About "burning books to bury Confucianism"

Burning books and burying Confucian scholars is an event that Qin Shihuang began to burn books and bury Confucian scholars and alchemists alive from 2 13 BC.

Burn books

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in China (77 BC1year-22 BC1year), the social productive forces in China developed greatly, and some ordinary people were gradually liberated from manual labor. Facing the chaotic social situation, they hope to find a way to save the world by thinking and studying the thoughts of predecessors in managing the world. So there are so many schools of thought and countless works, which are called a hundred schools in history.

In 22 1 year BC, the first unified autocratic dynasty in the history of China, the Qin Dynasty, was established. At that time, hundreds of schools of thought contended in the society, which seriously hindered Qin Shihuang's thought of unifying the people of the six countries and threatened the rule of the Qin Dynasty. In 2 13 BC, Li Si, the prime minister of the Qin Dynasty, said that a hundred schools of thought "speak insincerely when they enter, talk loudly when they leave, praise the Lord in the name, take the differences as high, and lead others to slander." Therefore, in order to unify the thoughts of the people of the original six countries, Qin Shihuang began to destroy all the works contended by a hundred schools of thought except the division family in that year, until the demise of the Qin Dynasty in 206 BC, which was called "book burning" in history (Historical Records, Volume VI, Biography of Qin Shihuang): I asked historians to burn all the books except Ji Qin. If you are not a doctor, people in the world who dare to collect poems, books and hundreds of languages will burn them. Some people who dare to speak "poetry" and "books" abandon the market. Think of the past as a family that is not the present. Those who don't mention it when they see it are all guilty. If it doesn't burn for the next 30 days, it will be a city. Don't go, books such as medicine, divination and tree planting. If you want to study law, you should take an official as your teacher. )。

Niu Hong in Sui Dynasty put forward the theory of "five evils", saying that China's books were burned by Qin Shihuang, Dong Zhuo moved the capital, Liu's rebellion and Wei's entry into Ying.

Pit Confucianism

In the second year of burning books, that is, 2 12 BC, in order to further exclude different political ideas and opinions, Qin Shihuang killed more than 460 Confucian scholars and alchemists in Xianyang, the capital of Qin State at that time, which was known as "pit Confucianism" in history.

Another said that it was caused by the escape of several alchemists. It turned out that Qin Shihuang was very superstitious about alchemy and alchemy, thinking that he could find an immortal real person for himself and get the medicine of immortality. He even declared: "I worship real people and call myself' real people' instead of' me'." And some alchemists, such as Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng's disciples, also like it, and they strongly claim that they are connected with God and can get wonderful medicines. But after a long time, their promises and all kinds of strange theories are always invalid, and the scam is about to be exposed. The Qin law stipulates: "You can't have two sides, you can't take an exam, and you die." So Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng conspired to escape. Before they fled, they also said that Qin Shihuang was "just violent for his own use", "full-time prison officer" and "greedy for power" and could not ask for fairy medicine. When the first emperor knew this, he was furious and said, "Lu Sheng and others have been very generous to me. Now you slander me, Jyuugo is immoral. Born in Xianyang, I make people ask questions, or pass them on. " He ordered the torture of more than 400 scholars in Xianyang, looking for Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng. After that, 460 scholars were buried by huge stones.

Besides killing more than 460 people in Xianyang. At the same time, a group of people were transferred to the northern border. After the incident, Fu Su, the eldest son of the first emperor, remonstrated, saying, "At the beginning of the world, far-away leaders have not gathered. All the students recite the teachings of Confucius. Today, they all attach importance to the teaching of law. I am afraid that the world will be uneasy, just take a look. " Qin Shihuang not only refused to listen, but also asked Fu Su to leave Xianyang and sent Meng Tian to Shang Jun in the north.

Impact and evaluation

Accelerated the demise of the Qin dynasty.

