What happened to the Literary Prison during the Yongzheng period?

The Literary Prison of the Yongzheng Dynasty

The Nian Gengyao Case

The Literary Prison of the Yongzheng Dynasty began with the Nian Gengyao Case. Nian Gengyao was a member of the Xianghuang Banner of the Han Army. He was a Jinshi and had military talents. He fought many rebellions in Sichuan and Tibet. For Yongzheng's meritorious service, he was awarded General Dingxi in the last years of Kangxi and concurrently Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi. Attached to Yinzhen, who was still Prince Yong at the time. After Yinzhen succeeded to the throne, Nian Gengyao was favored and favored. He was awarded the title of Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, Taibao, Fuyuan General, and first-class Duke. Nian Gengyao began to take credit for his sister because she was Yongzheng's concubine. Yinzhen had long wanted to kill her as a warning to others, but he had no excuse. In February of the third year of Yongzheng's reign (1724), the astronomical wonder of "the sun and the moon united, and the five stars connected with pearls" appeared. Officials expressed their congratulations. Yinzhen paid special attention to Nian Gengyao's memorial, and found

The "problems" are, firstly, the font is illegible, and secondly, the idiom "work in the morning and work hard in the evening" is written as "work in the morning and work hard in the evening", which means to be diligent and cautious all day long.

Even if it is written upside down, the meaning will not change. Yongzheng didn't care about this, thinking that Nian Gengyao was taking advantage of the merits and had evil intentions. Those who had grievances against Nian Gengyao saw that the emperor was taking the lead, so they gathered together to attack him, and Nian Gengyao was impeached. Ninety-two mortal sins. Yinzhen ordered Nian Gengyao to commit suicide. His relatives and comrades were beheaded, exiled or demoted. Anyone who had the slightest involvement with him was punished.

Seven days after Nian Gengyao's death, Wang Jingqi beheaded him in public, which is the case of Wang Jingqi's Western Expedition Essay. Wang Jingqi was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. In the early years of Yongzheng's reign, his friend Hu Qiheng served as the chief envoy of Shaanxi and was a confidant of his boss Nian Gengyao. Wang Jingqi went to visit him, took the opportunity to send a letter to Nian Gengyao, and became Nian Gengyao's temporary guest. Wang Jingqi wrote two volumes of "Essays on the Western Expedition in the Reading Hall" during this journey to the West, which was collected by Gengyao in the Nian Dynasty. Nian Gengyao was convicted of having his house confiscated, and "Essays on the Western Expedition" was taken to the palace. After Yongzheng read it, he gritted his teeth and wrote an inscription on the front page: "Perverse and crazy, so extreme!

I regret to see it so late, let's wait for another day, so that this kind of thing will not slip through the net." It was probably mentioned in the essay. And "The cunning rabbit dies and the lackeys cook it" is originally a reminder to Nian Gengyao. Yinzhen was angry because of this, but he also wanted to show his filial piety. The execution order only said that Wang Jingqi "wrote poems to ridicule Emperor Sheng Zuren, which was treason and unethical". As a result, Wang Jingqi was executed and his head was displayed to the public. His skull was displayed at Caishikou in Beijing for ten years. His wife and children were given black dragons

Jiang was enslaved by armored men (Manchu sergeants); brothers, uncles and nephews were exiled to Ningguta; all estranged relatives who were in office were dismissed from their posts and handed over to the local officials of their place of origin

< p>bundle. Due to the large number of people involved, rumors of a "city massacre" even spread in Pinghu County, where Wang Jingqi lived, and residents fled in panic.

Also implicated in Nian Gengyao is the case of Qian Mingshi, a famous religious criminal. Qian Mingshi, named Liang Gong, was born in Wujin, Jiangsu Province. He and Nian Gengyao were in the same year of the provincial examination, so they probably had a friendship. In the second year of Yongzheng's reign (1724), the powerful Nian Gengyao came to Beijing to pay homage to him. Qian Mingshi presented him with complimentary poems. Poems such as "Oath to famous mountains and rivers, Fanzang should publish the second stele" and so on. Nian Gengyao

was punished, and Qian Mingshi certainly escaped. Yongzheng charged him with "exerting flattery and praising evil". But he was not killed, but he was dismissed from his post and sent back to his hometown. However, he wrote the four words "Mingjiao Sinner" and ordered the local magistrate of Qian Mingshi's hometown to make a plaque and hang it in the hall of Qian's family

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Up. The extremely shameful and humiliating words of "famous religious sinner" not only made Qian famous and shameless as a human being, but also made his descendants unable to hold their heads high. Yinzhen also ordered the magistrate of Changzhou and Wujin to go to Qian's house on the first and fifteenth day of every month to check the hanging status of the plaque. If it was not hung, he would report it to the governor to report the Meiji crime.

