To burn the classics and to bury the scholars
| Burning of books and burying of scholars | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 焚書坑儒 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 焚书坑儒 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | fénshū kēngrú |
| Gwoyeu Romatzyh | fernshu kengru |
| Wade–Giles | fen2-shu1 k'eng1-ju2 |
| IPA | [fə̌n.ʂú kʰə́ŋ.ɻǔ] |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Yale Romanization | fàhn-syū hāang-yùh |
| Jyutping | fan4-syu1 haang1-jyu4 |
| Southern Min | |
| Tâi-lô | hûn-tsu khenn-lû |
| Old Chinese | |
| Baxter-Sagart | *bun s-ta kʰˤreŋ nyu |
The burning of books and burying of scholars (simplified Chinese: 焚书坑儒; traditional Chinese: 焚書坑儒; pinyin: fénshū kēngrú) refers to the supposed burning of texts in 213 BC and live burial of 460 Confucian scholars in 210 BC by the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty of ancient China. The event caused the loss of many philosophical treatises of the Hundred Schools of Thought. The official philosophy of government ("legalism") survived.
Recent scholars doubt the details of the story in the Records of the Grand Historian—the main source —since the author, Sima Qian, wrote a century or so after the events and was an official of the Han dynasty, which succeeded the Qin dynasty, and could be expected to show it in an unfavourable light. While it is clear that the First Emperor gathered and destroyed many works which he regarded as subversive, two copies of each were to be preserved in imperial libraries, which were destroyed in the fighting following the fall of the dynasty. It is also now believed that many scholars were killed, but that they were not Confucians and were not "buried alive." In any case, the incidents and the phrase "burning of books and burying of scholars" became enduring legends in the Confucian legacy.
'[1]' Book burning of the First Qin Emperor
'[2]' Wang Mang's capital Chang'an was attacked and the imperial palace ransacked. Mang died in the battle and, at the end, forces burned the national library of Weiyang Palace.
'[3]' At the end of the Han dynasty, the Three Kingdoms dissipation of the state library by upheavals that resulted from the Wei (魏), Shu (蜀), and Wu (吳) contests
'[4]' At the end of Yang-Jia turbulence, dissipation of the state library by the upheavals of Western Jin.
'[5]' Emperor Yuan of the Liang dynasty surrounded by the Western Wei army in his castle; Yuan set fire to the collection of national records.
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Wikipedia