Qin Shihuang burned books to bury Confucianism, aiming at maintaining unified centralized politics, opposing ancient and modern times, and attacking the absurd stories of mysterious and different alchemists, but it did not achieve the expected results. This is different from other measures taken by Qin Shihuang, which was unexpected by Qin Shihuang and Li Si.

The struggle between the legalists of Xunzi School and Confucian orthodoxy is mainly manifested in the struggle between centralization (landlord politics) and vassal enfeoffment (Lord politics), and finally the great rupture of burning books and burying Confucianism broke out. In 22 1 year, when the country was just incorporated into the world, ministers headed by Prime Minister Wang Su advocated enfeoffment of the Prince in a place far from Qin, such as Yan Qichu, and independent Tingwei Lisi opposed it. Qin Shihuang decided to implement the county system from Li Siyi. In the first 2 12 years, Qin Shihuang held a grand banquet, and all his ministers and doctors suggested that Chun Yuyue should learn ancient methods and make the hero of the prince a vassal. Li Si, the Prime Minister, denounced Confucian scholars for learning from the past but not from the present, respecting private studies, slandering state affairs and confusing people's hearts. He suggested banning private study. The solution is to burn all the history books of other countries except the Qin history books hidden by historians. In addition to the books collected by doctoral officers, all Confucian classics and books of various schools in private collections were sent to the government for burning. If you don't send your private books to the government within the next 30 days, you will be fined to build the Great Wall for four years. Beheading people who talk about poetry and books is genocide, and only medicine, divination and agricultural books can help. Folklore takes officials as teachers. Qin Shihuang began to burn calligraphy in Li Siyi. Before 2 1 1 year, alchemists begged for immortality and fled for fear of sin. Qin Shihuang was furious and buried more than 460 Confucian scholars alive. This barbaric act of burning books and burying Confucianism reflected the extreme sharpness of the internal struggle of the ruling class at that time. It is the right time for Li Si to advocate centralization, but the Confucianism represented by him (merging with Han Fei Legalists) is a political thought that extremely suppresses the people. Wang Wan and Chun advocated enfeoffment of princes, which was out of date. The Confucian orthodoxy they represent (including yin and yang, five elements and immortals) is a kind of benevolent and political thought. Politically, the dispute between schools has developed into a massacre, most of the Confucian scholars of Mencius School were killed (Zhao Qi said in the Eastern Han Dynasty), and Li Si won. However, burning books and burying Confucianism did not eliminate the differences between schools at all, but also contributed to the demise of the Qin Dynasty. Qin Shihuang carried out Lisi's proposition, and Fu Su, the eldest son of the heir to the throne, spoke for Confucius and Mencius. Qin Shihuang was very angry and asked Fu Su to go to Shang Jun to supervise Meng Tianjun. In 2 10, Qin Shihuang went on patrol and died on the way. Reese is afraid of Fu Su's succession, so he can't be trusted. Zhao Gao, a legalist eunuch of Han Fei, conspired to suppress Hu Hai, the 18th son of Qin Shihuang, as Qin Ershi, and forged a testamentary edict to kill Fu Su and Meng Tian. Soon, Hu killed Lisco again. The State of Qin lost its popular Fu Su, the prestigious general Meng Tian and the prime minister Li Si, and the regime fell into the hands of Hu Hai and Zhao Gao. Hu Hai's close supervision made people dumbfounded, and she was an out-and-out husband. All the conditions for Qin's downfall were ripe.

Ying Zheng's extreme practices led to the short life of the Qin Dynasty, which lasted only 15 years. Zhang Jie, a poet in the late Tang Dynasty, wrote in the poem "Burning Books to Pit Confucianism": "Before the ashes in Shandong were cold, Liu Xiang didn't study."

It created the "great unification" pattern of China.

