Speaking of the first emperor’s burning of books and confucianism, how many people expressed their heartache by shooting the case to soothe their hearts? And how many people screamed because the first emperor’s actions caused many precious books to be burned, so that future generations could not study it. The Emperor Burning Book actually kept a backup.
Qin Shihuang
Qin Shihuang unified the six countries and united the thoughts of the world as a family. For the long-term consideration of his dynasty, he must unify the doctrine and thinking so that the country can achieve long-term unified development. Prime Minister Li Si once proposed that the first emperor should unify the doctrine, so as to be beneficial to the development of the country. Otherwise, everyone thinks differently. If they often gather together to discuss, over time, they may have arguments that affect the country's development.
book burning
Qin Shihuang agreed with Li Si and approved the practice of book burning. When the first emperor was able to unify the six countries, thinking about problems would naturally take the overall picture. The books at that time were no better than modern ones. It might take a month to type on the keyboard with hundreds of thousands of words. In ancient times, books that were to be preserved for a long time were usually carved on bamboo slips with a knife one by one. Those unique insights and huge works took several years and decades. Therefore, when it comes to the types of books burned, The emperor stipulated that only the following two types of books should be burned: the first type are historical books whose authors are not from the Qin country, and the second type are poetry books and Baijiayu.
In this way, many books have been spared, which proves that the first emperor did not burn all hundreds of books, and some books were not included in the scope of book burning.
Secondly, when it comes to book burning, what is the fundamental purpose? It is not to make this book disappear from the world, but to tell the people that some books cannot be read or hidden. Burned.
In fact, Qin Shihuang understood that these books were not for the people to read, and there could be backups in the palace. Although some words were not conducive to the peaceful reunification of Qin, they were still worth learning and learning. Therefore, book burning is just a way to deter the people, and let everyone take the initiative to hand over the books that should be burned. Then, the source of bad remarks is gone, and people will naturally not discuss it, so that the country can last for a long time.
Bamboo Slips
In this way, the book burning of the Qin Dynasty is actually just an illusion, because most of the books have been preserved, even if they were not originally backed up, as long as the state of Qin exists, these books will continue to circulate. In this way, some people may ask again, if this is the case, then why do many precious ancient books no longer exist? In fact, everyone has overlooked one person, that is Xiang Yu. After Xiang Yu invaded Xianyang, he not only burned, killed, plundered, but also burned the palace. According to legend, the fire burned for three months, which caused many books in the palace to be burned. Another reason is that the preservation of ancient books after the Han Dynasty was not perfect. According to statistics, nearly 80% of the books in the Han Dynasty no longer exist.
bamboo slips
so the truth can be revealed, Qin Shihuang’s book burning was not like many people thought, all precious classics were burned out in one fire. From this point of view, Shi Huang was indeed a resourceful and visionary monarch. If there are pre-Qin books, there is no doubt that there should be countless books in the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang. As for whether it can be preserved in the tomb of Qin Shihuang, I don’t know.
