Burning of books and burying of scholars

A Qin-era campaign traditionally dated to 213–212 BCE, involving the destruction of writings and execution of scholars to suppress dissent and consolidate imperial rule.

Qin Shi Huang: The first emperor of a unified China, who ruled from 221 to 210 BCE. His court ordered the measures that later became known by this name.
Book burning: The destruction of books by fire, whether as censorship, punishment, or symbolic suppression. It names the best-known measure in the campaign.
Sima Qian: A Han dynasty historian who wrote the Records of the Grand Historian. His account is the principal early narrative of the episode.
Han dynasty: A Chinese dynasty that followed Qin and ruled, with interruptions, from 206 BCE to 220 CE. Han accounts condemned Qin’s destruction while rebuilding scholarly institutions.
Qin dynasty: The Chinese dynasty that unified the states in 221 BCE and fell in 206 BCE. The campaign belongs to the dynasty’s effort to centralize rule.
Qin censorship edict: The Qin order restricting private possession of certain historical and philosophical texts. It specified which writings were to be surrendered or destroyed.
Confucius: A Chinese teacher and thinker whose teachings became central to Confucian traditions. The episode’s later memory cast Qin policy as an assault on Confucian learning.
Confucianism: A Chinese ethical and political tradition rooted in the teachings attributed to Confucius. Later Confucian histories made this tradition the emblem of learning Qin had suppressed.
Li Si: A Qin statesman and legalist thinker who served as the empire’s chancellor. He advocated restricting private historical and philosophical texts.
Imperial library of Qin: The state collection of texts maintained by the Qin imperial court. Some books were exempted because copies were retained for official use.

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