Burning books and burying Confucianism refers to two major events that Qin Shihuang made to control ideology and culture in the thirty-fourth year (2 13 BC) and the thirty-fifth year (2 12 BC).
In the thirty-fourth year of Qin Shihuang, Dr. Chun Yuyue and Prime Minister Li Si started a debate on the enfeoffment system in the court of Qin State. Subsequently, under the suggestion that Li Si prohibited private schools and burning books, Qin Shihuang issued an imperial edict to burn books except medicine, divination and tree planting. People who speak poems, books and other works are sentenced to abandon the market, claiming that all knowledge should be taught by officials. Those who disobey orders and officials will be punished.
In the thirty-fifth year of Qin Shihuang, the alchemist Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng talked privately about Qin Shihuang because they couldn't find the elixir for him. They thought that he was greedy for power and headstrong, specializing in punishment, so they fled together. Hearing this, Qin Shihuang ordered the pursuit of those who misled people with rumors. More than 460 people died in Xianyang. Fu Su, the eldest son of Qin Shihuang, protested and was sent to Shang Jun to supervise the army.
Qin Shihuang burned books to bury Confucianism in order to maintain a unified centralized politics. Although these measures temporarily controlled public opinion, they caused serious damage to culture, and many ancient books in the pre-Qin period were set on fire, which also aggravated the hatred of scholars towards the Qin Dynasty.
The direct influence of burning books and burying Confucianism
The violent policy of burning books and burying Confucianism did play a role in restraining thoughts in a short time, but it also aroused the hostile attitude of scholars towards the Qin government. The burning of books in Qin made it difficult to inherit Confucianism. After Chen Sheng rose up, Confucius, the eighth grandson of Confucius, led the Confucian scholars of Qi and Lu to join the rebel army actively, and even died with Chen Sheng.
The policy of burning books and burying Confucianism directly affected the inheritance of Confucianism. Confucianism suffered a heavy blow in this process, and the spread of Confucianism was at a standstill. After the demise of the Qin Dynasty, Confucian scholars gradually restored Confucian classics that were banned by the Qin Dynasty. Confucianism takes poetry, calligraphy, ceremony, Yi, Spring and Autumn as classics, and the spread of Shangshu is one of the representatives. Fu Sheng, a Confucian scholar, secretly hid Shangshu in the wall at home when he was "burning books". Chao Cuo was widely circulated by Fu during the reign of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty.