Literary inquisition

The literary inquisition (Chinese: 文字獄; pinyin: wénzìyù; literally: "imprisonment due to writings") or speech crime (Chinese: 以言入罪) refers to official persecution of intellectuals for their writings in China. The Inquisition took place under each of the dynasties ruling China, although the Qing was particularly notorious for the practice. Such persecutions could owe even to a single phrase or word which the ruler considered offensive. Some of these were due to naming taboo, such as writing a Chinese character that is part of the emperor's personal name. In the most serious cases, not only the writer, but also his immediate and extended families, as well as those close to him, would also be implicated and killed.

The practice of literary persecution has been recorded since Qin dynasty, and has been used by almost all successive dynasties ruling China. It is uncertain how frequently the persecutions occurred. The poet Su Shi of Song dynasty was jailed for several months by the emperor due to some of his poems. In the classical novel Water Margin, set in Song dynasty, one of the protagonists, Song Jiang, who was originally a minor official, was sentenced to death for writing a poem advocating rebellion against the government while he was drunk. He was saved and later became the chief of an outlaw band.

There are records of literary persecutions during the Ming dynasty and the beginning of the period saw the most severe persecutions. Before he became emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang (the Hongwu Emperor), the Ming dynasty's founder, was illiterate and had been a beggar. While he established his empire, he surrounded himself with scholars, treating them with respect while he learnt to read and familiarise himself with history. He sent out requests to scholars for their presence, and while many agreed others declined for fear of the repercussions if they made a mistake. On occasion the emperor, who was learning to read, would order the execution of someone who had written something he misunderstood.

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