Since ancient times, there has been a legend of banning books among the people. There are many books that have been banned in history. The Book of Shang Jun is one of them. So why is it banned? Let's take a look.
The Book of Shang Jun
The Book of Shang Jun, also known as the Book of Shang Zi, has 26 extant works, which is one of the representative works of the Legalist School in the Warring States Period, and is a well-known figure in China, Shang Yang, and a compilation of his later works. The book solved the theoretical basis of political reform at that time, and put forward several major principles of political reform, including macro-theoretical exposition and specific laws and regulations, which are still of reference significance.
The Book of Shang Jun has various styles. There are more than a dozen articles in the discussion, such as Agricultural War, Kaisai, Planning, etc., which are either integrated first and then analyzed, or integrated first and then analyzed, and induction and deduction is also used, echoing from beginning to end. Sometimes rhetorical devices such as metaphor, parallelism, contrast and metonymy are used. The article Lai Min uses the fable of "Qi people have an open east country" to enhance the effect and image of reasoning. The explanatory body is Kenling, Jinling and Domestic, which is an interpretation of Qin government orders. The controversial body is Gengfa, and the central argument is expounded through the dialogue between characters. Sima Qian entered Historical Records. Biography of Shang Jun (the text has been changed) to show that Shang Yang advocated that the Book of Shang Jun was banned. < P > Shang Yang's political reform touched the status of a scholar-bureaucrat, and Shang Yang was badly split, but Qin Hui's Wang Wen, who tasted the sweetness of political reform, did not abolish the new law. It took Qin a hundred years. However, the Qin dynasty went too far, and the harsh punishment aroused the resistance of the people and eventually perished. After the establishment of the Han dynasty, the tyranny of the Qin dynasty was abolished, and Confucianism was the only one to respect Confucianism. Confucianism replaced Legalism as the orthodox thought of the feudal dynasty.
However, the legalist thought did not die out, and it still operated in feudal rule. The so-called "Confucianism outside and legalism inside" is the application of legalist thought. The emperors of past dynasties admired the Book of Shang Jun, and its foolish ideas played a great role in maintaining feudal rule. For a long time, The Book of Shang Jun has existed as a required textbook for Chu Jun in past dynasties. Since it is a royal reading, it is naturally impossible to circulate among the people. Even in the Tang and Song Dynasties, when the culture was at its peak, it was hard for the people to see it.
The biggest reason is that its thoughts run counter to Confucianism. The Book of Shang Jun has five skills to control the people: one, weakness, fatigue, humiliation and poverty. The core content is to unify people's thoughts and become slaves to the mainstream thoughts of the country; Weaken the people's power and make them obey the rule; Make people tired of labor, corvee, and battle, and have no time for him; Combating people's self-esteem and self-confidence; Stir them up to fight with each other; Trapped the people in their livelihood, so they were unwilling and unable to resist tyranny.
The Book of Shang Jun thinks that "the country will be lawless in the past if the world is not governed together", opposes the law and the ancient rites, and advocates "weak people" and "ignorant people", which obviously does not conform to the Confucian thought of educating all the people. Since the Han Dynasty, Confucianism has become the official mainstream thought. As the terminator of the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty not only inherited its political system, but also completely overthrew the idea of governing the country, including the Book of Shang Jun.. After the demise of the Qing Dynasty, the golden age of ideological and academic explosion was ushered in, and the Book of Shang Jun was lifted and became the most important document for many masters to study ancient thoughts.