Fourth, the burning of books pits Confucianism, cultural catastrophe
For more than 2,000 years, articles and books related to the "book burning pit Confucianism" have been abundant. However, for thousands of years, a variety of discussions have been made, and the full calculation of the evidence is basically only a record of about a few hundred words in different biographies in the "History". With the continuous excavation of modern Warring States and Qin and Han Dynasties, we have more understanding of these eras, and we can even use materials that even Sima Qian has never seen to touch that era more truly.
There are many people in the past dynasties who have defended Qin Shi Huang's "book burning pit Confucianism", and there are even a few who sing praises, I really can't understand, I would like to ask these people: Do you know what the "book burning pit Confucianism" has destroyed? Do you know how much damage "book burning pit Confucianism" has done to Chinese civilization? What kind of mood do you feel when you see those classics that have almost been completely destroyed by the "book burning pit Confucianism" and are almost never seen again if it were not for the fact that there are benevolent people who have sacrificed their lives to save their lives? Do you know how many other texts exist that are unknown today? You can't say how precious something that doesn't exist is, because you don't know anything about it!
1. The Confucian and Taoist texts of the pre-Qin era are the root of Chinese civilization
First of all, I would like to emphasize to those who believe that Qin Shi Huang's book burning is only aimed at "the Confucian classics and the Confucian classics and other historical books that are privately stored": Confucianism and Taoist classics play an extremely important role in Chinese civilization and are the foundation of the traditional culture of Chinese civilization.
In my article "What is Confucianism– When Did Confucianism Arise?", I mentioned the central and important position of Confucianism and Taoism in Chinese civilization. In the pre-Qin period, all the sons and hundreds of families were actually built on the ruins of the Zhou Dynasty. These ideas have a strong internal consistency, and many times the water and milk are inseparable, mixed with each other, influenced each other, and promoted each other. Confucianism and Taoist thought occupy an extremely important position in it, and Confucianism is the most important of the two, which is reflected in:
(1) Confucianism, as the main inheritor of the Six Classics represented by the three generations of culture, has become the de facto orthodox inheritor of the three generations of culture, and occupies a central position in the hundred families of the sons. Human civilization is gradual, without the past of history, there will be no glory of today, and the inheritance of civilization begins from the study of the knowledge accumulated by predecessors. The oldest knowledge in Middle-earth was largely compiled and preserved by Confucianism.
Confucius was a "people's educator", in order to inherit the knowledge of his predecessors, Confucius and his Confucian scholars devoted themselves to the combing of knowledge and the compilation of teaching materials, and they compiled the scattered essence of knowledge in the past into the "Six Classics", namely "Poems", "Books", "Rites", "Yi", "Music", and "Spring and Autumn". The "Poetry", also known as the "Book of Poetry", is the first collection of poetry in the history of the mainland; The Book, also known as the Book of Shang, is a political document in the outer history of the Zhou Dynasty; The "Li", also known as the "Zhou Li" and "Zhou Guan", is the canonical system of the Zhou royal family's zongbo management; The Yi, or I Ching, is a book of divination and a great philosophical work; The Music Classic, or Book of Music, is a musical work subordinate to the Zhou royal family; "Spring and Autumn" is a historical work, which has been famous since ancient times for its small words and great righteousness--concise and rich connotations. It can be seen that the Six Classics almost covered a considerable part of the knowledge at that time, and could even be said to be almost the essence of the ideological and cultural knowledge accumulated at that time.
The Six Classics are not only the Six Classics of Confucianism, not even the Six Classics of the Hundred Sons and Hundreds of Families, according to the documents that survive today, and even contain some relics left over from the primitive social period, which are extremely precious, and it is not an exaggeration to respect them as the foundation of Chinese civilization. The Six Classics provided a unified intellectual and cultural model for the readers at that time, and was the basis for the inheritance and development of the doctrines of the Hundred Schools of The Sons at that time, not only the Confucian Commentaries on the Six Classics, but also the Hundred Schools of the Sons and Hundreds of Schools. Of course, we must affirm the tremendous contribution made by the hundreds of sons and hundreds of families, including the Fa, in inheriting and developing traditional culture, but this does not mean that after inheritance and development, we need to turn back and destroy the foundation of development. If you go up to the house to draw a ladder, cross the river and demolish the bridge, stand on the top of the building is not to climb high and look far, but to bow your head and destroy the cornerstone, the final result can only be the destruction of the building? Forgetting the past means betraying the future, and the qin dynasty's short lifespan of 15 years has a lot to do with its self-destructive behavior. With the status of Confucianism in ancient Chinese society, if the disaster of Qin Fire can be avoided, it is very likely that it will be preserved in the past disasters, and if you think about it, you will think about it - what kind of happiness it is! A culture of happiness and pride!
