The value of these books can be fully understood from their origins. In this regard, Sui Shu Jing Ji Zhi has a detailed record, which is roughly as follows:
After Qin Shihuang burned books to bury Confucianism, it was stipulated that officials should be the teachers, and people were forbidden to collect books. Scholars fled to the mountains, and some even failed to preserve Confucian classics, which could only be passed down by word of mouth.
When Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty abolished the law prohibiting people from collecting books, Confucian scholars began to spread their theories among the people. However, due to the incomplete preservation of the original book and its long-term oral circulation, there are many confusions and omissions. There are two kinds of books in The Book of Songs and three kinds in The Book of Songs. The Analects of Confucius circulated in Qi is different from that in Lu. There are several Chunqiu, and other ancient books are more chaotic. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established Taishigong as a specialized institution to collect books donated by the whole country. Sima Tan and Sima Qian wrote 130 historical books based on the historical books collected by Tai Shigong. By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, these books had been lost, so Chen Nong was sent to collect books scattered among the people. Dr. Liu Xiang of Guanglu was also invited to review and sort it out. After Liu Xiang's death, Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty let his son Liu Xin inherit his father's footsteps. Finally, he divided 33,900 volumes into seven categories and compiled seven kinds of prospects.
Wang Mang fell and the books in the palace were burned. Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty and Zhang both attached great importance to academic culture, especially to Confucian classics. Books are presented all over the country, and the stone chambers and Lantian collections in the palace are also quite sufficient. So he concentrated his new book in Dongguan and Renshou Pavilion, and ordered Yi Fu and Ban Gu to sort it out according to Seven Outlooks and compile it into Han Shu Literature and Art Annals. However, when Dong Zhuo forced Emperor Xiandi of Han Dynasty to move westward to Chang 'an, soldiers plundered the palace, taking long scrolls of silk books as curtains and burdens, but there were more than 70 cars of books transported to Chang 'an. Later, Chang 'an also fell into war, and these books were swept away.
After the founding of Wei State, books scattered among the people began to be collected and sorted by the secretary of the Central Organization Department, and were divided into four parts according to their contents. In addition, there are 29,945 volumes of ancient books unearthed from the ancient tomb in Jixian County (southwest of Jixian County, Henan Province) in the early Western Jin Dynasty. However, shortly after the Eight Kings Rebellion and Yongjia Rebellion broke out, Luoyang, the capital, was devastated by the war and became a ruin, leaving no imperial books.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Southern Eastern Jin Dynasty collected some, but compared with the original four catalogues, only 30 14 volumes remained. Since then, the northern suicide note has gradually flowed to the south of the Yangtze River. For example, when Emperor Wudi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty captured Chang 'an, he collected 4,000 volumes of ancient books from the library of the later Qin Dynasty. By the eighth year of Song Yuanjia (43 1), Xie Lingyun, the secretary supervisor, had compiled four catalogues and recorded 64,582 volumes. At the end of the Qi Dynasty, the war spread to the secret pavilion of books, and books suffered heavy losses. Secretary Liang Chu concentrated on sorting out books in Wende Hall, with a total of 23 160 volumes except Buddhist scriptures. Due to Liang Wudi's emphasis on culture, Jiangnan has maintained a stable situation for more than 40 years, and the collection of folk books has also greatly increased. After the Hou Jing Rebellion was pacified, Xiao Yi, the king of eastern Hunan (later Emperor Liang Yuan), ordered the collection of books in Wende Hall and public and private books collected in Jiankang (now Nanjing) in the capital to be transported back to Jiangling.
The remaining 70,000 volumes should be the old collections of Emperor Liang Yuan in Jiangling. At this point, his book collection has reached an unprecedented140,000 volumes.
The consequences of Emperor Liang Yuan's burning of these books are also recorded in Sui Shu Broker's Records:
Due to the long-term war in the north, the loss of books is more serious. After the Northern Wei Dynasty unified the North, there were few books in the imperial court. After Emperor Xiaowen moved to Luoyang, he borrowed books from the southern State of Qi, and his collection increased slightly. When Erzhurong rebelled, imperial books were scattered among the people. At the beginning of the establishment of the Northern Zhou Dynasty in Guanzhong, there were only 8,000 books, which gradually increased to more than 1 10,000 books, and then increased to 5,000 books after the demise of the Northern Qi Dynasty.