"Burning books to bury Confucianism" has always been the evidence of Qin Shihuang's cruelty. It has been reviled by scholars all over the world for more than 2,000 years, so that some people are still worried about this historical event, wishing that they could not dig graves and whip corpses, penetrate more than 2,000 years of time and space, and absorb bone marrow from Qin Shihuang. This hatred is actually a collective fear in the subconscious of later literati, which has been passed down from generation to generation. Emotionally, the old monk also felt that Qin Shihuang's method of burning books and burying Confucianism was too intense, and it was really cruel to Confucian scholars at that time. He could have taken some milder measures. But if we want to evaluate a historical event, it is best to evaluate it from the effect of the event, rather than using moral or emotional standards. So what is the historical role of burning books and burying Confucianism? I believe that after this incident, the historical pattern of great unity of the Chinese nation has been formed.

Let's look at the essence of "burning books to bury Confucianism". The essence of "burning books to bury Confucianism" is actually a movement to unify thoughts. After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, he abolished the enfeoffment system in political structure and implemented the county system nationwide. Culturally, unified writing, official writing with Xiao Zhuan as the standard; In the economic field, unified currency and unified measurement. These measures are the basic elements of national unity and can be controlled by powerful national violence. However, some things are difficult to control by the powerful structure of the country, especially in the early Qin Dynasty, just after the Warring States Period, when a hundred schools of thought contend, and the ideological field is extremely chaotic. To what extent a country can be unified, the most important condition is to what extent it can form the same values, and ideological confusion is the enemy of forming the same values. Therefore, it is not enough to have unified measures in politics, economy and culture. The most crucial and long-term unification factor is the unification of ideas and the formation of unified core values, so that the unification measures in politics, economy and culture can be effective. The two biggest ideological trends at that time were Confucianism and Legalism. Confucianism respects the ancient times, but Qin Shihuang's unification of China is a new thing, and the measures taken are also new measures, which do not conform to the Confucian concept. At that time, the nobles of the six countries also tried to restore the enfeoffment system of the Zhou Dynasty through the Confucian "self-denial", thus gaining lost power. Therefore, for the newly unified Qin Dynasty, unifying thoughts is the key measure to maintain great unity. Therefore, after Qin Shihuang found several Confucian scholars, he began a cultural movement to unify his thoughts. The means are a bit intense, but the objective effect is obvious. Although the unified Qin dynasty only lasted for more than ten years, the rulers after the Qin dynasty regarded the idea of unified rule as the key means to maintain their rule. By the time Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty ousted hundreds of schools of thought, China's thought of unification was formally formed. Since then, the rulers of past dynasties have basically regarded Confucianism as the core concept of the country. What needs special explanation here is that the essence of "burying Confucianism" in the Qin Dynasty and "respecting Confucianism" in the Han Dynasty is the same, and they both want to unify their thoughts. In fact, since the Han Dynasty, all feudal rulers have basically practiced "Yang Confucianism and Yin Buddhism" or "True Confucianism", that is, on the surface, they adopted the Confucian point of view, but in fact it was a means of legalism. The emperor ruled the world in a legalist way and educated the people in a Confucian way. Legalists emphasized power, skill and power. The ancients regarded these things as the skills of emperors and as a way to control the people and ministers. Confucianism mainly emphasizes benevolence, righteousness and propriety. The greatest advantage of benevolence, righteousness and propriety is to form a sense of behavior in morality, and it is a good tool to maintain the hierarchy without resorting to violence. Therefore, rulers of past dynasties have used Confucianism to educate the world. At that time, Qin Shihuang took drastic measures because he didn't realize that Confucianism could be used. But burning books and burying Confucianism actually set the tone of Yang Confucianism and Yin Buddhism. Therefore, I think that burning books and burying Confucianism has created the great unity of China.

Of course, I'm not here to say that Qin Shihuang was right to lie to Confucianism. I just want to say that his unified thinking direction is right, and. The specific method can be better, but in an era when human life is worse than dung, there is no cleaner method than direct physical elimination. In addition, I think it may be more objective to evaluate a historical event from its historical effect.