Scholars Gone, Books Burned

By: Lakasia Wang

The China times

Xianyang-  Emperor Qin has recently ordered over 460 confusion scholars to be buried alive and all their books burned. Just last week almost all of the confusion books along with a few others were burned.  Since the Emperor is a legalist, he wanted to get rid of Confucianism. Only certain books approved by Qin himself weren’t burned.

 Emperor Qin has decided to start off 212 B.C with ordering scholars all over China to be killed. The few scholars that are left have been living in fear of being executed or being sent to work on the great wall. Qin claims that if scholars have other thoughts or ideas, they may over take the empire.

Fu Su, Emperor Qin’s eldest son, witnessed his father taking action. He told his father that what he was doing wasn’t right, therefore angering Qin. He begged him to show mercy to the hundreds of scholars who were sentenced to be buried alive  Fu Su was exiled and sent away to work on the great wall as punishment.

On the other hand, Wei Hong, a general in the Qin army, encouraged Emperor Qin to continue what he was doing. “By compressing intellectual discourse we will be able to unify all thoughts and political opinions therefore creating a stronger empire.” Wei Hong claims. After having a conversation with the emperor, 700 more scholars were put to death. He said that with all the confusion scholars gone, China will move forward faster.