The breeze can't read, why turn over the books?

From the burning of books in the Qin Dynasty to the literary inquisition in the Qing Dynasty, our culture suffered an unprecedented catastrophe. In order to better imprison people's minds, what can the ruling class do except artificially create a world tragedy like the literary inquisition?

The cultural catastrophe has brought us endless disasters and backwardness. Who can say that these are not important reasons that hinder the historical development of China?

Literary inquisition, as its name implies, is a crime caused by words. In China's feudal autocratic society, the test of autocratic rule often uses "words with suspicion of influence" to list crimes and kill innocent people, so as to eliminate heresy, restrain thoughts and safeguard autocratic rule. In history, cases of conviction for writing are common, and the number is large, the punishment is cruel, especially in the Qing Dynasty. The word literary inquisition comes from the Qing Dynasty.

The literary inquisition in Qing Dynasty came into being after the political power was basically stable and the rulers strengthened their control over the ideological and cultural fields. It began in Kangxi, developed in Yongzheng and reached its peak in Qianlong period. During the Qianlong period, not only the conviction scope of the literary inquisition exceeded that of the Kang Yong period, but also the number of cases increased to several times the total number of Kang Yong in previous dynasties. Especially during the period when Qianlong seized and handed in banned books, various literary prisons emerged one after another and the number increased sharply.

There were many literary inquisitions in Qing dynasty, which had its special historical factors. Li Zicheng overthrew the Ming Dynasty, and Wu Sangui led the Qing army into the customs. Later, the Qing Dynasty unified China, which was beneficial to fishermen. According to the traditional concept of the Han nationality, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains with ethnic minorities. This is called "Gan Kun repeats, Lu Chen is in the Central Plains". China's orthodoxy, which has been formed for thousands of years, cannot be won by the Qing rulers by force. The strong national thoughts and anti-Qing consciousness of Han intellectuals are reflected in various writings in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, which spread widely and have far-reaching influence. This is undoubtedly a potential threat to the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, making them fidgety. Yong Zhengdi once said: "There are many people who have never inherited different surnames, and the ancestral surnames of the former dynasties are all subordinate to their descendants. They have never raped the people like this, pretending to be Zhu's surname, which shocked people's hearts. If this is the case. " In order to consolidate the ruling position of the Qing dynasty, the rulers of the Qing dynasty were afraid that they would not take strict precautions against the anti-Qing thought of the Han nationality and attack it poorly. They even developed into morbid doubts and fears when they were in Qianlong, and they were determined to completely annihilate the national consciousness and national integrity of the Han nationality. Ethnic contradictions and struggles are intertwined with those of Manchu nobles and non-authorities of the Han landlord class, and with the class struggle of the peasant class against feudal oppression, which was the most intense in the early Qing Dynasty. During the period from Shunzhi to Qianlong, there were about 160 cases of literary inquisition, most of which were either anti-Qing or imprisoned because of Luo Zhi's deliberate anti-Qing charges, which clearly showed that the special historical background of literary inquisition in Qing Dynasty was the continuation of ethnic contradictions and struggles.

The rulers of the Qing Dynasty tried to strengthen their cultural and ideological rule, and at the same time attracted the upper class members of all ethnic groups. The rulers strongly advocated Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism and actively induced his thoughts. For this reason, some Neo-Confucianism scholars have been collected, and books such as The Nature have been compiled and published around the world, in an attempt to popularize the ideas of "loyalty" and "filial piety" in Neo-Confucianism, so as to bind people's thoughts and paralyze people's fighting spirit. Strictly clamp down and brutally suppress the thoughts, words and deeds that are not conducive to its rule. All written works, as long as the rulers of the Qing Dynasty think that they infringe on the monarchical power or hinder their own rule, are regarded as "barking dogs", "heresy" and "disobedience", which will inevitably lead to the rise of imprisonment and heavy punishment, and often a case involves hundreds of people.

1663 (the second year of Kangxi), a rare disaster case of literary prison occurred in the whole Qing Dynasty-Zhuang Shiming Prison. The banker is a famous rich family in Huzhou, Zhejiang. He is blind and doesn't know much about history, but he is encouraged by the idea that "Zuo Qiu is blind and can't speak Mandarin". I also want to learn from Zuo Qiuming and make a historical work handed down from generation to generation. So he paid for an unfinished History of the Ming Dynasty written by Zhu Guozhen at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and recruited local talents who were interested in compiling the history before the Ming Dynasty to supplement the history of Chongzhen Dynasty and Nanming. When it comes to the history of Nanming, he still believes in the orthodoxy of Nanming. Do not recognize the orthodox status of the Qing dynasty. The book also mentions the relationship between Jurchen in the late Ming Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, which is extremely taboo for the rulers of the Qing Dynasty. After the publication of Ming History, the magistrate who was dismissed for taking bribes saw it and bought a book to intimidate Zhuang's father. At this time, he was already dead, but he was pushed back. This is because Zhuang's father has bought off the government and has nothing to hide. In a fit of pique, Wu Zhirong sued the China government. The Qing court naturally attached great importance to it and strictly investigated it. Zhuang was beheaded and put to death according to the outrageous law. More than 70 people were killed and hundreds were exiled to the frontier.

