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[Science Popularization Short Video Collection Series 16. ]

[38. The most lucrative profession in ancient times that people feared! Rich as hell, but lived a miserable life. ]

[Today, let’s talk about a very common but relatively mysterious profession in ancient times: ]

[Executioner. ]

[One sound of the chopping knife, a million taels of gold. ]

[The executioner can be said to be one of the highest-paid professions in ancient times besides being an official or doing business. ]

[Take the late Qing Dynasty and the early years of the Republic of China as examples. ]

[An executioner could get four silver dollars for every prisoner he chopped. ]

[At that time, an ordinary laborer could only earn one silver dollar after working hard for a month. ]

[So the executioner only needed to swing his sword to earn almost half a year’s income for an ordinary person! 】

【If you encounter any criminal gangs or the whole family is executed, you can earn dozens of silver dollars at a time. 】

【So it is not an exaggeration to say that executioner is a high-paying profession. 】

【...】

“No, no, no, no matter how much I earn, I won’t do it.”

“Doing this job is too sinful, there will be retribution, I won’t do it.”

“Why do I hear that executioners can’t even marry women, even female beggars are unwilling to marry them, and no one is willing to entertain them in brothels.”

“My father said that even if everyone in my family starved to death, he would not allow me to be an executioner, otherwise he would sever the father-son relationship with me.”

“......”

The ancients were very afraid of executioners.

Not only did they not want to do this kind of work, they were also unwilling to contact them. .....09..................

[Although executioners earn a lot, not everyone can do it. You can't just be strong and healthy and go to the government office to be an executioner. ]

[Because if you don't have skills, the prisoner will kneel there and you won't know how to cut him with a machete. ]

[So if you want to become an executioner, you must first learn from a master. ]

[Generally speaking, executioners start practicing with their masters when they are teenagers. ]

[Chopping winter melons during the day and chopping incense sticks at night to train their strength and accuracy. ]

[And when the master goes to the execution ground to chop people. ]

[The apprentice must also follow, one is to observe and learn, and the other is to improve courage. ]

[Many executioners like to keep a monkey. They chat with the monkey while touching the back of the monkey's neck, the purpose is to find the joint gap of the spine. 】

【Because that is the right place to cut. 】

【Although the executioner can earn a lot from the last execution, beheading is not something that happens every day. 】

【Especially in areas with good public security, it often takes a long time for someone to be sentenced to beheading for a serious crime. 】

【In ancient times, the execution of prisoners also depended on the weather. 】

【There are only ten thousand in a year.Killing can only be done in autumn when things are cold and dead. It cannot be done when it is windy or rainy. It must be sunny. 】

【The specific time must be at 15:30, when the Yang energy is at its peak in a day. 】

【Of course, there are also people who are extremely evil and will be sentenced to immediate execution, but this is not common. 】

【So most executioners only have work to do in the three months of autumn each year. 】

【The rest of the time is spent practicing swordsmanship. 】

[...]

"Just like a barber, you have to practice from a young age."

"I didn't expect that executioners were trained this way."

"Even if you say anything today, we will not let our children become executioners who harm the world."

"Yes, I will definitely not go."

"......"

[Some friends may be very surprised. A professional executioner can easily kill a prisoner with one knife. Why do they still practice knife skills? 】

[The answer is actually very simple, in order to extort bribes from the family! 】

[Because the same is beheading, the executioner can kill the prisoner with one knife, giving the prisoner a quick death, or he can chop three or five knives, making the prisoner suffer. 】

[For example, there was an executioner in the late Qing Dynasty. 】

[Because the knife was too blunt, it took more than ten knives to execute the prisoner! 】

【So if the prisoner's family members don't want to see this happen, they often secretly give money to the executioner and ask him to kill the prisoner. 】

【The executioner's knife skills are different, and the results after the execution are also very different. 】

【Some people's heads fall off after the execution, while some people's necks are still connected with a layer of skin after the execution. 】

【Because the ancients paid great attention to the integrity of the corpse. 】

【So in order to keep a complete corpse, the prisoner's family members often secretly bribe the executioner. 】

【In addition to ordinary executions, there was also a famous torture in ancient times called Lingchi. Compared with beheading, Lingchi would make the prisoner extremely frightened. 】

【In order to prevent the prisoner from suffering more, the prisoner's family members would privately give the executioner a large sum of money to ask him to show mercy and not let the prisoner suffer too much. 】

【Although prisoners sentenced to temporary punishment are often supervised by important figures. 】

【However, in the face of a large sum of money, the executioner will still do some tricks. 】

【So in order to make money, the executioner will practice swordsmanship hard. After all, if the swordsmanship is not up to standard, he will not earn the bribes from the prisoners' families. 】

【Because although the court's salary is not small, the amount of bribes from the families is often larger. 】

【So an executioner with superb skills is often a wealthy person! 】

【For example, the protagonist Zhao Laojia in the book Sandalwood Punishment. 】

【He is an excellent executioner. 】

【When Zhao Laojia retired, he had become the richest man in his hometown. 】

【This description is still quite consistent with historical facts. 】

【The country has its own laws, and the people have their own laws.The executioner's profession also has two major rules. 】

[The first is that you cannot kill more than 100 people. 】

[The ancients were very superstitious. Although the executioner dared to kill people, he also respected ghosts and gods more. 】(To read the violent novels, go to Feilu Novel Network!)

