In the novel "Wu Zixu", a legend is used, according to legend, the surname Wang in the Three Gorges area of the Yangtze River is a descendant of Wu Zixu. There is such a romantic love story in the novel, after Wu Zixu fled to the Wuxia ferry, he met the daughter of an old man who was ferrying, and after the two fell in love, they gave birth to a son named "Wang".
Errong, the author of the novel "Wu Zixu", was sued for reputation infringement by 108 descendants of the "Wang" clan, claiming 5.6 million yuan. They believe that the Wang clan in the Three Gorges region is a descendant of Jiang Ziya, not an illegitimate son of Wu Zixu, which is an infringement on their right to reputation and a tampering with the history and culture of the Wang family.
In the end, can these plaintiffs who call themselves "descendants of Jiang Ziya" successfully defend their rights? Recently, the first-instance judgment of the case was published on the judgment document website.
Claiming to be a "descendant of Jiang Ziya" sued the author of the novel for defamation
In the novel "Wu Zixu" created by Errong, Wu Zixu is the protagonist, showing his life experience, using the Spring and Autumn Period as the background to describe the Spring and Autumn characters of different statuses, identities and backgrounds. The book involves Wu Zixu fleeing to Wuxia Ferry to meet a woman named Fu Yongci, who gave birth to a son named "Wang", and there are many references to Wu Zixu's sons "Wang" and Wangshi in many places.
Among them, page 368 reads, "I wrote Wu Zixu, and there is a hidden reason. According to legend, the three gorges generation of the Yangtze River is a descendant of Wu Zixu. When my father was a child, some people scolded them for being born by Wu Zixu's yahuansheng. According to the data, Wu Zixu married a woman at the Badong ferry port during his escape, and the woman became pregnant, and asked Wu Zixu to give him a name. Wu Zixu had a hard time speaking, only to look back and look at it affectionately, and then continued to embark on the road of escape. The woman will do what she wants and give the child a name. Since then, the descendants of the Wuxia Xilingxia Wang clan have been passed down from generation to generation. ”
On page 369 of the book, it is written, "Perhaps the greatest innovation of this novel is that it makes some secret connections between the legends of Wu Zixu and Wang's lineage. ”
Such a statement caused some people to be dissatisfied, and Wang Mousheng, who lived in Zhujiawan Village, Lottexi Town, Yiling District, Yichang City, and 108 other descendants of the "Wang" clan sued the author of the novel, Errong, to the Yiling District People's Court in Yichang City, Hubei Province, claiming 5.6 million yuan in consolation money for mental damage.
They believe that the book once again reaffirms Wu Zixu's blood relationship with the descendants of the Three Gorges Wangshi and regards this as the "biggest innovation" of the novel.
"We have ancestral halls, genealogies, and ancestral graves, and systematic family cultural materials prove that the Wangjia family has nothing to do with Wu Zixu, who was created by the defendants, and uses the method of creation to change the ancestors of a family and insult and slander them, which violates the basic morality and public order and good customs of society." They believe that the Wang clan in the Three Gorges region is a descendant of Jiang Ziya, and the description of the Wang clan in the books involved in the case, and the assumption that the Wang clan in the Three Gorges area as the descendants of Wu Zixu is a falsification of the history and culture of the Wang family and damages their right to reputation and the right to reputation of them and their Wang clan.
The argument is based on legends that have circulated
Errong provided some evidence to prove that there is indeed a legend that the surname Ofe Is Wu Zixu is a descendant, for example, the investigation of some people with the surname of Wang in yichang area, the subjects of the investigation are around 60 years old, all said that when they were children, they heard that people with the surname of Wang were descendants of Wu Zixu, and the legend of people with the surname of Wang being descendants of Wu Zixu has long existed.
Errong believes that the novel involved in the case depicts a series of stories such as Wu Zixu's friendship with the daughter of an old ferryman in Guandu, Padang, and later naming the child, which occurred in the late Spring and Autumn Period, 2500 years ago, and the only person who had the right to sue whether to infringe on the right to reputation was Wu Zixu and wenzhong's son "Wang", as well as the woman who gave birth to "Wang", as well as their close relatives, but the plaintiff had no direct interest in this case.