A nation or civilization without a cultural foundation is superficial, pathetic, and perishable!
In a word, Confucianism is the inheritor of ancient Chinese civilization and culture, and burning Confucian classics is burning the roots of Chinese civilization.
(2) Mr. Xiong Shili once put forward the view that "all sons originate from Confucianism". He believes that Mo Zhai studied under The Confucians and then established another faction; Taoism is a side branch of the Study of Yi, the famous family originates from the Yi and Spring and Autumn Classics, and the peasant family derives from the Book of Poetry; Although the Fa family is a school of self-reliance, its origin can also be traced back to Qilu Confucianism, and its fundamental righteousness is inseparable from the Six Classics. In short, "In the late Saturday school, Confucianism is orthodox, and ink, Taoism, fame, agriculture, and law are all out of Confucianism, and each of them has become a family, each has its own land, and it is prosperous" (Xiong Shili, "Original Confucianism"). Whether Mr. Xiong's statement about the provenance of the various families is correct can be discussed, but Mr. Xiong's reference to "all sons originating from Confucianism" is indeed quite reasonable. Among them, the Dharma was born from Confucianism, and Mozi once studied in Confucianism, which is already a foregone conclusion. There is a strong internal consistency between the hundred families of the sons, and there is basically no problem with the "same origin of the sons".
In a word, the so-called "scientific and technological literature" of the Qin Dynasty, such as the Fa and the Bing, the Peasant, and the Mo, would be water without a source and a wood without roots if there were no Confucianism and its classics.
(3) There are many Confucian scholars and thinkers. With the joint efforts of many Confucian scholars, Confucianism is broad and profound, rich in connotation, and has broad boundaries, which has a certain enveloping and covering nature over other doctrines. During the Warring States period, Confucianism had eight schools of thought, which first appeared in the Xianxue chapter of Han Feizi: "Since the death of Confucius, there have been zi Zhang's Confucianism, zi si confucianism, Yan's Confucianism, Meng's Confucianism, Lacquer Carving's Confucianism, Zhongliang's Confucianism, Sun's Confucianism, and Lezheng's Confucianism." "These eight doctrines are very different from each other, and unfortunately we do not know much about many of them. Guo Moruo once analyzed that Zi Zhang's Confucianism is like the Mo family, the Confucian of the Lacquer Carving Clan is good Renxia, and the Confucian of the Sun family is very different from the Confucianism we know today, and each of them can almost open up sects and establish a unique school, forming a certain degree of coverage of many theories in the pre-Qin period. It should be known that mencius and Han Feizi, two almost tit-for-tat doctrines, are derived from Confucianism.
In a word, the so-called burned are all decaying Confucian literature, because they do not understand the Confucianism of the pre-Qin era, what a broad existence it is.
(4) Taoism provided a Heavenly Taoist view for the Chinese civilization in the pre-Qin era and even in later generations, and provided a consistent philosophical background for the Hundred Sons and Hundred Schools; Confucianism provided a humanistic view of Chinese civilization, on the basis of inheriting three generations of culture, continuously developing according to the progress of the times, and providing a consistent socio-political ideological framework and cultural classics for the Hundred Sons and Hundred Schools. Even those who are scholars and sects of The Taoists are mostly the study of the Six Classics. For example, the "I Ching" contains three parts: "Lian Shan", "Guizang", and "Zhou Yi", according to the research and analysis of modern scholars, "Zhou Yi" is close to Confucianism and "Guizang" is close. However, whether the classics are Confucian or Taoist in theory, Confucian scholars have painstakingly collected and sorted them out, and the merits are in the contemporary era and the benefits are in the thousands of autumns. For example, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Dream of the Red Chamber", etc., in fact, there are many versions that have been passed down to today, and the most common version we see today is undoubtedly the best, because after a lot of proofreading work, how many scholars and editors have been infiltrated throughout the ages?
In a word, even if it is as important as Taoism, there is a considerable truth rooted in the Confucian classics that are covered by Qin Huo.
Therefore, it is conceivable that the burning of Confucian classics is not only aimed at Confucianism, but also at the great harm of Chinese civilization as a whole.
