Chapter 49: Burning Books and Burying Scholars: The Menace of the Alchemists

While banqueting and enjoying himself, Chunyu Yue had jumped out to stir up trouble, proposing precisely the system of enfeoffment that Ying Zheng loathed. Ying Zheng could well imagine his own frame of mind at that moment.

This Chunyu Yue was hardly a normal person either; failing to notice that everyone else was in high spirits, he simply had to ruin the mood for the entire gathering.

It was much like a family celebrating an elderly relative's birthday, only for a guest to suddenly leap out and declare to the host: "What is there to celebrate? This old wretch will die sooner or later!"

"Li Si refuted his arguments, dismissed his rhetoric, and submitted a memorial to eradicate all literature, poetry, and the teachings of the hundred schools of thought, sparing only books on medicine, divination, and arboriculture. The Great King adopted Li Si's counsel and issued the decree for the burning of books."

"The burial of the scholars occurred in the second year following the book burning. The catalyst was two alohemians tasked with seeking the elixir of immortality for the Great King, who secretly discussed the Great King behind his back..."

At this point, Li Nian stole a glance at Ying Zheng, only to find that Ying Zheng was already looking right at him.

Noticing Li Nian's gesture, Ying Zheng knew that those two alchemists could not possibly have said anything pleasant when evaluating him. "Speak your mind without reservation!"

Li Nian continued, "Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng claimed that the Great King is naturally tyrannical and stubborn in his ways; that having risen from the status of a feudal lord to the unification of all under heaven, Your Majesty is brimming with self-satisfaction and acts entirely upon whim, believing that no one from antiquity to the present could ever surpass you."

Ying Zheng's face darkened once again, for it brought back to mind the primary reasons Li Nian had cited for the fall of the Great Qin—being overly hasty and excessively confident were among them. Weren't the words of Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng identical to what Li Nian had said?

"They said that the Great King exclusively employs and favors prison wardens, and though there are seventy Erudites, Your Majesty gives them no real responsibility, treating them merely as decorations. The Chancellor and senior ministers can only follow the Great King's commands, utterly devoid of any independent thought of their own."

"The Great King takes delight in establishing majesty through punishments and executions; people throughout the realm live in terror of breaking the law, not daring to offer loyal and straightforward remonstrance. Unable to hear of his own faults, the Great King grows more arrogant day by day, while officials tremble in fear and can only deceive Your Majesty with falsehoods merely to preserve their own lives..."

Having heard this, Ying Zheng raised an eyebrow and remarked, "Is this widow truly so despicable?"

"Naturally not," Li Nian replied. "Take the claim that 'the Chancellor and senior ministers can only accept standing orders and act in reliance upon the Great King'—if that were truly the case, how could Li Si's proposal for burning the books have been adopted by Your Majesty? These individuals simply harbored resentment toward the Great King and thus intentionally slandered Your Majesty in their private discussions."

"When they fled, this subject believes it was not because they deemed the Great King tyrannical and greedy, nor because they were unwilling to seek the elixir of immortality; rather, it was because they were terrified!"

"They feared being discovered for secretly slandering the Great King, but above all, they feared their inability to find the elixir of immortality. Whether such an elixir even exists, those alchemists who deceived the Great King knew better than anyone else!"

"Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng discussing the Great King appeared to be pointing out Your Majesty's flaws, but in reality, they were merely fabricating an excuse for their flight, seeking to render their escape justifiable while covering up their failure to find the elixir of immortality."

A flash of cold light swept through the depths of Ying Zheng's eyes.

Ever since Li Nian had told him that the concoctions brewed by the alchemists were harmful, he had ceased taking them. However, he had not made a public issue of it, choosing instead to raise chickens, rats, and other small animals within the palace using the methods Li Nian had described.

Though only a few days had passed, those chickens and rats that had ingested the alchemists' elixirs were already slowly exhibiting abnormal conditions; especially the rats, which were even smaller than chickens, whose appetites and vitality had vastly deteriorated.

Hearing now how the alchemists Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng had disparaged him behind his back, Ying Zheng was left with only a single thought: these alchemists truly deserved to die!

Moreover, the intentions of Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng were utterly malicious. By portraying him in a negative light to justify their escape, they were actually covering up the fact that they could not find the elixir of immortality at all and feared discovery by him.

Clearly, it was they who harbored guilty consciences, yet they poured filth upon him instead, claiming they were unwilling to seek immortality for a ruler as greedy and tyrannical as him, thereby elevating themselves to a position of noble righteousness.

If they were going to talk like that, why didn't they have the ability to produce the elixir of immortality instead?

Two shameless scoundrels!

