Qin Shihuang is the most controversial figure in history. Not only himself, but also many of the things he did will cause great controversy. For example, Qin Shihuang's burning of books has been controversial since ancient times. Everyone knows that Qin Shihuang was a person with merits and faults in history. Although his merits outweigh his faults, this does not mean that people should not criticize him.
Whenever the words "burning books and entrapping Confucianism" are mentioned, everyone will say that this emperor has harmed ancient culture. But why on earth would he do such a thing? There is no historical conclusion on the truth of burning books and entrapping Confucians, but burning these books is certain. So why did Qin Shihuang do this?
This matter actually originated from a quarrel. Li Si said that under His Majesty's management, the world is particularly peaceful, and various systems are very sound and effective, and everyone can perform their duties. But there are always some literati who are uneasy with the present and always want to restore the past system. Their thoughts are really stubborn, and these remarks and thoughts are very detrimental to His Majesty's rule. Therefore, he suggested that historical books from other countries should be burned, as well as other outdated books.
Qin Shihuang felt that this suggestion was very effective, so he immediately adopted it and announced it on the second day. The whole country burned such books within a month. From historical records, this measure , the starting point is to unify our thoughts. In Lee's view, these books were published in the past history and were critical tools that affected the reality of political satire. These books may be used as tools to criticize the county system, so they must be burned.