excepting those of Ch'in; that, with the exception of those
officers belonging to the Board of Great Scholars, all throughout
the empire who presume to keep copies of the Shih-ching, or of
the Shu-ching, or of the books of the Hundred Schools, be required
to go with them to the officers in charge of the several districts,
and burn them [1]; that all who may dare to speak

1 ±x¸Ú¦u±LÂø¿N¤§.


together about the Shih and the Shu be put to death, and their
bodies exposed in the market-place; that those who make mention
of the past, so as to blame the present, be put to death along with
their relatives; that officers who shall know of the violation of
those rules and not inform against the offenders, be held equally
guilty with them; and that whoever shall not have burned their
Books within thirty days after the issuing of the ordinance, be
branded and sent to labor on the wall for four years. The only
Books which should be spared are those on medicine, divination,
and husbandry. Whoever wants to learn the laws may go to the
magistrates and learn of them."
'The imperial decision was -- "Approved."'
The destruction of the scholars is related more briefly. In
the year after the burning of the Books, the resentment of the
emperor was excited by the remarks and the flight of two
scholars who had been favourites with him, and he determined to
institute a strict inquiry about all of their class in Hsien-yang, to
find out whether they had been making ominous speeches about
him, and disturbing the minds of the people. The investigation
was committed to the Censors [1], and it being discovered that