Heirs of the Seven Swords of the Qin Dynasty

Zhao Gao gave a perfect smile and said nothing - as the Minister of the Imperial Chariots, he had no qualifications to participate in such important national affairs, so there was no question of taking sides. It was none of his business whether to worship the ancients or not.

Of course, behind the scenes he often expressed his loyalty to his master the emperor, supporting the counties and despising the feudal system.

At this time, Li Si and Chunyu Yue could reminisce about the past, but he could only give an awkward but polite smile and be a mere bystander.

After Li Si finished speaking, Ying Zheng looked at Chun Yuyue:
"Dr. Chunyu, have you changed your mind today?"

Chunyu Yue stood up, bowed formally and responded, "Your Majesty, I still insist that the old system should be restored and the princes should be enfeoffed to consolidate the four corners of the world."

"I have heard that the kings of Yin and Zhou ruled for more than a thousand years and enfeoffed their sons and nephews as meritorious officials, and they served as their own supporters. Now your Majesty has the whole country, but your sons and nephews are ordinary people. You have even Tian Chang and the six ministers, but no one to support you. How can you save him?"

"It is unheard of that something can last long without learning from the past."

Chunyu Yue didn't care about Ying Zheng's thoughts and mood, nor did he care about the occasion, and started to persuade him directly.

Ying Zheng was not angry, and his eyes turned calmly to Li Si:
"Prime Minister Li, what do you think of what Dr. Chunyu said, as a non-Ancient school?"

The emperor called for his generals, and Li Si immediately stood up, treating this place as the court, and began to refute Chunyu Yue:

"Dr. Chunyu's point of view is somewhat untrue."

"It is true that the kings of Yin and Zhou lived for more than a thousand years, but during this period, the king of Zhou existed in name only. The so-called sons and meritorious officials went on their own expeditions and ignored the king of Zhou. How could there be any support?"

"Don't forget what Mencius said, there were no wars of justice in the Spring and Autumn Period!"

"As for Tian Chang and the six ministers mentioned by the doctor, it is a bit groundless."

After briefly refuting Chunyu Yue's suggestion of the benefits of enfeoffment, Li Si continued to work hard and began to show his true abilities:

"The Five Emperors did not succeed each other, and the Three Dynasties did not succeed each other. Each ruled in its own way, not in opposition to the other. It was a matter of time and change."

"Your Majesty has now established a great cause......

…………If this is not stopped, the power of the ruler will be weakened from above, and the party will be formed from below! ” (This paragraph is the original text of the Records of the Grand Historian)
In this passage, Li Si refuted Chunyu Yue's theory of worshipping the ancients and also criticized the various schools of thought and the common people. Basically, he criticized everyone.

There is only one point that people are criticized for, that the various schools of thought and the common people are not loyal enough. They are either disloyal or on the path to disloyalty - the scope of the topic has completely surpassed the issue of whether to revere the past or the present, and whether to divide the country into fiefdoms or counties.

In short, it’s still the old theme - there is only one sun in the sky, and there is only one sun in my heart.

After listening to Li Si's speech, Chunyu Yue and others became secretly suspicious.

There is no need to mention Li Si's ability level. Even Xunzi had to admit that his no longer recognized student was truly academically sound.

But even if it was Li Si, it would be impossible for him to organize his words in such a short time and scold him!
Could it be that this guy had already made preparations?
This was acceptable. After all, the emperor had probably already prepared to attack Xiao Shengxian Manor today. Everything that had just happened was planned. It was normal for Li Si to discuss this with the emperor in advance and make preparations.

But all Confucianists, including Chunyu Yue, still cursed Li Si in their hearts.

Even Chunyu Yue, who had no idea about the situation, could hear that Li Si clearly intended to be the vanguard of Ying Zheng's attack on the various schools of thought, and the first target would be the Confucians who respected the Zhou rites!

As for Master Xun and others, there is no need to mention them.

They knew about the Book Burning Order, and they also knew that Li Si knew about it.

Now seeing that Li Si was willing to take the lead in giving Ying Zheng such an outrageous order, he wished he could wipe out Li Si's entire family on the spot!
But no matter how angry they were, they could not change the course of events.

Ying Zheng did not specifically inform Li Si before coming. With his style, he would not do such a cunning thing, but Li Si was smart enough. He grasped Ying Zheng's intention at the first time and perfectly achieved the effect Ying Zheng wanted.

Without waiting for Chunyu Yue or anyone else to respond, Ying Zheng spoke first:

"I seem to have seen these words before."

Li Si bowed to Ying Zheng and replied, "Your Majesty, I submitted a memorial some time ago, and the above words are exactly the original content."

Without Ying Zheng asking any more questions, Li Si continued, "In that memorial, I also proposed a way to prevent this situation - of course, it was not the restoration of the old system advocated by Doctor Chunyu."

