In the second year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1663), the "Ming History Case" that shocked the whole country was finally over. Under the harsh punishment of the Qing government, more than seventy people were killed and hundreds were exiled. The number of people involved and the severity of the punishment can be said to be quite rare.
Today, we're going to talk about that.
The origin of the matter should also start from Zhu Guozhen, the first assistant of the cabinet at the end of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Guozhen has always been strict with himself after entering the cabinet to worship the chancellor, which is quite rare in the official field at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, Zhu Ge was an honest official and never complicit with the traitors and villains. During the reign of Emperor Tianqi, Elder Zhu Ge was not afraid of Wei Zhongxian's threats, and devoted himself to state affairs, which won unanimous praise from both the government and the public. However, Wei Zhongxian, who was jealous of Xianxian's ability, always regarded Zhu Guozhen as an enemy, and he constantly commanded his subordinates to impeach Zhu Guozhen, hoping to pull Zhu Guozhen from the position of first assistant in the cabinet.
Therefore, Zhu Guozhen disdained to be in the company of the eunuchs, so he sent three letters to the Emperor of the Heavenly Revelation and insisted on resigning his official post and returning to his hometown. Zhu Guozhen's performance was right in Wei Zhongxian's arms, and he triumphantly said to his henchmen: "Although Zhu Guozhen is not a good man, but seeing that he is not acting too much, let's not attack him again." After Zhu Guozhen stepped down, Wei Zhongxian was even more unscrupulous in taking charge of the government, persecuting Zhongliang, and making the imperial court a miasma of black smoke. Therefore, many people in later generations accused Elder Zhu Gelao of being too weak.
Not really.
Imagine that under the circumstances at that time, Wei Zhongxian's power was indeed too large. If Elder Zhu Gelao forcibly resisted it, the result would only be that more officials would be persecuted by the castrated party elements. In fact, after Zhu Gelao returned to his hometown, he did not idle, but devoted all his energy to writing history books. Under his dedication, a "Historical Overview" with high historical value came out. However, due to the later Qing government's taboo against the historical materials of the Ming Dynasty, this "Historical Overview" was not officially published.
In addition, after Zhu Gelao's death, his family sold the book to a man named Zhuang Tingxin in exchange for some silver to subsidize the family. But what everyone did not expect was that this "Outline of History" actually caused a terrible disaster. Zhuang Tingxin liked it very much after reading the "Outline of History" and had the idea of perfecting it. In addition, since there is no description of the Emperor of Heaven and the Chongzhen Emperor in the original book, Zhuang Tingxin not only prepared to add these two emperors, but also wrote another history of the Southern Ming Dynasty, making this work more complete.
When all was said and done, Zhuang Tingxin quickly found some literati and began to compile and continue the work of this book.
At that time, it did not take long for the Qing Dynasty to unify the Central Plains, and the widows of the late Ming Dynasty still had great feelings for the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, zhuang Tingxin and others used a lot of words that were unfavorable to the Qing government in the process of writing the book. When writing about the Qing army fighting the Ming army, they often had a sympathetic and supportive attitude towards the Ming army. In addition, when using the era name, they tacitly abandoned the era name of the Qing Dynasty and unanimously used the era names of the Chongzhen Emperor, the Longwu Emperor and the Yongli Emperor.
To be fair, although the practices of Zhuang Tingxiu and others did not conform to the regulations of the Qing court, after all, they only expressed their thoughts about their homeland in their writings, and there was no other excessive behavior. Even if the "Outline of History" was officially published, there was no need for the Qing court to compare the truth. Moreover, at this time, the Qing Dynasty had already sat firmly in the country, and there was no need to make any more moves.
However, the Qing court's seriousness about writing really stunned posterity. In the eighteenth year of Shunzhi (1661), the official Wu Zhirong, in order to ask for merit and reward, took the initiative to report to the imperial court that Zhuang Tingxin and others had compiled the "Outline of History", and insisted that this book be a book of conspiracy and rebellion. At that time, when higher-level officials heard the word "conspiracy to rebel," they did not dare to deal with it without authorization. As a result, the matter became more and more noisy, and in the end it even reached Ao Bai.
At that time, the young Kangxi Emperor had just ascended the throne and had no experience in handling political affairs at all. Therefore, all affairs were handled by the Auxiliary Minister Ao Bai.
You know, Ao Bai is killed from blood, and when he does things, he often does not think carefully, and he hurts the killer. At that time, he saw that there were many places in the "Historical Outline" that were disrespectful to the Manchu Qing, so he decided to severely punish this matter. In addition, the officials below were all intent on currying favor with Aobai, so they arrested many people without asking.
In the end, most of these people were brutally killed, becoming a famous "Ming History Case" in history, and also the embodiment of the Manchu Qing government's Daxing Literary Prison. After this case, the Han literati completely lowered their noble heads. Even if they were dissatisfied with the Manchu Qing, even if they had suggestions for the decisions of the rulers, they no longer dared to express their views in the form of words.
Some people say that the backbone of the intellectuals through this matter was completely broken by the Qing court, and this sentence is not unreasonable. When no one dares to disagree with a country's decisions, the country can only go further and further down the wrong path. The collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 296, although largely due to backward technology and closed-door policies, was also inseparable from the literal prison.
Because, at that time, the prison of words was really terrible, and maybe you inadvertently wrote a poem that would make you lose your head. It may also be that one word in the article will make you look different. Moreover, the literal prison is not only for individuals, but also for sitting together. Therefore, many people dare to be angry and dare not speak, and can only say some flattering words.
In the Qianlong period, there were many cases of literal prison, even because of singing praises and praises to the rulers of the Qing Dynasty and offering books and suggestions, but because the horse ass was not taken out of the law, it was taboo, and it would also be killed. It was not until the Jiaqing Emperor changed the Qianlong Dynasty's literary prison policy and began to rehabilitate himself after the Jiaqing Emperor took over, and the Manchu Qing literal prison basically ended.
Resources:
[Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Liechuan No. 36 Aobai, Ming Dynasty Character Prison Disaster Examination Strategy, Qing Barnyard Banknotes]