Let's talk about burning books. In the history of China, there is a very interesting cultural phenomenon: burning books. Moreover, the crime of burning books in past dynasties was tied to Qin Shihuang. In fact, burning books was not the first initiative of Qin Shihuang, nor was it an example of Qin Shihuang. In the ancient history of China, there were four recorded famous "book burning".
In 359 BC, Qin Xiaogong burned books to bury Confucianism, and Qin Xiaogong appointed Shang Yang to carry out political reform. There is a record in A Record of Han Feizi He Zi that "Shang Jun taught Qin Xiaogong to burn books and write poems, and made a clear decree", which shows that Shang Yang was the first person to put forward the idea of burning books in Chinese history. However, Shang Yang's thoughts of "burning poems" and "writing" have not been seriously implemented, so they have not caused much damage to ancient culture.
After Qin Shihuang burned books to bury Confucianism and unified the six countries, he established an autocratic centralized feudal administrative system. Some Confucian scholars cite poems, books and hundreds of languages in view of current politics, taking the past as the past, saying, "If you enter, you will doubt; if you leave, you will talk." Premier Li Si put forward the proposal of "burning books" in order to put an end to the phenomenon that "all students learn from the past but not the present, confusing the leaders in Guizhou". In 2 13 BC, Qin Shihuang accepted Lisi's suggestion and ordered all other books, such as Ji Qin, Medicine, Divination, Planting Trees, to be handed over to the imperial court for burning within 30 days. This book burning incident has reduced countless cultural classics to ashes.
Emperor Liang Yuan burned books. Emperor Liang Yuan (508-554), Xiao Artist, was the emperor of the Southern Dynasties. In 554 A.D. 10, the Western Wei sent Changshan Gong Yujin and General Yang Zhong to attack the beam with 50,000 troops. In the same year 10, Wei Jun attacked Jiangling (now Jiangling, Hubei). At this time, Emperor Liang thought that even if he read thousands of books, he would still die. What's the use of reading? So, he ordered the Scheeren Gao Shanbao to collect and burn all 6.5438+0.4 million books. After being captured, the Western Wei people asked him why he burned books. He said: "Reading broke thousands of books, and it is still there today, so it is burned." In February 65438+554, Emperor lyna was killed by the Western Wei Dynasty at the age of 46. Xiao Yi's burning books is an irrational behavior when he is desperate, which is essentially different from the Qin and Qing Dynasties forcing him to burn books for fools, so later generations often adopt a tolerant attitude towards his actions.
After Emperor Qianlong ascended the throne by burning books, from 1773 to 1782, he organized more than 360 famous literati and scholars, which lasted for 10 years, and compiled a large-scale series unprecedented in China feudal society-Sikuquanshu. The publication of Sikuquanshu has played an important role in preserving China ancient cultural classics and spreading ancient academic culture. However, the fundamental purpose of emperor Qianlong's compilation of books was to consolidate the rule of the Qing Dynasty and promote cultural absolutism. When he started compiling books, he twice proposed that the "destroyed" ancient books should be destroyed and the "deleted" ones should be deleted. Therefore, some books are often unrecognizable. According to statistics, in the book compilation in 10, Zhejiang Province alone destroyed 24 books, 538 books and 13862 books. Haicheng, governor of Jiangxi Province, collected more than 8,000 books for burning in April1year (AD 1776). During the whole Qianlong period, * * * burned 7 1 10,000 books. It can be seen that the burning of books by Qianlong was the largest in China feudal society.
The thought of suppressing the people has been manifested in various dynasties. The more serious individuals think that it is the pit Confucianism of Qin Shihuang, the literary inquisition of Qing Dynasty and, of course, the Cultural Revolution. I just want to talk about five major cultural disasters in China's history. First of all, I need to explain that I have pieced together many disasters that seem to be similar in nature and not far apart in years. Of course, this is only my personal opinion, and it is also an immature view. We can discuss it together. In my opinion, that’s an excellent idea.
burning books and burying Confucian scholars alive
When it comes to cultural catastrophe, few people don't think of burning books to bury Confucianism. After the unification of the six countries, Qin Shihuang burned books to bury Confucianism, which was the first time in China's history that books were destroyed nationwide, and its influence on later generations was really indescribable.
As we all know, before Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, there was a rare phenomenon of a hundred schools of thought contending in the history of China. During this period, whether in literature, philosophy, astronomy or many other aspects, China has established a position leading the world for hundreds or even thousands of years; China has produced great thinkers and strategists who have far-reaching influence on China and even the world, such as Confucius, Laozi and Sun Tzu, and is still the most famous China person in the world. You can't imagine how many books and achievements will last forever in this period. However, it was Qin Shihuang who burned books and buried Confucianism, which made all this go up in smoke with the raging fire.
It is true that, as foreigners say, without Qin Shihuang's unification of the six countries, China may eventually become a long-term divided situation like that in Europe, but Qin Shihuang's crimes against the Chinese nation by burning books and burying Confucianism are absolutely intolerable!
Second, oust a hundred schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone.
Next, I think it should be the policy promoted by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, which was later sought after by all feudal emperors.