This was not enough. When Qian Mingshi left Beijing, Yongzheng also ordered all the officials in the capital from Da Shi to Jiu Qing to write satirical poems as "gifts" to Qian Mingshi. The results were threefold One hundred and eighty-five people were ordered to compose poems. After Yongzheng read them one by one, he handed them to Qian Mingshi to compile a special volume titled "Poems of Mingjiao Sinners", which was published and distributed to schools across the country so that everyone in the world would know it. If the satire is good enough, praise will be given; if it is not good enough, it will be punished.

There is a sentence in Chen Wance's poem about Zheng Zhanshi: "A famous person has the same name as a common crime, and a bright workmanship is no different from a bright workmanship." (Gong), with sharp ideas and innovative sentences, was praised by Yongzheng. Wu Xiaodeng, a scholar in the Imperial Academy, was sent to Ning Guta to be a slave in armor because his poems were "fallacious". Among the poets, there was one named Zha Siting, who criticized Qian Mingshi for "the stinking hairpin that has been humiliated for hundreds of years"; there was one named Xie Jishi, who criticized Qian Mingshi for "having been a treacherous and flattering person since ancient times." "Exposed"; but soon, they suffered disaster, and slaves of the subjugated country became pigs and dogs, and they were still being devoured.

Longkodo is a figure that must be mentioned. He is the younger brother of Emperor Kangxi and Empress Xiaoyi, the son of the first-class Duke Tong Guowei, and became an official in the last years of Kangxi

The commander of the army and the administrator of the vassal state In the early years of Yongzheng's reign, he was appointed as the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and was granted the title of First-class Duke. Longkodo, like Nian Gengyao, was an important minister of Yongzheng. Without them, it would be difficult to ascend the throne, especially Longkodo, who directly participated in the regicide and imperial edict to usurp the throne. Yongzheng's power is secure, and he needs to get rid of those who know the secret. Nian Gengyao has been eliminated, and Longkoduo must also die. In October of the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727), Longkodo was put on trial for the crime of secretly possessing jade ultimatums (royal genealogy). The kings and ministers convened to impeach Longkodo for committing 41 major crimes. He was imprisoned forever according to the decree, and the stolen money was recovered from his family's property.

His second son was also punished. The following year, Longkodo died in prison.

The Chasi Court case related to the Longkodo case ended a few months before Longkodo was convicted. Zha Siting, whose courtesy name was Runmu and whose name was Hengpu, was born in Haining, Zhejiang. He was a Jinshi in the 45th year of Kangxi's reign (1706) and was elected to the Imperial Academy. Cai, the censor of Zuodu

Wang Tingbao was awarded the title of Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Rites. Details of the literary prison can be found in the biography of Zha Shen in the six volumes of the early Qing Dynasty. In May of the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727), the case was concluded. Chasiting slaughtered the corpses and heads, and relatives were either beheaded or exiled, and those implicated Jiangxi officials were all dismissed. Not only that, because Wang Jingqi and Zha Siting

were both from Zhejiang, Yongzheng further vented his anger on Zhejiang scholars. The month after Zha Siting was imprisoned, that is, in October of the fourth year of Yongzheng (1726), the Qing government specially appointed the Zhejiang Envoy to Observe Customs and Regulate Customs to monitor the scholars and rectify their moral conduct (then the southeastern provinces successively established Observe the customs and rectify the customs). In November, an edict was issued to stop the examinations for Zhejiang scholars' rural examinations and joint examinations. Shen Jinsi, the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, expressed his support, saying that Wang, Zha and others had made "crossing the river more shameful, and Wushan was humiliated", and presented ten suggestions for rectifying customs and restraining scholars. Yongzheng approved and forwarded them to the governor of Zhejiang He observes the customs and rectifies the customs with the envoys. In August of the sixth year of Yongzheng (1728), at the request of Li Wei, the governor of Zhejiang, Yongzheng lifted the edict to stop the township examinations, and two years later canceled the envoys to observe customs and rectify customs.

