There are many reasons why Emperor Qianlong wantonly destroyed ancient classic cultural works, one of which is to suppress ideas and safeguard the rule of the Qing Dynasty. He ordered the compilation of Sikuquanshu, and more than 10,000 kinds of books were delivered from China provinces. At this time, Qianlong said that he would destroy all the books that violated the characters.

According to Wang Bin's summary of banned books in Qing Dynasty, there were 3,236 kinds of banned books in Qing Dynasty, which was close to Sikuquanshu.