Zha Siting (, 1664–1727),

courtesy name A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...

Runmu (),

art name An art name (pseudonym or pen name), also known by its native names ''hào'' (in Mandarin Chinese), ''gō'' (in Japanese), ' (in Korean), and ''tên hiệu'' (in Vietnamese), is a professional name used by artists, poets and writers in the Sinosp ...

Hengpu (), was a

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

official who was a victim of the Literary Inquisition. He was from

Haining, Zhejiang () is a county-level city in Zhejiang Province, China, and under the jurisdiction of Jiaxing. It is in the south side of Yangtze River Delta, and in the north of Zhejiang. It is to the southwest of central Shanghai, and east of Hangzhou, the ...

Life

Zha Siting passed the ''

jinshi ''Jinshi'' () was the highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China. The examination was usually taken in the imperial capital in the palace, and was also called the Metropolitan Exam. Recipients are sometimes referre ...

'' examinations in 1706. After a period of study at the

Hanlin Academy The Hanlin Academy was an academic and administrative institution of higher learning founded in the 8th century Tang China by Emperor Xuanzong in Chang'an. It has also been translated as "College of Literature" and "Academy of the Forest of Pen ...

, he became a compiler at the academy, and after several promotions he became a vice-president in the

Ministry of Rites The Ministry or Board of Rites was one of the Six Ministries of government in late imperial China. It was part of the imperial Chinese government from the Tang (7th century) until the 1911 Xinhai Revolution. Along with religious rituals and c ...

in 1725. In 1726, he was sent to

Nanchang Nanchang is the capital of Jiangxi, China. Located in the north-central part of the province and in the hinterland of Poyang Lake Plain, it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east by Poyang Lake. Because of its strate ...

to conduct the

Jiangxi ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...

juren ''Juren'' (; 'recommended man') was a rank achieved by people who passed the ''xiangshi'' () exam in the imperial examination system of imperial China. The ''xiangshi'' is also known, in English, as the provincial examination. It was a rank high ...

'' examinations. The composition topic he chose was a phrase from the ''

Shijing The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...

'' which read "where the people rest" (維民所止). The first character (維) and the last character (止) both resembled the

era name A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year of rule, a t ...

of the reigning

Yongzheng Emperor The Yongzheng Emperor (13 December 1678 – 8 October 1735), also known by his temple name Emperor Shizong of Qing, personal name Yinzhen, was the fourth List of emperors of the Qing dynasty, emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the third Qing em ...

(雍正) but without the top parts, which some interpreted as a wish for the emperor to be decapitated. The emperor was furious and ordered Zha's arrest. On 21 October 1726 he informed the court that Zha's house had been searched and two journals of a seditious nature were found. The journals included sarcastic comments about the Confucian scholars training for the bureaucracy in the Beijing academies and mocking comments about the emperor and his late father. The emperor also accused Zha of having intrigued with the disgraced official Longkodo, which may have been the real reason for the emperor's hostility. Zha died in prison in 1727 and after his death his body was ordered to be dismembered. His elder brothers Zha Shenxing and Zha Sili were imprisoned. His wife was exiled to the frontier, where she achieved some fame as a poet. As a result of Zha's case and similar cases involving others from Zhejiang ( Wang Jingqi and Lü Liuliang), the emperor declared the entire province "degenerate" and in retaliation he forbade any Zhejiang students to move on to the 1727 national examinations in the capital. The emperor also decreed that the 1729 Zhejiang ''juren'' examinations be suspended. Shortly after the decree went out, the emperor also ordered Zhejiang governor Li Wei and Wang Guodong (王國棟) to investigate conditions in the province. Two years later, they reported back that they had found no signs of rebellion and proposed that the emperor hold examinations again. The 1729 Zhejiang examination would be held on schedule.

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Bibliography

* * * {{Cite book , last=Spence , first=Jonathan D. , author-link=Jonathan D. Spence , url= , title=Treason by the Book , title-link=Treason by the Book , publisher=

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer and then acqu ...

, year=2001 , isbn=9780670892921 1664 births 1727 deaths People from Haining