People used to severely condemn Qin Shihuang’s "burning books and harassing Confucians". This is mainly out of reflection on the death of the second generation of the Qin Dynasty, and also out of the "burning of books and entrapment of Confucian scholars" looting of our ancient culture and the destruction of Confucian scholars. His mood is understandable, but it does not touch on the essence of the problem: this is a tragedy caused by adhering to old concepts.

Judging from relevant records, the so-called "burning books and entrapping Confucians" was caused by a fierce debate on the issue of enfeoffment at a banquet in Xianyang Palace in the 34th year of Qin Shihuang (213 BC). This controversy was first provoked by Dr. Zhou Qingchen. At that time, he used a toast to praise Qin Shihuang and the system of prefectures and counties, but was refuted by Chun Yuyue, a doctor from Qi. The latter immediately proposed: "I heard that the Yin Zhou Dynasty was more than 3,000 years old. He named his descendants meritorious officials and served as branch assistants." Today, Your Majesty has a family at home, but his children are just like a common man, and there are ministers like Tian Chang and Liu Qing at his death. He has no assistants to help him, so how can he save each other? ? ("Historical Records: The Chronicles of Qin Shihuang", any quotation from this record will not be noted below) and warned and criticized: "It is unheard of to do things that can last for a long time without following the ancients." Today, the Qing minister is flattering again and emphasizes His Majesty's fault, which is not a loyal minister. ?Due to serious differences in views between the two, Qin Shihuang brought this issue to the ministers for discussion, which led to Prime Minister Li Si's proposal to burn books. He first pointed out that the governance of the three dynasties was different, which was not enough to be a law. Then he accused all living beings of thinking that the past was different from the present, and confused and confused the people in Guizhou. After hearing the order, everyone would discuss it according to their own learning. The Lord takes the reputation as his own, others take it as his own, and he leads his subordinates to create slander. ?That’s why he suggested burning books: ?I asked the historians to burn them all, not the Qin Ji. If anyone in the world who dares to collect "Poems", "Books", and Baijiayu, who is not a doctor's official, should be sent to Yishou and Weiza to burn them. Anyone who dares to say "poetry" or "book" will abandon the market. A clan that is different from the past. Anyone who fails to take action upon seeing an official will be guilty of the same crime. It is ordered not to burn for thirty days and to be tattooed as Chengdan. Those who do not go away are books of medicine, divination and tree planting. If you want to learn the law, take officials as your teachers. ?This was in line with Qin Shihuang's wishes and was fully adopted. Later in the second year, due to the absconding incident of Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng, more than 460 alchemists and Confucian scholars were killed in Xianyang pit under the pretext of "monster words to cause chaos in the head of Guizhou". This also led to the tragedy of "burning books and entrapping Confucians". What started out as a palace debate with different political views turned into a cultural suppression movement that shocked the whole country. This is certainly not something that can be easily explained by Qin Shihuang's brutal character. In fact, it is the result of a long-standing dispute over the choice of two political systems. Before the Qin unified the country, Xunzi once emphasized "One World" and clearly advocated: "The scholar-bureaucrats divide their duties and listen, the founding princes divide the land and defend it, and the three princes discuss it together, then the emperor can only control himself." ("Xunzi Wangba") "Lu Shi Chunqiu Shenshi" also proposed the idea of ??"public feudalism". Public feudalism is not based on private virtues, so it is full of power and power, so it is righteous. ?So looking at the last world, the feudal people have long blessings and great reputations. The seventeenth generation of Shennong had the world, and it was the same as the world. When Qin unified the six kingdoms, Prime Minister Wang Wan and others put forward the same idea, which was supported by the officials, but they all thought it was convenient. It can be seen that the aforementioned Chun Yuyue's views are actually the common views of many people since the late Warring States Period. This view cannot be said to be unreasonable, but Qin Shihuang, Li Si and others disagreed. They believed that the reason for the endless wars was the enfeoffment. Now that the rule was decided, re-establishing the country would be tantamount to continuing to build troops. Therefore, the suggestions of Wang Wan and others were rejected. Now Chunyu Yue once again mentioned the issue of enfeoffment, which made Qin Shihuang and others more aware of the need to unify their thoughts. In order to maintain the county system and the emperor's authority, they foolishly adopted a high-pressure policy. It can be seen that "burning books and entrapping Confucians" is not accidental. In fact, from a deeper historical background, "burning books and humiliating Confucians" was inevitable at that time. Because with the formation of the Qin Dynasty, an unprecedented empire, unification of thought has become imperative. As Mr. Feng Youlan said, during the Qin and Han Dynasties, politics began to be unified to an unprecedented extent, and a new order was gradually established in all aspects of society and economy. Therefore, it is a natural trend for thoughts to gradually become unified thereafter (" History of Chinese Philosophy"). The question is only which claim to choose to unify the mind. Obviously, Qin Shihuang chose Legalism. Looking through "Han Feizi", it is not difficult for us to see that (in the history of the Qin Dynasty) the so-called "burning books and entrapping Confucians" was actually a consistent proposition of Pre-Qin Legalists. In terms of "burning books", when Shang Yang carried out his political reform, he burned "Poems" and "Books" to clarify the law. As for his attempt to embarrass Confucianism, Han Fei directly pointed out that Confucianism's use of literary language was incompatible with the law, and denounced it as a "five beetles", which also provided a basis for this.