2. Qin Huo's damage to the Six Classics
So, how much harm does burning books do to such an important Six Classics? It can be said that it is extinct, and the Six Classics were almost completely destroyed by Qin Huo. The Six Classics, used by later Generations of Confucians, were preserved mainly through two ways: one was hidden by someone who risked their lives, and the other was written silently by the old Confucians by memory. That is to say, these classics were not preserved in a normal way. However, the preservation of these two abnormal methods cannot be compared with the original in any case, causing no small loss in the process. There are great problems with the "Six Classics" after the Qin Dynasty, one is incomplete, and the other is that there are probably many errors, which are very different from the original intention. Both have a lot to do with the above two unsatisfactory preservation methods.
It is said that there are more than 3,000 poems handed down during the Spring and Autumn Period, while only 311 poems exist in the Book of Poetry, of which six poems such as "Nan Yan" in "Xiao Ya" have eyes but no poems, which are undoubtedly not handed down, and can also be regarded as a criminal evidence of the evil consequences caused by Qin Huo. Although qin huo cannot be blamed for the mutilation of the Book of Poetry, Qin Huo is certainly inseparable.
There are 17 surviving articles in the "Etiquette", and how many of them were in the pre-Qin period is now unknown. However, there were 56 ancient texts of the "Etiquette", so at least 39 have been lost, of course, how many are lost we do not know at all.
The Book of Music has been completely lost, and the current mainstream view is that it was lost after Qin Huo.
The "I Ching" contains three documents: "Lian Shan", "Guizang" and "Zhou Yi", and at present only "Zhou Yi", "Lian Shan" and "Gui Zang" have been lost.
"Spring and Autumn" is basically considered to have been preserved from the Qin fire, although it is somewhat mutilated, but it has nothing to do with book burning.
"Book of Shang" we will talk about it in detail below.
It can be seen from this that the "Book of Music", the "Book of Shang" and the "Ritual" in the Six Classics were basically destroyed by Qin Huo, and less than a quarter of the total number of people who struggled to survive in later generations. Although the Book of Poetry and the Book of Changes cannot prove that they were destroyed by Qin Huo, they were also implicated and lost. Only the Spring and Autumn Period is relatively intact. Therefore, from the perspective of the Six Classics alone, after the Qin Fire, although it was preserved by benevolent people through various means, it was still destroyed.
But Qin Huo's hurtfulness was far more than that.
3. Qin Huo's damage to the Book of Shang
We take the Book of Shang as an example to detail the great harm that Qin Huo has done to Chinese civilization. Why choose the Book of Shang? First, because the Book of Shang is extremely important, the destruction of the Book of Shang is extremely harmful to Chinese civilization; Second, with the discovery and study of some cultural relics in recent years, we can basically restore the harm of Qin Huo to the Book of Shang. Other mathematical classics, such as the Book of Poetry, the Book of Music, the Spring and Autumn Classic, etc., are still inextricably unclear about their inheritance, and we cannot restore the true harm of QinHuo to it, and we still need to wait for the emergence of related cultural relics or the progress of scientific research.
The Book of Shang is the oldest known collection of royal texts in China, the first compilation of ancient historical documents and some works tracing ancient deeds in China, the most important literary classic of Confucianism, the first of the Six Classics, and the most important classic and essence at the end of the origin of Chinese civilization. The YaoDian is a work that records the merits of Emperor Yao; The "Gan Oath" is the oath of the Battle issued by Xia Qi in Gandhi in the battle of the Youhu clan; "Tang Oath" is a text of Shang Tang's crusade against Xia Jie; "Pan Geng" is about the relocation of the capital by King Pan Geng of Yin, and recounts the speeches of Pan Geng to the noble relatives and common people before and after the capital move; The "Pastoral Oath" is the oath of King Wu of Zhou before the decisive battle of Makino; The "Liquor Curse" is a prohibition order issued by Zhou Gongdan; The Lü Punishment is a code of law that records the legal principles, judicial system, and redemption enacted by Lü Hou. Just looking at the titles and themes of these articles shows their importance. If you still don't feel it, then think of the famous ancient Babylonian Code of Hammurabi and the ancient Roman Twelve Bronze Watch Law, the significance of which can not be exaggerated in the history of the world, although some people think that the "Lü Punishment" is different from the above two laws, but no one can deny its important position in the history of Chinese law. If we have more literature like "Lü Punishment", not to mention more discussion, just a state of "being", Chinese civilization is an extremely brilliant and tall, mountain-like existence!
