Burning of books and burying of scholars
The burning of books and burying of scholars was the purported burning of texts in 213 BCE and live burial of 460 Confucian scholars in 212 BCE ordered by Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang. The events were alleged to have destroyed philosophical treatises of the Hundred Schools of Thought, with the goal of strengthening the official Qin governing philosophy of Legalism.
Modern historians doubt the details of the story, which first appeared more than a century later in the Han dynasty official Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian. As a court scholar, Sima had every reason to denigrate the earlier emperor to flatter his own, but later Confucians did not question the story. According to the historian Ulrich Neininger, their message was, "If you take our life, Heaven will take the life of your dynasty."
Modern scholars agree that Qin Shi Huang gathered and destroyed many works that he regarded as incorrect or subversive. He ordered two copies of each text to be preserved in imperial libraries. Some were destroyed in the fighting following the fall of the dynasty. He had scholars killed, but not by being buried alive, and the victims were not rú, since that school had not yet been formed as such.
Skepticism
The scholar Michael Nylan observes that despite its mythic significance, the Burning of the Books legend does not bear close scrutiny. Nylan suggests that the reason Han dynasty scholars charged the Qin with destroying the Confucian Five Classics was partly to "slander" the state they defeated and partly because Han scholars misunderstood the nature of the texts, for it was only after the founding of the Han that Sima Qian labeled the Five Classics as "Confucian".Nylan points out that the Qin court appointed classical scholars who were specialists on the Classic of Poetry and the Book of Documents, which meant that these texts would have been exempted, and that the Book of Rites and the Zuozhuan did not contain the glorification of defeated feudal states which the First Emperor gave as his reason for destroying them. She suggests that the story might be based on the fact that the Qin palace was razed in 207 BCE and many books were undoubtedly lost at that time. Martin Kern adds that Qin and early Han writings frequently cite the Classics, especially the Book of Documents and the Classic of Poetry, which would not have been possible if they had been burned, as reported.
Sima Qian's account of the execution of the scholars has similar difficulties. First, no text earlier than the Shiji mentions the executions, the Shiji mentions no Confucian scholar by name as a victim of the executions, and in fact, no other text mentions the executions at all until the 1st century CE. The earliest known use of the famous phrase "burning the books and executing the Confucians" is not noted until the early 4th century.
Sima Qian reports that the scholars were "keng, 坑", a word that he uses in several other places. The context in these places shows that the meaning is "to kill", not "to bury alive". The character in earlier texts meant "pit, moat" and then took on the meaning of "to trap and kill". Sima Qian used it to describe the annihilation of an enemy army. The misunderstanding came in later dynasties when the meaning of "to bury alive" became common.
In 2010, Li Kaiyuan, a researcher in the field of history of the Qin dynasty and Han dynasty, published an article titled The Truth or Fiction of the Burning the Books and Executing the Ru Scholars: A Half-Faked History, which raised four doubts about "executing the ru scholars" and argued that Sima Qian had misused historical materials. Li believes that the burning the books and executing the ru scholars is a pseudo-history that is cleverly synthesised with real "burning the books" and false "executing the rú scholars".
Sociological critique
After Shang Yang's execution, the Qin retained his reforms, but abandoned his harsh penal policy before the founding of the Qin dynasty. K. C. Hsiao also believed they abandoned his anti-Confucianism. As noted by translator Yuri Pines, the Book of Lord Shang's early chapters of 3,4 and 11 criticise such "fundamental moral norms" as "benevolence, righteousness, filiality, fraternal duty, trustworthiness, and honesty". However, such statements are isolated to these few early chapters.According to the late Qin state's Lushi Chunqiu, King Huiwen of Qin's reign following Shang Yang retained the death penalty for murder, but could be pardoned. In a particular tale, the king offers to pardon a Mohist father's son of execution for murder, because it was his only remaining son. Intending to illustrate Mohism, the Mohist refuses. Despite the earlier strictness of Shang Yang's law, the Qin favors a law considering circumstances and familial relations, versus an impartial Mohist belief in the death penalty for murder. Such laws and pardons might not be literal examples of Confucianism, but they would generally be considered of a Confucianistic ethos.
Representative of the Qin's stratocracy, a militarist section of the Lushi Chunqiu considers it dangerous to listen too much to the numerous views of figures like Laozi, Confucius, Mozi, Yang Zhu or Sun Bin. But it withholds individual judgement of them. Impartially tolerating various ideologies, they are incorporated in the Qin encyclopedia. While not highly emphasising filial piety, it is evident that the scholars recruited to compose the broader work place a high premium on learning. The Daoistic "Ren shu" chapter tries to convince an ignorant ruler of his superiority, provided he lets his ministers do the work. The broader Lushi Chunqiu sought to "comprehend all knowledge", making it comparable to the Daoistic Shiji encyclopedia that criticises the Qin. Millitarist section aside, they could even be classified as Daoist together.
Traditional version
Punishment of the scholars
According to Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, after Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, unified China in 221 BCE, his chancellor Li Si suggested suppressing intellectual discourse to unify thought and political opinion.Three categories of books were viewed by Li Si to be most dangerous politically. These were poetry, history, and philosophy. The ancient collection of poetry and historical records contained many stories concerning the ancient virtuous rulers. Li Si believed that if the people were to read these works they were likely to invoke the past and become dissatisfied with the present. The reason for opposing various schools of philosophy was that they advocated political ideas often incompatible with the totalitarian regime.
Consequences
The extent of the damage to Chinese intellectual heritage is difficult to assess, for details have not been recorded in history. Several facts, however, indicate that the consequences of this event, although enduring, were not extensive. First, it is recorded in Li Si's memorial that all technological books were to be spared. Secondly, even the "objectionable" books, poetry and philosophy in particular, were preserved in imperial archives and allowed to be kept by the official scholars.In some categories of books, history suffered one of the greatest losses of ancient times. Extremely few state history books before Qin have survived. Li Si stated that all history books not in the Qin interpretation were to be burned. It is not clear whether copies of these books were actually burned or allowed to stay in the imperial archives. Even if some histories were preserved, they possibly would have been destroyed in 206 BCE when enemies captured and burnt the Qin imperial palaces in which the archives were most likely located.
Almost no sources of national histories, identities, or patriotic motifs of the Warring States survived. Pines could trace only songs "Lamenting Ying" and "For those fallen for their country". Both songs are in Chu Ci displaying the Chu patriotism. The rest of the patriotic literature of the Warring States perished. Qin, however, were selective in their biblioclasm. Intellectual traditions "envisioning eternal Empire" were preserved. The biblioclasm of Qin aimed to re-write history presenting the Great Unity as an ancient and universal ideal. This aim was attained perhaps beyond their expectations.
Later book burnings
At the end of the Qin, the Epang Palace's national records were destroyed by fire. Tang dynasty poet Zhang Jie wrote a poem about the policy of destruction by both the Qin dynasty and the rebels :Burial of the scholars
Tradition had it that after being deceived by two fangshi alchemists, Xu Fu and Han Zhong, while seeking prolonged life, Qin Shi Huang ordered more than 460 scholars in the capital to be buried alive in the second year of the proscription. The belief was based on this passage in the Shiji :An account given by Wei Hong in the 2nd century added another 700 to the figure.