In order to set a statue in black and white and establish the absolute authority of the monarch, Reese put forward three suggestions for burning ancient books to Qin Shihuang:
(1) Except for Ji Qin, all ancient history books such as medicine, divination, farmers' classics, philosophers, etc. are handed over to the government for destruction within a time limit. Those who fail to pay after 30 days are sentenced to whale punishment and hard labor for four years;
(2) Those who talk about "poetry" and "books" are put to death, those who are ancient but not today are extinct, and those who are not mentioned by officials are guilty of the same crime;
(3) Those who are willing to learn laws and regulations should learn from officials. Qin Shihuang approved Li Si's suggestion. The day after the banquet, books were burned all over the country.
In less than 30 days, China's pre-Qin classical literature was reduced to ashes. There is only one set of books left in the royal library.
In the second year of burning books, there was another incident of cheating Confucianism. Pit Confucianism is not a direct continuation of burning books, but caused by some alchemists and Confucian scholars slandering Qin Shihuang. After Qin Shihuang seized power and enjoyed wealth, he was very afraid of death. After the reunification of China, he whimsically searched for the elixir of life. The alchemist Hou Sheng, Lu Sheng and others catered to their needs and promised to find this medicine for Qin Shihuang. According to the Qin law, if a lie cannot be realized, or the medicine provided is invalid, it will be sentenced to death. Knowing that they couldn't get the elixir of life, Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng not only ran away, but also slandered Qin Shihuang as a full-time jailer, who decided everything by himself, regardless of size, greed for power and so on. After hearing this, Qin Shihuang was furious and ordered an investigation on the charge of abusing the leader, and personally delineated more than 460 people buried alive in Xianyang. This is the so-called "pit Confucianism" incident.