There are two reasons why Qin Shihuang chose Legalism to unify his thoughts: First, compared with other schools of thought, Legalism had particularly deep roots in the Qin Dynasty. This not only refers to the "Hundred Schools of Thought" during the Warring States Period, which theoretically established the dominant position of Legalism, but more importantly, the Qin Dynasty has been adhering to Legalism for a long time since Shang Yang's Reform, and has proved the importance of Legalism by enriching the country and strengthening the army. Reasonable. Qin used this theory as a guide to achieve the transformation from weak to strong. This gave the rulers the illusion that Legalism was omnipotent. For example, when Zhang Binglin wrote "Qin Zheng Ji", he said with emotion: "The Qin Dynasty made the Shang Martingale, and its kings also abide by the law." King Zhao of Han Feidao was ill, so the people bought cattle and went home to pray for the king. The king said: "Being good at praying without giving orders is a sign of loving others." If a husband loves a widowed person, and the widowed person also changes the law and his heart follows it, then the law is not established. Failure to establish the law is the path to chaos and destruction. It is better to punish someone with two armors and follow the law. The intention is to make the king and the people not love each other and just follow the law. Sima Qian also pointed out that after Qin Shihuang unified the world, everything was decided by law. Second, compared with Legalism, other schools of thought did not put forward many convincing theories at that time. Taking Confucianism as an example, its theory is certainly very beneficial to maintaining rule. For example, *** Shu Suntong pointed out: "It is difficult for Confucians to make progress, but they can be successful." ("Historical Records: Biography of Shusun Tong") However, it should be admitted that its rationality had not yet been demonstrated at that time. As Mr. Ma Feibai said: "It is a pity that all doctors are of different categories, and they are all pedantic and illiterate, and they are not familiar with current affairs." ("Preface to Doctor's Table of History of Qin") In fact, Qin Shihuang had already dimly realized that in terms of guiding ideology, "enterprising" and "conservative" may not be the same. He appointed seventy doctors and collected knowledge from hundreds of schools of thought, which shows this state of mind. Moreover, he did try to integrate folk customs with Confucianism. As Gu Yanwu of the Ming Dynasty pointed out: The first emperor of Qin carved stone Fanliu, but at the moment of Kuaiji, he said: To decorate the province and declare righteousness, marrying with a son is double the risk of unfaithfulness. Separate the inside and outside, prohibit sexual immorality, and keep men and women clean and sincere. However, although Qin's punishments were passed, the people's moral values ??were not different from those of the three kings. ? ("Rizhilu" Volume 13 "Qin Ji Kuaiji Mountain Carvings") Therefore, Qin Shihuang himself also claimed: "I have summoned many literary and magicians in order to create peace." ?But the effect disappointed him, which had to make him think that those hundreds of schools of thought were empty talk and useless techniques. From the perspective of the long-term stability of the Qin regime, Qin Shihuang's final choice of Legalism failed to achieve his goal, and the resulting "burning of books and entrapment of Confucianism" was even more cruel and stupid. But we cannot be too harsh on the ancients. It was impossible for Qin Shihuang to choose Confucianism or other schools of thought when he had no experience to draw from, especially when he was guided by Legalist theory in moving from victory to victory. It is true that Lu Jia once said in the early Han Dynasty: "Qin used punishment as a nest, so there was a risk of overturning the nest and breaking the eggs." ("Xinyu? Assistant Government") Jia Yi also pointed out: "If benevolence and righteousness are not applied, the offensive and defensive momentum will be different." ? ("New Book? Passing the Qin Dynasty") But under the historical conditions at that time, it was impossible for Qin Shihuang to realize this. Therefore, although we can criticize "burning books and harassing Confucians" in one way or another, it actually left extremely important historical experience and lessons for how to establish ruling ideas in the future. In a sense, without Qin Shihuang's "burning books and entrapping Confucianism", there would be no Huang Lao prevalence in the early Han Dynasty, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's "exclusive respect for Confucianism"! Because Qin Shihuang and those Confucian scholars all clung to the old ideas, more serious rebellion emerged from them. From the perspective of Qin Shihuang, his