A 1079 Song dynasty treason trial against poet Su Shi that set a damaging precedent for censorship and creative freedom in medieval China.
Key Facts
- Year of trial
- 1079
- Primary defendant
- Su Shi (1037–1101), poet and official
- Total defendants convicted
- Over thirty individuals
- Charge cited
- Song Criminal Code Article 122: Denouncing the Imperial Chariot
- Outcome for Su Shi
- Conviction and exile
- Prosecuting body
- Imperial Office of the Censorate (御史臺)
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Su Shi's poems were alleged by government prosecutors to contain criticism of the imperial court and the emperor, constituting lèse majesté and treason under Song dynasty law. The Imperial Censorate invoked Article 122 of the Song Criminal Code, targeting works of poetry as evidence of seditious intent against the throne.
The Crow Terrace Poetry Trial unfolded in 1079, with the Imperial Censorate prosecuting Su Shi and dozens of other defendants. Su Shi's poems were formally introduced as evidence in court. The trial became a documented confrontation between state censorship authority and artistic expression in medieval China.
Su Shi was convicted and sent into exile, while more than thirty co-defendants received punishments ranging from fines to official reprimands. The trial had a chilling effect on creative expression for the remainder of the Song dynasty and established a negative precedent for freedom of speech. The case survives as an unusually well-documented medieval Chinese literary prosecution.