Caishikou Execution Grounds

{{Short description|Execution ground in Qing dynasty Beijing}}

{{Infobox

| title = Caishikou Execution Grounds

| image = 200px

| caption = Execution of Boxers at the execution ground.

| label1 = Simplified Chinese

| data1 = 菜市口法场

| label2 = Traditional Chinese

| data2 = 菜市口法場

| below =

}}

Caishikou Execution Grounds ({{zh|first=t|t=菜市口法場|s=菜市口法场|p=Càishìkǒu Fǎchǎng}}), also known as Vegetable Market Execution Ground,{{cite book|author=H. Y. Lowe|title=Stories from Chinese Drama|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l7kLAQAAMAAJ|year=1942|publisher=Peking Chronicle Press}} 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.{{cite book |last1=Henriot |first1=Christian |last2=Yeh |first2=Wen-hsin |date=2012 |title=Visualising China, 1845-1965: Moving and Still Images in Historical Narratives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iSEyAQAAQBAJ&dq=Caishikou%20Execution%20Grounds&pg=PA66 |publisher=Brill Publishers|page=66 |isbn=978-9004233751 }} The exact location is under debate today. However, contemporary sources and photographs put it across from the Heniantang Pharmacy ({{lang-zh|鶴年堂藥店}}).{{cite web|url=http://dailynews.sina.com/bg/chn/chnlocal/chinapress/20091127/0219910444.html|title=Decryption of Caishikou autumn execution: prisoners before the execution to eat big cake sauce elbow|date=2009-11-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304070103/http://dailynews.sina.com/bg/chn/chnlocal/chinapress/20091127/0219910444.html|archive-date=2016-03-04|url-status=dead|website=dailynews.sina.com}}

Executions were usually carried out at 11:30 AM.The time was {{lang|zh|午時三刻}} in old Chinese timekeeping, which corresponded to 11:30AM. {{cite web|url = http://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20150713005046-260409|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150820075133/http://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20150713005046-260409|archive-date = 20 August 2015|title =Anecdote of beheading and execution in ancient China |url-status = live|work=China Times}} 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 ({{lang-zh|破碗居}}) on the east side of Xuanwu Gate, where the convict would be offered a bowl of rice wine.{{cite web|url=http://www.beijingtouragency.com/beijing-travel/beijingers-of-the-past-seen-in-photos-part-three.html|title=Beijingers of the Past Seen in Photos (part three)

|access-date=23 Aug 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304041840/http://www.beijingtouragency.com/beijing-travel/beijingers-of-the-past-seen-in-photos-part-three.html|archive-date=2016-03-04|url-status=dead|website=beijingtouragency.com}} 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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dtp9xw34UFoC&dq=Caishikou%20Execution%20Grounds&pg=PT204 |last=Chan |first=Shelley W. |title=A Subversive Voice in China: The Fictional World of Mo Yan |publisher=Cambria Press |date=2011 |isbn=978-1604977196}}

The Catholic bishop Alphonse Favier wrote about the execution ground in the 1890s:{{cite book|author1=Associate Professor of History Timothy Brook|author2=Professor of History and Republic of China Chair Timothy Brook|author3=Timothy Brook|author4=Jérôme Bourgon, Gregory Blue, Associate Professor of History Gregory Blue|title=Death by a Thousand Cuts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7TfWj_N6QXYC&pg=PA285|date=15 March 2008|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-02773-2|pages=285–}}

{{Blockquote

| text = 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

| author = Alphonse Favier

| title = Péking: histoire et description

}}