1728 (the sixth year of Yongzheng), Ceng Jing and Zhang Xi, Hunan scholars, instigated the rebellion of Yue Zhongqi, the governor of Sichuan who mastered the military power, which triggered the Lv Liuliang case. As the first major case in Yongzheng period, Lv Liuliang was a famous Neo-Confucianist in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, who was from Shimen, Zhejiang. In many of his poems and diaries, there are a lot of fierce remarks about heatstroke prevention. When he chose the imperial examination ink roll, he gave full play to the Confucian thought of "preventing foreign summer" and expounded the national justice, which naturally resisted the national oppression of the Qing Dynasty. However, he did not treat "Yi Di" as a human being or even an animal, and failed to get rid of the wrong position of Han chauvinism. In the Selected Works, it is advocated to distinguish between "Hua" and "Yi" first, and then talk about the ethical relationship between monarch and minister. "The difference between China people and foreigners is greater than the relationship between the monarch and the minister." Ceng Jing read the essays of Selected Works of Lv Liuliang, and proposed that the Qing Dynasty's entry into the Central Plains was "righteous emperor stealing heaven" from the Summer Prevention, which led to the actual anti-Qing action. Lv Liuliang died young, and his disciple Zhang Xi was influenced by his thoughts. He listed nine counts and urged Yue Zhongqi, a descendant of Yue Fei, the governor of Sichuan Province, to oppose the Qing Dynasty. As a result, Yue Zhongqi tipped off the court and convicted Lv Liuliang's family, mentor and other related personnel. The dead were slaughtered, the living were beheaded, those involved were killed or shed, or sent to hard labor, and the light ones were also scolded by the rod. In September of the following year, the Qing court compiled the books written by Lu, Yan, Zeng, Shen and others, as well as their speeches and previous proverbs, and published them all over the world. As a warning. And let Ceng Jing and Zhang Xi preach in colleges and universities in southeast provinces, and admit their mistakes in public, so as to eliminate the anti-Qing sentiment of literati in southeast provinces.

By the mid-Qianlong period, the literary inquisition reached its climax. 1750, a sensational case of forging Sun Jiagan's manuscript. Sun Jiagan has successively held important positions in the central and local governments, such as Zuodu Yushi, Official Department Shangshu, Criminal Department Shangshu, Zhili Governor and Huguang Governor. And is famous for daring to speak and remonstrate, and enjoys a high reputation in the society. In July, Lu Lusheng, the Emperor Ganzong of Jiangxi Province, conspired with the garrison Liu Shida to fabricate a paper falsely accusing the Emperor Ganlong, which was written by Sun Jiagan. Lu and Liu's intention is to incite people, create public opinion and stop Emperor Qianlong's first southern tour. By June of 175 1, the fake manuscript was discovered by Emperor Qianlong when it reached Yunnan. As a result, a nationwide campaign to trace the author of the fake manuscript began. The results spread in the provinces of 18, and even the upper classes of the ruling class participated. Especially in Huguang and Jiangxi. In February of 1753, Emperor Qianlong felt that it was not worth the loss to pursue further, and ordered the execution of Lu Lusheng and Liu Shida, stopped pursuing false manuscripts, and hastily closed the case.

Emperor Qianlong accepted the lesson of the fake manuscript case and was determined to strengthen ideological control. As a result, the campaign to investigate and ban books was resolutely launched nationwide. Banned books have a wide range and a long history, which is rare. From forty-two years of Qianlong (A.D. 1777) to forty-eight years, in just seven years, as many as fifty literary prisons were recorded. This is the unprecedented peak of the literary inquisition in Qing Dynasty and even the ancient literary inquisition in China.

In the forty-second year of Qianlong, Wang Xihou, a juren from Xinchang, Jiangxi Province, revised the Kangxi Dictionary, and was sentenced to "treason" for failing to analyze and praise the name "Li Hong" of Qianlong Emperor. The Governor of Haicheng asked Wang Xihou to be promoted to fame. Ganlong thought the punishment was too light, accused Haicheng of harboring criminals, and planned to behead them. All envoys were dismissed. In forty-three years, Dongtai county magistrate reported that Xu Shukui, a local juror, wrote some poems, such as "Ming Emperor meets again and puts the pot aside for half" and "Ming Dynasty shocked the capital in one fell swoop". Emperor Qianlong thought that his poems meant "prospering the Ming Dynasty and eliminating the Qing Dynasty", and ordered the bodies of Kui and his son Huaizu to be slaughtered, so that his Sun Jiejing was executed, and his poems were destroyed. The local warlord pottery and others even sat together and placed heavy books. Shangshu, the ritual minister who prefaced Xu, was also slaughtered.

Because the literary inquisition is too harsh, many literati "take literature as a warning" and are afraid of accidentally breaking taboos, so they dare not write poems or essays. Even if written, it is insincere, unintelligible and obscure. During the Qianlong period, Yushi Cao said in an article: "Since 1990, little people ... have often held a grudge, attacked poetry and criticized words with influential words. There are things that are familiar with the wind. Many people are poor, or tired of teachers and students, implicated in relatives and friends, and ruined. " This is the horrible reality at that time.

The literary inquisition in Qing dynasty was the product of unprecedented strengthening of feudal absolutism, and its fundamental purpose was to establish the absolute authority of monarchy and Manchu aristocratic rule in ideology and culture. This literary inquisition has caused extremely serious social consequences and affected the progress and development of China society. When history entered the18th century, western countries broke free from the shackles of feudal system and embarked on the capitalist road, and politics, economy and science and technology developed rapidly. However, due to the special historical environment and practical reasons, we still stubbornly closed the door to communication with the West, arrogantly pursued the policy of cultural absolutism, and used the extreme means of literary inquisition to eliminate heresy, imprison thoughts, control speech and safeguard feudal rule. Direct and artificial causes the backwardness of the whole society, widens the gap with the West, and hinders the progress and development of China society. Eventually led to the formation of semi-feudal and semi-colonial social status in China.