It is true that this policy played a great role in the early stage of implementation, such as promoting the maturity of the feudal system to a certain extent, and so on. However, it is undeniable that Confucianism, like any theory, has its own defects, which have been tampered with by feudal rulers to serve their rule and even become a tool for feudal rulers to rule the people. Therefore, the negative influence of Confucianism is increasing.
What's even more ridiculous is that the Han dynasty came from the history of the collapse of the Qin dynasty at this time, but it was only a hundred years. It is not to correct the book-burning mistakes of the Qin Dynasty and rehabilitate the devastated families, but to oust a hundred schools of thought, which of course makes the situation of a hundred schools of thought contend no longer, and the splendid culture of the Chinese nation no longer!
Third, the imperial examination system
Next, the imperial examination system, which began in the Sui Dynasty and flourished in the Tang Dynasty, was abolished by the Qing Dynasty in 1905 and lasted for 1300 years in the history of China!
The imperial examination system did play a great positive role, but did we ever think that it was such a system that guided the thinking orientation of the Chinese nation 1300, that is, writing articles with four books and five classics? Where are the others? Such as mathematics, physics, astronomy, history, geography, etc. For more than 1000 years, the research on these things is almost blank. Before the imperial examination, our ancestors were able to write such brilliant masterpieces as Shi Gan's Classic and Sun Tzu's Art of War during the Warring States Period. Zhang Heng, a great scientist in the Qin, Han, Southern and Northern Dynasties, was able to invent the seismograph and the armillary sphere, while Liu Hui and Zu Chongzhi, mathematicians, were able to make contributions to Pi that were thousands of years ahead of the world. Take the prosperous Tang Dynasty, which we are all proud of. Besides poets and writers, how many scientists and mathematicians have we produced? I don't deny the importance of literature, but let's think about it. Why isn't there a generalist like Zhang Heng? An obvious reason is that the vast majority of young people are keen on imperial examinations, so there are no or few people in society who are committed to these "crooked ways", so the science of our nation has stagnated. Isn't this a kind of helplessness?
48 episodes of prose prosperity.
After the imperial examination, there were eight-part essays in Ming and Qing Dynasties, which was somewhat similar to the previous imperial examination system, except that it made greater restrictions on candidates' articles.
We often say "Tang poetry, Song poetry, Ming and Qing novels", of course, everyone knows what it means. The representative figures of Tang poetry school are Da, Da and Da. They are all officials of the Tang Dynasty. In fact, even those little poets who are not famous were once officials. The representative figures of Song Ci are six of the eight great poets in Tang and Song Dynasties, as well as Lu You and Xin Qiji. Are they also officials of the Song Dynasty? However, let's take a look at the representative figures of Ming and Qing novels. How much did we get? Wu Cheng'en did get in, but when he got in, he was half buried. Can you say they have no talent? Cao Xueqin, Luo Guanzhong and Pu Songling, not a few great writers in the history of China literature, all failed the exam. What does this mean? This only shows that at this time of the imperial examination, Lian Wenxue talents have not been selected, let alone scientific talents? Five or six hundred years ago, there were almost no scientific talents in history.
In fact, which one can't be called a catastrophe, the literary inquisition after the Qing Dynasty entered the customs or the destruction of ancient books by compiling Sikuquanshu?
Think about the western world in this period. What are they doing? Let's take a look at us at the same time and compare the differences between the eastern and western systems at this time. How can we Chinese nation not fall behind?
Five college entrance examination systems
Finally, talk about the college entrance examination system. Many people may not agree with this, after all, the college entrance examination has only been implemented for 30 years at most, and 30 years is only a moment for human history. However, I want to remind you, what age is it now? I remember someone saying this, as if the value created in this decade is the combination of the past few hundred years. Think about it, now is an era of rapid development. Isn't the current 30 years 300 years worse than the previous dynasty? Moreover, it is easy for you to recover the past 300 years in 50 years, but it may take you 10 years to recover the current 30 years. In other words, if you want to make up these gaps now, you will have to pay much more than before.
Then, naturally, what harm does the college entrance examination have? Obviously, there are many similarities between the current college entrance examination and the ancient imperial examination system. The ancient imperial examination only examined literature and pushed people to the road of literature; Now the college entrance examination is also about culture, only those subjects, and if you want to be recognized, you have to go to the college entrance examination, so that young people all over the country can catch up with mathematics, Chinese, English, physics, chemistry, history, geography and so on, and nothing else. At the very least, learning these subjects well can't do anything else at present. Therefore, you have to learn things that can't be used for eight generations, wasting precious life, time and money. What if you want to find another way? Then you need to bear a lot of pressure, saying that you didn't do your job well, you also need strong funds to support you, and you need to understand your parents. Alas, who can happen to have all this? And those who happen to have the conditions, who can guarantee that they can all learn something? Or you can say that they can pass the college entrance examination and wait until they enter the university, but you know that people's energy, time and money are limited. Besides, after entering the university, many people are almost 20 years old, others have worked hard since childhood, and you have just started at the age of 20. How much thinner have you lost compared with others?
Therefore, I said that the college entrance examination system is the fifth cultural catastrophe in the history of China. The college entrance examination system in China must be reformed and diversified, so that the career paths of aspiring young people of the Chinese nation can be diversified, and everyone can compete freely with young people of other nationalities at the same starting point and under the same conditions in their favorite fields. I think that only in this way can our country prosper and last forever.