The Second Large-scale Burning of Books Today, 1440 years ago, on 555 1 month 10 (November, 3rd year of Liang Wudi), an unprecedented catastrophe occurred in Jiangling City, the capital of Liang Dynasty (now jiangling county, Hubei). Emperor Yuan Liang, who was besieged by the Western Wei army in the inner city, ordered Scheeren Gao Shanbao to burn all the 140,000 books collected in the palace. The value of these books can be fully understood from their origins. In this regard, "Sui Shu Jing Ji Zhi" has a detailed record, which is roughly as follows: After Qin Shihuang burned books to bury Confucianism, it was stipulated that officials should be the teachers and the people were forbidden to collect books. Scholars fled to the mountains, and some even failed to preserve Confucian classics, which could only be passed down by word of mouth. When Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty abolished the law prohibiting people from collecting books, Confucian scholars began to spread their theories among the people. However, due to the incomplete preservation of the original book and its long-term oral circulation, there are many confusions and omissions. There are two kinds of books in The Book of Songs and three kinds in The Book of Songs. The Analects of Confucius circulated in Qi is different from that in Lu. There are several Chunqiu, and other ancient books are more chaotic. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established Taishigong as a specialized institution to collect books donated by the whole country. Sima Tan and Sima Qian wrote 130 historical books based on the historical books collected by Tai Shigong. By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, these books had been lost, so Chen Nong was sent to collect books scattered among the people. Dr. Liu Xiang of Guanglu was also invited to review and sort it out. After Liu Xiang's death, Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty let his son Liu Xin inherit his father's footsteps. Finally, he divided 33,900 volumes into seven categories and compiled seven kinds of prospects. Wang Mang fell and the books in the palace were burned. Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty and Zhang both attached great importance to academic culture, especially to Confucian classics. Books are presented all over the country, and the stone chambers and Lantian collections in the palace are also quite sufficient. So he concentrated his new books on Dongguan and Renshou Pavilion, and asked Fu Yi and Ban Gu to organize them according to the seven views and compile them into Hanshu? Art and literature. However, when Dong Zhuo forced Emperor Xiandi of Han Dynasty to move westward to Chang 'an, soldiers plundered the palace, taking long scrolls of silk books as curtains and burdens, but there were more than 70 cars of books transported to Chang 'an. Later, Chang 'an also fell into war, and these books were swept away. After the founding of Wei State, books scattered among the people began to be collected and sorted by the secretary of the Central Organization Department, and were divided into four parts according to their contents. In addition, a number of ancient books, totaling 29,945 volumes, were unearthed in the ancient tomb of Jixian County (southwest of Jixian County, Henan Province) in the early Western Jin Dynasty. However, the Eight Kings Rebellion and Yongjia Rebellion broke out soon, and Luoyang, the capital, was in ruins, leaving no imperial books. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Southern Eastern Jin Dynasty collected some, but compared with the original four catalogues, only 30 14 volumes remained. Since then, the northern suicide note has gradually flowed to the south of the Yangtze River. For example, when Emperor Wudi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty captured Chang 'an, he collected 4,000 volumes of ancient books from the library of the later Qin Dynasty. By the eighth year of Song Yuanjia (43 1), Xie Lingyun, the secretary supervisor, had compiled four catalogues and recorded 64,582 volumes. At the end of the Qi Dynasty, the war spread to the secret pavilion of books, and books suffered heavy losses. Secretary Liang Chu concentrated on sorting out books in Wende Hall, excluding Buddhist scriptures, with a total of 23 160 volumes. Due to Liang Wudi's emphasis on culture, Jiangnan has maintained a stable situation for more than 40 years, and the collection of folk books has also greatly increased. After the Hou Jing Rebellion was pacified, Xiao Yi, the king of eastern Hunan (later Emperor Liang Yuan), ordered the collection of books in Wende Hall and public and private books collected in Jiankang (now Nanjing), the capital, to be transported back to Jiangling. The remaining 70,000 volumes should be the old collections of Emperor Liang Yuan