In the third year of Emperor Wendi (583), he accepted the suggestion of Niu Hong, the secretary supervisor, and sent someone to search for different books, stipulating that the original books could be returned after being copied or used, and each volume of hair was rewarded with a silk, so he gained a lot. After the destruction of Chen in Sui Dynasty, many books were obtained, but most of them were newly copied during the period of Taijian (569-592). The quality of the paper and ink used was poor and the contents were full of mistakes. This shows that southern ancient books were destroyed by burning books in Jiangling. After finishing, the collection of books in the Secret Pavilion of the Sui Dynasty reached more than 30,000 volumes. During Yang Di's reign, he copied 50 copies of the Secret Pavilion Collection and built a temple in Luoyang, the eastern capital, as a library.
In the fifth year of Tang Wude (622), the king was destroyed. After Luoyang was captured, all the books were transported to Chang 'an. Because the boat capsized when crossing Sanmenxia, most of the books fell into the water and disappeared, leaving only 10% to 20%, and even the catalogue was incomplete. During the compilation of Sui Shu Jing Ji Zhi in the early Tang Dynasty, 14,466 books were collected, with 89,666 volumes.
Since the collection of books in the early Tang Dynasty included books published decades after 555 years, the number of old books actually restored was less than half of the original. In terms of quantity, Emperor Yuan of Liang destroyed half of the books handed down from ancient times. In terms of quality, he destroyed the essence accumulated in past dynasties, and the quality is naturally far above the manuscripts collected by the people or in the Tai Jian period, so the loss cannot be valued by quantity.
From Qin Shihuang to the early Tang Dynasty, China's books suffered numerous disasters. From the early Tang Dynasty to the present, there are countless natural and man-made disasters, and most of the nearly 90,000 books at that time were not preserved. However, the record of 14,000 books burned by the emperor on his own initiative is unique in these two thousand years and rare in the history of the world.
If Emperor Liang Yuan did not burn books, even if they were damaged when the Western Wei army occupied Jiangling, some of them would be concentrated in Chang 'an as trophies, some of them would be spread to today, and more information would be indirectly preserved to today. If so, the history of China before 555 AD will be much richer than what we know today, and the ancient civilization of China will certainly be more brilliant.
1440 years later, there are certainly not many people in China who know about this catastrophe, but the cause of the book burning in Jiangling deserves serious consideration by all those who care about the fate of Chinese civilization.
The indirect reason why Emperor Liang Yuan burned books was the invasion of the Western Wei Dynasty and the failure of the defensive war. In 554 A.D. 165438+ October (the third year of Liang Chengsheng), Western Wei sent generals Yu Jin, Yuwen Hu and Yang Zhong to lead 50,000 troops from Chang 'an to Jiangling. In fact, two years ago, Emperor Yuan of Liang made Jiangling his capital, which was already doomed to his ruin. Jiangling is backed by the Yangtze River, and there is no danger to defend in the north, far from the long-term political and military center of the Southern Dynasties. In order to cope with the conflicts between brothers and clans and control the potential hostile forces, he stationed troops in various places, not preventing the powerful enemy in the north, the Western Wei Dynasty, and dreamed of destroying dissidents. Even when he received a tip-off from Ma Bofu, an old minister of the Liang Dynasty, he did not believe that the other side was already preparing for an invasion.
Yu Jin, commander-in-chief of the Western Wei Dynasty, predicted the tactics of Emperor Liang Yuan when he sent troops: the best policy was to send troops to Han and Mian, sweep the great river and take Danyang directly, that is, after the general mobilization of the army, he voluntarily gave up Jiangling and moved to Jiankang. The middle policy is to move the residents in Guo to the sub-city and wait for reinforcements, that is, to move the residents from the outer city to the inner city, strengthen the fortifications of the city and wait for reinforcements. The best way is to defend Romania, that is, to defend the outer city without any active transfer. From all aspects, Emperor Liang Yuan must take the next step. Later, it happened, and Emperor Liang's tactics were even worse than the last decision.
