likes to carry out executions by beheading. After the "Black Ship Knocking", Westerners who arrived there also recorded many Japanese execution processes and knives with paintings and photos. Although before the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese had the same professional executioners as China. But unlike Chinese executioners, Japanese executioners have to prepare their own knives specially used for executions. Executioners basically use ordinary knives or knives.
After talking about Japan, let’s go west and talk about the torture knives used by executioners in Southeast Asia and India. In countries like Southeast Asia, which are deeply influenced by Chinese culture and political systems, their criminal laws and torture instruments are modeled after China. But beyond that, countries like Siam and Burma have developed their own cultural patterns, although their criminal laws are also influenced by Chinese and Indian influences. Judging from some modern Western paintings and photos, the executioner often jumps exaggeratedly high and then cuts off the prisoner's head with a knife. Although this move can make the executioner's killing more advantageous to a certain extent, the real reason for this move is actually religious belief, which they believe can allow the soul of the deceased to rest as soon as possible.
Similarly, there are executioners in the native states of India. During the British colonial era, many native states still retained their own administrative structures, so India's traditional executioners were also retained. There is a famous photo of an executioner holding a large knife and driving countless nails. However, this armor was of course not intended to prevent death row inmates from dying, but, as in Southeast Asia, to prevent ghosts from haunting them.
Worried about the ghosts of the dead, in fact, executioners in many ancient countries were like this at that time. For example, executioners in China have very strict regulations, including that they can only behead ninety-nine people, never one hundred, and so on. In medieval Europe, famous executioners were known to wear black masks. The reason is that he is afraid of the revenge of the ghosts of the dead.
Although in many European medieval film and television works, executions are often just a simple "click" of an axe, in fact, Europe's torture instruments are much richer than we imagine. For example, for the most basic beheading, although most executioners like to use axes, heavy beheading axes are actually not accurate. Therefore, the head is often beheaded off-center, or the force cannot be controlled properly. The victim has to endure tremendous pain, and then the head is chopped off like firewood. Therefore, many European dignitaries, if given a choice, often prefer executioners to use large swords, because large swords can be more accurate and prevent this once-in-a-lifetime experience from becoming more painful.
However, European enforcement tools are also evolving. In the 18th century, the famous guillotine appeared. However, the inventor of the guillotine, Joseph Ignace Guillotin, invented the guillotine primarily to ease the pain of condemned prisoners. The inventor of the triangular corpis that we are familiar with today was King Louis XVI of France. This latest instrument of torture soon played a huge role in the French Revolution. Louis XVI, the reformer who made this instrument famous, also died under the guillotine.
In the following years, the guillotine was used for more than two hundred years. It was not until France abolished the death penalty that the guillotine finally disappeared from history.
In short, torture instruments are instruments that were born with the birth of human society. The idea of ??"kill to stop killing, kill to stop punishment" is not uncommon in any country, including Europe.
So every civilization in the world has actually developed a variety of horrific torture instruments. Compared with those horrific criminal laws and instruments of torture, the corpis used for beheading this time was really an extremely tolerant punishment.