Chapter 3 Section Three

Confucian classics experienced a historical catastrophe in the era of Qin Shihuang. After Qin Shihuang unified China, he abolished the enfeoffment system since the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and switched to the county system where the emperor directly appointed local officials.This is the last major reform of my country's political system, marking the transition from slavery to feudalism into a new historical stage. According to "Historical Records: The Benji of Qin Shihuang", in the thirty-fourth year of Qin Shihuang (213 BC), at a court banquet, an official named Zhou Qingchen praised Qin Shihuang for changing the system of prefectures and counties, saying: "Your Majesty rules the world, and the whole world submits. Changing the enfeoffment into prefectures and counties can prevent the princes from attacking each other. From then on, the people can live and work in peace and contentment, and the throne can be passed on forever. Your majesty's mighty virtue is beyond the reach of the ancient sage kings!" Qin Shihuang was very happy.Unexpectedly, a doctoral officer named Chun Yuyue retorted: "The two dynasties of Shang and Zhou enjoyed the country for thousands of years, because they entrusted the heroes of the clan to protect the central government. Your Majesty changed the enfeoffment to go to counties and counties, and the children of the royal family have no power. Once there is something in the world, Who can defend the imperial court? Governing the country will not last long if you do not follow the ancient system. Zhou Qingchen flatters you, he is not a loyal minister!" So Qin Shihuang called the officials to discuss.Prime Minister Li Si said: "Three generations of emperors ruled the country differently with time. Your Majesty has built unprecedented achievements, which cannot be understood by rotten scholars. In the past, the princes stood side by side, each raising their own scholars to protect themselves, which only caused the world to be disturbed by using the past instead of the present. Now Your Majesty has unified the world. , the decrees are unified, the people should work hard to produce, and the scholars should study the decrees. If they are still allowed to rely on their own learning, the ancient times are not the present, and the emperor has no authority to speak of slandering the decrees! Therefore, I think that apart from the books used by the imperial doctors , The historical records of the Six Kingdoms, folk "Poetry", and other words of hundreds of schools should be burned! After that, anyone who dares to talk about "Poetry" and "Poetry" will be killed. Anyone who dares to say that the past is not the present will be exterminated. Those who are ordered not to burn for 30 days will be stabbed to match the Great Wall. As for the books on medicine, divination, agriculture, and forestry, they can be kept. Those who study laws and regulations should use officials as teachers." So Qin Shihuang approved Li Si's suggestion and ordered the burning of books.This is the origin of the famous Qin Shihuang book burning incident.Since then, except for the divination books, most of them were burned.Later, Xiang Yu broke through Xianyang, the capital of Qin, and set fire to the palace, and Qin Ting's collection of books was also burned.This is the first catastrophe in the history of our country's culture.

However, culture cannot be destroyed.According to "Historical Records: Biography of Rulin", before the fall of the Qin Dynasty, a group of Confucian scholars from Shandong, headed by the grandson of Confucius VIII Kong Yu (fu negative), defected to Chen Sheng's uprising army with ritual vessels.In addition, there are many private collections of scriptures in various places.Moreover, reading at that time focused on reciting, and the scriptures memorized in the belly could not be burned. Therefore, after the death of the Qin Dynasty, some scholars came out to teach Confucian classics.In the fourth year of Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty (191 BC), the government officially announced the abolition of Qin Shihuang's ban on books, and asked to visit ancient books.Afterwards, these private collections of scriptures gradually circulated again, but many of them are already incomplete.

In the early years of the Han Dynasty, visiting Confucian classics was also out of political needs.According to "Historical Records Lu Jia Biography" records: Lu Jia, a Confucian scholar under Han Gaozu Liu Bang, was very eloquent.He once went to South Vietnam (now Guangdong and Guangxi) under the order of Liu Bang to persuade the king of Nanyue Zhao Tuo to accept the canonization of the Han Dynasty, so he was highly regarded by Liu Bang.However, when Lu Jia and Liu Bang discussed issues, they often mentioned "Poetry" and other Confucian classics, but Liu Bang didn't take it seriously.He once reprimanded Lu Jia and said: "I am riding a horse to conquer the world, what use is your "Poetry" for!" Lu Jia calmly asked Liu Bang: "Your Majesty rode a horse to conquer the world, can you also rule the world on a horse? King Tang, King Wu conquered the world on horseback, but he ruled the world with benevolence and righteousness. Only by using both civil and military forces can there be long-term peace and stability. If Qin Shihuang learned from the ancient emperors to rule the world with benevolence and righteousness after he unified the world, would your majesty be able to overthrow him?" Liu Bang was speechless in answering a few words, so he had to say: "Then you can write to me why Qin Huang lost the world, why I won the world, and the lessons of the successes and failures of the ancients!" So Lu Jia wrote 12 articles discussing the rise and fall of chaos and sent them to Liu Bang. Every time Liu Bang read an article, he said, "It's very good!"

This story shows that after Liu Bang unified China, he urgently needed a political theory to consolidate the regime, and Confucianism was just right for this need.However, in the early years of the Han Dynasty, Confucianism did not gain the upper hand in the court, but the theories of Taoism and Legalism were quite popular.Confucianism gradually strengthened its influence through the three dynasties of Emperor Hui, Emperor Wen, and Emperor Jing. It was not until the era of Emperor Wu that he dismissed hundreds of schools and only respected Confucianism, and then gained a dominant position.At this time, more than half a century had passed since the founding of the Han Dynasty.

The Han Dynasty respected Confucianism and encouraged people to study classics.The government has set up doctoral officers who are proficient in various classics in Taixue, recruits students to give lectures, and after passing the examination, they can hold various official positions with good grades.Due to the government's advocacy, the atmosphere of folk lectures is also flourishing day by day.According to the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty Rulin Biography", in the heyday of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were thousands of disciples under the famous Confucian masters, and there were more than 30,000 students studying in Taixue. Even the Xiongnu also selected noble children. Come to Luoyang to study abroad.In the 1950s, the Taixue site of the Eastern Han Dynasty was discovered in Luoyang. Mr. Zheng Zhenduo once conducted a field inspection, which shows that the records in historical books are credible.

Due to the twists and turns of the Confucian classics, there was a difference between the current version and the ancient version in the Han Dynasty, which led to the unique dispute in the history of world culture that lasted for more than a thousand years.