165438+1On October 20th, the satrap of Wuning (in the northeast of Jingmen City, Hubei Province) reported the news that Wei Jun was going south. Emperor Yuan of Liang called a group of ministers to discuss. General Hu Monk and adviser Huang Luohan said: The relationship between the two countries is friendly and there is no conflict of interests, which will definitely not happen. Wang Chen, a servant sent to the Western Wei Dynasty last year, put it better: I am trying to figure out Yu Wentai's expression, and there is absolutely no reason to invade. Emperor Liang Yuan decided to send Wang Chen to the Western Wei Dynasty again. But three days later, Wei Jun has arrived in Xiangyang (now Xiangfan City, Hubei Province), and Yuan Di ordered the inside and outside. However, after Wang Chen arrived in Fan Shi (now Zhongxiang County, Hubei Province), he sent an urgent letter to Huang Luohan: The border was orderly, and the previous news was just a joke. This makes Yuan Di track down again. It was not until 165438+ June 28th that he sent someone to Jiankang to recruit Wang Sengbian, a heavily armed general, to serve as the viceroy in Jiangling and the secretariat in Jingzhou, and to lead the army into aid. But he had no confidence in resisting Wei Jun. On the evening of February 1, 1, he lamented that he would lose now. Even under such circumstances, he did not relax his control over his subordinates. He sent people to stop him from attacking Liu Fa and sent troops to help Jiangling. I can break the enemy here. You only need to defend Yunzhou, and you don't need to mobilize troops. Therefore, we lost our latest reinforcements.
65438+February 10, Wei Jun crossed the Hanshui River, sent Yuwen Hu and Yang Zhong to ride in Jiangjin, captured (now southeast of Shashi District, Shi Jing), and cut off the Yangtze River waterway east of Jiangling. On the same day, Emperor Yuan of Liang held a military parade outside Jinyang Gate, the outer city of Jiangling, but the north wind blew hard and the rainstorm plummeted, so it had to end hastily. The next day, Wei Jun captured Wuning and captured the satrap Zongjun. Yuan Di, who has been sitting in a sedan chair, rode out of the city in a sedan chair, deployed around the city, and erected a fence more than 60 miles long. Monk Hu and Wang were ordered to guard the east and west of the city, while the prince patrolled the whistle and the people carried firewood and stones. That night, Wei Jun arrived in Huanghua, only forty miles away from Jiangling, and arrived in Muka on June 5438+04. 15 years, Liang Jun opened the door to fight, and the emerging satrap Pei Ji killed Jiang Weihu's grammar. However, on the 24th, a fire broke out at the gate, which destroyed thousands of houses and 25 towers. Wei Jun took the opportunity to cross the river on a large scale and ordered the construction of an encirclement, so that Jiangling was completely isolated from the outside world. Although Emperor Yuan of Liang summoned reinforcements from all directions many times, none of them arrived. Wang Sengbian, the most powerful city, is far away in health. Although the former army has been deployed, it is ready to take the strategy of waiting for an opportunity to attack the rear road of Wei Jun. Unfortunately, before it can be implemented, Jiangling has fallen. Another reinforcement, led by Wang Lin, the secretariat of Guangzhou (now Guangzhou), has just arrived in Changsha. On the 27th, Emperor Yuan of Liang, who was deeply desperate, tore off a piece of silk and wrote in his own hand: I will endure death and treat the public (Jun), I can do it! Urged Wang Sengbian to March, but to no avail. 65438, 555 10-4, Liang Jun opened the door and went to war, all of them were defeated. 10, Wei Jun attacked the city in an all-round way, and the commander-in-chief, Monk Hu, was killed by an arrow and his morale was shaken. Someone opened the West Gate, put it in Wei County, retreated into Jincheng (inner city), and immediately sent two nephews as hostages to make peace with Yu. The generals in the south of the city surrendered in succession, and the soldiers in the north of the city struggled until dusk, only to hear the news that the city was trapped and fled.