The Xie Jishi case and the Lu Shengnan case

Subsequently there were the Xie Jishi case and the Lu Shengnan case. Both cases were born out of the mutual involvement of Li Fu and Tian Wenjing. Tian Wenjing was born as a supervisor and worked as a minor official in prefectures and counties. In the second year of Yongzheng's reign (1724), he was promoted to governor of Henan. His decrees were strict and he suspected that officials from Kejia were cowardly in their work.

He impeached three or four prefecture and county magistrates one after another. Among them was Huang Zhenguo, the magistrate of Xinxu, who was recommended by Cai Wangting, the censor of Zuodu.

In the fourth year of Yongzheng (1726), Li Fu, who was newly appointed governor of Zhili, took office and passed by Henan. Tian Wenjing greeted him as usual. Li Furen, who was born in Kejia, couldn't help but blame Tian Wenjing, saying that he should not deliberately ravage scholars. Therefore, Tian Wenjing closely participated in the impeachment of Li Fu because he was in the same year as Huang Zhenguo and others in the imperial examination, so he deliberately protected him. The implication was that Li Fu and others formed secret cliques. Soon, Li Fu went to Beijing to have an audience and stated the corruption of Tian Wenjing and the injustice of Huang Zhenguo and others. After a little investigation, Yongzheng suspected that Li Fu and other people from Kejia were engaging in cliques.

In the winter of the same year, Xie Ji, the censor of Zhejiang Province, impeached Tian Wenjing for ten crimes. Yongzheng returned the memorial, but Xie Jishi insisted on submitting it. Yongzheng was furious and dismissed Xie Jishi from his post and arrested him. He was tried and executed by the Grand Scholar, Jiuqing, and the Kedaohui. Since the impeachment of Xie Jishi and the impeachment of Li Fu were exactly the same, and both were for Huang Zhenguo, Huang Zhenguo was recommended by Cai Wangting, and Cai Wangting had a close relationship with Li Fu, Yongzheng decided that this was the case

Several people were engaged in cliques and sent Xie Jishi to Xinjiang Altai after his death; Cai Wangting was demoted to Fengtian Prefecture; Li Fu was demoted to Minister of the Ministry of Industry (soon to be dismissed).

Lu Shengnan was born in Juren, and was transferred to the magistrate of Wuxian County for his military merits. When he was introduced, Yongzheng saw that he was sluggish and "behaved erratically", so he detained him to stay in Beijing to study and work, and later he was dismissed as the head of the Ministry of Works. When he was introduced again, Yongzheng saw that he was arrogant and disrespectful, and the memorial he presented also included sentences such as "In the fourth book of the Five Classics, such as 'Huidiji' and 'Congniji', why are they different from the Buddha?" I feel like I'm making fun of myself. Yongzheng then thought that he was from Guangxi and his hometown was with Xie Jishi. Li Fu had once been the governor of Guangxi, so "he must have become a party supporter with Li Fu and Xie Jishi on weekdays." Therefore, Lu Shengnan was ordered to be dismissed from his post and sent to Altai.

Lu Shengnan wrote seventeen chapters of "Tongjian Lun" in Altai, which turned out to be the source of trouble for Lu Shengnan's Tongjian Lun case. In May of the seventh year of Yongzheng's reign (1729), General Zhenwu and Prince Xibao of Shuncheng County stationed in Altai impeached Lu Shengnan for seventeen chapters of "Tongjian Lun", in which "there are many words of resistance and injustice." p>

There are many, and his discussion of the benefits of feudalism is even more outrageous and arrogant, which is obviously to discuss current affairs." "Tongjian Lun" is included in the book. Yongzheng Emperor Yongzheng was informed, and on the third day of the seventh lunar month, he ordered the cabinet to refute the "crazy and perverse" arguments in "Tongjian Lun" one by one. After the refutation, Yongzheng "proposed" that Lu Shengnan, who had "heinous crimes and extremely evil feelings," should be executed on the spot, and ordered Jiuqing, Hanzhan, and Kedao to determine the crimes that Lu Shengnan should be punished for. Of course, as an official, he obeyed the orders and was cautious. At the end of that year, Lu Shengnan was executed in the Altai army.

While impeaching Lu Shengnan, Xibao also read a book about Xie Jishi, saying that Xie Jishi's "Guben Daxue Annotation" slandered Cheng Zhu, and the book was handed in with the copy.

