Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor of the ages, he conquered the land of Liuhe, unified writing and weights and measures, and achieved a series of great achievements. However, he has also done many things that harm the interests of the country and the people, the most reproachful of which is the burning of books and the pit of Confucianism.
We all know that the reputation of ancient emperors was largely determined by the evaluation of literati, so even the most tyrannical emperors would not easily provoke this group of intellectuals. Qin Shi Huang should have been highly regarded for his great achievements, but because of his act of burning books and pit Confucianism, he was condemned by later generations of literati.
Why did Qin Shi Huang rather offend intellectuals than burn books to pit Confucianism?The reason for all this can be traced back to that court meeting. According to the record of "Historical Records of Qin Shi Huang", in the 34th year of Qin Shi Huang, a grand banquet was held in Xianyang Palace, and 70 doctors came to celebrate his birthday.
At that time, Zhou Qingchen praised Qin Shi Huang and praised Qin Shi Huang's implementation of the county system, which was conducive to the unification of the country and was a very outstanding policy. However, on that occasion, Chun Yuyue bluntly pointed out that the failure to implement the feudal system would lead to a crisis for the imperial family, and that no royal family would have the power to preserve the rule of the royal family, and the power of the state would fall into the hands of powerful ministers. At the same time, he also pointed out that Qin Shi Huang violated various ancient institutions, which would make it impossible to rule for a long time.
Qin Shi Huang is known as the first emperor of the ages, and when Chun Yuyue accused him, he did not refute it, but instead asked the ministers to discuss the issue. Prime Minister Li Si pointed out that the biggest disadvantage of the feudal system is that after a few generations, blood ties become thin, and the country that is difficult to unify may fall apart again. As for Chun Yuyue's refusal to follow the ancient system, it will not last long in the future, which is nothing more than a scholar's reckless discussion of the political situation.
Li Si immediately suggested that Qin Shi Huang burn the books of the Six Kingdoms. Historical records: "Except for the history of the Qin State, everything else must be burned." ** They are responsible for all the "poems", "books" and scriptures of each family in the world, and all of them are handed over to the guards and commanders to burn. Those who dare to mention poetry and books by chance will be put to death, and those who think that the ancient times are superior to the present will be exiled.
Officials who see and know but do not report are guilty of the same crime. Those who are not burned within thirty days are to be tattooed on their faces and made prisoners of the city. The only books not burned were medicine, divination, and gardening. If you want to study law, you have to learn from officials. ”
Qin Shi Huang did not begin to burn books until after that court meeting. The core issue of this court discussion is how to control the minds of the people. For the newly unified Qin State, how to manage the six states of Shandong has become a topic that cannot be ignored. The Qin state was not known for its culture, so it chose the simplest way to deal with this problem, that is, to burn the books of the six kingdoms, and keep only some ancient Qin books and some books on medicine, divination, and tree planting.
Although the original intention was to benefit the rule of the Qin state, the method appeared to be unfair. Coupled with Li Si's selfish proposition of "deposing a hundred schools of thought and respecting magic alone", many classic ancient books have disappeared into the long river of history.
The word "pit Confucian" is often mentioned together with "book burning pit Confucianism". In reality, however, they are two different things, each with its own origin. The aforementioned "book burning" originated from a discussion at the imperial court. And "Confucianism" originated from a "fallacy". After Qin Shi Huang established a unified feudal dynasty, he was very eager for immortality.
To this end, he hired a large number of alchemists to refine elixirs for him. However, the elixir of life is a lie, and the two monks named Lu Sheng and Hou Sheng realized that they could not really make the elixir of immortality, and they were worried about being punished by Qin Shi Huang. Therefore, they decided to take the initiative and spread the word with other warlocks, accusing Qin Shi Huang of being "rigid for his own use", "full-time prison guard", "using torture and killing as a threat", and "greedy for power", believing that he should not seek an elixir for him.
Upon learning of this, Qin Shi Huang was furious and immediately arrested Lu Sheng and Hou Sheng and tortured them. Faced with brutal torture, the two had to expose the crime of framing Qin Shi Huang along with other warlocks. Qin Shi Huang spent a lot of money to seek the elixir of immortality, only to be deceived by these warlocks, which is absolutely intolerable. As a result, Qin Shi Huang ordered the entire city to search for and arrest these monks, and as a result, more than 460 people were executed.
"Confucianism" does not refer to the killing of Confucian students, but to frame those scholars who deceive themselves. In fact, in the Qin Dynasty, the status of Confucianism was not low, and they were reused in many fields. Qin Shi Huang appointed these Confucian scholars as doctors, in charge of classics, making ceremonial music, and preparing consultations, and allowed them to participate in court meetings, giving them preferential treatment of "great respect". There is no record of large-scale Confucianism in historical materials, which can be confirmed from the documents of several Confucian masters in the Western Han Dynasty.
Jia Yi and Dong Zhongshu and others were all Confucian masters at that time, and it was only a few decades before the reign of Qin Shi Huang, if Qin Shi Huang really killed Confucianism, there must be a record in their works, especially Jia Yi also wrote "On Passing Qin", if "Confucianism" is true, then there will definitely be relevant records in this article.
Therefore, this so-called "book-burning pit Confucianism" should be called "book-burning pit technique", as for why it later evolved into "book-burning pit Confucianism", it may be because of the resentment of later generations of Confucian students against Qin Shi Huang's "book-burning", and also for the purpose of seeking sympathy.