Journal paper

Issue No.	No. 53
Title	The Reappearance of an Obscured Rescript of Crusade by Gaozong in 1161: On the Self-Censorship in the Writings of Private Records and Inscriptions
Author	Yang, Jun-feng
Page	1-42
Abstract	In addition to an inquiry into a history of the transmission of the rescript of crusade by Gaozong in 1161, this article discusses the self-censorship among the literati in their writings about the event happened in the early 1160s after the peace agreement of Longxing was recognized as the state policy. 　　The text of the rescript bears a great deal of information about the two emperors' varied opinions swung between war and peace. Chen Kangbo, who polished the text, had concealed it from the public and let his in-laws keep it for quite a long time, which rendered the authentic author a riddle. In fact, the concealing of the truth of political happenings was quite a pervasive phenomenon at that time. Even the writings of personal biographies and private inscriptions exhibited the same kind of self-censorship. 　　It was not until the Qingyuan period when Chancellor Han Tuozhou made use of the militaristic image of Chen Kangbo to call on a crusade against the Jurchens, did this text emerged again to the public. They took the advantage of the custom of reading into and commenting upon the calligraphic texts among the literati to foster the atmosphere of the anti-Jurchen action in order to evoke the long forgotten memory of the crusade. Arguably, the reappearance of this specific text was obviously a well-planned political design and served as a prelude to the military action in the Kaixi years.
Keyword	peace negotiation as the state policy, historical writing, Chen Kangbo, Kaixi Crusade, self-censorship, rescript of crusade by the emperor in 1161
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