Li Zhi's Burning of Books

Li Zhi wrote "The Burning of Books" and "The Continued Burning of Books", which are one of his masterpieces.

Li Zhi's works

"Book Burning" is a book written by Li Zhi when he lived in Zhifo Temple in Macheng. It is said that he was 64 years old when he completed it. The book has 6 volumes. "Continued Burning Books" was collected and compiled by Li Zhi's disciples after his death, with a total of 5 volumes. The two are very similar in nature and subject matter. The latter can be regarded as a supplement to the previous work. It collects what Li Zhi said and wrote after the completion of the previous work.

"Book Burning" is not a single collection of poems, novels, short essays, etc. Its content includes Li Zhi's letters, essays, historical comments, poetry, etc., and also shows his political, social, and philosophical views. It covers a wide range of ideas and propositions, and is very comprehensive.

Although the content covers a wide range of topics, their themes are consistent. Throughout the book, Li Zhi criticizes Confucianism, especially Neo-Confucianism. Many of the articles satirize and criticize those literati and officials who talk about benevolence, justice and morality, but are actually harboring filth and evil. By criticizing the hypocrites and false Taoism disguised as Confucianism, Li Zhi began to doubt Confucianism and began to deny its orthodoxy. In "Book Burning", Li Zhi's words are sharp, like a sharp blade, poking directly at the weaknesses of Confucianism that has dominated Chinese thought for thousands of years, and even dissecting it to show the world its inner workings.

The entire idea of ??"Burning Books" was deviant and unacceptable to the world at that time, so Li Zhi gave it this name, thinking that it would only be destined to be burned. The result was just as he predicted. After being arrested and imprisoned, all his works were burned, including "Book Burning". After that, Li Zhi's works were banned and burned many times during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Even so, these books were repeatedly printed and widely circulated among the people. Li Zhi's Story of Childishness

"Speaking of Childishness" is one of Li Zhi's most famous essays and was included in the third volume of "Book Burning".

Li Zhi Wax Figure

Li Zhi's "The Theory of Childlike Innocence" has less than a thousand words in total, but it greatly expresses his thoughts, and the view of "childlike innocence" he puts forward is truly insightful. The article begins with a sentence from the preface to "The Romance of the West Chamber". Li Zhi directly puts forward the view that childlike innocence is sincerity, and defines childlike innocence as an absolutely sincere heart that is free from external interference. He then emphatically emphasizes the importance of childlike innocence.

Then, Li Zhi explained that people in the world have lost their innocence because acquired knowledge has blocked their hearts. An article written not from a child's heart is definitely not an excellent article. Li Zhi then began to criticize the retro style of writing in the literary world at that time, believing that the quality of an article cannot be judged based on the order of the times. Finally, Li Zhi also belittled the Confucian classics such as "The Analects of Confucius", believing that they were not the truth and were only used by false Taoists to bluff people.

In addition to expressing his own views, Li Zhi wrote "The Theory of Childlike Innocence" to criticize social reality. The Ming Dynasty was a period of extremely severe ideological confinement in China. At that time, Confucian Neo-Confucianism had become rigid and the Eight-legged Essay became popular. Generations of Confucian scholars who were educated and examined in the imperial examination were all carved out of the same mold. Their articles all use the Four Books and Five Classics as the theoretical basis and the eight-legged essay as the format template. When writing prose, one must learn from the prose of the Qin and Han Dynasties, and as for writing poetry, one can only learn from Tang poetry. In fact, there is no so-called authority or model essay, because only childlike innocence is the source of articles, so anyone in any era can write good articles.

Li Zhi's "The Theory of Childlike Innocence" is essentially a criticism of feudal constraints on thought and advocates freedom and individuality. The story of Li Zhi

Although Li Zhi was considered a deviant by the court, he was quite popular among the people, so many stories about him were spread. For example, Li Zhi's original surname was Lin, but he changed his surname to Li because his ancestors offended local officials, so he changed his surname and moved again to escape.

Portrait of Li Zhi

It is said that Li Zhi only returned to his hometown of Quanzhou, Fujian twice in his life. Once when his father passed away, when he came back, he encountered Japanese pirates burning, killing and looting, so Li Zhi ignored his return home. Before going to the funeral, I would first take my family to help the locals fight against the Japanese pirates.

Li Zhi once had a son, but he died earlier than him. It is said that his wife was still young when her son died. Li Zhi advised his daughter-in-law not to be sad about her husband's death and to let her remarry someone else. Li Zhi also recommended one of his disciples, who was a fisherman, to her as a partner. In the end, his daughter-in-law was moved and listened to his advice, and they remarried happily.

