Burning of books and burying of scholars

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.

"[1] Modern scholars agree that Qin Shi Huang gathered and destroyed many works that he regarded as incorrect or subversive.

[2][3][4] '[1]' Book burning of the First Qin Emperor '[2]' Wang Mang's capital Chang'an was attacked and the imperial palace ransacked.

Anyone who has failed to burn the books after thirty days of this announcement shall be subjected to tattooing and be sent to build the Great Wall.

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.

Tang dynasty poet Zhang Jie (章碣) wrote a poem (titled 焚書坑, Fen Shu Keng, "Pits for Book-Burning") about the policy of destruction by both the Qin dynasty and the rebels (of which Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were the examples cited as they entered the capital city Xianyang one after the other.

竹帛煙銷帝業虛，zhú bó yān xiāo dì yè xū 關河空鎖祖龍居。guān hé kōng suǒ zǔ lóng jū 坑灰未冷山東亂，kēng huī wèi lěng shān dōng luàn 劉項原來不讀書。liú xiàng yuán lái bù dú shū 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 (chapter 6): The first emperor therefore directed the imperial censor to investigate the scholars one by one.

Fusu, the emperor’s eldest son, counseled: "The empire just achieved peace, and the barbarians in distant areas have not surrendered.

In 2010, Li Kaiyuan (李开元), 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 (焚书坑儒的真伪虚实—半桩伪造的历史), which raised four doubts about "executing the ru scholars" ("坑儒") and argued that Sima Qian had misused historical materials.

[9] The scholar Michael Nylan observes that despite its mythic significance, the Burning of the Books legend does not bear close scrutiny.

[3] 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.