Chapter 78 259 Emperor Qianlong bans and revises books

After the Qing Dynasty unified China, the economy developed greatly through the management of the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties.By the time Emperor Yongzheng's son Qing Gaozong Hongli (also known as Emperor Qianlong) was in power, the country was strong and financially rich.Wenzhiwugong (that is, the rule of culture and force) in the early Qing Dynasty reached its peak during this period.In 1757 AD, the Junggar nobleman Amursana, who had surrendered to the Qing court, launched a rebellion.Emperor Qianlong sent two troops to attack Yili and put down the rebellion.After Junggar was pacified, the brothers Dahe Zhuomu (also known as Bunadun) and Xiaohe Zhuomu (also known as Huo Jizhan), the Uighur leaders who had been captured by Junggar, fled back to the South Tianshan Road in Xinjiang and rebelled against the Qing Dynasty.Emperor Qianlong sent troops to conquer again.Big and small and Zhuo Mu brutally oppressed the local people, and were hated by the Uighur people, and they all rose up to support the Qing army.The Qing army successfully quelled the size and Zhuo Mu's rebellion.

In 1762 AD, the Qing Dynasty set up General Yili in Xinjiang to strengthen the management of the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains. Emperor Qianlong, like his grandfather and father, attached great importance to martial arts in addition to martial arts.On the one hand, he continued to open the subject of erudition, recruiting scholars and writing various books; on the other hand, he promoted literary inquisitions to suppress literati who were suspected of opposing the Qing Dynasty. However, Emperor Qianlong understood that it was not thorough to implement cultural rule solely by literary inquisition.There are also thousands of books stored among the people.If there is content that is not conducive to their rule, what method should be used to solve it.

He finally figured out a way to collect books from all over the country to edit a series of books of unprecedented scale.In this way, a large number of intellectuals can be further won over, showing that the emperor attaches great importance to culture; second, take this opportunity to review all the private collections.It can be said to kill two birds with one stone. In 1773 AD, Emperor Qianlong officially ordered the opening of the Siku Quanshu Library.Some royal princes and bachelors were sent to serve as presidents, and most of those royal relatives were named and played a supervisory role.The real editors were some well-known scholars at that time, such as Dai Zhen, Yao Nai, Ji Yun (sound yun) and others.That set of books is called "Siku Quanshu".

In ancient my country, books were often divided into four categories: Jing, Shi, Zi, and Ji: Jingbu, including Confucian classics (such as, "Mencius", etc.) and books on the study of text phonology; Shibu, including various Books on history, geography, biography, etc.; Subsections, including ancient theories and scientific works, such as agriculture, medicine, astronomy, calendar, algorithm, art, etc.; Collection Sections, including general collections and special collections of literature, etc. According to the four categories of concentrated storage, it is called "Siku".

To compile a huge series of books, you must first collect the books.Emperor Qianlong issued an order to ask provincial officials to collect and purchase various books and hand them over, and set out a reward method, requiring individuals to contribute books. The more contributions, the greater the reward.With this order, books from all over the country were sent to Beijing in an endless stream. Only two years later, there were more than 20,000 kinds. Adding the original large number of books in the palace, the number is very impressive. Books are collected.Emperor Qianlong ordered the compilation officials of the Siku Quanshu Library to carefully inspect the books.Any "violation"

All words and sentences (unfavorable to the Qing rulers) will be destroyed.After investigation, it was found that in the memorials of ministers in the late Ming Dynasty, the previous generations of the Qing royal family were mentioned, and they were not respected so much. For example, their previous generations had accepted the official positions and titles of the Ming Dynasty. ; So he ordered that all such books be burned.As for the works of anti-Qing literati such as Lu Liuliang and Huang Daozhou, let alone.After further investigation, in the writings of the people of the Song Dynasty, there are also many contents opposing the Liao, Jin, and Yuan dynasties. This kind of content is easily reminiscent of opposing the Qing Dynasty, and it should also be destroyed, or part of it should be destroyed.There is another way, that is to delete, modify and smear out any time such words and sentences are found. In this way, although the book is preserved, it has been changed beyond recognition.For this matter, Emperor Qianlong can be said to have racked his brains.According to incomplete statistics, while compiling the "Siku Quanshu", there were as many as 3,000 books that were banned and burned.

But regardless of Emperor Qianlong's motives, this huge "Siku Quanshu" was finally compiled and preserved.The scholars who compiled the "Siku Quanshu" edited, collated, and copied a large number of books. It took ten years to complete it officially in 1782. A total of 3,503 books were collected, and 79,300 One hundred and thirty-seven volumes.At that time, seven copies of the whole book were copied and stored in the Imperial Palace, Yuanmingyuan, Rehe Palace (now Chengde, Hebei), Fengtian, (now Shenyang) Hangzhou, Zhenjiang, and Yangzhou (three of which were later burned during the war).After all, this is a major and precious contribution to future generations' research on the rich cultural heritage of ancient my country.As for the banning and destroying of a batch of books, of course it has caused losses to our culture, but such bans cannot be completely eliminated.At that time, many people who loved cultural relics hid many valuable books at the risk of being imprisoned and beheaded.By the end of the Qing Dynasty, many banned books appeared one after another.