Caishikou Execution Grounds

Caishikou Execution Grounds
	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]

Quick Facts Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese ...

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

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Caishikou Execution Grounds

Notable individuals executed at Caishikou

See also

References

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