The above is the case of Xie Jishi's injection into the university. After Yongzheng read the ode to the cabinet, he believed that Xie Jishi not only slandered Cheng and Zhu, but also "willfully slandered" the current affairs. He especially expressed his displeasure in the "Notes": "Rejecting admonishment will not necessarily lead to disgrace." His nature is extremely arrogant." He asked aggressively: "Let me ask Xie Jishi: What have you been doing for the country over the past few years? What do you say to those who have been admonishing me? What's wrong with this? In addition to punishing Xie Jishi for being a party member and falsely accusing good ministers, can you point out one or two things?" Then order the courtiers to discuss how Xie Jishi should be punished.

< p>Sin. The ministers planned to execute Xie Jishi and Lu Shengnan together. On a whim, Yongzheng secretly ordered Xibao to kidnap Xie Jishi to the execution ground when he killed Lu Shengnan. However, in the end, he announced that Xie Jishi was exempted from death. It was unknown whether the two of them were at that time. How to feel.

The case of Zeng Jing and Lu Liuliang

On the afternoon of September 26, the sixth year of Yongzheng's reign (1728), on a street in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, Yue Zhongqi, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi Province, was returning home in a sedan chair Department,

Suddenly someone stopped the sedan and dropped a letter. This is the prison of Zeng Jing and Lu Liuliang. For details, see the biography of Lu Liuliang in the volume of Jiangdong Yishi. The case was settled, Lu Liuliang and Lu Baozhong

The father and son opened the coffin and slaughtered the corpses, showing their heads to the public; Lu Yizhong was executed; Lu Liuliang and his grandsons sent Ning Guta to be slaves of armored men; all their family property was lost

< p>Receive. Yan Hongkui, a student of Lu Liuliang, opened the coffin and slaughtered the corpse, and his head was displayed to the public. His grandson sent Ning Guta to be a slave of the armored man; student Shen Zaikuan beheaded and executed;

The direct descendants of Huang Buyan (deceased) agreed to punish him; published and collected Lu Liuliang The author of the book, Che Dingfeng, and four others were sentenced to death in prison, and the other two were exiled with their wives for three thousand miles. A dozen others were punished with canes. Zeng Jing's confession and confession were integrated into the book "Dayi Jue Mi Lu", which was published and distributed to all schools across the country. Instructors were ordered to urge scholars to read carefully and those who neglected would be punished. He also ordered Hang Yilu, the minister of the Ministry of Punishment, to lead Zeng Jing to Jiangsu and Zhejiang and other places to preach. He also ordered Shi Yizhi, the minister of the Ministry of War, to lead Zhang Xi to preach in various places in Shaanxi. What is ridiculous is that I settled the case and my son overturned the case. Yongzheng once stated that "my descendants will not be punished for slandering me in the future." However, in October of the thirteenth year of Yongzheng (1735), Qianlong The emperor succeeded

to the throne and publicly overturned the verdict before he changed his reign. He ordered Zeng Jing and Zhang Xi to be escorted to the capital, and they were executed in Lingchi in December. They were listed in "Dayi Juemi

"Records" is a banned book. (To be precise, the cases of Zeng Jing and Lu Liuliang involved attempted rebellion, which did not fit in with the prison sentences set up in the Ming and Qing Dynasties to purge dissidents for the crime of writing or using writing to weave.

"The definition of "is not a typical literary prison case.)

Qu Dajun Case

When "Dayi Jue Mi Lu" was touring Guangdong, the governor of Guangdong, Fu Tai, confessed his admiration for Guangdong from Zhang Xi. "Mr. Qu Wenshan" reminded the famous scholar Qu Dajun of this province of his nickname Wengshan, and guessed that "Wenshan" was a mistake for "Wengshan", so he traced the works of "Wengshan Wenwai" and "Wengshan" written by Qu Dajun. p>

Shan Shiwai" books, it was indeed found that "there are many rebellious words in them, hiding a sense of depression and injustice." In this way, another case of ideological "rebellion" was exposed. Qu Dajun had been dead for more than thirty years, and his son Qu Minghong (Ren Huilai County Magistrate) voluntarily surrendered to Guangzhou and handed over his father's poems, writings and sculptures. The case was reported, and the Ministry of Punishment planned to kill Qu Dajun. Because Qu Minghong surrendered, he was spared death. Only Qu Minghong and his two sons were sent to Fujian. Qu Dajun's poems were banned. This is the case of Qu Dajun. For details, see the biography of Qu Dajun in the three major Lingnan masters. p>The disaster of Qiu Lian's play with pen

Then there is the disaster of Qiu Lian's play with pen. Qiu Lian was from Cixi, Zhejiang. When he was young, he once wrote "The Sihao Book of Imitation of Zhang Liang's Moves", which contains the words "Want to determine Tai Tai".

