Caishikou Execution Grounds

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. 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]

Caishikou Execution Grounds
Execution of Boxers at the execution ground.
Simplified Chinese菜市口法场
Traditional Chinese菜市口法場

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 ground. Many members of the House of Zhu of the Ming dynasty were purged and executed at Caishikou during the Qing dynasty.[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

Notable individuals executed at Caishikou

See also

References
  1. H. Y. Lowe (1942). Stories from Chinese Drama. Peking Chronicle Press.
  2. Henriot, Christian; Yeh, Wen-hsin (2012). Visualising China, 1845-1965: Moving and Still Images in Historical Narratives. Brill Publishers. p. 66. ISBN 978-9004233751.
  3. "Decryption of Caishikou autumn execution: prisoners before the execution to eat big cake sauce elbow". dailynews.sina.com. 2009-11-27. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
  4. The time was 午時三刻 in old Chinese timekeeping, which corresponded to 11:30AM. "Anecdote of beheading and execution in ancient China". China Times. Archived from the original on 20 August 2015.
  5. "Beijingers of the Past Seen in Photos (part three)". beijingtouragency.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 23 Aug 2015.
  6. Chan, Shelley W. (2011). A Subversive Voice in China: The Fictional World of Mo Yan. Cambria Press. ISBN 978-1604977196.
  7. Associate Professor of History Timothy Brook; Professor of History and Republic of China Chair Timothy Brook; Timothy Brook; Jérôme Bourgon, Gregory Blue, Associate Professor of History Gregory Blue (15 March 2008). Death by a Thousand Cuts. Harvard University Press. pp. 285–. ISBN 978-0-674-02773-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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