What does Qin Shi Huang mean by burning books? It is not completely burned, but targeted burned
With his greed and arrogance, the king of Qin did not believe in the virtues of the ministers, did not kiss the people, abolished the royal road with personal love, burned books and pit Confucianism, opened the world's **, and was deceitful and unkind. "--Jia Yi.
The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were the first period of great conflict and turmoil in Chinese history.
The gradual collapse of slavery and the gradual establishment of feudalism are full of bloodshed, but since ancient times, nothing is immutable.
Speaking of this historical period, the existence of Qin is inevitable, because this is contemptuously called by the master of the Central Plains"Xiyi"The great empire swept the world at the end of the Warring States Period, completing the first real unification in Chinese history and creating a precedent in China's feudal history.
One cannot mention the Qin Dynasty without mentioning Qin Shi Huang, who created the title of Emperor and was the supreme ruler of the feudal system that influenced Chinese history for more than 2,000 years.
Qin Shi Huang's reputation in later generations was not good, and many people compared him to a tyrant, especially the book-burning pit Confucian, which branded him as brutal.
Actually,"Book burning pit Confucianism"with"Book burning pit Confucianism"It is not related, why is it adopted by future generations? This is just a means to discredit Qin Shi Huang.
Also, did Qin Shi Huang burn all the books in the world? In fact, he burned books mainly to influence everyone to buy such books for thinking, and books with strong practicality were not for book burning, and listen to me in detail.
They burned poetry books and fought witches.
The book burning pit is not a historical event, but two separate events, and there is hardly any connection between the two. The true meaning of book burning and burying Confucianism was the burning of poetry and the burial of Confucianism, both of which were not synonymous with brutality as we think today.
Added before the burning of books"Yes"words, indicating that Qin Shi Huang's actions were selective and not aimless. Both of these policies were introduced at the suggestion of Prime Minister Li Si, with the aim of strengthening the centralization of power, maintaining the rule of the Qin Dynasty, and suppressing the remnants of the Six Kingdoms.
Such a method is cruel, maybe brutal, but in fact there is a reason, the Qin State has gone through eight generations, after more than two hundred years, the achievements of the former hegemony have been burned, and no one wants it to be overthrown, so Qin Shi Huang took such an act, just to ensure that the Qin Dynasty can be immortalized for thousands of generations, but there are no extreme means.
Since the burning of books and the throwing of scholars into caves are two different events, we need to mention them in detail separately.
A collection of burning poems.
The main reason why the Qin State was able to complete the unification was that the Shang Dynasty changed the law, and the Shang Dynasty was an advocate of the rule of law, and the ruling ideology of the Qin State was the Legalist thought, and the Legalist thought did not waver after the Qin State changed the law.
In feudal society, Legalism and Confucianism were the two schools of thought with the most acute contradictions, both serving the ruling class. Confucian"Poetry"、"book"and other righteousness emphasized the rule of benevolence and righteousness, which Qin Shi Huang believed was related to"Act"、"Governance"The doctrines of coexistence are completely incompatible.
In addition to the powerful Qin State with Legalism as the core, after the destruction of the Six Kingdoms, of course, it is impossible to give up Legalist thought, and the burning of "poems" and "books" this time is actually to suppress Confucianism and strengthen their own rule.
In addition, when Qin Shi Huang burned the classics, he instructed the prime minister to back up the classics that were not burned and store them in the Afang Palace, but they were later burned by Xiang Yu, the king of Chu, so from the perspective of cultural error, this is not only the fault of Qin Shi Huang, but also the fault of the king of Chu.
Cave and tunnel guides.
What is a magician to put it bluntly, there are a few magicians on the rivers and lakes, and there are some people with real skills, but they are more of them, Qin Shi Huang summoned the emperor, looked at the rivers and mountains, and thought of the world as the king, so Qin Shi Huang dreamed of the desire for immortality, so Qin Shi Huang instructed the magicians in the world to find the secret recipe for immortality.
However, there is no elixir for immortality, and these warlocks saw it from Qin Shi Huang"Business opportunities", taking advantage of Qin Shi Huang's psychology, defrauding him of his ill-gotten gains. Xu Fu not only deceived him of a large amount of gold and silver treasures, but also deceived his trust, Qin Shi Huang could not bear it anymore, and finally deceived the Jianghu warlock with a butcher's knife and killed dozens of people.
It stands to reason that this is not a Confucian thing, so why did it become an anti-Confucian pit in later generations? It is because in order to slander Qin Shi Huang in later generations, it is recorded that Qin Shi Huang deliberately killed innocent people. Especially after Confucianism became the mainstream ideology, Legalism became the target of attack, and in order to humiliate Legalism at a deeper level, Qin Shi Huang, who respected Legalism, naturally became the target of Confucianism's attack.
Moreover, there has been a long period of time between the book-burning pit Confucianism and the book-burning pit Confucianism, which cannot be confused and analyzed in depth, and the book-burning pit Confucianism is completely untenable.
At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Qin Shi Huang has been a controversial figure since ancient times, some people think that he is a generation of heroes, and some people think that he is the tyrant of the dynasty, arguing for thousands of years, it seems that his conclusion cannot be covered, but the short life of the Qin Dynasty makes more and more people think that it is because of the ** of the Qin Dynasty, and he has passed away, but in fact it is not.
Some people say that the Han Dynasty inherited the system of the Qin Dynasty. Since the system of the Qin Dynasty led to the demise of the Qin Dynasty, why did the Han Dynasty inherit the system of the Qin Dynasty? In order for future generations to feel that their dynasty is orthodox, denigrating Qin Shi Huang has become a necessary means, and while saying bad things about the Qin Dynasty, while imitating the system of the Qin Dynasty, this is actually a slap in the face of anyone.
But was Qin Shi Huang really a tyrant? Look at the later emperors of China, who, after achieving great things, almost without exception did one thing, and that was to kill heroes to regain power. Liu Bang and Zhao Kuangyin did this, but Qin Shi Huang did not kill the heroes.
Wang Qian, Wang Ben, Li Si, Li Xin, and later Feng Xiao, Feng Ji, Zhang Han, etc., none of these famous ministers and generals who became famous because of Qin Shi Huang's unification of China were touched by Qin Shi Huang, and after the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, these people were still in high positions, except for those who died of natural causes.
What are your thoughts on this?