Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies

Chen Dong, a student at the Imperial University in Kaifeng, was executed in 1127 because he criticized Song policy to relocate to the south rather than continue military resistance against the Jurchen invasions. The historical process that transformed an executed criminal into one of the seminal moral voices of Song history reveals the tension between literati governance and autocratic governance throughout the dynasty. Thirty-eight colophons, dating 1222–1259, which were written on a holograph memorial from the day of Chen’s execution, demonstrate how literati resistance to the administrations of Shi Miyuan and his nephew Shi Songzhi, especially among adherents of the “learning of the Way” movement, enhanced the historical stature of Chen Dong and presented him as a voice of “public opinion” against the autocratic power of higher authority.

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