in Jiangling. At this point, his book collection has reached an unprecedented140,000 volumes. What will happen if Emperor Liang sets fire to these books? Sui Shu? There is also a record in the annals of classics: due to the long-term war in the north, the loss of books is more serious. After the Northern Wei Dynasty unified the North, there were few books in the imperial court. After Emperor Xiaowen moved to Luoyang, he borrowed books from the southern State of Qi, and his collection increased slightly. When Erzhurong rebelled, imperial books were scattered among the people. At the beginning of the establishment of the Northern Zhou Dynasty in Guanzhong, there were only 8,000 books, which gradually increased to more than 1 10,000 books, and then increased to 5,000 books after the demise of the Northern Qi Dynasty. In the third year of Emperor Wendi (583), he accepted the suggestion of Niu Hong, the secretary supervisor, and sent someone to search for different books, stipulating that the original books could be returned after being copied or used, and each volume of hair was rewarded with a silk, so he gained a lot. After the destruction of Chen in the Sui Dynasty, many books were obtained, but most of them were newly copied during the period of Taijian (569-592). The paper and ink used are of poor quality and full of mistakes. This shows that southern ancient books were destroyed by burning books in Jiangling. After finishing, the collection of books in the Secret Pavilion of the Sui Dynasty reached more than 30,000 volumes. During Yang Di's reign, he copied 50 volumes of Secret Pavilion Collection and built a temple in Luoyang, the capital of East China, to collect books. In the fifth year of Tang Wude (622), the king was destroyed. After Luoyang was captured, all the books were transported to Chang 'an. Because the boat capsized when crossing Sanmenxia, most of the books fell into the water and disappeared, leaving only 10% to 20%, and even the catalogue was incomplete. There were 14,466 books collected during the compilation of Sui Shu Jing Ji Zhi in the early Tang Dynasty, totaling 89,666 volumes. Since the collection of books in the early Tang Dynasty included books published decades after 1955, the number of old books actually restored was less than half of the original. In terms of quantity, Emperor Yuan of Liang destroyed half of the books handed down from ancient times. In terms of quality, he destroyed the essence accumulated in past dynasties, and the quality is naturally far above the manuscripts collected by the people or in the Tai Jian period, so the loss cannot be valued by quantity. From Qin Shihuang to the early Tang Dynasty, China's books suffered numerous disasters. From the early Tang Dynasty to the present, there are countless natural and man-made disasters, and most of the nearly 90,000 books at that time were not preserved. However, the record of 14,000 books burned by the emperor on his own initiative is unique in these two thousand years and rare in the history of the world. If Emperor Liang Yuan did not burn books, even if they were damaged when the Western Wei army occupied Jiangling, some of them would be concentrated in Chang 'an as trophies, some of them would be spread to today, and more information would be indirectly preserved to today. If so, the history of China before 555 AD will be much richer than what we know today, and the ancient civilization of China will certainly be more brilliant. 1440 years later, there are certainly not many people in China who know about this catastrophe, but the cause of the book burning in Jiangling deserves serious consideration by all those who care about the fate of Chinese civilization. The indirect reason why Emperor Liang Yuan burned books was the invasion of the Western Wei Dynasty and the failure of the defensive war. In November 554 (October of Liang Chengsheng's third year), the Western Wei sent generals Yu Jin, Yuwen Hu and Yang Zhong to lead 50,000 troops from Chang 'an to Jiangling. In fact, two years ago, Emperor Yuan of Liang made Jiangling his capital, which was already doomed to his ruin. Jiangling is backed by the Yangtze River, and there is no danger to defend in the north, far from the long-term political and military center of the Southern Dynasties. In order to cope with the conflicts between brothers and clans and control the potential hostile forces, he stationed troops in various places, not preventing the powerful enemy in the north, the Western Wei Dynasty, and dreamed of destroying dissidents. Even when he received a tip-off from Ma Bofu, an old minister of the Liang Dynasty, he did not believe that the other side was already preparing for an invasion. Yu Jin, commander-in-chief of the Western Wei Dynasty, predicted the tactics of Emperor Liang Yuan when he sent troops: the best policy was to "show off Han Mian's soldiers, sweep across the river and take Danyang directly", that is, the army voluntarily gave up Jiangling and moved to Jiankang after the general mobilization. The central policy is to "move the residents living in the countryside, protect the sub-cities and wait for reinforcements", that is, move the residents from the outer cities to the inner cities, strengthen the fortifications of the cities and wait for reinforcements. The best policy is to "stick to Romania", that is, stick to the outer city without making any active transfer. From all aspects, Emperor Liang Yuan must take the next step. Later, it happened, and Emperor Liang's tactics were even worse than the last decision. 