It is said that Qin Shi Huang "pits Confucianism", why is there no record in Sima Qian's "Historical Records"?
Qin Shi Huang, one of the most controversial emperors in Chinese history, established the first unified dynasty in history, but was also controversial for the construction of lavish palaces and what was known as the cruel book-burning pit of Confucianism. There is a great deal of controversy about the burning of books and the pit of Confucianism, especially the authenticity of the historical records of the pit Confucianism.
The incident of burning books and pit Confucianism still attracts people's attention today. Some people question the record of the pit Confucianism in the "Records of the Historian", arguing that the closest historical book to the incident does not mention Qin Shi Huang's pit Confucianism, and even wonder whether Sima Qian deliberately avoided it out of fear. However, Sima Qian unreservedly exposed Liu Bang and others in the "Records of the Historians", so whether he was really afraid of Qin Shi Huang's rule and chose to avoid talking about it is still worth exploring.
Qin Shi Huang's behavior is regarded as one of the biggest mistakes he made in his life. Through a single decree, thousands of Confucian scholars lost their lives. This method was extremely cruel, and some historical books even described the plot of burying the Confucian life, which made later generations of literati deeply spurned. However, the earliest records are thousands of years after the event. Prior to this, although some historians had already written historical books, such as Sima Qian's "Historical Records", there was no mention of Confucianism. This raises questions about the truth of history.
Sima Qian was known for speaking the truth, and he did not shy away from the mistakes of Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty, and Xiang Yu's praise in the Records of the Historians. However, the record of Qin Shi Huang's pit is missing in the "Historical Records". Some people speculate whether Sima Qian was afraid of Qin Shi Huang and chose to remain silent, but since he dared to criticize the emperor of the current dynasty, why was he so cautious about the already extinct Qin Dynasty?
In fact, Sima Qian's Records of the Historian does mention the brutal rule of Qin Shi Huang and the fact that he burned books, as well as the methods he used to control the minds of the people of the world. The authenticity of the historical event of book burning is beyond doubt. However, the specifics of the pit are disputed. Some historical books claim that Qin Shi Huang pit Confucianism because Confucianism took the lead in rebelling against the Qin Dynasty, which caused a response from the people, and in order to calm the people's hearts, he ordered these Confucian scholars to be killed. However, Sima Qian's records show that there were indeed acts of pit killing at the hands of Qin Shi Huang, but the victims were not Confucian scholars, but some monks.
Qin Shi Huang longed for immortality after becoming emperor, so he hired some alchemists to conduct alchemy and sent them to search for elixirs for immortality. However, the failure of these alchemists caused Qin Shi Huang to be very angry, believing that they had played a trick on him, so he ordered them to be killed. Therefore, strictly speaking, this incident should be called a "pit squarer" rather than a "pit confucian".
Later, as Qin Shi Huang's rule was regarded as tyrannical by later generations, antipathy towards him grew. In order to arouse the people's antipathy towards him, some literati deliberately replaced the scholars in the historical events of book burning and Confucianism with Confucian scholars in order to achieve the purpose of inciting emotions. Confucianism later became the dominant ideology in various dynasties in Chinese history, which made it even more difficult to discern the lies about Qin Shi Huang's pit on Confucianism.
In general, the historical event of book burning and Confucianism did occur during the reign of Qin Shi Huang, but the specific details of Confucianism are controversial. The selective recording of historical records and the deliberate exaggeration of later generations have obscured this event. We still need to be cautious about the authenticity of history, and we must not believe the exaggerations of future generations.