Regular readers know that I do not like Qin Shi Huangdi.  So I was curious today when the Western Confucian made note of a talk last month at UCLA that took up the question of fenshu kengru – "the burning of the books and killing of scholars."  Qin is reported to have buried Confucian scholars alive in a pique of repression.  But the presenter at UCLA, Anthony Barbieri-Low reminds us that the historical evidence of the burying alive story is suspect.  I say "remind" because this same point is made in the Cambridge History of China, vol. 1 (1986) where we are told: "Yet objective examination…reveals good grounds for regarding it [the burying alive story] as more the stuff of fiction…than of history."   In short, Qin almost certainly burned the books, but may not have killed the scholars.

     But even if that is where we leave it, let's put this in broader context.  Qin oversaw an exceptionally repressive regime, responsible for the untimely deaths of thousands and thousands of people, both those he fought in battle and those who served him as subjects.   Even if a few hundred scholars were not killed at a particular moment, many, many people were destroyed by him.

    And, indeed, professor Barbieri-Low keeps things in perspective:

This literary inquisition resulted in an enormous loss of historical
knowledge and cultural heritage and earned the First Emperor the enmity
of book-revering Confucian scholars for two millennia.

    "Enormous loss of  historical knowledge and cultural heritage," that just about sums up Qin…

So, if you are going to China any time soon, forget about the terracotta warriors, the products of a brutal and violent man, and go to Dunhuang instead.