Why is it a false proposition that Qin Shihuang burned books to bury Confucianism?

As the first emperor to unify China in the history of China, Qin Shihuang made rich contributions to the Chinese nation. After his death, he died because of Qin Ershi. Later, Confucian scholars deliberately tampered with it and even wrote Qin Shihuang as a heinous monarch. Among them, it is a historical fact that "burning books and burying Confucianism" has made him bear the blame for thousands of years.

If you want to understand the history of any period, you must first understand the background of the times when it happened. "Burning books to bury Confucianism" happened shortly after Qin Shihuang unified China. Legalists dominated the Qin dynasty, and the six eastern countries were closer to Confucianism. To a certain extent, there are cracks in thoughts and they need to be unified.

The cause is the dispute between Zhou and Chun. In 2 13 BC, Qin Shihuang gave a big banquet in Xianyang Palace, and the servant (doctor) Zhou took the opportunity to pay tribute to Qin Shihuang: "He is only a thousand miles away from Qin, relying on the wisdom of your gods to pacify the sea, exile barbarians, and shine in the sun and the moon. He took the vassal as the county, and everyone was happy, avoiding war. He has never been as good as your majesty wade. " Qin Shihuang's face lit up after listening. Dr. Yu Chunyue, a Qi man, immediately retorted, "I heard that the King of Yin and Zhou was over 1,000 years old. He made contributions to his descendants and helped himself. Today, your majesty has a family, but his son is Shu Ren, and he died in Tian Chang, a six-minister, without an auxiliary stroke. How did he save you? No one listens to those who can not learn from the past for a long time. Today, my young minister is guilty of paying tribute to your majesty, and he is not a loyal minister. " Qin Shihuang gave Chun Yuyue's suggestion to ministers for discussion. It's just a normal thing at this time

At the turning point, Reese, then prime minister, deliberately expanded the situation and pointed the finger at all the "students" and private schools. In response to Chun's remarks, Li Si said that "the five emperors do not change their phases, and the three generations do not attack each other". Since ancient times, governance has also changed. Now that the world has been decided and laws and regulations are unified, Confucian scholars "learn from the past but not the present", accusing the contemporary world and confusing people. They vilify "legalists" with "private studies", accusing the government and laws and regulations of "duplicity when they enter, gossip when they leave" and even spreading rumors and slanders. If this phenomenon is not prohibited, it will definitely weaken the authority of the emperor and form opposing factions. Therefore, Reese suggested: "I asked historians to burn all the records of the Qin Dynasty. They are not doctors. Those who dare to collect hundreds of languages of poetry and books in the world should carefully examine them and burn them with miscellaneous. Some people who dare to talk about "poetry" and "books" abandon the market and treat the past as the past. Those who don't mention it when they see it are also guilty. If it doesn't burn for the next 30 days, it will be a city. Those who don't go, the books of medical skills, divination and tree planting, those who want to learn the law, take the official as the teacher. "

Qin Shihuang accepted the suggestion of Prime Minister Li Si, ordered the banning of private schools, burned "poems" and "books" and implemented a policy of cultural autocracy. He wanted to take this opportunity to attack the thoughts of the six eastern countries and warn them to control their speech. So there was a book burning fire in Xianyang, the capital of the Qin Dynasty, and then this fire was ignited in counties all over the country before or after, and it never went out within a month. In this nationwide fire, the classical literature of China before Qin Dynasty, except natural science (medicine, tree planting) and theology (divination literature), almost all turned to ashes. It can be said that Reese played a role in fueling the flames.

Development, in 2 12 BC, there were two alchemists, Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng, looking for an immortal elixir for Qin Shihuang. Knowing that there is no elixir, they just use it to defraud wealth. After a long time, the scam will eventually be exposed. According to the stipulation that Qin Shihuang's prescription was invalid, the two alchemists would be put to death. I'm afraid they born to die. So they used the excuse that they couldn't ask such people for fairy medicine to spread a series of autocratic faults of Qin Shihuang and ran away. Qin Shihuang was very angry after hearing the news, because he gave these alchemists great wealth in exchange for the elixir of life. Not only did no one find the elixir for him, but they also spoke ill of him. In addition, some Confucian scholars in Xianyang, the capital, spread rumors and misled people, so Qin Shihuang sent people to interrogate them severely. Confucian scholars snitched on each other and implicated more than 460 Confucian scholars, all of whom were arrested and buried alive. Historically, this incident, together with the book-burning incident, is called "book-burning burying Confucianism" incident. In fact, Confucian scholars themselves have an unshirkable responsibility in the development of things, and the understanding of punishment is also why some Confucian scholars who have committed crimes have the influence of' burning books to bury Confucianism', and a large part of them are later Confucian scholars who want to tidy up themselves.

In fact, these books are kept in the National Library of Qin Shihuang. Later, Xiang Yu set fire to the whole of Qin Gong, so many books were not preserved. The history of winners and losers is written by winners. Of course, there will be some distortions, but it is wrong to throw the notoriety of' burning books and burying Confucianism' to Qin Shihuang.

Welcome to correct me, please speak freely in the comments section.