Li Nian went on, "After Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng fled, the Great King was naturally furious. Your Majesty had treated them with respect and bestowed generous rewards upon them, yet they slandered the Great King in return. The Great King dispatched agents to investigate the Confucian scholars in Xianyang, only to discover that some of them, much like Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng, were spreading heterodox rumors and misleading the populace. Consequently, the Great King ordered the arrest of the Confucian scholars. Following interrogation, several hundred were condemned to death and buried alive in Xianyang. This is the origin of the 'burial of the scholars'."

During the Qin dynasty, Confucian scholars could also be broadly categorized under the heading of alchemists; it was not the case that the First Emperor had ordered the execution solely of alchemists while sparing Confucians.

The character for 'scholar' or 'Ru' originally denoted flexibility, referring to practitioners of various arts. As early as the Spring and Autumn period, they had already diverged from shamans, scribes, invocators, and diviners.

"When this subject speaks of the 'burning of books and burial of scholars' with the Great King, it is not to debate whether it was right or wrong, but rather to examine its impact! In the wake of these events, the reputation of the Great King and the Great Qin plummeted rapidly among the common folk. Many came to believe that the Great King was a tyrannical ruler and the Great Qin a tyrannical state."

"The reason for this, Your Majesty can surely deduce, lies precisely in those Confucian scholars and alchemists who escaped execution. They traveled everywhere broadcasting the atrocities and tyrannical governance of the Great King as they perceived them. Since the common people across the various regions had never laid eyes on the Great King, how could they truly know Your Majesty's character? Thus, repetition makes a falsehood pass for truth, and as time wore on, the lies became accepted as reality."

Li Nian muttered inwardly to himself: *'Besides, some of those things actually were true!'*

"Once false rumors are repeated enough to be believed, the hearts of the people turned away from the Great Qin entirely. This state of affairs persisted until the Great King passed away, and Prince Huhai ascended the throne, leading to the collapse of the dynasty in the second generation. This was the consequence of failing to prioritize public opinion while governing the realm!"

"As an ancient saying goes, 'Blocking the mouths of the people is more dangerous than damming a river.' Merely attempting to block them does not mean nothing should be done, nor does it mean one should offer no explanations or refutations, leaving oneself at the mercy of others' slanders. The intellect of the common people of the Great Qin had not yet been enlightened; how could they possibly distinguish the truth from the falsehoods uttered by the Confucian scholars and alchemists?"

"Apart from your excessive trust and indulgence in alchemists while seeking immortality, historical records note yet another incident: the Great King once came to believe that there were three immortal islands in the Eastern Sea known as Fangzhang, Penglai, and Yingzhou, and dispatched the alchemist Xu Fu to lead three thousand young boys and girls across the sea in search of immortals. Once he set sail, however, Xu Fu never returned."

Ying Zheng asked, "Did he die?"

Li Nian shook his head. "No. According to certain accounts, the alchemist Xu Fu landed upon the Japanese archipelago; he simply feared punishment from the Great King and dared not return."

Well then, yet another Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng! These alchemists truly deserved execution!

This time, this widow will certainly not allow this pack of scoundrels to escape!

"The Great King placed deep trust in Xu Fu, yet this is how he repaid Your Majesty. Not only did this affect the Great King personally, but the consequences brought about by Xu Fu would also plague future generations."

Ying Zheng asked with puzzlement, "Since Xu Fu never returned to our Great Qin, how could he plague..."

Before he could finish, Ying Zheng had already figured it out. He paused for a moment before speaking again, "Could it be that this Japanese archipelago also grew into a nation in later eras, inflicting immense disasters upon our Huaxia?"

Li Nian nodded. "Xu Fu led those three thousand boys and girls to the Japanese archipelago, bringing with him a vast amount of the Great Qin's advanced technology. In later ages, this nation subjected Huaxia to profound humiliation; countless sons and daughters of Huaxia lost their lives because of it, and the greater part of our territory fell into its hands. Moreover, the people of that nation can scarcely be called human—their cruelty was extreme..."

Recalling the atrocities of Lushou, the Lugou Bridge, Nanjing, Unit 731, and countless other events, a surge of deep hatred welled up in Li Nian's heart. He rose from his chair, fell to his knees before Ying Zheng, and pleaded, "This subject has a request, and earnestly begs the Great King to grant it!"

Through their previous conversations and observations over this period, Ying Zheng had gradually come to understand the temperament of this man from the future. If he were to demand that this fellow kneel and kowtow to him, this individual would not hesitate, but while his body might kneel, his heart would stubbornly refuse.

Kneeling and kowtowing to him would stem entirely from fear of royal authority, not from genuine reverence; in truth, he would be most reluctant to kneel at all.

Yet, when speaking of that foreign nation, this man—who appeared so fearful of pain and attached to life, but possessed unyielding pride deep within his soul—had willingly and wholeheartedly dropped to his knees before him, all to present a single plea.