1 1 On 20th, the satrap of Wuning (now northeast of Jingmen City, Hubei Province) reported the news that Wei Jun was going south. Emperor Yuan of Liang summoned his ministers to discuss, and General Hu and counselor Huang Luohan argued: "The relations between the two countries are friendly and there is no conflict of interest. Certainly not. " Wang Chen, a courtier who sent to the Western Wei Dynasty last year, put it better: "I am trying to figure out what Yu Wentai looks like, and there is definitely no reason to invade." Emperor Liang Yuan decided to send Wang Chen to the Western Wei Dynasty again. But three days later, Wei Jun had arrived in Xiangyang (now Xiangfan City, Hubei Province), and Yuan Di ordered martial law inside and outside. However, after Wang Chen went to Fan Shi (now Zhongxiang County, Hubei Province), he sent an urgent letter to Huang Luohan: "The border is orderly, and the previous news is child's play." This makes Yuan Di track down again. It was not until 1 1 28 that Yuan Di sent someone to Jiankang to recruit Wang Sengbian, a heavily armed general, to Jiangling as viceroy and Jingzhou secretariat, and led the army into aid. But he had no confidence in resisting Wei Jun. 1 February1Sunday night lamented that "we are going to lose now". Even under such circumstances, he did not relax his control over his subordinates. When he attacked Liu Fa and wanted to send troops to help Jiangling, he was stopped: "I can break the enemy here. You only need to defend Yunzhou, and you don't need to mobilize troops. " Therefore, we lost our latest reinforcements. 1February 10, Wei Jun crossed the Hanshui River and sent Yuwen Hu and Yang Zhong to attack Jiangjin (now southeast of Shashi City, Hubei Province) and cut off the Yangtze River waterway east of Dongling. On the same day, Emperor Yuan of Liang held a military parade outside Jinyang Gate, the outer city of Jiangling, but the north wind blew hard and the rainstorm plummeted, so it had to end hastily. The next day, Wei Jun captured Wuning and captured the satrap Zongjun. Yuan Di, who has been sitting in a sedan chair, rode out of the city in a sedan chair, deployed around the city, and erected a fence more than 60 miles long. He ordered Monk Hu and Bao Wang to defend the east and west of the city, while the prince patrolled the watchtower and the people carried wood and stones. That night, Wei Jun arrived in Huanghua, which is only four miles away from Jiangling, and arrived in Mu Cha on the 14th. On the 15th, Liang Jun opened the door to fight, and the emerging satrap Peiji killed Jiang Weihu's grammar. However, on the 24th, a fire broke out at the gate, which destroyed thousands of houses and 25 towers. Wei Jun took the opportunity to cross the river on a large scale and ordered the construction of an encirclement, so that Jiangling was completely isolated from the outside world. Although Emperor Yuan of Liang summoned reinforcements from all directions many times, none of them arrived. Wang Sengbian, the most powerful city, is far away in health. Although it has been deployed, the former army has been sent, ready to attack the rear road of Wei Jun. Unfortunately, before it can be implemented, Jiangling has fallen. Another reinforcement, led by Wang Lin, the secretariat of Guangzhou (now Guangzhou), has just arrived in Changsha. On the 27th, Emperor Yuan of Liang, who was deeply desperate, tore off a piece of silk and wrote in his own hand: "I will endure death and wait for the public, I can do it!" Urged Wang Sengbian to March, but to no avail. On April 4th, 555/KLOC-0, Liang Jun opened its doors and started the war. They were all defeated. On the 10th, Wei Jun attacked the city in an all-round way, and the commander-in-chief, Monk Hu, died in an argument. The morale of the army was shaken, and someone opened the west gate and locked him in Wei County. Retreat into Jincheng and immediately send two nephews as hostages to make peace with Yu. The generals in the south of the city surrendered in succession, and the soldiers in the north of the city struggled until dusk, only to hear the news that the city was trapped and fled.