Chapter 8 Chapter Seven: Literary Inquisition in the Early Qing Dynasty

The rulers of the Qing Dynasty adopted measures to appease the literati left behind by the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time took severe measures to suppress any anti-Qing thoughts and activities. From Kangxi to Qianlong, there were about 70 or 80 cases of literary inquisition recorded. In the second year of Kangxi (1663), Zhuang Tinglong, a literati in Huzhou, Zhejiang, engraved the "Ming History" compiled by Zhu Guozhen, and invited people to add things about the Tianqi and Chongzhen dynasties at the end of Ming Dynasty. Many of them accused Manchuria and were reported.At this time Zhuang Tinglong had died.When the Qing government found out, they ordered the exhumation of the dead Zhuang Tinglong’s coffin. Seventy-two other writers, engravers, proofreaders, book sellers, and book collectors were killed, and hundreds of people were exiled to the army and border guards.

In the 50th year of Kangxi (1711), someone reported that in the anthology of Hanlin Dai Mingshi, there was an attitude of sympathy for the former Ming regime. Therefore, the Qing court ordered Dai Mingshi to be imprisoned and sentenced to death.This case involved more than 200 of his relatives and friends and the people who engraved his anthology. For these cases caused entirely by writing articles, people called it "literary prison" at that time. After Kangxi, Emperor Yongzheng who succeeded to the throne was a cruel and suspicious person. Under his rule, there were more and more serious literary inquisitions. One of the most famous cases was the Lu Liuliang incident.

Lu Liuliang was a famous scholar during the Kangxi period.After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, he failed to participate in the anti-Qing struggle, so he opened a private school to teach at home. Someone recommended him to attend the Hongci subject of erudition, but he firmly refused. The officials persuaded him not to listen, and it was useless to threaten him. He ran to the monastery, shaved his head and became a monk. The officials had nothing to do with him. After Lu Liuliang became a monk, he hid in the monastery and wrote books.The book he wrote contains content against the rule of the Qing Dynasty. After the book was written, it was not circulated, and Lu Liuliang died.Later, Zeng Jing, a native of Hunan, came across Lu Liuliang's articles by chance. She admired Lu Liuliang's knowledge very much, so she sent a student Zhang Xi from Hunan to Lu Liuliang's hometown Zhejiang to inquire about the whereabouts of his manuscripts. .

When Zhang Xi arrived in Zhejiang, he not only found out the whereabouts of Lu Liuliang's manuscript, but also found Lu Liuliang's son and two students. Zhang Xi got along with them very well.After he went back to report to Zeng Jing, Zeng Jing also met with them.A few of them talked about the rule of the Qing Dynasty, and they were very indignant in their hearts.Then they secretly discussed how to overthrow the rule of the Qing Dynasty. They believed that a few scholars alone could not accomplish great things. Later, Zeng Jing found out that Yue Zhongqi, the Han minister who served as the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, was a descendant of Yue Fei. He thought he could inherit Yue Fei's behest. To overthrow the Qing Dynasty, Zeng Jing wrote a letter and sent Zhang Xi to find Yue Zhongqi.

It’s almost a joke to say this. By that time, Yue Fei’s fight against the Jin Dynasty had been separated by a whole Yuan Dynasty, a whole Ming Dynasty, and Qing Dynasty. Eighty or ninety years had passed. I want him to rebel against the Qing Dynasty because of the word "Yue". This is the stupidity and innocence of Chinese scholars.Yue Zhongqi was a high-ranking official in the Qing Dynasty, and he never thought of rebelling against the Qing Dynasty in his dreams. Yue Zhongqi received Zhang Xi, opened the letter, was shocked, and asked sharply, "Where did you come from? How dare you send such a rebellious letter?"

Zhang Xi said without changing his face: "The general and the Qing people are feuds, don't you want to take revenge?" Yue Zhongqi said: "Where did you say that?" Zhang Xi said: "The general is the descendant of Yue Fei, the king of Yue Wu. The ancestors of the current Qing Dynasty are the Jin people. Yue Fei was killed by the Jin people in collusion with Qin Hui. He has been wronged through the ages. Now the general has men and troops in his hands. He is the king of Yue Wu. A good chance for revenge." After hearing this, Yue Zhongqi replied falsely: "I am very moved after hearing your words. I am determined to fight against the Qing Dynasty. I hope you can help me out with ideas."

