There are many labels on him. He is a disciple of Xunzi, a representative figure of Legalism, the left prime minister of Qin, and Han Fei. He died because of him, and he died because of "extreme".

In Yan Xiaoer's mind, Reese is first and foremost a person with a clear purpose. He knows what he wants, so he can work in one direction. Although his knowledge is not as good as Han Fei's, he sized up the situation, won the trust of Lv Buwei and Ying Zheng, and successfully achieved his career goals.

Secondly, Li Si is also an "extreme" person. Compared with Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, the mainstream theory in later feudal society, Lisi belongs to a more "overbearing" and extreme school. Although he is not the best in legalist thought, he has "practiced" it thoroughly in practical actions.

The world says that Qin Shihuang burned books to bury Confucianism, and behind this burning of books to bury Confucianism, there is actually Li Si's "unified thought" to add fuel to the flames.

Laozi, a Taoist, once said that "things are strong and old", and Lisi and Legalists also thought that "things are strong and old". The higher you climb, the heavier you fall, and finally you get beheaded. It's embarrassing, too.

1, Li Si and his "mouse philosophy"-he is a man with strong purpose. Speaking of Li Si, I have to say an anecdote about him. This story is recorded in Biography of Historical Records and Lisi written by Sima Qian.

The story goes like this:

When Reese was a junior official, life was good, but there was nothing wrong, but she always felt a little empty in her heart.

Once, Reese saw a mouse in the toilet. These mice feed on the excrement in the toilet. They are very timid. As long as someone comes, or animals that can threaten them, such as dogs, they will run away quickly.

Then, Reese thought of the mouse in the barn. They eat fat and big, and they have a lot of courage. They eat and drink freely in the rice pile every day and have fun without being threatened by people or dogs.

Here, Reese sent out a feeling: "Whether people are promising or not, just like this mouse, it is the environment that makes their fate different."

So, in order not to be a rat in the toilet, Reese resigned as a small official, gave up his plain life and began to seek an "environment" that would make him rich.

First, he went to the State of Qi to study and became a disciple of Xun Qing. Because Xunzi's thoughts are full of legalist thoughts, Lisi learned his "imperial skills" and became a more quintessential legalist thought than Xunzi.

Later, he went to the State of Qin, was appreciated by Lv Buwei, became the left prime minister, and successfully assisted Qin Shihuang to unify the world.

From Rees' mouse philosophy and the outline of His Road to the Summit, we can find that Rees' purpose is very clear and his logic is very clear.

First of all, "study", and then use your own talents to learn "promotion" and fulfill your desire for success in career.

But he saw the happiness of the "mouse" in the rice barn, but did not study it further. Mice in the rice barn rarely meet people and dogs, but that doesn't mean it won't happen. Once it appears, obese mice may not even have a chance to escape. .....

Apprentices can make people enjoy it, but people can also die.

2. Reese and burning books to bury Confucianism-he is an extreme practitioner of Reese's legalist thought. The core point of Lisi's legalist thought is to consolidate centralization, and what Lisi has done since he took power is generally on this point. He is an extreme practitioner of legalism.

Everyone knows that Qin Shihuang did it, but few people know that Lisi may be an important promoter of the incident of burning books and burying Confucianism.

In the thirty-fourth year of Qin Shihuang, that is, 2 13 years ago, Li Si told Qin Shihuang that the current rule of the country should not be Confucian, because the present situation of the times is not suitable. Judging from the past history, the five emperors and three generations have different strategies for governing the country because of different times. Therefore, the way of governing the country during the three generations is not worth emulating.

Li Si said that the dynasty under Qin Shihuang was no longer an era of hegemony. The urgent task is "unification", and the focus of unification is "thought". Here, inflammatory "speech" should be "stifled" in the bud.

Here, in order to unify the words and deeds of the world and consolidate the power of Qin Shihuang, he suggested that Qin Shihuang order the burning of books.

As a result, at the instigation of Reese, many precious books were burned, not books collected by officials in charge of ancient and modern literature and history books, nor books on medicine, divination and tree planting.

It is worth mentioning that some so-called "forbidden books" in Qin Shihuang's period were Qin Shihuang's "exclusive collection", and they will not disappear, which is also a blessing in China's cultural misfortune.

He caused havoc to China culture and devoted himself to the unification of Qin. From the height of all mankind, Li Si indirectly caused China culture and even the world culture to suffer a catastrophe, and the splendid hundred schools of culture were destroyed by his unification, which is a very regrettable and irreversible loss.

However, Li Si played an important role in the unification of Qin State and even the change and development of later dynasties. If he hadn't made a series of efforts to unify the whole country, such as unifying words and thoughts, the later dynasties might not have been so stable, and it was impossible for the Qin Dynasty to quickly enter the "state" when Qin Shihuang was alive.

Li Si contributed a lot to the unification of Qin State and even later generations.

If the times want to progress, people have to pay some price. Maybe the burned book is the price.

As for Reese's personal character, first of all, there is no doubt that he is a man with a strong purpose, accompanied by a strong utilitarian heart, and Legalists do not exclude utilitarian heart, so there is no need to comment on his utilitarian heart. Secondly, he tends to go to extremes, which has made him successful and killed him.