Liang Nakamura

Liang Nakumara as Tax Officer of the Yanting Office, taken in 1731 AN.

Liang Nakamura (1705-…) was a Shirerithian writer of Jing ethnicity. He was born in Yanting, a suburb of Daocheng, a few years before the integration of the Great Jing into the Imperial Republic. As the son of impoverished rural nobility, he received a solid education thanks to the Ducal Jingdaoese authorities, who from an early age recognized him as a talented bureaucrat. He was a member of the Imperial Kadetten and learned to love both the Kaiseress and Heavenly Light as a child.

Nevertheless, he too could not escape worries about the sometimes difficult combination of both institutions he venerated (as he respectfully showed on several occasions in his writings). He was fortunate enough to be employed by Imperial Magistrate Lin Zexu in 1721 when he was only 16 years old. He was appointed head of the local tax office of Yanting in 1728.

Despite his activity as a bureaucrat, Liang sporadically submitted articles to various newspapers, like the Daocheng Times. His columns, often critical of the increasing push for democracy in Shirekeep, were eagerly read by the public.

Books such as 'Why We Should All Kowtow for the Mango Throne' and 'On the Issue of Why We Need to Believe' became bestsellers within the Eastern Provinces among the Jing people. Loyalty to the Throne and gods and a plea for a return to a more agricultural, paternalistic society stood central in his writings. He became increasingly active in newspapers with the outbreak of war with the Benacian Union in 1733.