After the banquet, Li Si returned home and thought that it had been eight or nine years since the Qin State implemented the system of prefectures and counties. The country was developing steadily and all walks of life were waiting for development. But I never expected that some people would oppose the county system. This is really inappropriate. Suddenly someone reported: "Zhou Qingchen is here to see you for additional shots." Li Si asked Zhou Qingchen to come in and see him. After Zhou Qingchen came in, he saluted and said: "Prime Minister, Chunyu Yue is too arrogant today. He dares to mention the enfeoffment system. Isn't this going against the Prime Minister? If your Majesty really listens to his suggestion and implements the enfeoffment system, then the Prime Minister will have many years of trouble." Won't the new county bureau that came to preside over be destroyed in one fell swoop?" Li Si slapped the case and said angrily: "Don't worry, Mr. Zhou, the truth will never let Chun Yuyue's conspiracy succeed!" After that, Zhou Qingchen asked Zhou Qingchen to polish his ink and wave it himself The pen was written quickly, and it was written in one go, forming a memorial. After Li Si finished writing, he asked Zhou Qingchen to read it over. After reading it, Zhou Qingchen was all smiles and kept saying yes.
In the morning of the next day, the ministers all presented the written memorials one by one. Qin Shihuang began to read it. Some praised the system of prefectures and counties, while others praised the system of enfeoffment. Everyone expressed their own opinions and couldn't agree on one. Qin Shi Huang finally read Li Si’s memorial, which read:
The minister Li Si risked his life to tell the emperor: During the Zhou Dynasty, the princes in the world were fighting endlessly, precisely because there were too many princes and kings. When there are more vassal states, their speeches and doctrines will become disordered, and there are many sects. They use false words to cover up their faults in the war, resulting in a high degree of freedom of speech, so that they have the bad habit of criticizing the current affairs of various countries at will. These Scholars often made rash comments about the emperor of Zhou and the princes, which often put the monarchs in an embarrassing situation. Now that the world is unified, the affairs of the country should be decided by the emperor alone. If people continue to arbitrarily criticize current affairs according to the teachings of the philosophers, it is very wrong and must be resolutely stopped.
Nowadays, private private schools have their own learning content. These contents are not consistent with the laws, regulations, and systems of the Qin State. Therefore, when people see the imperial decrees, they like to use the opinions of hundreds of schools of thought they have learned to comment. They always think that the legal provisions of the Qin State are full of loopholes and are not worthy of scrutiny. . People talk loudly at home and talk nonsense when they go out. On the surface, these people are praising His Majesty, but in fact they are actually opposing His Majesty. They are blaspheming the US government. If this continues, the minds of the people will be confused, His Majesty's prestige will decline, and civil opposition and the old forces of the six countries will take advantage of the situation to rise. Therefore, Your Majesty should take a pre-emptive strike to stop the freedom of speech in advance, and resolutely suppress those heretics first, so that people's minds will not be confused.
So how can we unify our thoughts? I risked my life to propose a strategy: books are the source of all ideas. As long as the source is cut off, people's ideas will dry up. Therefore, I request that all books and classics outside the Qin State be burned. This is mainly all the works of the Six Kingdoms. , especially the books of Confucius and Mencius. The specific measure is that except for the doctorate officials of the imperial court, no one else can keep it. Especially the private collections of private books should be checked by local officials from house to house. After checking, all the books should be sent to the government office for public destruction. After the imperial court's order was issued, if anyone dared to get together to discuss the Book of Songs, the Book of Books, and Bai Jiayu, no matter who they were, they would be arrested and convicted. Those who admire ancient times and slander contemporary times will be executed as soon as they are found out. Even the officials of the State of Qin are no exception. If they know that someone is slandering the court but do not report it, they will be punished with the same crime. Those who still do not burn the books within one month after the edict is issued will be sentenced to tattooing and sent to the frontier to serve four years of corvee service. Of course, there is no need to burn books on medicine, divination, and planting, because these books do no harm to people. If the common people want to learn writing and laws, they should go to the government to learn. They must take officials as their teachers. At the same time, private schools should be banned immediately and home learning is prohibited.
Through the above method: people's thoughts will surely be unified. As long as everyone weighs affairs according to the law, Qin will be in great control, and the trend of slander will stop. If the State of Qin adopts this method, it will surely enjoy long-term peace and stability, and His Majesty's great achievements will be passed down from generation to generation. Please accept your Majesty's advice, act vigorously and resolutely, and issue orders to the whole country.
The First Emperor read Li Si's memorial in one breath and was deeply shocked. After the dispersion of the dynasty, he left Li Si behind and asked: "Will the prime minister's plan destroy all the ancient cultural classics? Will I be infamy for eternity?" Li Sicheng replied with fear: "Destroying folk books will not be good for the Qin Dynasty." The country did not suffer any harm. Qin has always governed the country with strict laws, and it has developed from a small country to a powerful country in the west, and finally unified the world. Now the subjects of the six countries still miss their homeland and past masters very much. If they do not use laws to make them If you forget the past, it will be difficult to control the world! Therefore, your Majesty, please act decisively and make a decision early. Since ancient times, great deeds have been made by great people, and great deeds must be made by great people. What are you worried about? Please follow the trend of the times and launch a book burning movement?" After hearing these words, the First Emperor was greatly delighted, and immediately made a decision: "What you said is in line with the theory of Shui De, and it is accurate!" So he immediately ordered the whole country to burn books nationwide.
Fusu, the eldest son of the First Emperor, was twenty-seven years old. He was handsome and heroic. Hearing that his father wanted to burn books across the country, he hurried to the palace to dissuade him. He said: "Your Majesty, books are the words of sages. , the foundation of understanding. Now that it has been burned down, what can the country do to educate the people? Besides, people will not understand things without education. If they do not understand things, they will be like animals?" The First Emperor laughed and said: "The reason why animals can be driven away is It's because they have no thoughts. If the leaders of Guizhou don't understand the rules, wouldn't it be as easy to drive them away as animals? The common people can drive them away, but they can't be made to understand why they are being driven away. There is a deep mystery here. You kid, go back and take your time. Let's think about the book "Shang Jun"!" Fusu did not dare to say anything more and had to withdraw.
Then the imperial court issued an order to burn books. It didn't take long for the handed-in books to pile up in the big square in front of Xianyang Palace. The officials set fire to the many books and burned them. The fire burned for more than ten days, and the thick smoke made people choke and wipe their tears. The fire started in Xianyang and spread to all parts of the country. Who among the officials is not afraid of the emperor? Who among the common people is not afraid of officials? Who dares to cause disaster by hiding a few volumes of books? So people took out all the books in their homes and burned them in front of their doors. All the folk books and classics were burned in this way. At that time, only the family temple of Confucius in Qufu was preserved. Kong Kun secretly hid dozens of classic books in the mezzanine of a wall, and he himself fled to Songshan Mountain to live in seclusion. It was not until the reign of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty that these collections of books were reappeared in the world. This is a story for another day. In addition, a few volumes of "The Book of Songs" and "The Book of Books" were preserved in some remote areas, but all other places were burned down. This was an unprecedented catastrophe in the history of human culture. It destroyed ancient Chinese documents and ancient civilizations in such a short time.
