Chapter 77 258 Literary Prison

The rulers of the Qing Dynasty took measures to appease the literati left behind by the Ming Dynasty.On the one hand, severe repressive measures were adopted against those who refused to obey the rule.In the second year of Emperor Kangxi's accession to the throne, officials reported that there was a literati in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, Zhuang Tingqi, who privately recruited literati to edit "History of Ming Dynasty", which contained sentences attacking the rulers of the Qing Dynasty and used the year name of Nanming.At this time, Zhuang Tingzheng was dead, and the imperial court ordered that Zhuang Tingjing's coffin be opened and his body stamped. His sons, those who wrote the preface, those who sold books, those who carved letters, those who printed letters, and the local officials were executed, and those who were exiled were exiled.In this case, a total of more than 70 people were implicated.

In 1711 AD, someone reported that in the anthology of Hanlin official Dai Mingshi, he expressed sympathy for the declared regime and used the reign title of Emperor Yongli of the Southern Ming Dynasty, so he ordered Dai Mingshi to be imprisoned and sentenced to death .This case involved more than three hundred of his relatives and friends and those who engraved his anthology. Because these cases were entirely caused by writing articles, they were called "literary prisons". Emperor Kangxi had been emperor for sixty-one years and died of old age.His fourth son, Yinzhen (sound yinzhe), came to the throne. This was Emperor Shizong of Qing Dynasty, also known as Emperor Yongzheng.Emperor Yongzheng was a cruel and suspicious person.Under his rule, there were more and more serious literary inquisitions.The most famous is the Lu Liuliang incident.

Lu Liuliang is also a famous scholar.After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, he participated in the anti-Qing struggle without success, so he took students to teach at home.Someone recommended him to be erudite, but he resolutely refused.The officials persuaded him not to listen, and it was useless to threaten him. Later, he simply ran to the monastery and shaved his head to become a monk.The officials couldn't do anything about him. After Lu Liuliang became a monk, he hid in the monastery and wrote books.The book contains content against the rule of the Qing Dynasty.Fortunately, the writing was completed and did not spread. Lu Liuliang died, let alone being noticed.

Zeng Jing, a native of Hunan, came across Lu Liuliang's articles by chance and 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 manuscripts left by him. As soon as Zhang Xi arrived in Zhejiang, he not only found out the whereabouts of the manuscript, but also found two students of Lu Liuliang.When Zhang Xi talked with them, they hit it off very well.After he reported to Zeng Jing, Zeng Jing also invited the two of them to meet, and the four of them were very indignant when they talked about the rule of the Qing Dynasty.

Everyone secretly discussed how to find a way to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. They understand that a few scholars alone cannot accomplish great things.Later, Zeng Jing found out that the Han minister Yue Zhongqi, who served as the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, held a lot of military power. Because of his military exploits in the crusade against border rebellions, he was reused by Emperor Yongzheng.He thought that if he could persuade Yue Zhongqi to rebel against the Qing Dynasty, there would be great hope of success. Zeng Jing wrote a letter and sent Zhang Xi to find Yue Zhongqi.Yue Zhongqi received Zhang Xi, opened it to read the letter, and saw that it was to persuade him to rebel against the Qing Dynasty. She was shocked and asked Zhang Xi, "Where did you come from? How dare you send such a rebellious letter."

Zhang Xi said without changing his expression: "The general and the Qing people are feuds, don't you want to take revenge?" Yue Zhongqi knew: "Where did you say that?" Zhang Xi said: "The general's surname is Yue. He is a descendant of King Yue Zhongwu (that is, Yue Fei) in the Southern Song Dynasty. The ancestors of the current emperor of the Qing Dynasty are Jin people. King Yue was killed by the Jin people in collusion with Qin Hui. He has been wronged through the ages. Now in the hands of the general There are plenty of men and horses, which is a good opportunity to avenge Yue Wang."

When Yue Zhongqi heard this, she immediately turned her face, yelled, and sent Zhang Xi to jail, and asked the local officials to interrogate Zhang Xi and find out who instigated him. Zhang Xi was subjected to all kinds of torture, but he refused to resort to it, saying: "You can kill or cut into pieces if you want, but ask the person instigating, if there is any!" Yue Zhongqi thought to himself, this Zhang Xi is a tough guy, he can't be cured by just being tough, so he thought of another soft way.The next day, he released Zhang Xi from prison and interviewed him in secret.Yue Zhongqi hypocritically said: Yesterday's interrogation was just a test. After hearing Zhang Xi's words, he was very moved and determined to fight against the Qing Dynasty. He hoped that Zhang Xi could help him out.

Zhang Xi didn't believe it at first, but Yue Zhongqi couldn't help but pretended to be serious, and really gambled with God's punishment curse, so she believed him.The two talked for a few days, and gradually became warm.Zhang Xi talked about everything, shaking out what his teacher Zeng Jing had said. Yue Zhongqi coaxed the information provided by Zhang Xi, and while sending people to Hunan to arrest Zeng Jing, he immediately wrote a memorial, reporting to Emperor Yongzheng the details of how Zeng Jing and Zhang Xi planned to rebel. When Emperor Yongzheng received the report, he was angry and anxious, and immediately ordered Zeng Jing and Zhang Xijie to be sent to Beijing for torture and interrogation.At this time, Zhang Xicai realized that he had been fooled by Yue Zhongqi, otherwise it would be useless.Emperor Yongzheng checked again and found out that Zeng Jing still had contacts with two students of Lu Liuliang.

In this way, the case involved Lu Liuliang's family.Lu Liuliang was already dead. Yongzheng dug up Lu Liuliang's grave and split up his coffin, but he still didn't let go of his hatred.Many scholars who believed in Lu Liuliang were also implicated and sent to remote areas to serve as soldiers. Cases like this were really caused by activities against the court.In addition, there are quite a few literary prisons, which are completely far-fetched, picky on mistakes in writing, and even cause disasters for a single line of poetry or a single word.Once, Xu Jun, an official of the Imperial Academy, wrote the word "bi" (sound bi) by mistake in "Your Majesty" in his memorial. Emperor Yongzheng saw this and dismissed Xu Jun immediately.Later, I sent someone to check and found two poems in Xu Jun's collection of poems: "Qingfeng is illiterate, why flip books?"

It refers to the Qing Dynasty. In this way, Xu Jun committed the crime of slandering the imperial court and lost his life.