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Burning Of The Books: Historical Analysis Of 221 BCE And 209 BCE China

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Burning of the Books: Historical Analysis Between 221 BCE and 209 BCE China was ruled under the Qin Dynasty; a time where many of China’s civilians lived under the harsh rule of a legalist government and their Qin ruler, Qin Shi Huangdi. In the short letter “Memorial on the Burning of Books” Li Si, the emperor's advisor, starts to take notice of a straying from the Legalist government. Li Si claims that Legalism is what keeps the people of China in control. With this being said, Li Si also acknowledges that there are many people who criticize Legalism, branching out to other schools such as Confucianism and Daoism. In accordance to Li Si, this is bad for the Qin Dynasty and believes that the practice of such schools could result in a rebellion …show more content…

By Li Si wanting to burn any books that were against the current government, the fear of losing power is present, which suggests that the Qin Dynasty was starting lose its followers. In the book, there is more context that helps to support this claim; “After a reign of about 12 years as emperor, Qin Shi Huang died. His strict laws, severe punishments, and huge construction projects had angered and exhausted the people, and soon after his death the empire erupted in rebellion” (252). Since there was a rebellion right after the Emperor's death, it can be inferred that Li Si had predicted rebellions and wrote this letter due to the loss of support from the chinese civilians, therefore Li Si had written this during a time where he feared that Legalism was losing

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