This paper examines the historical and sociocultural dynamics of caisheng zhege (采生折割)—a persistent Chinese rumor that centers on ritual mutilation—through the lens of rumor theory, legal history, and literary analysis. The article focuses on Qing Dynasty China and explores how the state-prohibited practice of caisheng zhege became associated with mobile groups such as beggars through the mechanism of rumor, and why rumors targeting beggars have proven persistently difficult to eradicate. By analyzing anecdotal accounts from Qingbai leichao and Zi buyu, the paper reveals how popular narratives reinforced and dramatized these rumors, often depicting beggars as perpetrators of abduction and coercion. These depictions of beggars involved in caisheng zhege, though unsupported by legal evidence, shaped public perceptions and contributed to the stigmatization of vagrants. Moreover, the paper further investigates how such rumor structures have persisted into the digital age, with modern variants of caisheng zhege rumor appearing in Chinese cyberspace in the form of child abduction and organ harvesting stories. Through a five-part structure, the study integrates legal history, literary analysis, and contemporary rumor sociology and methodology to uncover how rumor, law, and social deviance coalesce to produce enduring mythologies of rumor around marginalized populations in both historical and modern China.