If we did not have these classics, our ancient civilization would be an archaeological civilization like ancient Egypt and ancient Babylon, a skeleton without flesh and blood. For example, in 2021, the ruins of Jiming City in Lixian County, Hunan Province, were selected as the top ten new archaeological discoveries in the country every year. In the same Liyang Plain, there is also a Chengtou Mountain site just 13 kilometers away from the ruins of Jiming City, which was twice selected as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China in 1992 and 1997. The two urban ruins have had human activities very early, but the urban ruins of Chengtou Mountain appeared earlier, and the ruins of the chicken city appeared relatively late, and the two urban ruins had a long period of overlap. According to archaeological findings, around 4800 BC, a power shift occurred in two neighboring cities, and the city of Chicken Call replaced Chengtou Mountain as the center of regional power. But how did all this happen? I don't know. Is it a peaceful transfer or a violent substitution? I don't know. What kind of story happened in between? I don't know. Such examples are not uncommon in prehistoric archaeology on the mainland. For example, the mystery of the disappearance of the Liangzhu civilization, the mystery of the relationship between the Tao Temple site and the Shi'an site, whether the Erlitou site is a mystery of the Xia Dynasty, and so on. This has become a pain in our cultural history research.
After Yin Shang had the text, the situation was completely different. Through the combination of archaeology and literature, archaeological proof documents, literature supplement archaeology. We know the history after The Yin Shang dynasty more clearly, and we know that what people thought and thought at that time was able to organize the approximate framework of the historical process, and the history of China has since become a living and irrefutable history. It shows the important historical role of these literary classics, how much of our proud past comes from the "Book of Shang", and how many of the themes of artistic creation come from the "Book of Shang". They are not only historical documents, but also philosophical thought and cultural documents, and the spiritual core of their inheritance runs through the Chinese civilization. Moreover, there may also be a lot of technical details running through it, allowing us to better understand that era. Calling it a "useless book" is childishly ridiculous! It's just revealing your own ignorance!
According to legend, the Book of Shang was compiled by Confucius. In his later years, Confucius concentrated on sorting out ancient classics, collecting together various important documents from Yao Shun in the ancient period to the Qin Mugong period in the Spring and Autumn Period, and after carefully compiling and selecting, 100 articles were selected, which is the origin of the hundred "Shang Shu". This shows the essence and preciousness of the Book of Shang.
The burning of books in the Qin Dynasty brought a devastating blow to the circulation of the Book of Shangshu, and almost all of the original manuscripts of the Book of Shangshu were burned. At that time, a Confucian Fusheng risked his life and secretly hid the Book of Shang, which described Tang Yao, Yu Shun, Xia, Shang, and Zhou Shidian, in a mezzanine layer of the wall, thus escaping the difficulty of burning. After the fall of the Qin Dynasty, the Confucian school gradually revived, and in the fourth year of the Han Hui Emperor (191 BC), the "Law of Carrying Books" was removed. Fusheng dug through the wall and found that 28 of them were still well preserved, which were for the present text "Book of Shang". In other words, 72 articles have not been preserved.
During the Western Han Dynasty, it is said that when King Lu Gong demolished a section of the wall of Confucius's former residence, he found another "Book of Shang", which was written in the font of the Six Kingdoms of the Pre-Qin Dynasty, and was called the ancient "Book of Shang". Later, the ancient text "Shang Shu" was unfortunately lost, and we now do not know its true face. Neither true nor falsified.
During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Shi Meizhao, the Yuzhang Nei, presented a version of the Book of Shang that contained both modern and ancient texts, with a total of 58 scriptures. Since the Song Dynasty, there have been many doubts about its authenticity, but because there is no conclusive evidence, suspicion can only be doubt, and it can neither prove the truth nor falsify it. How pathetic! The most important ancient Chinese literature and classics do not even know whether they are true or false.
Since modern times, archaeology has developed, and many humanistic masters are eagerly looking forward to rediscovering the pre-Qin "Book of Shang" from archaeological excavations, distinguishing the authenticity of the existing "Book of Shang", and injecting fresh blood into China's ancient history, but unfortunately it has not been realized. Zhang Zhengxiu, a famous Chinese paleographer, historian, archaeologist, and philologist, once said: "When will you dig up the Book of Shang!" "I don't know how many masters have died in the hope of such a heart and mind.
Tsinghua University's collection of Jian Mu since 2008 finally contained the content of the "Book of Shang" in the pre-Qin era, and finally had an answer to the authenticity of the current "Book of Shang". The extant Shang Shu and its present text, the Shang Shu, which is protected by Fu Sheng, are true, and the rest are basically false.
