Wang Xihou (; 1713–1777),

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theo ...

Hanbo (), was a Chinese scholar from Xinchang County (modern-day

Yifeng County Yifeng County () is a county in the northwest of Jiangxi province, People's Republic of China. It is under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the Pe ...

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

) who lived during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. He was executed under the Qing government's literary inquisition policies during the reign of the

Qianlong Emperor The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, born Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1735 ...

. Wang was born in 1713. At the age of five, he began his studies with his brother Wang Jingyun (), and became proficient at the

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretation ...

of ancient Chinese texts by age eight. He locked himself in a room, studying day and night, and was sent home-cooked meals through a small crevice. Wang became a

scholar-bureaucrat The scholar-officials, also known as literati, scholar-gentlemen or scholar-bureaucrats (), were government officials and prestigious scholars in Chinese society, forming a distinct social class. Scholar-officials were politicians and governmen ...

at age 38. He wrote a book called Zi Guan (), which criticized the

Kangxi Dictionary The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' ( (Compendium of standard characters from the Kangxi period), published in 1716, was the most authoritative dictionary of Chinese characters from the 18th century through the early 20th. The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing ...

and printed the

Kangxi Emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654– 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, born Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1661 to ...

's name without leaving out a stroke as required by Chinese naming taboo. When the Qianlong Emperor found out about this in 1777, Wang was imprisoned in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

and sentenced to

nine familial exterminations The nine familial exterminations or nine kinship exterminations or execution of nine relations, also known by the names ''zuzhu'' ("family execution") and ''miezu'' ("family extermination"), was the most severe punishment for a capital offense in ...

, the most serious form of

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

in imperial China. However, as was usual in such cases with literary inquisition, the Emperor commuted the sentence by pardoning all Wang Xihou's relatives and his grandsons given only a procedural sentence of execution at the autumn assizes (qiushen 秋審) during which the case would be reviewed and usually spared the death penalty. Wang Xihou's sentence was commuted from death by 1000 cuts to only death by beheading.李雪涛《一位传教士记载的王锡侯〈字贯〉案》

References

* 1713 births 1777 deaths Qing dynasty writers People executed by the Qing dynasty by decapitation Executed Qing dynasty people Executed Chinese people People from Yichun, Jiangxi Writers from Jiangxi Executed people from Jiangxi 18th-century executions 18th-century Chinese writers {{China-bio-stub