In her view, her act of creating the novel did not constitute any illegal act, did not bring harm to the plaintiff's right to reputation, did not infringe the subjective intent of the plaintiff's right to reputation, and did not infringe on the plaintiff's right to reputation. She did not insult and slander any of the subjects of the 108 people in the novel involved in the case, and the plaintiff did not have any evidence to prove that her so-called "right to reputation was damaged" or to produce any evidence for "damages". Literary creation is different from the statement of historical facts, that is, it has a certain literary imagination and artistic processing, and the law sets a relatively clear boundary between literary creation and "infringement of the right to reputation", with the purpose of achieving a balance between the freedom of literary creation and the protection of civil rights.
Court: There is no evidence to prove that the plaintiff is a descendant of Jiang Ziya and does not have the right to reputation against the ancestors
The description of Wu Zixu's son "Wang" and Wang's son in the work "Wu Zixu" involves the ancestors of the Wang clan, and for the "ancestors of the Wang clan", do 108 people, including Wang Mousheng, enjoy the right to reputation?
The court held that the protection of the deceased's personality interests is mainly aimed at spiritual interests, and the so-called infringement of the spiritual interests of the deceased's personality is actually the infringement causing mental damage to the deceased's close relatives, and the subject of the spiritual interests protected by law is the deceased's close relatives. Because the honor of the deceased is an objective evaluation of the deceased, this evaluation does not disappear immediately with the death of the person, and the insult or slander of the deceased's reputation undoubtedly has a more or less impact on the living, especially the close relatives of the deceased, this influence exists objectively, and it will cause damage to personality rights or personality interests for the people affected by it.
According to the usual situation in society, the feeling of reverence and admiration for the deceased is most profound at the time of the death of the deceased, and gradually decreases with the passage of time, while the facts related to the ancestors, because the passage of time gradually becomes history, at this time the freedom to explore or express historical facts should give priority to the spiritual interests of the personality of the deceased.
It can be seen that the decisive factor in the term of protection of the deceased's right to reputation is the time factor, that is, whether the infringement occurred and was old from the time of the deceased's death. Because the object of legal protection is the spiritual interest of the deceased's close relatives in "filial piety and remembrance", this interest is allowed to be protected by law during the period of life of the deceased's close relatives. Judging from the laws and regulations of our country, the protection of the right to reputation limits the scope of the subject, limited to the scope of close relatives, that is, the period for protecting the right to reputation of the ancestors is stipulated. This provision is intended to balance the protection of the personality rights of the deceased and the contradiction of freedom of speech and creation. According to the provisions of law, if the reputation of the deceased is damaged, his close relatives have the right to file a lawsuit with the people's court. Close relatives include: spouses, parents, children, siblings, grandparents, maternal grandparents, grandchildren, and grandchildren. The 108 people in this case, including Wang Mousheng, obviously do not fall within the scope of close relatives prescribed by law, and there is no legal basis for their prosecution.
The plaintiff believes that the ancestor of the Wang clan is Jiang Ziya, and the fact that the ancestor of the Wang clan in the book "Wu Zixu" is Wu Zixu is seriously inconsistent with the historical facts. The court held that there were many kinds of rumors about who the ancestors of the Wang clan were, there was no official historical record of this in history, and the evidence submitted by the plaintiff was not enough to confirm that the ancestor of the Wang clan in the Three Gorges area was Jiang Ziya, and there was no defamation in the book "Wu Zixu". Wu Zixu is not a negative figure in history, and the description of Wu Zixu's life in the book "Wu Zixu" is also praise and praise, and the description of Wu Zixu and his son "Wang" in the book and the innuendo of Wu Zixu as the ancestor of the Wang clan will not reduce the public's evaluation of the existing Wang clan, and will not cause derogation or damage to the plaintiff's reputation.
In summary, the plaintiff did not have the right to reputation over its "ancestors", and the two defendants objectively did not infringe on the plaintiff's right to reputation, nor did they cause losses to the plaintiff, so the judgment rejected the plaintiff's litigation claim.
Xiaoxiang Morning News reporter Zhou Lingru
【Source: Xiaoxiang Morning News】
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