"Teng Guo" Why did Qin Shihuang burn books to bury Confucianism? Who initiated the idea of burning books?

Influenced by the idiom "burning books to bury Confucianism", many people think that burning books to bury Confucianism is one thing, but it actually happened in two periods. Let's talk about burning books today. Whose idea was it to burn this book? Is it Qin Shihuang? That's not true. Two people in history advocated and eventually contributed to the burning of books. Coincidentally, the burning of these two books took place in the Qin Dynasty. This is the first time in Qin Xiaogong's time. The proposer is Shang Yang. Qin Xiaogong appointed Shang Yang to reform. Shang Yang's political reform is very famous in the history of China. One of the contents of its reform is "burning poetry books". However, the records in Han Feizi are very brief, and there is no specific record of how and what to burn.

The second time happened in Qin Shihuang's time. The supporter is Reese. There is also Historical Records of Qin Shihuang. So concentrate on burning the second one. The reason for burning books is an argument. The protagonist of this argument is Zhou Hechun. The focus of the debate is the advantages and disadvantages of the enfeoffment system and the county system, and which system should be implemented in the Qin Dynasty.

In 2 13 BC, Qin Shihuang hosted a banquet in Xianyang Palace to entertain his ministers. When Zhou made a toast, he kowtowed to Qin Shihuang, saying that your majesty "pacified the sea and drove out barbarians, and the sun and the moon had no light." Taking the princes as the county, everyone is happy, free from war and passed down from generation to generation. Your majesty, wade, since ancient times. Qin Shihuang was very happy and praised Zhou. At this time, Chundao couldn't sit still. He stood up and objected, "Now your majesty has a family, and his children are ordinary people. Who will save him in case of an accident? " Besides, we haven't been to counties, and we haven't heard of the main policies of the country. You can live without studying ancient times. Now Zhou is glib in front of you, which shows that he is not a loyal minister. '

The dispute between feudalism and county system is not temporary. There have been disputes since the unification of the six countries. In 22 1 year BC, Qin tong destroyed six countries. When all the officials advocated that the enfeoffment system should follow the example of the Zhou Dynasty, Li refuted public opinion and advocated the county system. Qin Shihuang adopted Lisi's opinion and divided the whole country into 36 counties. Nearly ten years later, ministers are still debating this issue. It can be seen that the opinions of various countries are still not unified and there are differences. Instead of judging their argument, Qin Shihuang threw the question at others at the banquet and asked, "What do you think?" At this moment, Prime Minister Reese stood up. Li has always advocated the county system. He confidently said a classic sentence: "The five emperors don't copy each other, and the three generations don't criticize each other. One family is dominant, not the other way around. Time has passed. "

What Reese said is very reasonable. If only things could end like this. But it's not over yet. Reese has a keen sense of politics. He smelled the danger of national division from the ministers' argument. He knows very well that to maintain the "unity" of the empire, we must unify our thoughts and cultures. So he saw the opportunity and put forward the suggestion of burning books. Without hesitation, Qin Shihuang made a decision on the spot, "Do as you say".