Wikipedia [edited]
[The Indian rope trick] was  performed during the Mughal Empire (16th-19th centuries) in the Indian subcontinent from Peshawar to Dhaka, and at important centers of Mughal powers, including Murshidabad, Patna, Agra, and Delhi.  During the British Raj, accounts report the rope trick during 1850 and 1900.
Ibn Batuta, when recounting his travels through Hangzhou, China in 1346, describes a trick similar to the Indian rope trick.
Pu Songling records a version in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (1740) …….. In his account, a request by a mandarin that a wandering magician produce a peach in the dead of winter results in the trick's performance, on the pretence of getting a peach from the Gardens of Heaven. The magician's son climbs the rope, vanishes from sight, and then (supposedly) tosses down a peach, before being "caught by the Garden's guards" and "killed", with his dismembered body falling from above in the traditional manner. …… After placing the parts in a basket, the magician gives the mandarin the peach and requests payment. As soon as he is paid, his son emerges alive from the basket. ……….