"In a nutshell, the above chaos is all wrong and harmful to the country."

"Since it is wrong, it is better to ban it."

"I ask Your Majesty to issue an order to burn books!"

"All the historians' records not related to the Qin Dynasty were burned.

It is not the duty of the doctoral official. Anyone in the world who dares to keep poems, books, and words of various schools of thought will be taken to the prefect or the lieutenant to be burned.

Anyone who dared to talk about poetry and books would be executed. Anyone who used the past to criticize the present would be killed. Officials who knew about this but did not report it would be punished with the same crime.

If the order is not issued within 30 days, the person will be tattooed and forced to serve in the city for a day.

What I won't give up are books on medicine, divination, and tree planting. If you want to learn laws, take the officials as your teachers!"

As soon as these words came out, it was like a roar of winter thunder, resounding in the hearts of everyone present, even Xunzi and others who had known about it for a long time were no exception.

No matter how he cut ties with Li Si to the outside world, the fact that he was a direct student of Xunzi could not be changed.

At this time, when Xunzi heard his student utter such "treasonous" remarks, even with his great skill in cultivating his Qi, he was so angry that his internal organs were churning, his face turned red, and he almost vomited blood - he was angry at the emperor's absurd order, and also annoyed with himself for teaching such a student.

The faces of the three Fu Nian brothers were as gloomy as if they were splashed with ink. They clenched their teeth and wished they could stand up and take action - just like the teacher-student relationship between Xunzi and Li Si could not be washed away no matter what, the fact that Li Si was born in Xiaoshengxianzhuang was also unchangeable.

His shocking request to burn books with just a few words has put Xiaoshengxianzhuang on the pillar of shame.

As for Chunyu Yue...the old man was completely dumbfounded.

Even in his nightmares, he could not imagine that a scholar with a Confucian background could propose to the emperor to burn books.

Is this something a human can do?

He stared at Li Si blankly, unable to utter a complete sentence, "You...you...you..."

When his brain finally came to his senses, he was so angry that his whole body was shaking, his beard was trembling, and he cursed angrily, "Absurd! Ridiculous! The biggest absurdity ever!"

Everyone else was furious, but Ying Zheng looked calm, as if Li Si was just suggesting to him what to eat for lunch tomorrow. He even asked Chunyu Yue, who was almost fainted from anger:

"Why, Dr. Chunyu thinks that Li Xiang's suggestion is not good?"

As soon as Ying Zheng said this, his attitude was revealed. Chunyu Yue turned his head abruptly, no longer caring about the difference between superiors and subordinates. He stared at Ying Zheng with wide eyes, then he couldn't breathe and fainted.

Zhao Gao, who had been silent, finally found an opportunity to show off. He stood up first and supported Chunyu Yue who had fallen to the ground before anyone else. He did not do anything excessive. He simply took the other person's pulse, rolled his eyes, and said to Ying Zheng with a smile:
"Your Majesty, Dr. Chunyu is fine, he just fainted."

"Maybe it's because of my old age. After walking around the manor today, my blood boiled and I couldn't hold on for a while."

Chunyu Yue was obviously so angry that he fainted, but he just kept lying with his eyes open, saying that the other person was tired.

Chunyu Yue is indeed quite old, but he has always been in good health. Even if he walks around Xiaoshengxianzhuang in a full circle, he won't be tired enough to faint.

But Zhao Gao didn't care and just kept talking nonsense, so Ying Zheng just took it seriously and quickly arranged for servants to help him.
Xunzi, who had been silent all this time, finally couldn't help but speak, his old voice still full of sharpness - he even went so far as to make direct personal attacks without being unreasonable.

"Mr. Zhao... Oh, you are not Mr. Zhongche Mansion Commander anymore, so what should I call you?"

Without waiting for Zhao Gao to reply, Xunzi shook his head and said to himself, "I'd better call you the Zhao Palace Magistrate. There is no other title available."

"Mr. Zhao, you have been close to the emperor for a long time, but you have learned the skill of talking nonsense from Prime Minister Li."

"Master Xun's words make me confused." Zhao Gao's face changed slightly, but he remained calm and responded calmly, "Dr. Chunyu's physical condition is obvious at a glance. I have heard for a long time that Master Xun is also a medical expert. How can I hide this from you?"

Chunyu Yue's symptoms are commonly known as "anger attack", which is actually a rapid heartbeat and blood rushing to the brain.

But it is not only anger that can lead to this situation. There are many possibilities. Anger is one, and so can any other excited emotion. The situation Zhao Gao described is also possible - of course, it's a lot more nonsense.

But it's pointless to argue with him about this matter, not to mention that it's impossible for you to argue with him in front of the emperor.

So Xunzi did not argue and chose to attack directly.

