Live broadcast of the old ancestor gossip: Feeding the black moonlight to Qin Shi Huang

"Burning books and burying Confucian scholars alive can be said to be one of the most criticized points in Qin Shi Huang's life. According to its literal meaning, Qin Shi Huang burned all the books and buried some Confucian scholars alive. Is this really the case?

In fact, from our later perspective, it is true that Ying Zheng burned books, but there has always been controversy about the matter of burying Confucian scholars alive. Some people say that he did not kill Confucian scholars, but some sorcerers, while others say it was only a part of the Confucian scholars. The main reason was that Ying Zheng offended Confucianism, so later Confucianism put the blame on him.

One thing I want to clarify here is that among the books that Qin Shi Huang burned, practical books such as medical and agricultural books were not burned! Moreover, the burned books were backed up, which means preparing a new copy of the original one. You can think that Qin Shi Huang had people write a copy of the books to be burned.

I didn’t really burn them all on impulse, but many books on skills were lost later, partly because of the war, and partly because of Xiang Yu, the King of Western Chu, who I will introduce later.”

"It's fake, it must be fake. How could the tyrant Ying Zheng make such a backup? This must be a lie!"

The remnants of the six kingdoms could not accept Zhou Jia's explanation and started cursing.

Chinese

Liu Che was a little surprised, "Huh, is that so?"

Although their Han Dynasty was indeed quite close to the Qin Dynasty, after the war at the end of the Qin Dynasty, what everyone thought about most was how to survive. Many of the stories were passed down by word of mouth, and he had also heard about the burning of books and burying of scholars, but he never delved into the truth. What he thought about most every day was how to consolidate the rule of the Han Dynasty and how to destroy the annoying Huns.

but……

"He offended the Confucians, so all the blame is put on him?" Liu Che looked at the ministers below with a dignified look, and said with a smile, "Your Majesty the First Emperor offended the Confucians and was accused of all kinds of crimes. If I accidentally make the Confucians unhappy, will they treat me the same way?"

After he ascended the throne, he followed Dong Zhongshu's advice and implemented the policy of "promoting Confucius and suppressing all other schools of thought", and regarded Confucianism as the orthodoxy. Now that Zhou Jia had done this, he became somewhat wary of these Confucian scholars.

The most difficult thing to accept was the founder of Confucianism, the world-famous Confucius. When he first heard the words "burning books and burying scholars", he thought of the Qin Dynasty, which ruled the country by law, and felt a little conflicted. However, as Zhou Jia told her story, she found that Zhou Jia seemed to have a complicated feeling towards Confucianism, but when she heard the word "Confucian scholar", she immediately became disgusted. Then she thought of what she said about offending Confucianism and the first emperor being blamed...

"What on earth did the Confucians of later generations do?" Confucius looked puzzled.

Confucius' disciples were as puzzled as he was, but Zhou Jia did not continue to explain the problem of Confucianism.

"Since we are talking about sorcerers, let's clarify something that is very misleading to the public - taking elixirs. It is said that in his later years, Qin Shihuang was superstitious about immortality and sent the alchemist Xu Fu to search for immortals overseas. In order to pursue immortality, he listened to Xu Fu's words and took a lot of elixirs made by sorcerers.

But in fact, there is no historical data to show that Ying Zheng really took elixirs. Not only is there no record of this, but he even personally shot and killed a big fish in 210 BC, shortly before his death. These things are all recorded in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian.

As for how the rumor of taking drugs became more and more popular, it has something to do with a later emperor. We will talk about it later. Let’s continue talking about the incident of killing Confucian scholars. Those who know history know that Ying Zheng’s eldest son Fusu was thrown to Meng Tian to help build the Great Wall because he angered Ying Zheng because of the so-called incident of killing Confucian scholars.

Therefore, many people say that Fusu is close to Confucianism, and his teacher is Chunyu Yue who has always supported the feudal system, so he has always supported the feudal system. Here I want to say something for Fusu. There is no historical record of Fusu's mother being a princess of the Chu State, his teacher Chunyu Yue, and his so-called support for the feudal system. There are actually very few historical records of Fusu, but the image he appears in is indeed positive, including Sima Qian's record in the Records of the Grand Historian: "Fusu is a kind person." "He is resolute and brave, trustworthy and a warrior."

This is a very good evaluation. So why was Fusu sent to build the Great Wall?

The Historical Records recorded this:

So the Imperial Censor was ordered to investigate all the students, and the students reported to the emperor one by one. The emperor then exiled more than 460 people who had violated the ban, and buried them all in Xianyang, so that the whole world would know about it and serve as a warning to future generations. He also exiled more people to the border areas. The first emperor's eldest son Fusu advised, "The world has just been settled, and the people in remote areas have not yet gathered. All the students recite Confucius' teachings. Now the emperor has severely punished them. I am afraid that the world will be in turmoil. I hope the emperor will investigate this matter." The first emperor was angry and sent Fusu to the north to supervise Meng Tian in Shangjun.

This was the origin of the so-called burning of books and burying of scholars by Qin Shi Huang, and it was also the reason why Fusu was exiled to Shangjun.

Judging from Fusu's words, he dissuaded His Majesty because he was afraid that after killing these so-called Confucian scholars, the remaining scholars would rise up in anger, which would be detrimental to the stability of the country. Fusu's considerations were indeed reasonable. After all, you have seen the end of Ying Zheng, who was indeed constantly chased and scolded.

However, it was also because Fusu was banished to Shangjun that the two of them never saw each other again until their death."

Speaking of this, Zhou Jia's mood became noticeably depressed.

Ying Zheng glanced at Fusu who was kneeling on the ground, then looked at the Confucian scholars, and said, "Fusu."

Fusu shuddered, "Father."

"Do you think I killed someone wrongly?"

It was impossible to tell whether he was happy or angry in his voice, but everyone knew that Ying Zheng was on the verge of getting angry.

"My son..."

Fusu was speechless.

If they don't kill him, they will never have peace if the Confucian scholars continue to push their limits. If they kill him, all the scholars in the world will curse him. Zhou Jia's words were already very clear.

Ying Zheng looked at his most beloved child and felt a little tired.

You say this child is timid, but he dares to openly oppose him in the court. You say he is brave, but many times when he sees himself he is like a mouse seeing a cat.

I still lack the courage, which is really a headache.

Chinese

Liu Che thought of that Prince Fusu and sighed silently, "Fusu, it's really a pity. Fortunately, my son is not like Fusu."

As he said this, he hugged Liu Ju, who had been sitting next to him and listening quietly to Zhou Jia's lecture, and teased him.

唐

Li Shimin held the hand of his maid Guanyin and said, "The personalities of the First Emperor and his son are indeed very different. One is overbearing and the other is gentle. The First Emperor was too overbearing, which led to Fusu not being close to him. This is not the case with me and Cheng Qian."

The tone was particularly proud.

Guanyin looked at Li Shimin, whose tail was about to reach the sky, and secretly covered her mouth and laughed.

"Let's talk about the last one, the Great Wall."

Speaking of this, Zhou Jia's expression could no longer be described as complicated. To be more precise, it should be said that she was extremely confused.