Chen Hsi-yuan 陳熙遠
The Whispers in the Wind: Anonymous Accusations and the Political Culture of the Qing Dynasty
Anonymous Accusation is a form of documentation that anonymously reveals or indicts people of their alleged crimes. Usually, Anonymous Accusations were either posted on public gates and walls for mass view and condemnation, or submitted to governmental agencies, hoping for an official response. Whether they were intended to reveal truth and extend justice, or to fabricate accusations on personal enemies, Anonymous Accusations were mostly the result of a rational choice made after cost-benefit analyses. To the accusers, breaking the law to post such Anonymous Accusations was a chance that they were willing to take, since this seemed like the accusatory method that involved both the lowest cost and the lowest risk.
In the past, the government’s main way of handling to such Anonymous Accusations is to track down and investigate the potential suspects involved in the creation, delivery, or posting of the accusations so that the government could appropriately convict each suspect according to the law. Regardless of their factualness, all the accusations’ content was ignored by the government. On one hand, this highlighted the severity of punishment on the misconduct of causing trouble for no reason; on the other hand, it also puts an end to the vicious cycle of people’s continuous resentment and vengeance.
According to official statistics from governmental audit, the frequency of Anonymous Accusations’ occurrence in the Qing Dynasty has been on a significant trend of increase since the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1735-1796). To effectively discourage the public from spreading news through posting Anonymous Accusations, governmental officials have even attempted to advertise the rules and regulations around Anonymous Accusations at regular synodic speech occasions—some even composed the regulations into folk ballads to further its publicity.
Since Emperor Qianlong’s reign, both the content of Anonymous Accusations and the method through which such accusations were treated by the government have underwent some significant changes. First, on the content of Anonymous Accusations, as the accusers would take great risks to deliver or post the accusations to amass attention and influence public views, the accusations were either charging someone of treason or rebellion, or targeting—informed by governmental announcements—members of heretic religions that the Qing government has already been investigating and purposefully announcing connections between the target members. It thus makes it difficult for the government to simply ignore the content of the accusations; upon investigating who created the accusations, the government was also obliged to investigate the target persons mentioned to examine whether the accusations were accurate.
Roughly in the middle of Emperor Qianlong’s reign, the experienced bureaucrat Chen Hongmou suggested some key adjustments to the emperor regarding the process of handling Anonymous Accusations that the government received. For all Anonymous Accusations that involved charges of corruption or misconduct to any governmental official, not only should higher-level officials investigate and convict the ones that made the Anonymous Accusations, but the accusations themselves should also be secretly verified for its content, thereby making correct evaluations of the accusations and the accusers while rectifying the court of bureaucracy. Yet surprisingly, since then, even more people dared to take the risk to spread or deliver Anonymous Accusations; the occurrence of Anonymous Accusations spread across the country, just like an inextinguishable wildfire.
In the past, the government’s main way of handling to such Anonymous Accusations is to track down and investigate the potential suspects involved in the creation, delivery, or posting of the accusations so that the government could appropriately convict each suspect according to the law. Regardless of their factualness, all the accusations’ content was ignored by the government. On one hand, this highlighted the severity of punishment on the misconduct of causing trouble for no reason; on the other hand, it also puts an end to the vicious cycle of people’s continuous resentment and vengeance.
According to official statistics from governmental audit, the frequency of Anonymous Accusations’ occurrence in the Qing Dynasty has been on a significant trend of increase since the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1735-1796). To effectively discourage the public from spreading news through posting Anonymous Accusations, governmental officials have even attempted to advertise the rules and regulations around Anonymous Accusations at regular synodic speech occasions—some even composed the regulations into folk ballads to further its publicity.
Since Emperor Qianlong’s reign, both the content of Anonymous Accusations and the method through which such accusations were treated by the government have underwent some significant changes. First, on the content of Anonymous Accusations, as the accusers would take great risks to deliver or post the accusations to amass attention and influence public views, the accusations were either charging someone of treason or rebellion, or targeting—informed by governmental announcements—members of heretic religions that the Qing government has already been investigating and purposefully announcing connections between the target members. It thus makes it difficult for the government to simply ignore the content of the accusations; upon investigating who created the accusations, the government was also obliged to investigate the target persons mentioned to examine whether the accusations were accurate.
Roughly in the middle of Emperor Qianlong’s reign, the experienced bureaucrat Chen Hongmou suggested some key adjustments to the emperor regarding the process of handling Anonymous Accusations that the government received. For all Anonymous Accusations that involved charges of corruption or misconduct to any governmental official, not only should higher-level officials investigate and convict the ones that made the Anonymous Accusations, but the accusations themselves should also be secretly verified for its content, thereby making correct evaluations of the accusations and the accusers while rectifying the court of bureaucracy. Yet surprisingly, since then, even more people dared to take the risk to spread or deliver Anonymous Accusations; the occurrence of Anonymous Accusations spread across the country, just like an inextinguishable wildfire.