In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

CHAPTER SIX Retributive Justice Factional Rhetoric in the Post-Reform Era, 1094–1104 Political language . . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. —George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” Repeating the poetic inquisition against Cai Que measure for measure, the Korean Relations Institute (Tongwen guan) investigation of 1097 was designed to entrap the banished leaders of the antireform opposition.1 As in 1089, a Censorial cabal trumped up charges against former state councilors and then persuaded their monarchical audience to punish these so-called factionalists for treason and disloyalty. In a finger-pointing memorial of 8.1097, the minor official Cai Wei (n.d.), Cai Que’s eldest son, alleged that a “greatly evil and unethical plot by treacherous ministers” had been in the works to depose Zhezong during the first months of the Xuanren Regency.2 Luo Jiaxiang has speculated that Cai Wei was trying to avenge his father’s death in Lingnan, and also to banish the rumors that his father had once obstructed Zhezong’s enthronement, by accusing his father’s prosecutors of the same offense.3 By revealing a plot that cast doubt upon the circumstances of Zhezong’s accession, Cai’s report was intended to strike a raw nerve. Zhezong subsequently ordered two loyal officials, Hanlin Academician Recipient of Edicts (Hanlin xueshi chengzhi) Cai Jing and Associate Acting Vice Minister of Personnel (tong quan Libu shilang) An Dun (1042–1104), to investigate the charges and interrogate informants at the Korean Relations Institute, a palace suboffice for ritual diplomacy with inner vassals.4 As conspiracy theories took on the substance of fact, the surviving antireformist leaders were caught in a web of hearsay deriving from secondhand accounts of a former councilor’s deathbed confessions. The opportunistic Xing Shu (n.d.), a former disciple of Sima Guang and Lü Gongzhu and an early opponent of the New Policies, had joined Cai Que’s inner circle during the late Shenzong reign. Xing Shu’s Song History biography accuses this “treacherous 126 Retributive Justice 127 minister” and Cai Que of hatching a failed plot in 1085 to depose the future Emperor Zhezong as heir apparent and to install one of Shenzong’s younger brothers in his place.5 Now serving as Zhang Dun’s vice censor-in-chief, Xing Shu alleged that he had received a letter from Wen Jifu (n.d.) that on his deathbed , his father Wen Yanbo, the elder statesman who served both Shenzong and Xuanren, had informed him of the existence of an abortive palace coup in the early Yuanyou era. Xing alleged that the empress dowager and her councilors had actually plotted to dethrone Zhezong and to enthrone his uncle (and Xuanren ’s own son) Zhao Hao (fl. 1060–1086), the prince of Yong.6 In Wen’s cryptic words: “The [usurping] heart of Sima Zhao is apparent to everyone on the street, and that [someone] went further to try and save the situation with Powderface (fen) and Elder Brother (kun), whose cliquish kind are confusing the enthronement, hoping [to send] myself (miaogong) off to a pleasant and happy place.” When the investigators decoded this message, they claimed that Wen’s reference to Sima Zhao (211–265), a treacherous minister who usurped the throne of the Wei dynasty (220–265), pointed to Liu Zhi as Zhezong’s putative deposer, while “Powderface” and “Elder Brother” denoted Wang Yansou and Liang Tao as Liu’s co-conspirators.7 It was probably no coincidence that these three former ministers had led the campaign to deport Cai Que to Lingnan in 1089. At other points in the investigation, Empress Dowager Xuanren herself was accused of discussing the possibility of dethroning Zhezong with Sima Guang.8 It strained credulity that Wen Yanbo would have implicated his factional ally Liu Zhi in such heinous crimes or that his son Wen Jifu could have been connected with Xing Shu, but his interrogator Cai Jing claimed that Wen Yanbo resented Liu for dismissing him from the Council of State and that Liu had also frustrated Wen Jifu’s own career ambitions.9 The Korean Relations Institute investigation could not have proceeded without the active involvement of Emperor Zhezong, who personally identified himself with the restoration of the New Policies and the campaign to eradicate the defeated antireformist opposition. By stoking Zhezong’s resentment of the antireformists who had dominated his minority, the reformists received imperial approval to inflict retributive...

Share