[They believe that if they kill too many people in their lifetime, they will be thrown into the eighteen levels of hell after death and suffer torture. 】

[So the executioner cannot kill more than 100 people in his lifetime. Generally, after killing 99 people, he must put away the knife and start doing good deeds. 】

[This is the only way to keep the rest of his life healthy. 】

[The second rule is that you cannot sharpen the knife after killing people. 】

[The reason why they don't sharpen the knife is because the executioner believes that they are ordered to kill people. It is not themselves who kill people, but the knife in their hands. 】

【If the knife is sharpened too much, then they become accomplices, and not sharpening the knife will not increase the sin. 】

【However, some family members often help the executioner to sharpen the knife in order to make the prisoner suffer less. 】

【But if there is no family member to sharpen the knife, the executioner would rather use a blunt knife to chop, and will never sharpen the knife! 】

【These two rules of the executioner. 】

【From the perspective of modern people, it is more like a kind of psychological comfort. 】[]

【But many rules often have their reasons for existence. 】

【For example, the experience of Deng Haishan, the last executioner in China, explains to some extent why there are two rules that executioners cannot break. 】

【Deng Haishan is from Huchangsha. 】

【Born in the late Qing Dynasty when society was turbulent. 】

【Due to the misfortune of his family since he was young, Deng Haishan was left alone to wander around and beg for a living. 】

【Deng Haishan had a devilish look. Adults were frightened when they saw him, children were afraid, and beggars retreated when they saw him. 】

【So although he was starving, no one dared to bully Deng Haishan. 】

【One day, a strong man saw Deng Haishan by chance. 】

【Not only was he not afraid of Deng Haishan's appearance, but he also bought some food for Deng Haishan. 】

【This person was Tong Shaoji, a famous executioner in Hu. 】

【Tong Shaoji saw Deng Haishan's devilish look at first sight and thought it would be a pity for such a person not to become an executioner. 】

【So he had the idea of ​​accepting him as his apprentice. 】

【Deng Haishan was straightforward. He thought that having food to eat was better than being a beggar, so he was defeated by Tong Shaoji and became an executioner. 】

【It can be said that Deng Haishan was indeed a good candidate for being an executioner. 】

【He quickly mastered the swordsmanship, and after watching his master's execution several times, Deng Haishan felt eager to try. 】

【When Deng Haishan really executed for the first time. 】

【He was not nervous at all. He raised his sword and the head fell to the ground. 】

【Master Tong Shaoji praised Deng Haishan and thought that he could become a master. 】

【After Deng Haishan became a master, he killedAs the number of prisoners increased, the money he earned increased. 】

【In Deng Haishan's later years, he recalled: "At that time, I could not spend all the money I earned." 】

【However, Deng Haishan broke two rules of the executioner. 】

【In order to meet the requirements of the family members and make more money, he sharpened the knife to a very sharp edge before each execution! 】

【And after Deng Haishan killed 99 prisoners. 】

【He did not listen to his master's advice and did not stop until he killed more than 300 people. 】

【Deng Haishan, who had made a lot of money, originally planned to buy a house after retirement, marry a wife, and live a stable life. 】

【But no girl was willing to marry an executioner with an evil look. 】

【Lonely Deng Haishan could only spend his time drinking, eating meat, and spending money to have fun. 】

【As his wallet became emptier, Deng Haishan's health became worse and worse. 】

【In his later years, Deng Haishan was helpless and woke up by nightmares every night, feeling very anxious. 】

【He wanted to join Buddhism to seek comfort, but no temple was willing to take him in. 】

【In the end, Deng Haishan died of illness on the street. 】

【But no one came to collect his body. 】

【...】

Hot comments from netizens:

——"Cixi asked people to change to blunt knives, and Tan Sitong was stabbed more than ten times before he died."

——"Bao Zheng is smart, he used a guillotine directly, and didn't pay the executioner a penny."

——"This job is a bit scary, mainly because he killed too many people, which makes people taboo."

——"The knife fell with a bang, leaving evil to future generations."

"See, it's said that being an executioner doesn't end well."

"Deng Haishan really didn't listen to advice, even his master didn't listen to his old age, and he was so miserable in his later years, it was all his own sin."

"Even the temples were unwilling to accept him! Isn't it said that you can become a Buddha on the spot after putting down the butcher knife? He killed too many people and couldn't become a Buddha?"

"......"

The ancients trembled in fear and were even more afraid of the profession of executioner.

Qin Dynasty

Ying Zheng was somewhat puzzled.

"Is it really that weird?"

"It's impossible to kill 100 people. Which general of my Great Qin didn't kill more than 100 people..."

He was somewhat dumbfounded.

Think of the God of Killing Bai Qi, who killed 400,000 surrendered soldiers alone!

If killing people really goes to hell, Bai Qi might be able to poke a hole in the floor, and it would not be enough for him. .