Wang Xihou

Wang Xihou (Chinese: 王錫侯; 1713–1777), courtesy name Hanbo (韓伯), was a Chinese scholar from Xinchang County (modern-day Yifeng County, Jiangxi) who lived during the Qing dynasty.

[1] He was executed under the Qing government's literary inquisition policies during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor.

[2] He locked himself in a room, studying day and night, and was sent home-cooked meals through a small crevice.

When the Qianlong Emperor found out about this in 1777, Wang was imprisoned in Beijing and sentenced to nine familial exterminations, the most serious form of capital punishment in imperial China.

However, as was usual in such cases with literary inquisition, the Emperor commuted the sentence by pardoning all Wang Xihou's relatives and his grandsons given only a procedural sentence of execution at the autumn assizes (qiushen 秋審) during which the case would be reviewed and usually spared the death penalty.