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The wiki said it is Literary Inquisition

It refers to official persecution of intellectuals for their writings in China ... the rulers deliberately extracted words or phrases from intellectual's writings and arbitrarily accused him in order to persecute him.

It happened throughout China's long history in every dynasty. "Literary inquisition" or "speech crime" does not feel right.

For someone who knows little about this part of history, I will explain to them that it is like the Thoughtcrime in 1984 and it is not anti-intellectual per ser but to intimidate any free-thinking. But censorship doesn't convey the meaning of Literary Inquisition because its purpose is to put the author of that written work in jail to frighten him and any newcomers.

I also asked ChatGPT and it said you may try "witch hunt against written works" or just "witch hunt of words".

But I was hoping to see a better term.

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    Are you asking for a better term than literary inquisition when politics is anti-intellectual and uses distortion to terrorize its own population?
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented May 19, 2023 at 14:45
  • 'Literary inquisition' seems to be fairly widely used, and the examples I've seen on the internet restricted to the example in China. But there have been suppressions/persecutions of people whose writings were considered seditious in many nations over the centuries.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented May 19, 2023 at 14:49
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    @EdwinAshworth asked a related question history.stackexchange.com/questions/71590/… in history SE
    – Qiulang 邱朗
    Commented May 19, 2023 at 15:05
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    I asked ChatGPT and it said you may try witch-hunt of words. lol
    – Qiulang 邱朗
    Commented May 19, 2023 at 15:08
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    @MarcInManhattan The action for which the word is required is exemplified in “If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.” ― Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642) - to which the challenge was "God save the King!" Richelieu replied: "How do you know the king need saving? What part do you play in the plot against his life?" The word will express that action.
    – Greybeard
    Commented May 19, 2023 at 19:15

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Strangely, there appears to be no single noun for this, yet it has been recognised for centuries, if not longer. In English, it is summed up by the well-known

“If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.” ― Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642) - to which the challenge was "God save the King!" Richelieu replied: "How do you know the king needs saving? What part do you play in the plot against his life?"

The overall action may be a show-trial as a result of a witch-hunt; the evidence may be fabricated or manipulated; the accused may be vilified before and during the trial, and selective quotes may taken out of context and deliberately misinterpreted.

But there is no word for the latter.

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  • I think it is probably the best answer I can get. BTW in a similar question I asked in history SE history.stackexchange.com/questions/71590/… I listed 5 examples, I think the western version of "Literary inquisition"
    – Qiulang 邱朗
    Commented May 20, 2023 at 3:12
  • It is a pity that the History SE question was closed. The Chinese "Literary inquisition" seems to be very specific and to have targeted authors as a group. The other "inquisitions" that you mention seem to have targeted individuals who had views contrary to the regime and often included "evidence" from writings (including personal letters), but never relied entirely on this.
    – Greybeard
    Commented May 20, 2023 at 9:02
  • I run across this NYTimes article cn.nytimes.com/business/20210301/china-online-censorship/dual so it used Speech Crimes. BTW, I pasted the dual-language version link because it was a paid article for the English-only version.
    – Qiulang 邱朗
    Commented May 21, 2023 at 14:44
  • The article and the phrase "Speech Crimes" is unhelpful. Your question was clearly one of extracting sentences from context and using these as a basis for persecution. The article, in contrast, speaks of over-sensitivity to legitimate criticism. You should make the distinction.
    – Greybeard
    Commented May 21, 2023 at 18:51
  • Yes I know the article was talking about. I just let you know that even they used speech crimes and like you said "Strangely, there appears to be no single noun for this".
    – Qiulang 邱朗
    Commented May 22, 2023 at 1:54

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