Among all Li Zhi’s stories, the most famous is the story about the strange old man that was circulated when he lived in Zhifo Temple in Macheng, Hubei. Legend has it that Li Zhi not only read poetry and books and was knowledgeable, but he also did farm work and cultivated wasteland and grew vegetables. Li Zhi chose a nearby Diaoyutai as the venue for his lectures. There were no distinctions between male and female teachers, and he required his disciples to read loudly and jump around, preferably doing two somersaults. Li Zhi did not teach his disciples the Four Books and Five Classics, nor did he teach them to write eight-part essay. He only taught them some practical and interesting things. At that time, he often played with children and gave them riddles about brooms, poles and other ordinary little things. It is said that Li Zhi once asked a riddle that the children could not figure out. The answer was that the king is not king and his ministers are not subordinate. Father is not father and son is not son. This series of actions earned Li Zhi the nickname "Weird Old Man" in the local area. Introduction to Li Zhi

Li Zhi was a famous thinker and writer in the Ming Dynasty. He was famous for his opposition to Confucius and Mencius.

Portrait of Li Zhi

Li Zhi was born in 1527. He is a Hui nationality. His ancestors moved to Quanzhou, Fujian Province in the early Ming Dynasty. His original surname was Lin, but he later changed his name to Li Zhi, with the courtesy name Hongfu and Zhuowu. Li Zhi was very smart since he was a child. He started writing essays at the age of 12 and passed the high school examination at the age of 26. He served as an official in the court for more than 20 years, from an instructor in a county to a prefect, but he resigned from his official position when he was 55 years old.

After resigning, Li Zhi lived in Hubei, Beijing, Nanjing and other places, mostly in friends' homes or temples. During this period, Li Zhi studied classics and wrote books and lectured. Although his lectures were quite popular in the local area, he was often opposed by conservative forces such as the government and was expelled because of his "deviance". In 1602, Li Zhi was arrested and imprisoned, and his writings considered "heretical" were also burned. Soon after, Li Zhi committed suicide in prison. He was already seventy-six years old at the time. He was buried by his friends after his death.

Li Zhi wrote many books throughout his life, mainly including "Collection of Books", "Extended Collection of Books", "Book Burning", etc. In addition, he highly praised "Water Margin" and "The Romance of the West Chamber" and made his own commentaries on both of them . In his writings and lectures, he often commented on current affairs and commented on history. He opposed Confucianism, especially Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, and criticized the oppression of feudal ethics on people; exposed and criticized the dark nature of feudal rule, and denounced political corruption; advocated utilitarianism and valued the status of businessmen; advocated the "childlike innocence theory" and believed that articles should not be falsified But to express one's true heart.

After Li Zhi's death, he received mixed praise and criticism from later generations. However, although his works were repeatedly banned by the government, they became more widely circulated. Li Zhi's famous sayings

Li Zhi is a great ideological figure of his generation, and his ideological propositions are basically contained in his writings and articles, and those words have also become his cautionary sayings, which are thought-provoking.

Li Zhi's famous sayings

"Getting dressed and eating is the physics of human ethics; apart from dressing and eating, there is no ethics." Li Zhi believes that ethics lies in the daily trivial matters of dressing and eating. , which is an affirmation of people's desires and a reflection of his "sincere" concept. He criticized Neo-Confucianism and hated moralists. This sentence is a challenge to it. Neo-Confucianism emphasizes the destruction of human desires, which is one of Zhu Xi's most important views. He believes that if you want to learn Neo-Confucianism, you must control or even eliminate your own desires. Later, it became the source of the idea that feudal ethics restricted freedom.

"Selfishness is the heart of a person. People must be selfish and then their hearts will be seen." Li Zhi recognized people's selfish desires and believed that they were human relations and the human heart. From this, he also recognized the nature of businessmen to pursue profits, did not belittle but valued business, and opposed China's policy of focusing on agriculture and suppressing business that continued for thousands of years.

"A saint is never high, and everyone is never low." Li Zhi denied the status of Confucius and Mencius as saints, believing that Confucius and Mencius were not saints and were just like ordinary people. There is no distinction between the two, so everyone can become a saint.

He criticized the Ming Dynasty's practice of blindly strengthening Confucian orthodoxy and elevating the status of saints, and believed that this should not be regarded as an unchanging dogma.

"A strong man never forgets being in a ravine, and a martyr never forgets losing his strength." It is said that this sentence was written by Li Zhi before he took a razor and killed himself in prison. He used this sentence from Mencius to express One's own will. Li Zhi knew that his thoughts were unacceptable to the world, so he had long predicted that he would die in prison, and he was not afraid of death for the truth he pursued.