"What Zhao Fuling said was certainly not a lie, and a lie is not nonsense, at most it is just flowery talk." Xunzi replied indifferently, "Like Li Xiangguo, whose words are not connected, that is nonsense and has ulterior motives!"

Xunzi's words turned the spearhead towards Li Si.

When being criticized by his teacher, Li Si, even as the Left Prime Minister of the empire, could not get angry, and it was even difficult for him to refute his teacher directly, but he could still defend himself.

But Ying Zheng got there before Li Si, and as if he hadn't noticed Master Xun's weird tone, he calmly asked, "It sounds like Master Xun doesn't agree with his student's ideas."

Even when facing Ying Zheng, Xunzi still prioritized clarifying his relationship with Li Si:

"Your Majesty, I don't have a student as outstanding as Prime Minister Li."

"As for his ideas... since they are just nonsense, what reason is there to accept them?"

"I think what Prime Minister Li said is reasonable and well-founded. How can it be called nonsense?" Ying Zheng did not care about Xunzi's previous words, nor did he get angry. He asked back calmly.

"If there is no cause and effect relationship, then of course it is nonsense." Xunzi replied calmly, "Let's not talk about whether his impassioned speech at the beginning is correct. Even if he is right, the various philosophers made irresponsible comments on national policies, slandered the emperor, manipulated public opinion, formed factions and launched random expeditions... What does that have to do with the book burning?"

"Why, if people don't read, won't they all become beasts that can't talk or think?!"

"You can say that the philosophers have ulterior motives, and you can say that the common people are blindly following. Prime Minister Li can push all the blame onto the philosophers and the common people, but what does this have to do with the book?"

To put it simply, what Xunzi said means that the fact that a knife killed a person has nothing to do with the knife.

There is certainly nothing wrong with this logic, but it just doesn't make sense to Ying Zheng - because he really blames the weapons.

He was able to collect soldiers from all over the world and cast them into twelve golden men, so it is reasonable for him to burn books and fool the people now - at least it seems reasonable to him.

However, Ying Zheng would not directly debate with Xunzi, so Li Si wisely took over the conversation:

"What Master Xun said is reasonable. When war hurts people, the blame lies with the people. When scholars criticize the government, the blame lies with the scholars."

Xunzi repeatedly distanced himself from him, and Li Si could not shamelessly call himself his disciple, so he could only call him Master Xun.

Li Si continued, "However, swords are sharp and can injure people but are useless to the people, so the imperial law prohibits them."

"Similarly, if someone reads the books of sages and uses them to criticize the imperial court, then the books of sages and sages are useless to the people and harmful to the country, so the empire should naturally ban them."

Li Si’s logic is also very simple.

Swords are innocent as tools, but as tools that can hurt others and are not essential, it is reasonable for the Empire to ban them - although the strength of the Empire's ban is hard to describe.

Books are also innocent as tools, but if someone learns the principles in them and uses them to attack the empire and the emperor, then they should also be banned - but necessities such as reference books on medicine, divination, and tree planting should not be banned.

You can't say that ordinary people have to read a few chapters of "The Analects" before they can farm, right?

As for the need for scholars to govern the country, there is no need to worry about that either.

The imperial court itself would still preserve the world's collection of books and would use them when needed.

Having said this, Xunzi remained silent.

Reasoning no longer makes sense.

Li Si forcibly labeled books and weapons as "contraband" that were not needed by the people.

Since it is not needed, it is reasonable to destroy it, right?

But in fact, even if books are really not necessary, can all unnecessary things in the world be destroyed?

Xunzi also thinks that the mountains west of Sanghai are not necessary. Should the empire send people to flatten them?
People can get full by eating. Even if they need meat, there are chickens, ducks, geese and pigs. So should we kill all the other animals that are not needed?
"Confucius said: 'The only thing that knows me and judges me is the Spring and Autumn Annals!'"

"But I wonder if you, Li Tonggu, can say with a clear conscience that the only thing that can punish me is 'burning books'!"

After saying this, Xunzi stood up and left.

Not only did he disregard Li Si's face, he even disregarded the emperor's face - the latter sentence was addressed to both Li Si and the emperor.

For the first time, Ying Zheng's expression changed significantly, revealing a hint of gloom.

To be frank, based on the fact that Master Xun left without saying goodbye, it was in accordance with the law for Ying Zheng to kill him.

Zhang Liang stood up at this time - not only to settle the matter, but also to add fuel to the fire:
"Uncle Xun is old and often confused and moody. He usually meditates quietly. Perhaps he was too tired today and was rude to me."

"Your Majesty, please forgive me."

Zhang Liang's request for Ying Zheng's forgiveness was very straightforward and effective - Master Xun was old.

Compared to Chunyu Yue, the old man mentioned by Zhao Gao, Xunzi is the real old man, already in his 80s. (End of this chapter)