So Zhang Xi revealed all the words that his teacher Zeng Jing had explained. After Yue Zhongqi got the information provided by Zhang Xi, he sent people to Hunan to arrest Zeng Jing, and at the same time wrote a memorial, explaining how Zeng Jing and Zhang Xi planned to rebel. The incident was reported to Emperor Yongzheng, and Zhang Xi was then arrested. After Yongzheng received the report, he immediately ordered Zeng Jing and Zhang Xi to be escorted to Beijing, and ordered the Ministry of Penalties to interrogate them severely. Finally, it was found that Zeng Jing had close contacts with Lu Liuliang's family. In this way, the case was implicated in Lu Liuliang's family.Since Lv Liuliang was already dead, Yongzheng ordered that Lv Liuliang's grave be dug up, his coffin split open, and all of Lv Liuliang's descendants and students were arrested, sentenced to death, and those who were killed were exiled into the army.

There are not many cases caused by such activities against the imperial court. Most of the literary inquisitions are completely far-fetched, picking on the mistakes of the writing, and even causing death for a line of poetry or a single word. Once, Xu Jun, an imperial official, wrote the word "bi" by mistake in his memorial. Yongzheng dismissed Xu Jun immediately when he saw it. A line of poem: "Qingfeng is illiterate, why bother to flip through books." There is no reason to criticize that the word "Qingfeng" refers to the Qing Dynasty. In this way, Xu Jun committed the crime of slandering the imperial court and gave away his life in vain up.

For another example, in the fourth year of Yongzheng (1726), Zha Siting, a member of the Manchurian Longkodo Ministry of Rites, served as an examiner in Jiangxi. Zha Siting was thrown into prison and sentenced to death. Yongzheng not only used bloody massacres to strengthen his rule over ideology and culture, but also personally wrote books to refute opponents.Lu Liuliang emphasized in his book that the essence of Confucius' thought is to "respect the king and reject the barbarians", and advocated the strict distinction between "Hua Yi" and "Yong Zheng". Zhong emphasized that "there is no difference between Hua and Yi", and believed that Shun was from the "Eastern Yi" and King Wen was from the "Western Yi". Although he himself was a Manchu, he could legally be the emperor of China just like Shun and King Wen.

Lu Shengnan wrote "On Feudalism", opposing the unification and autocratic rule of the Qing Dynasty, and attempted to restore the "feudalism" of the three generations. It is extremely prosperous in our dynasty, it is the nature of time and human affairs, how can human beings be stronger?" Yongzheng's words, with obvious grievances, are really touching.But he keeps saying that he is a "foreigner" and "Yiren". Although the "foreigner" he refers to is only a foreigner, and he also refers to several ethnic minorities outside the Central Plains, which is different from the foreign countries we talk about today, but no matter what. In terms of some premise concepts, Yongzheng made things complicated, which was not good.His son Qianlong saw this problem. After he ascended the throne, he took back all "Dayijue Milu" and listed them as banned books. He killed Zeng Jing and others who were pardoned by Yongzheng, and started a literary inquisition.

During the reigns of Kangxi and Yongzheng, there were ugly literary inquisitions, but it was Qianlong who was particularly severe. He did not allow Han intellectuals to regard the Qing court as "barbarians", and even the words "captive" and "Hu" were not allowed to appear in ordinary writing. If you accidentally write the words "class", you may be beheaded.He wants to use violence to erase this opposition, and then he will be a good emperor wholeheartedly.In fact, such people are hard to find, Yongzheng and Qianlong both overdid the article. The literary inquisition in the early Qing Dynasty was a severe suppression of any anti-Manchu thoughts and activities by the Qing court in order to maintain the superior ruling status of the Manchu emperors and nobles in the country.In their resistance to a national prejudice, they overcorrect and end up in the same swamp of consciousness.It was manifested in the subsequent blind xenophobia, but inhumane and ugly in action.The double-edged sword of autocratic culture always has one side to be governed by oneself in the end. This is the lesson taught to history by the literary inquisition in the early Qing Dynasty.