purpose was to suppress Confucian scholars and use Legalism to unify his thoughts and consolidate his rule. However, the result was that the Qin Dynasty II fell, and Legalism also crumbled. What is dramatic is that although Qin Shihuang believed in Legalism, in fact, his path was not easy and his politics did not change ("New Book: Passing Through Qinzhong"), and he eventually deviated from Legalism. What made him even more unexpected was that Confucian scholars were treated with courtesy when they arrived in the Han Dynasty, and Confucianism eventually became the ruling ideology of the Han Dynasty (and subsequent dynasties). In fact, those Confucian scholars were not enemies of the Qin Dynasty at all. Although they hold different political views on certain issues, they are still willing and active to devote their wisdom and loyalty to it. The reason why they repeatedly requested enfeoffment was to plan for the Qin Dynasty's future generations. Because of this, Jia Yi once said with regret: "The Qin Dynasty merged with the mainland, and the people of the world showed their country style." ? ("New Book? Crossing Qinzhong") However, Qin Shihuang artificially placed these Confucian scholars on his opposite side. The result was that they drove fish into the abyss and sparrows into the bushes, seriously weakening the ruling foundation of the Qin Dynasty. The real people who destroyed the Qin Dynasty were not Confucian scholars. For example, Zhang Jie of the Tang Dynasty wrote a poem: "The emperor's business has been wasted when the bamboos, silks, and smoke are gone, and the Guanhe River is empty and the ancestral dragon's residence is locked." Shandong was in chaos before the pit ashes were cold, and Liu Xiang did not study.

? ("Book Burning Pit" in Volume 90 of "Complete Tang Poems") However, this does not mean that those Confucian scholars are smarter than Qin Shihuang. From the debate on enfeoffment, we can clearly see that what they sacrificed their lives to fight for was to change the county system into an enfeoffment system. But they did not expect that the fact was unfortunately what Li Si said: "Your Majesty has created great achievements and made contributions to the ages. This is certainly not known to the ignorant." ?Qin’s system of prefectures and counties has not only remained unchanged, but has also been inherited by successive dynasties. As Wang Euzhi of the Ming Dynasty pointed out: The system of prefectures and counties has lasted for two thousand years and cannot be changed. The ancient and the modern are all in peace, and the trend of the times is unreasonable! ? ("Qin Shihuang", Volume 1 of "Du Tongjian Lun") Later generations of Confucian scholars learned from it and realized that if they did not reform the old concepts and create theoretical basis for the rulers, there would be no political foothold. So in the early Han Dynasty, many Confucian scholars talked about advancing with the times. For example, Shusun Tong was ordered to regulate the Han dynasty and recruit Confucian scholars from Lu. Two students refused because what they did was not in line with ancient times. Tong immediately rebuked him and said: "If you really despise Confucianism, you don't understand the changes of the times!" ("Historical Records: Biography of Shusun Tong") What is particularly intriguing is that the Western Han Dynasty punished the Qin Dynasty for its isolation and implemented the parallel system of prefectures and states. It was Jia Yi who severely criticized Qin Shihuang who first proposed the idea of ??"building the princes together". But less force? ("Hanshu Jia Yi Biography") claims. Although they still use the past to judge the present, they no longer criticize or doubt those new systems, but try their best to maintain these systems. Thus, they have completed the process of using the past to describe the present and even using the past to praise the present. transformation. However, for Qin Shihuang and those Qin Confucians, this change was obviously unexpected. This not only fully demonstrates the objective inevitability of historical development, but also highlights people's blindness about historical development at that time. Engels pointed out: From Marx's point of view, the entire historical process, which refers to major events, has been completed unconsciously until now. In other words, these events and their consequences are not based on human will. transferred. The participants in historical events either directly desired something other than what has already happened, or the thing that has happened has caused completely different and unforeseen consequences. (The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 39, Page 405) This is exactly the result of "burning books and humiliating Confucians". It is not only a great tragedy for Qin Shihuang, but also a tragedy for those Confucian scholars!