Individual Autonomy and Responsibility in Late Imperial China By ...

edition of “A Book to Hide” (Cangshu 藏書) in 1599. One of the prefaces is by Geng Dingli 耿定力, Geng Dingxiang’s surviving brother who maintained friendly relations with Li, in which he argues the Way is realized through the legitimacy of different opinions because the Way is in every human being.²⁷ The second edition of Fenshu followed in 1600, the year Li returned to Macheng for the last time. In the winter of the same year, the new magistrate of Macheng organized a band of retainers and supporters of the Confucian orthodoxy and sent them to the monastery. They burned Li Zhi’s residence and destroyed the pagoda. Luckily, Li was tipped off just before the attack took place and managed to escape. He left Macheng, moved to Henan, and then further north. What pushed these people to destroy the temple and the authorities to support them was that, as a center of diffusion of an alternative doctrine, the temple represented a dangerous model of morality for the local youth. Thus persecution started from orthodox local gentry but was encouraged by some of the authorities.

In the capital (in Tongzhou 通州, a Beijing suburb), Li Zhi was protected by his host, the censor Ma Jinglun 馬經綸 (jinshi 1589), but his case soon became object of discussion among local literati. In 1602, the censor Zhang Wenda 張問達 (d. 1625), a student of Geng Dingxiang, accused Li Zhi of various crimes and publicly attacked his views and behavior, demanding that Li be arrested to prevent his bad influence from spreading to Beijing. Ma Jinglun defended Li and rejected these accusations, comparing Li to the great sojourner-exiles of the past and proclaming him to be an old retired official worthy of respect. However, with Zhang Wenda and Cai Yizhong rising in their careers, the persecution grew in momentum and came to be approved by the central administration that sent imperial guards to capture Li. Shortly after Zhang Wenda accused Li Zhi of sedition, Li was arrested and his writings were destroyed. The main offences he was charged with were producing unorthodox books that confused people’s minds, engaging in licentious behavior, seducing the daughters of the local gentry, and disrespecting family rules by defiling Buddhism.²⁸ Li’s heterodox interpretation of Chinese history and his alleged dangerous