Chapter 5 Chapter 3 Collection and Burning of Books in the Qin Dynasty

In 221 BC, Qin unified China and established China's first centralized feudal dynasty.When Qin Shihuang merged the six countries, he confiscated a large number of books from various countries and transported them to Xianyang Palace for collection.In the Qin Dynasty, there was a relatively complete book collection organization. The book collection place was called the stone room, and the cabinet where the books were placed was called the golden cabinet. Qin Shihuang also appointed Zhang Cang as the censor who was in charge of book collection and other work.Since the collection of books in the palace stone chamber in the Qin Dynasty is a collection of classics from various countries, its quantity far exceeds that of the Zhou royal family collection, and it is also unmatched by the other six countries in the Warring States period.At the same time, due to the free contention of various schools of thought during the Warring States period, private collections of books became more common.

After Qin Shihuang unified China, he implemented a unified script, abolished the different ancient scripts that were used in the six countries, and adopted Xiaozhuan based on the Qin script as the standard font.At the same time, the official script became popular in the society, which made the writing of characters simple and easy.Due to the unification of characters and the simplification of writing, the barriers to writing and dissemination were overcome, and books increased in large numbers. In the thirty-fourth year of Qin Shihuang (213 BC), at a palace banquet, Dr. Chun Yuyue praised the advantages of the ancient enfeoffment system and suggested that Qin Shihuang follow the ancient system.Qin Shihuang then asked his ministers to discuss. Prime Minister Li Si pointed out that due to the changes of the times, the ancient system and measures could not be followed. He believed that those who had read ancient books often held different opinions on the emperor's decision.Therefore, he suggested that all historical books collected by historians that were not recorded by the state of Qin should be burned; "Poetry", "Except for those collected by doctoral officials, all private collections should be handed over to local officials for burning; anyone who dares to talk about "Poetry" ", will be executed; those who criticize the current politics with past examples will be killed; those who do not follow the order to burn books 30 days after the order of burning books will be tattooed on their faces and fined to build the Great Wall for four years.Only books on medicine, divination (shi's) and books are not included in the ban.In addition, private lectures are restricted, and it is proposed that anyone who wants to study laws and regulations must use officials as teachers.Qin Shihuang agreed to Li Si's suggestion and ordered the burning of books throughout the country.In the second year of the book burning, that is, in 212 BC, Qin Shihuang found out that someone was talking about him.He thought it was a malicious slander, strictly investigated, and buried all 460 Confucian scholars and alchemists headed by Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng.This is the history of "burning books and burying Confucianism".

"Burning books and burying Confucianism" is obviously a severe measure to strengthen feudal ideological dictatorship, which greatly affects the development of culture, tramples and destroys Chinese culture, and is an unprecedented catastrophe for ancient book collection. . Qin Shihuang, Li Si and others thought that as long as they gave an order, they could burn all the books they thought should be burned, but this is not the case.After the promulgation of the book burning order, many people resisted. They hid the books, or hid them in the mountains, or buried them underground, or built them in the walls.According to historical records, there are two most famous cases of hiding books: one is that a doctor of the Qin Dynasty named Fu Sheng in Jinan hid the "Shangshu" in his hand in the wall.Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty Shi Fusheng was already 90 years old. He took out the "Shangshu" hidden in the wall and found that most of the slips had been lost, leaving only 28 pieces. "It is different from the "Shangshu" hidden in the wall of Confucius' house that was discovered later, so it is called the "Shangshu" of the current text.Another case is that Confucius' ninth grandson, Kong Yu (approximately 264-208 BC), secretly hid books such as "Shangshu", "Book of Rites", "Book of Filial Piety" in the wall of Confucius' house.In the last years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Yu, king of Lu Gong, discovered this collection of books when he demolished Confucius' residence in order to expand the palace.Because these books were all written in the big seal script before the Qin Dynasty, they are called the ancient Chinese "Shangshu".

Qin Shihuang issued the book burning order for more than three years, that is, in 209 BC, the peasant uprising led by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang finally broke out.In the tenth month of the lunar calendar in 207 BC, Liu Bang entered Xianyang, and many of his generals searched for property. Only Xiao He collected the household registration, geography and other maps and files managed by the Qin Prime Minister's Mansion and Yushi Mansion, and temporarily sealed other documents and books. .In the twelfth month of the lunar calendar of the same year, Xiang Yu led his army into Guanzhong and set fire to the Qin Palace in Xianyang. The fire continued for three months, reducing a large collection of books of the royal family of the Qin Dynasty to ashes.Qin Shihuang and Xiang Yu set off two fires successively in six years, burning a large number of classics of the Chinese nation from ancient times to Qin Dynasty, causing irreparable losses in the history of culture.

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