According to Records of the Historian Qin Benji, after a heated argument with Confucianism, Li Si gave advice to Qin Shihuang, urging him to tell the world that all books that are not the history of Qin should be burned, such as the Confucian Book of Songs, Shangshu and other books about a hundred schools of thought. Ordered the county satrap and Qiu to burn the banned books within 30 days. If the time limit is exceeded, they will be tattooed on their faces and sent to hard labor.
People are not allowed to discuss the contents of banned books together. Anyone who dares to commit a crime against the wind will be sentenced to death and the body will be abandoned. People who satirize current events with ancient events will be extinct. If an official dares to conceal the details of a crime and knows it but doesn't report it, he commits the same crime as a criminal. And the implementation of official learning, legal education and taking officials as teachers. If you want to learn, you have to enter the yamen and follow the official school. All the books except Qin history, medical skills, divination and agricultural books were burned, but these books are still in the library of Qin Wangfu, not extinct, and are in the charge of doctors.
This is the first time to burn books, but unlike people's thinking, Qin Shihuang was cruel and heartless, and burned all the books, leaving none. What really killed these books was the second burning. Xiang Yu and Liu Bang agreed that whoever entered the customs first would be the king. Liu Bang entered Xianyang first, so Xiang Yu gave a big banquet to get rid of Liu Bang, and Liu Bang escaped smoothly. After the Hongmen Banquet, Xiang Yu entered Xianyang from the west, massacred and killed Zi Ying, king of Qin, set fire to Xianyang Palace of Qin, and looted women's property. After seeing the ruins of Xianyang, I want to go back to the East.
Xiang Yu attacked Qin Gong and burned it. It is said that the fire will not go out in March. Qin Gong's books hidden indoors were also burned together, so the poems, books, hundreds of languages and other books that had long disappeared among the people were completely lost in this fire. Therefore, when the Han Dynasty ordered the national collection of books, most of the books about poems, books and hundreds of languages were dictated by the old Confucianism. However, when King Lu expanded his palace, some ancient China classics were found hidden on the wall of Confucius. Before, Hejian Wang Xian also collected ancient books with huge sums of money among the people.
The first emperor and Xiang Yu burned books twice, which was a cultural catastrophe in ancient society. Although the first emperor wanted to unify his thoughts, Xiang Yu's move was totally undesirable.
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