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 imperial 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.
Read more about Literary Inquisition: Before The Ming Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty
Other articles related to "literary inquisition, literary inquisitions, inquisition":
... In the early years of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, the regent Oboi monopolised state power and introduced the practice of literary inquisition ... Many intellectuals and scholars were persecuted for their writings ...
... Qing Dynasty are particularly notorious for their use of literary inquisitions ... One inquisition was the "Case of the History of the Ming Dynasty" (明史案) in 1661–1662 under the direction of regents (before the Kangxi Emperor ... Under the Qing Dynasty, literary inquisition began with isolated cases during the reigns of the Shunzhi and Kangxi emperors, and then evolved into a pattern ...
Famous quotes containing the words inquisition and/or literary:
“Adultery itself in its principle is many times nothing but a curious inquisition after, and envy of another man’s enclosed pleasures: and there have been many who refused fairer objects that they might ravish an enclosed woman from her retirement and single possessor.”
—Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667)
“We that write & print have all our books predestinated—& and for me, I shall write such things as the Great Publisher of Mankind ordained ages before he published “The World”Mthis planet, I mean—not the Literary Globe.”
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