When we think of the prison of words, the first thing that comes to mind is the scene of the weak and helpless literati imprisoned in the cold and desolate prison because their writings offended the rulers. Some of them may be spared the death penalty and deposed as commoners; some are not so lucky that they can only carry their works to the Yellow Spring Road.
The ancient literati created works with risk, because he did not know which day he would be used by people with hearts, taking meaning from their works and putting them with a great crime of rebellion.
There are many theories about the definition of literal hell. "In the old days, rulers deliberately extracted words from their writings in order to persecute intellectuals and weave them into crimes." This is the definition of it in the Hanyu Da Dictionary. The Encyclopedia of China also locates the prison of characters in the Ming and Qing dynasties, believing that the prison of characters was the elimination of dissidents during the Ming and Qing dynasties because of the prohibition of writing or the crime of weaving words.
The definition of the character prison in the Hanyu Da Dictionary is a general description of the entire ancient character prison, while the Chinese Encyclopedia summarizes the main characteristics of the ming and qing dynasties, that is, the text in the work is unfavorable to the ruler or the ruler uses the word prison to consolidate the rule in order to strengthen the imperial power.
In fact, the prison of words has existed since ancient times. The earliest prototypes of the literal prison began in the Western Han Dynasty. Subsequently, during the Wei and Jin dynasties and the Song and Yuan dynasties, there were also large and small literary prisons. Until the Ming and Qing dynasties, especially the Qing Dynasty, the development of the literary prison reached an unprecedented peak stage. It was not until the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty that the literal prison basically announced its demise in history.
Literal Hell Comics
Text prison poster
The early literary prison mainly indicates the pre-Qing literary prison, and the dynasties included mainly include the Western Han Dynasty, the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Song Dynasty, and the Yuan Dynasty.
The Western Han Dynasty can be called the source of the development of ancient texts. Its landmark event was that Yang Yun was beheaded by emperor Xuan of Han (i.e., Liu Yi) at the waist. Yang Yun was the grandson of Sima Qian, a famous historian of the Western Han Dynasty, who inherited his grandfather's ideas and bones, and was very upright and arrogant.
Once, he wrote a "Book of The Emperor Of Sun Huizong" for his good friend Sun Huizong, in which he expressed his unremitting efforts toward Sun Huizong and his personal dissatisfaction with Emperor Xuan of Han in an arrogant and uninhibited tone. When Emperor Xuan learned of this, he was very angry and immediately ordered Yang Yun to be beheaded. Since then, this incident has also become the origin of the ancient literary hell.
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was also some advent of the literal prison. For example, Ji Kang paid the price of his life because of his arrogance. Sima Zhao, the powerful minister at the time, had long been dissatisfied with him, and later he was involved in the case of the Lü brothers, so Sima Zhao used his works to convict him and behead him.
In the Wei and Jin dynasties, there was also a case of "prison of national history". During the reign of Emperor Taiwu of northern Wei, there was an official named Cui Hao, who was commissioned to compile a straight book of state history. However, this national history book records the unbearable past of the Northern Wei ruler Tuoba Shi, which greatly angered Emperor Taiwu. So Emperor Taiwu ordered that Cui Hao's clan be wiped out.
In the Song Dynasty, the government's control over culture was greatly strengthened, and the control of the book market was very strict. At that time, there was a constant phenomenon of banning books and burning books. In particular, if it is an unofficial historical document, it is even more strictly controlled. At this time, the prison of words was also frequent, and the famous Tongwenguan Prison, the Wutai Poetry Case, and the "Jianghu Collection" case appeared.
As for the Yuan Dynasty, its literal prison is minimal compared to the previous dynasties. The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty did not care much about the ideological and cultural aspects, so the control over it was very relaxed. In this environment, the occurrence of word hell is almost impossible.
Emperor Xuan of Han
Yang Yun
The Ming and Qing dynasties were a peak period in the development of the literary prison, and the occurrence of the ming dynasty's literal prison was also such as cattle hair, and there were countless.
During the reign of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, the history books recorded a number of cases of literal prison. For example, Zhan Xiyuan, who was convicted of giving Taixue a plaque, and dexiang, a monk who was guilty of composing poetry, and so on. In fact, according to the research of relevant experts, these literal prison incidents are fallacious and cannot be taken as historical facts.
