In April, 2008, eight men were arrested for robbing the grave of a Ming Dynasty eunuch in Beijing’s Shijingshan District. The Beijing Morning Post reported earlier this week that the grave-robbers learned their art by reading the blockbuster adventure series Ghosts Blow Out the Lights.
Yesterday, Sichuan’s Tianfu Morning Post spoke to publishers about the possibility that they could be held liable for plot elements that aid and abet criminals:
Reports said that after the police made their arrests, they discovered that at first, the eight grave-robbers had lacked the necessary thieves’ skills to match their desire; they coveted the treasures of the ancient tomb, but they had no clue how to go about robbing a grave. So they got together to study grave-robbing techniques, and Ghosts Blow Out the Light became their textbook. Their preparations before digging and their thieving techniques were identical to the ones described in the book.
The book said that grave-robbers had to pay attention to fengshui, so they learned how to identify fengshui. The book said that preliminary reconnaissance was very important, so they learned how to survey the land. Lacking sophisticated equipment, they copied the substantial amount of information the book revealed about digging techniques. As a result, they were able to open the tomb of the Ming Dynasty eunuch Jing Cong and carry off important artifacts like jade belt pieces, jade clasps, and a bronze mirror.
Reached for comment, employees of Shanghai Literature and Arts Press and Writers Publishing House generally agreed that special care should be taken in the examination of thrillers such as crime and detective novels, including grave-robbing fiction, to determine whether their contents could aid and abet crimes. However, this is a controversial issue in the publishing world: “Typically, standards for approval in publishing concern whether the work has political problems and whether it is pornographic or obscene. The possibility of details in the book being used as a criminal textbook is not within the scope of censorship. If you’re going to screen based on that, then writing a detective novel will be impossible.”
A source within publishing administration who did not wish to be identified said, “Under the present circumstances, we don’t yet have the ability to screen the contents of detective novels. It’s an issue of both manpower and relevant knowledge.” Yet the individual also said that if the screening was too strict, then even Agatha Christie novels would be left hanging, because the plots of the most famous mystery writer in the world are often imitated by criminals.
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Calls from netizens for a movement to halt publication of the book are discouraging to Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House. A general editorial office staff member complained that the accusations were unfair: publishers shouldn’t have to shoulder that responsibility! “Ghosts Blow Out the Lights is a proper book. Before publication, we went through the administration’s approval process.”
The newspaper also talked to author Tianxia Bachang about his “criminal textbook.” He was unapologetic: “Of course I know that grave-robbing is illegal, but I’m writing an adventure.”
In addition, he admitted that the novel had little basis in reality:
“Even though I wrote a grave-robbing adventure story, please don’t think that I’ve robbed graves. I’ve never been on any archeological projects, and I’ve never even visited the Ming Tombs. I based the novel on stories I heard and then built it up with my own flavorings. Eighty percent of the thing was completely made up.” Tianxia Bachang emphasized repeatedly, “I maintained an honest, scientific outlook during the whole writing process. I wasn’t intending anything else.”
- Tianfu Morning Post (Chinese): Grave-robbers copy Ghosts Blow Out the Lights
- Beijing Morning Post (Chinese): Official’s tomb robbed in Ghosts copy-cat