The First Literary Inquisition of the Qing Dynasty: The Mao Zhongzhuo Block-Printing Case

In 1648, the early Qing government prosecuted publisher Mao Zhongzhuo and associates like Xu Tingqing for printing a commercial collection of eight-legged examination essays. The preface used the Ming dynasty's Chongzhen reign title and omitted the current Qing Shunzhi reign title, containing phrases such as "since the end of the Chongzhen era." Qing officials interpreted this as a seditious denial of Manchu legitimacy and an expression of Ming loyalism, deeming it lèse-majesté. Despite arguments that the omission was an editorial oversight or customary transition-period practice, the court convicted the group of rebellion against the state. This became the first recorded literary inquisition of the Qing dynasty, setting a precedent for using forced textual interpretation to persecute intellectuals. The swift, harsh outcome inaugurated a series of political suppressions that intensified under subsequent emperors, compelling literati into self-censorship and demonstrating the regime's extreme sensitivity to written words.

Mao Zhongzhuo and the principal defendants were convicted of sedition and executed by beheading; their property was confiscated, and the offending printing blocks were destroyed.

Whether the use of the Ming reign title and absence of the Qing reign title in the preface amounted to a deliberate act of sedition and denial of Qing sovereignty, or was merely an unintentional oversight reflecting transitional literary conventions.

The case established a terrifying model for using textual interpretation to criminalize intellectuals, marking the official start of Qing literary inquisitions. It spread fear throughout the scholarly community, severely curtailed free expression in historical and literary writing, entrenched ideological repression, and foreshadowed the far bloodier purges of the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong reigns.