It is uncomfortable to think about, 100 "Shang Shu", since Qin Huo, almost only a quarter of the strong has been preserved. This is still preserved by Fusheng despite the danger of his life, otherwise it will really be completely lost.
And that's not all. The Hundred Pieces of the Book of Shang were compiled by Confucius after combing through the documents that had been handed down to his time, and selected the documents that he considered important to organize and edit, as well as a large number of classics that he had not selected. For example, the Book of Yizhou is the rest of the zhou dynasty classics that he selected and collected again. The Book of Yizhou is also circulating today, but the authenticity is indistinct, and its inheritance is not as clear as that of the Book of Shang. In addition, Tsinghua Jian Mu has also found four "Shang Shu" literatures such as "Yin Zhi", "Bao Xun", "Thick Father", and "Feng Xu's Destiny", which have never been recorded in the past, that is to say, we did not know that there were such four documents in the past. Qinghua Jian is believed to be a record of the Warring States period, that is, these documents were still circulated during the Warring States period, but disappeared after experiencing the Qin Fire. If we do not count the inexplicable Yi zhou shu, then the important documents of royal history that were preserved after Qin Huo by those brave and benevolent men who did not hesitate to sacrifice their lives are probably not even a quarter.
If you are afraid of the severity of the Qin Law, no one dares to preserve the Confucian classics! What if the Confucian classics they have preserved are unfortunately all damaged!
However, that's still not all.
4. The lethality of Qin Fire
The most terrifying thing about Qin Huo was that he didn't know how much literature it had destroyed. All we can know is what is left, and those that are not left, we have no idea what it will be.
In the fifth year of the Jin Dynasty (279 AD), in the first year of Taikang (280 AD) or the second year, the people of Ji County were not allowed to steal the tomb of King Xiang of Wei, and they received dozens of bamboo books, all written in tadpole script, called "Kizuka Ancient Script". After years of interpretation and collation by jin dynasty scholars Xun Xun, Shu Hao and others, they finally wrote about ten kinds of pre-Qin ancient books, a total of seventy-five articles. These ancient books are collectively known as the "Kizuka Book", or the "Bamboo Book", "Kizuka Ancient Text" and so on. The original Jian of the Kizuka Shu has long ceased to be transmitted, and now only a few chapters such as the Bamboo Book Chronicle and the Biography of Mu Tianzi have survived, and documents such as "Trivial Language", "Liang Qiu Zang", and "Shu Shu" cannot be seen. Fortunately, the names of the documents are recorded in the "Jin Shu Shu Shu Biography", with a total of 69 articles of 17 kinds. Among them, only 6 have been found in the literature passed down from generation to generation. That is to say, after experiencing the Qin Fire, the loss rate was as high as 87%. The 6 surviving articles are "Zhou Yi", "Chinese" and "Shi Chun". "Zhou Yi" is a Confucian classic, "Chinese" and "Shi Chun" are histories outside the "Book of Qin", all of which are covered by Qin Huo, and I don't know what kind of disasters they experienced to survive from Qin Huo. In this way, the lethality of Qin Huo was almost 100%.
In October 1993, in Guodian Village, Jingmen City, Hubei Province, a large number of bamboo Janes were excavated at Guodian No. 1 Chu Tomb M1, a total of 804 pieces, which were bamboo ink marks, which were for Guodian Chu Tomb Bamboo Jane. Guodian Chujian includes sixteen pre-Qin texts, three of which are works of the Taoist school and the rest are mostly works of the Confucian school. Except for lao tzu and the silk robes, the rest of these classics are pre-Qin and Anon books from more than 2,000 years ago. That is to say, after experiencing qin fire, the loss rate is as high as 87.5%. Among them, "Silk Clothing" is still a chapter of the Confucian classic "Book of Rites", which belongs to the coverage of Qinhuo, so calculated, Qinhuo's lethality is 93.8%.
In this way, the destruction rate of Qin Huo was around 87%, and the killing rate was almost 100%. Of course, this calculation is actually not objective, and the disappearance of these ancient books may not be counted on Qin Huo. However, such shocking data is enough to make us wonder how vast the literature once was, and Qin Huo definitely played a heinous role in the process of their disappearance. If they could be passed down, how enlightening would these words be for the Han Dynasty and Chinese civilization!
The vastness is like, the heavens and the earth are a sand gull.
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