Chapter 110 Section 2 Burning Books and Debate

Regarding this move of the empire, Liu Dakui from the Qing Dynasty explained that "if this is the case, he will fool the people, but he does not want to fool himself." In my opinion, the empire made good backups of these banned books, It is not quick to destroy all of them. Apart from not wanting to be fooled, there should also be a sense of responsibility and long-term consideration.For example, we all know that the smallpox virus has ravaged for centuries, killed tens of millions of people, and brought huge and serious disasters to mankind.Even so, humans did not completely destroy the smallpox virus and let it disappear from the earth forever. Instead, they kept a small number of samples in two laboratories in Moscow and Atlanta for research, or to deal with any unforeseen events. A rainy day.

As for the folks, if they keep forbidden books privately and refuse to hand them in, what will be the consequences?The answer was: "It is ordered not to burn for 30 days, and the tattoo will be Chengdan." That is to say, they will accept the punishment of tattooing noodles and building the Great Wall at the border.From today's point of view, such consequences are undoubtedly serious, but in Qin State, where the punishment is severe, this can be regarded as a light punishment, not severe.Moreover, this kind of punishment is still on the premise that the collection of books is discovered by the government. If it is not discovered, naturally there is no need to pursue it.

It can be seen that in the ban at that time, burning books was not the top priority.Call Ruzi by the bridge in the middle of the night, there are still unburned books in the world.Li Si and Ying Zheng naturally understood very well, how can burning books burn all of them!Burning books is just a means.And see: Those who dare to speak poetry and books will abandon the market.The past is not the present, the clan. We will be surprised to find that the punishment for the poems and books in an odd language is far more severe than that for privately collecting poems and books.A private collection of poems and books is nothing more than a tattoo for Chengdan, but even poetry and books have to be abandoned.Coupled with the more severe punishment of "the past is not the present, the family", it can be judged that the main purpose of the ban is to prohibit the public from discussing current politics, and the second is to prohibit the public from discussing ancient politics.It all boils down to one sentence: No talking about politics.The common people don't discuss it, and then the world has its own way. This is probably the logical basis behind the ban.

Burning books is naturally wrong and bad.But for the empire, the suffocation of speech and the silence of all horses are the most terrifying.The mouth of the people is better than Fangchuan.Since ancient times, there have been two methods of preventing Sichuan.One is to block it, and Gun adopted this method. As a result, the flood became more and more raging, and Emperor Yao sent Zhu Rong to kill him in Yujiao.The second is dredging. Gun's son Dayu adopted this method and finally succeeded in controlling the flood. For the long-term plan of the empire, a certain degree of freedom of speech should be maintained, so as to have a dredging effect and benefit from good governance.As far as I can see, the morale article in Zhu Bian's "Continuation of Sassafras" in the Northern Song Dynasty is the most subtle advocacy of this theory, which is recorded below:

The prosperity and decline of a person lies in vitality, and the prosperity and decline of the world lies in morale.When vitality is strong, the skin and leather will be full, and when morale is strong, the court will be strong.Therefore, those who are good at keeping in good health will not consume vitality, and those who are good at governing the country will not discourage morale.If you want to not consume your vitality, you must adjust your diet to help it, and for those with throat, so accept and teach diet.If you want to keep morale low, you must avoid obstructions to achieve it. Talking about the way, so enlighten obstructions.Take the body near, and take things far away. Although the distance is different, the way to govern it is the same.

Going back to the burning of books, how serious is the damage it caused to ancient books?Today, it is difficult to make a definite judgment. "Historical Records Chronology of the Six Kingdoms" says: "The reason why poems and books are reappeared is mostly Tibetan families."Wang Chong's "Lunheng Shujiepian" says: "Although the Qin Dynasty has no way, it does not burn the scholars, and the books and articles of the scholars are there."These two records show that, at least in the Han Dynasty, the essence of the ancient books—the scholars of poetry and books—survived intact.

On the other hand, since all ancient books are backed up in the court, as long as the Qin State is not destroyed, it is conceivable that these ancient books will remain intact.However, many ancient books have disappeared without a trace, and future generations will never see them again. This is especially thanks to our Mr. Xiang Yu. As we all know, Mr. Xiang Yu didn't like reading, and was violent by nature. After Yi invaded Xianyang, he first massacred the city, then searched for money and women, and then set fire to the Qin Palace, which lasted for three months.The precious collections of the empire were destroyed.Pity the legal system of the Tang, Yu, and three dynasties, and the small words of the ancient sages, in the end, they only turned into a few joules of heat.

Therefore, Liu Dakui wrote "Burning Books" and pointed out unceremoniously: the burning of books was not Li Si's crime, but Xiang Yu's. As far as the burning of books by the Qin State is concerned, the actual losses caused by it may not be as serious as imagined. About 524 of the 677 works contained in "Han Shu·Yiwenzhi", or 77%, no longer exist.This fact shows that in the centuries after the Han Dynasty, especially before printing became popular, the total loss caused by the damage of documents may even be greater than the burning of books in the Qin Dynasty.Therefore, it is conceivable that even if there was no burning of books, the number of fragmented slips of the Zhou Dynasty handed down would not be much greater than the number that actually exists now.