By the time of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, the literal prison occurred very frequently. Since Zhu Di had ascended the throne by seizing the throne of his nephew Emperor Jianwen, he was very concerned about what he said about Emperor Jianwen. Once someone wrote a book of poetry about Emperor Jianwen, Zhu Di was severely punished. There was also an incident about Fang Xiaoru, when Fang Xiaoru rejected the fact that Zhu Di was emperor, Zhu Di ordered the extermination of his Ten Tribes, and listed Fang Xiaoru's works as banned books, and even banned the works of literati related to Fang Xiaoru.
Emperor Mingwu had an official, Han Bangqi, at the time of Emperor Mingwu's Zhu Houzhao. At that time, he was serving as a governor in Zhejiang, and because the eunuchs were involved in politics at that time, the imperial court was in a miasma. And the phenomenon of eunuchs fishing and fleshing the people appeared in his jurisdiction, and Han Bangqi could not see it, so he wrote a poem to record it. Who knew that this matter was known to the local town eunuch Wang Tang, so he used a ruse to frame Han Bangqi and let Han Bangqi be convicted and imprisoned.
During the Jiajing period of Emperor Ming Dynasty, the prison of writing was still a major problem that plagued the literati. At that time, there was a rather interesting official, Wu Tingju, who was then the Shangshu of the Ministry of Works in Nanjing, and at that time he quoted Bai Juyi's "the imperial court hired me to be an idle minister" and Zhang Yong's "Jiangnan Idle Old Shangshu" as a metaphor for himself. When the Jiajing Emperor found out, he thought he was too arrogant and contemptuous of the dignity of the imperial court, so he became furious and dismissed him from his post. At the same time, Hu Zanzong's Yingchao poetry case and Jiajing's sixteen-year Ying Tianfu trial case also became quite representative cases of literal prison during the Jiajing period.
Ming Dynasty literal prison
In the Qing Dynasty, the development of text prison reached its peak, especially during the Shunzhi and Qianlong years, and the frequency of text prisons remained high. There are historical records that during the Qianlong period, there were 130 literary prisons, and in these literary prisons, 47 more perpetrators of the literary prisons were sentenced to death.
During the Shunzhi period, due to the unstable foundation of the rule at that time, the Shunzhi Emperor strengthened his control over ideology and culture. During this period, a variety of large and small literary prisons emerged in an endless stream, which led to the conviction of a large number of literati.
During the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties, due to some power struggles and political needs, there were also many literary prisons. Famous ones are the Zhu Fangdan case, the Ming Shi case, the Nanshan Ji case during the Kangxi period, the Lü Liuliang case, the Nian Tangyao case, and the "Qingfeng Illiterate" case during the Yongzheng period.
In the era of Qianlong's rule, although the rule at this time gradually stabilized, this did not reduce the occurrence of the word prison, but pushed the word prison to the extreme. During the Qianlong period, there were countless literal prisons, of which 130 were recorded in the history books alone. In this era, the literati are in the depths of the water, and they are always worried.
Until Qianlong's son Jiaqing took the throne. Jiaqingcai changed his father's old style and rehabilitated the literal prison. It was also from Jiaqing that the literal prison that ran through almost the entire ancient history gradually subsided.
The literal prison of the Qing Dynasty
Why was the heyday of the development of the Literary Hell not in any other dynasty in ancient times, but in the Qing Dynasty? This is probably also related to the special physique of the Qing Dynasty.
The first is the inferiority of the Rulers of the Qing Dynasty to their own rule. Since the Qing Dynasty was once a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, after they entered the Central Plains, it was difficult for them to raise confidence in the management of this large area of land in the face of a vast territory. Excessive inferiority provokes extreme conceit. The rulers of the Qing Dynasty began to strengthen cultural control and vigorously revitalized the prison of writing.
The second is the Han people's disapproval of the Qing Dynasty's rule, and the anti-Qing ideology is serious. The Han nationality has always been a symbol of civilization, and in the face of the rule of the Qing royal family, which is a barbarian tribe, the Han people, especially the Literati of the Han Nationality, are naturally unwilling to yield.
Finally, there was the power struggle within the Qing royal family. Especially during the Kang Yong period, the dispute over the concubine was very fierce and cruel. As a result, the literal prison became a tool for them to fight for power. In order to gain more power, they vigorously built a literal prison and framed their enemies to ensure their position.
For the literati, the literal hell is an invisible devil, throwing them into boundless darkness. The ancient literal prison not only caused persecution to the literati, but also caused some damage to the development of Chinese culture. We should understand it, recognize its damage to culture, and learn from history.