While Shanhai City was preparing for the Zhengming Assembly, Xianyang City issued the Confucian Expulsion Order.
Qin Shihuang declared that Xianyang City was the sole ruler of law. All Confucian scholars had to leave Xianyang City within three days, or they would be arrested and imprisoned.
The world was in an uproar when the news came out.
Qin Shihuang's Confucian Expulsion Order pushed the conflict between Confucianism and law to a new peak.
All the Confucian scholars were furious.
The Confucian Exorcism Order reminded people of the famous "burning books and burying scholars" in history. First of all, the burning of books and entrapment of scholars happened at different points in time.
Everything started from Qin Shihuang's unification of the six states.
After unifying the world, the political and economic reforms carried out by Qin Shihuang were not smooth sailing. At the beginning of the unification, there was a debate on whether to enfeoff the princes as kings.
A group of officials led by Prime Minister Wang Wan requested Qin Shihuang to enfeoff the princes as kings in the recently conquered Yan, Qi, and Chu. They believed that this would help consolidate Qin's rule.
However, Li Si insisted on opposing the idea. He believed that the conflict between the princes during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods was due to the enfeoffment of Western Zhou. Only by abolishing the enfeoffment system could the chaos be averted.
Qin Shihuang adopted Li Si's opinion. He believed that enfeoffment was equivalent to making enemies.
Thus, he established the system of prefectures and counties throughout the country.
Eight years later, in the 34th year of Qin Shihuang's reign, there was another debate on whether Shigu or Shigu should be Shigu or Shigu.
This was the cause of the burning of books.
At the banquet, Zhou Qingchen praised Qin Shihuang, saying that he was not as virtuous as His Majesty since ancient times. Professor Chunyu Yue responded to Zhou Qingchen's criticism and proposed to restore the enfeoffment system.
Chunyu Yue said: "I heard that the King of Yin Zhou is over a thousand years old and enfeoffed his sons as meritorious ministers. Now His Majesty has the sea, but his sons are ordinary men. His soldiers are officials of the Six Ministers and have no support. How can he save them? It is unheard of to be able to last long without learning from the past. Today, this subject has a plump face, but I am not a loyal subject because of Your Majesty's mistakes. "
Qin Shihuang remained calm and passed Chunyu Yue's suggestion to the officials to discuss.
Prime Minister Li Si clearly expressed that he did not agree with Chun Yu Yue's point of view, and retorted: "How can a battle between three generations be allowed? The Confucian scholars do not learn from the present but learn from the past, the past harms the present. If this is not prohibited, the main power will fall to the upper, the party will succeed the lower, and the unity may be destroyed. "
Emperor Qin adopted Li Si's suggestion and ordered the burning of all the historical records of the other kingdoms other than the 'Records of Qin'. He also ordered the burning of books on folk medicine and divination as well as private collections of 'Poems' and 'Books' that do not belong to the Doctor's Library.
Those who dared to talk about 'Poetry' and 'Book' were executed; those who dared to talk about 'Poetry' and 'Book' were exterminated; private schools were forbidden; those who wanted to learn the laws and decrees had to learn from government officials.
This was the "burning of books".
In the second year of the book burning, another incident occurred.
Slandering Confucian scholars was not a direct continuation of the burning of books. It was caused by some necromancers and Confucian scholars slandering Emperor Qin. After Qin Shihuang seized great power and enjoyed great wealth, he was very afraid of death. After unifying the world, he fantasized about seeking the Elixir of Immortality.
The alchemists Hou Sheng, Lu Sheng and the others catered to his needs and agreed to help him find this medicine. According to the laws of Qin, if the lie could not be fulfilled or the medicine they offered was ineffective, they would be sentenced to death.
Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng knew that they could not get the Elixir of Immortality and not only did they escape, they also slandered Emperor Qin for being obstinate and self-opinionated. He was a warden who made all the decisions regardless of the matter and was greedy for power.
The alchemists also said that immortality was not something that Emperor Qin could cultivate and that immortality was not something that could be achieved by small pills. They approached Emperor Qin not only to refine pills but also to spread the 'Dao Scripture' to the world.
When Emperor Qin found out about this, his embarrassment turned into anger and he thought that the alchemists were fooling him.
Therefore, he first burned the 'Dao Scripture' and then slandered the alchemists.
Using the crime of 'spreading lies to confuse the people of Qian', Emperor Qin ordered an investigation in the capital and personally rounded up more than 460 people and buried them alive in Xianyang.
This was the 'slandering of Confucian scholars'. The target was not the Confucians but the alchemists.
The 'burning of books and slandering of Confucian scholars' was actually a movement to unify the minds of the people.
After Emperor Qin unified the six states, in terms of politics, he abolished the feudal system and implemented the system of prefectures and counties throughout the country. In terms of culture, he unified the written language and used the Xiaozhuan as the standard official language. In the economic field, he unified the currency, the weights and measures, etc.
These measures were the basic elements of the unification of the country and were the elements that could be controlled by the violence of the country.
However, some things were difficult for the powerful institutions of the country to control, especially in the early years of the Qin Dynasty when the Warring States Period had just ended. Hundreds of schools of thought were still contending and the ideological field was extremely chaotic. The most important condition for a country to be unified was the degree to which common values could be formed, and ideological confusion was the greatest enemy of the formation of common values.
Therefore, it was not enough to unify the political, economic, cultural and other aspects. The most important and long-term unifying factor was the unification of ideas and the formation of a unified core of values. Only then could the unifying measures in the political, economic, cultural and other areas be effective.
At that time, the two biggest ideological trends were Confucianism and Legalism.