Yuan Di tried to kill himself by burning books, but he was stopped by the left and the right, so he was ready to surrender. Xie Daren and others advised him to break through at night. As long as he crosses the Yangtze River, he will be rescued by the A Liang Army stationed at the Jiangnan Wharf. But Yuan Di is not used to riding a horse, thinking that he will not achieve anything, which will only add insult to his ears. Under the instigation of Bao Wang, Yuan Di also doubted Xie Aren's loyalty, so he refused to meet him after he suggested calling more than 5,000 people in the inner city. He was so angry that Xie Aren vomited blood. Yuan Di, riding a white horse and wearing plain clothes, surrendered at the East Gate. He was humiliated and killed on June 27th, 65438. Wei Jun selected tens of thousands of slaves from the governors of Liang Dynasty and Jiangling people and brought them back to Chang 'an as trophies. The rest were killed, and only over 300 families were pardoned. At that time, it was freezing cold and mixed with snow and ice, and twenty or thirty adults froze to death or were trampled to death along the way.
In fact, the war lasted only one month. Liang Jun did not resist effectively, and the biggest loss was the innocent people in Wanjuan Fourteen Cities and Jiangling.
Burning books in Jiangling is another crime committed by Emperor Liang Yuan on his own initiative, because Wei Jun didn't need to burn books when he was in Enemy at the Gates. Whether he wanted to fight or surrender has nothing to do with burning books. After he was arrested, someone asked him why he burned books. The answer is: I read thousands of books, so I burned them. This certainly shows that he didn't know the real reason of national subjugation until his death, or he didn't want to admit it if he did, but it also proves that he loved books all his life, and his love to the extreme turned into his hatred to the extreme. Let these books be his scapegoats or martyrs.
According to Ji, he could recite the first half of Quli when he was five years old. Although I have been blind since I was a child, I am extremely eager to learn. I always read a lot of books, write a chapter and talk about it, so I can argue it out quickly and win the championship. Bad sex and high reputation. These words may be exaggerated, but there are several things that can't be false: Yuan Di loves metaphysics, and he began to explain Laozi to ministers in Longguangtang from 10 to 554 19. 165438+1October 23rd, Wei Jun has arrived in Xiangyang, and he has just suspended his lecture and announced that * * * is inside and outside. On the 27th, there was no movement at the border, the lecture resumed, and officials had to wear military uniforms to listen. On the evening of February 27th, 65438, Jiangling was already in the Wei army, and Yuan Di was touring uptown. He is still in high spirits, writing poems casually and courting ministers. His works include 30 volumes of Biography of Filial Piety, 30 volumes of Biography of Loyal Officials, Yinzhuan of Danyang 10, Notes on Hanshu 150, Notes on Zhouyi 10 and Encyclopedia of Neidian 100. Such extensive and numerous achievements are not readily available even to professional scholars. It is really remarkable for an emperor who has lived for 47 years and experienced many years of troubled times. Although his poems have not got rid of the frivolous and flashy habits, there are also many fresh and meaningful works, which occupy a place in the history of China literature. As a prince, he successively served in Huiji (now Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province), Jiankang, Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province) and Jingzhou (governing Jiangling). It also took great pains to collect 70,000 copies and finally collected140,000 copies. There is no doubt that Emperor Yuan of Liang loves books and reading.
Not only did Emperor Liang Yuan do this, but there were also many emperors who loved books. For example, the large-scale collection of books mentioned in the Annals of Sui Shu Classics was related to the emperor's hobbies at that time. Even the tyrannical Emperor Yang Di did a good thing in protecting ancient books. If he hadn't ordered 50 volumes and 3,000 copies in the secret cabinet, perhaps most of the books would have escaped the war disaster in the late Sui and early Tang Dynasties. The emperor has absolute power, inexhaustible money and people all over the world to drive him. His role in collecting, sorting and preserving books is irreplaceable by any other individual.
But the tragedy of history also happened to the emperor. Once the books are collected by the emperor, they become his private property. They are not only isolated from the people, but may be tampered with or destroyed at any time, and they will also become martyrs of an emperor or a dynasty. After Emperor Yuan of Liang burned books, he cut off his sword on the column and sighed: Tonight, the way of civil and military affairs is exhausted! In his eyes,140,000 books are like a sword, but they are his private property. What's wrong with using it when it's useful and destroying it when it's useless?