Zhu Fangdan Case

Zhu Fangdan, styled Ermeshanren, gained fame in Hanyang as a physician and diviner who claimed to foresee events. He developed a syncretic doctrine centered on the “Middle Way,” attracting numerous followers, including Manchu bannermen and officials, who hailed him as surpassing Confucius. Zhu authored texts like the Zhongzhi Mishu, arguing that human intellect could independently grasp cosmic truth without relying on orthodox Confucian interpretation. Alarmed by his growing influence, Censor-in-chief Wang Hongxu denounced him in 1682 for “fabricating heterodox theories to delude the masses and slander the imperial order.” Emperor Kangxi ordered a rigorous investigation, which condemned Zhu’s teachings as subversive sorcery. The case exemplifies how the Qing state policed ideological orthodoxy and crushed perceived threats to its moral and political authority.

Zhu Fangdan was beheaded for “spreading sorcery and deluding the people.” His chief disciple Gu Qihong was strangled, other followers were exiled or flogged, and all of Zhu’s writings were proscribed and burned.

Whether Zhu Fangdan’s philosophical and medical activities constituted legitimate scholarly discourse or deliberate “heterodox sorcery and sedition”; whether the prosecution was driven by genuine concern for public order or by factional intrigue and the regime’s paranoia over unorthodox popular movements.

The case reinforced the Qing dynasty’s strict control over heterodox ideas, serving as a precursor to later literary inquisitions. It intimidated scholars, entrenched Neo-Confucian orthodoxy, and demonstrated the lethal risks of independent spiritual or intellectual organizations outside state-sanctioned channels.