Confucianism and Mohism were both famous schools of thought, but Mohism focused more on the innovation of agricultural methods and farming. Taoism focused more on the study of the body and mind and the formation of the view of human nature. Famous scholars focused more on metaphysical and philosophical thinking.
Confucianism respected the ancient, but Emperor Qin's unification of China was a new matter. The measures he adopted were also new and did not conform to the ideals of Confucianism. At that time, the aristocrats of the six states also used the "self-restraint" of Confucianism to vainly attempt to restore the feudal system of the Zhou Dynasty and regain their lost power.
Therefore, for the newly unified Qin Dynasty, unifying ideas was the key to maintaining the unification. Therefore, after Emperor Qin found a few Confucian scholars to find fault, a cultural movement to unify ideas began. The methods were a little fierce, but the objective effect was obvious.
Although the unified Qin Dynasty only lasted for a dozen years, all the rulers after Qin Dynasty regarded unifying ideas as the key to maintaining their rule.
When Emperor Wu of Han dismissed the hundred schools of thought and revered Confucianism alone, the ideology of China's unification was officially formed. Thereafter, all the rulers basically used Confucianism as the core ideology of the country.
The Qin Dynasty's "Punishing Confucianism" and the Han Dynasty's "Respecting Confucianism" were essentially the same, they both wanted to unify ideas.
In fact, since the Han Dynasty, all the feudal rulers basically implemented the "Yang Confucian Yin Method", or "True Law Famous Confucianism". On the surface, they adopted the Confucian viewpoint, but in reality, they used the methods of Legalism.
The emperor used the methods of Legalism to rule the world, while using Confucianism to educate the people.
Legalism emphasized law, techniques, and power. The ancients regarded these things as the art of emperors, as a way to control the people and officials. Confucianism, on the other hand, emphasized benevolence and propriety. The greatest benefit of benevolence and propriety was to form self-awareness from a moral point of view, without resorting to violence. It was a good tool to maintain the hierarchy, so the rulers of the past used Confucianism to educate the world.
Emperor Qin's "burning books and punishing Confucianism" left an eternal infamy. People saw him as a tyrant, but in fact, this was an unjust accusation. This number was actually very small.
In the long history of China, there were countless cases of people killing tens of thousands of people.
However, this matter greatly offended the Confucian faction. Confucianism had always been a very rampant group since the Warring States Period. It reflected that one had to have Confucianism as the center of a country, so it was not on good terms with the Mohists. Emperor Wu of Han respected Confucianism and dismissed the other schools of thought, giving the Confucians an important position of power.
After they succeeded, they pointed the blame at Emperor Qin, so Emperor Qin became an eternal tyrant, leaving a bad name for a thousand years.
Emperor Qin did not kill Chunyu Yue, and the killing of the warlocks was also dealt with according to the law. In ancient times, cheating the country's property was the crime of deceiving the emperor, and the crime of deceiving the emperor was punishable by death.
Although it was regrettable to lose many valuable books, it was reasonable for Emperor Qin to burn books and punish Confucianism.
Because of this, Emperor Qin entered Xianyang City and was familiar with the five thousand years of history of China. When he found out that after his death, he was miserably deceived by the Confucians, how could he not be furious?
This was how the Confucian Exorcism Order was born.
Not killing all the Confucians in Xianyang City was already Emperor Qin's magnanimity.
The Confucians in Xianyang City also knew that their predecessors had done something wrong, and retribution had arrived. They had no choice but to bear the blame.
In a short period of time, a large number of civil officials in the various government agencies of Xianyang City voluntarily resigned.
The wave of resignations did not affect the operations of Xianyang City. This was because Emperor Qin was not alone. Li Si and a group of important officials also moved into Xianyang City with him.
It had to be said that this was a brilliant move. Emperor Qin's Confucian Exorcism Order not only chased away the Confucians that he hated, but also smoothly took control of Xianyang City, killing two birds with one stone.
After the Confucian scholars resigned, many people began to pay attention to their whereabouts.
Go to other Royal Cities?
Difficult.
Every Royal City was already full, and there was no room for newcomers.
There were only two choices left for the Confucians.
The first was to completely retire and become a wild crane.
The second was to join the players' territories.
None of the lords of the China region were fools.
With the Confucian Exorcism Order, the lords were like crocodiles that smelled blood, gathering in Xianyang City.
For the players' territories, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Although the Confucians in Xianyang City, especially the officials who served in the imperial court, were not historical figures, they played a very important role in the territories.
They were talented and experienced, and they were truly rare talents.
To put it bluntly, civil officials like Zhou Haichen and Xu Zhenchang were a dime a dozen in Xianyang City.
There were also many who were more outstanding than them.
How could the lords not be excited to have such talents? Even Ouyang Shuo was moved.
Unfortunately, in the battle for Xianyang City, Ouyang Shuo was destined to meet his Waterloo. Logically speaking, with Shanhai City's unique conditions, they should have returned victorious. But in reality, that was not the case.
Firstly, the Confucians' mortal enemy, the Legalists, had their dojo in Shanhai City. One of the representatives of the Legalists, Wei Yang, held an important position in the Protectorate of Southern Border.
Just think about it, just this alone was enough to keep most of the Confucian scholars at the door, causing them to hold a grudge.
Secondly, Bai Qi, Wei Ran, Zhang Han, and the others were all from Qin.
Although these people did not have much interaction with Qin Shihuang, in the eyes of the Confucians, Shanhai City and Xianyang City were still in the same boat.
This time, Ouyang Shuo was really unjustly implicated.
Although Shanhai City was known for its tolerance, that was only Ouyang Shuo's side of the story. Without seeing it with their own eyes, it was hard to convince them.
In this battle for talents, Shanhai City was destined to lose. (To be continued.)
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