The son, the prince is more like a winger; the prince who wants to be a winger, the prince is more like a virtuous prince." "When the gentleman comes out, the prince will be at peace, and the world will be settled." These sentences were quite

recited at that time. At the end of Kangxi's reign, the seventy-year-old Qiu Lian became a Jinshi, and later became an official and returned to his hometown. In the seventh year of Yongzheng's reign (1729), the eighty-five-year-old Qiu Lian was suddenly arrested. It turned out that someone had reported his article. The recruitment letter written on behalf of Zhang Liang was to provide advice for the deposed prince Yin Reng. In June of the following year, Qiu Lian died in the imperial prison. "Beginning".

The "Qingfeng Illiterate" Case

Xu Jun, a scholar in the Hanlin Academy, was the son of Xu Qianxue, the Minister of Punishment of the Kangxi Dynasty, and the nephew of Gu Yanwu. In the eighth year of Yongzheng's reign ( In 1730 (1730), Xu Jun mistakenly wrote the word "崴" in "Your Majesty" in a memorial. When Yongzheng saw it, he immediately dismissed Xu Jun. Later

< p>I sent someone to investigate and found the following poems in Xu Jun's collection of poems: "The breeze is illiterate, so why bother flipping through the book?" , so Yongzheng believed that this was intentional slander and executed him according to the law of disrespect.

In the eleventh year of Yongzheng (1733), he issued an edict to recruit scholars, hoping to imitate Kangxi and reopen the Bo Xue Hong Ci Department. In response to Liao Liao, we had no choice but to give up.

The talents are withering and the political system is weakened. Once this happens, the negative impact of the literary inquisition will be severe.

The "Wei Min" case

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During the Yongzheng period, Zha Shenxing's younger brother Zha Siting went to Jiangxi to work as an examiner. He wrote an essay titled "Wei Min Sustained", which originated from "Poems

The Classic of Shang" ·Xuanniao". The original text is "The country is thousands of miles away, but only the people can live in it", which means that the vast land of the country is inhabited and inhabited by the people. This title means to love the people. It is completely in line with Confucian norms and there is no problem. However, literary inquisition was prevalent at that time. After Yongzheng heard about it, he felt that the word "Weizhi" was the word "Yongzheng" with the word "Yongzheng" missing. Wouldn't this mean killing his own head?

This was a serious incident, and Yongzheng ordered the arrest of Cha Siting’s entire family and severe punishment. Zha Siting was brutally tortured and died in prison unjustly. Not only that, but his body was not allowed to rest in peace and was subjected to the humiliation of being slaughtered. Si Ting's son also died tragically in prison, and his clan members were exiled. Scholars in Zhejiang Province were not allowed to participate in the examinations for civil servants and Jinshi for six years. Zha Shenxing was also implicated and was ordered to lead his family to Beijing to be imprisoned. He wrote this sentence on the way: "It's so frosty and the road is so frosty, the two are the same year after being seventy years old." Later, he was released to his hometown and died soon after. The top-ranked candidates of that year were also persecuted

Regarding the Cha Siting scientific examination case, "Qingbaan Lei Chao·Prison Litigation Class" says: "Maybe it is said: Cha Si Ting's scientific examination case The title is "Wei Min Zhi". The word "Wei Zhi" is meant to remove Yong Zheng's head. I heard that Shizong used his resentment to slander him and said it was extremely disrespectful. "This theory is often cited by historians.

According to Fa Shishan's "Qing Mi Shu Wen", the three questions in the Jiangxi Provincial Examination at that time were "A gentleman does not recommend people with words", "One sentence in the daily province and monthly examination", In the section "Between Mountain Paths and Streams", there is no title "Wei Min Sustained".

Zha Siting once wrote "Wei Zhi Lu", which recorded events that were unfavorable to Yongzheng. For example, the first page says: "On a certain day in the 60th year of Kangxi's reign, there was a huge thunder and lightning, and the wind made me beg for leave. In the residence, I suddenly heard that the fourth son of the emperor had ascended the throne. It was strange. "Wei Zhi Lu" was the reason for Zha Siting's conviction, and it is suspected that future generations will attach it as a test question.