Wang Jingqi's "Xizheng Suibi" Case (The "Meritorious Officials Must Not Be" Case)

In 1725, after the disgrace of general Nian Gengyao, authorities searched his residence and discovered manuscripts by his advisor Wang Jingqi, including the "Xizheng Suibi" (Notes from the Western Expedition). The text contained the essay "Gongchen Bu Kewei" (Meritorious Officials Must Not Be), which argued that successful generals often face deadly imperial suspicion. It also criticized the Kangxi era reign name. The Yongzheng Emperor viewed the work as a seditious attack on his legitimacy and a veiled defense of the fallen Nian. Wang Jingqi was arrested and brutally executed in early 1726; his severed head was publicly displayed at Caishikou for a decade. His male relatives were exiled, and the case became a landmark persecution to terrorize the literati and consolidate autocratic power.

Wang Jingqi was convicted of sedition and formally sentenced to immediate beheading (jianjue) in 1726. His head remained exposed on a pole at the Caishikou execution ground for ten years, an unusual posthumous humiliation. His wife and sons were banished as slaves to Heilongjiang for serving garrison soldiers. His close male relatives were also exiled, and officials related to him within five degrees of mourning were dismissed from office.

The central dispute was whether Wang Jingqi's historical essay constituted a legitimate, loyal remonstration about the precarious nature of service to the throne, or a treasonous vindication of the condemned Nian Gengyao. The controversy hinged on the Yongzheng Emperor's interpretation of literary intent, transforming a philosophical warning about the fate of ministers into a lethal political indictment without defense or due process.

The case had a profound chilling effect on the Qing intellectual class, intensifying the climate of fear during the literary inquisitions. It demonstrated the lethal weaponization of textual interpretation in court factional politics, effectively eliminating Nian Gengyao's remaining sympathizers. The public exhibition of the severed head for a decade served as a long-lasting visual deterrent against any perceived criticism of the emperor, cementing Yongzheng's reputation for ruthless suppression of dissent and accelerating the standardization of politically correct historiography.