(TibetanReview.net, Oct24’23) – A reprint of a book attributing the end of the Ming dynasty 400 years ago to the paranoia and incompetence of the Chinese emperor was pulled off the shelves last week as it drew now censored online comparisons with China’s president Xi Jinping, reported Reuters Oct 23.
The book “Chongzhen: The Diligent Emperor of a Fallen Dynasty” was recalled on Oct 16, according to an online notice by its publisher Dook Media Group due to “printing problems”.
Censors were stated to have also scrubbed all screenshots of comments circulating online that likened the emperor to Xi, who began this year a precedent-breaking third term as president.
Chongzhen’s reign ended with his suicide in 1644 and was stated to have been noted by historians for his diligence as much as his paranoia, including the constant questioning of his subjects’ loyalty.
The censorship was likely because of online parallels drawn between the ailing Chongzhen’s rule and perceived governance mistakes by Xi, from last year’s strict zero-Covid lockdowns and protests to the current economic slowdown, Srikanth Kondapalli, a professor of Chinese studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, has said.
“Using historical allusion and double entendre has become a way for the Chinese to work around strict censorship,” he has said.
The report said several Chinese readers had shared images of the book cover on their Weibo social media accounts, including words in bold critical of the emperor such as, “Bad moves one after another, the more diligent (Chongzhen was), the more the kingdom died”.
The report said the book was currently not available online. Searches for the title on Weibo yielded no results. The name of the author, Chen Wutong, who died this year, was also censored on Weibo, it added.
The book, published on Sep 1, was a reprint of a 2016 text that had a different cover and title.