Zhuang Tinglong Literary Inquisition, 1661–1663

Zhuang Tinglong’s family sponsored a history of the late Ming that used politically sensitive language and did not fully recognise Qing legitimacy. An informer denounced the work soon after the Kangxi Emperor’s accession.

The investigation led to executions, exile and punishment extending beyond the principal authors to editors, printers, booksellers and relatives. It became an early example of the literary inquisitions used to police historical writing under the Qing.

The Deer and the Cauldron opens in the dissident world created by this case. Jin Yong uses persecution over a history book to connect scholarship, Ming loyalism and the dangers of naming political authority.