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焚书

焚書
fénshū
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to burn books
  2. 2 the Burning of the Books ordered by Qin Shi Huang in 213 BC
  3. 3 A Book to Burn, Li Zhi's 1590 collection of letters and essays

Examples

HSK 5
李贽给自己的书起名叫《焚书》，因为他觉得这本书早晚会被烧掉。
Lǐ Zhì gěi zìjǐ de shū qǐmíng jiào 《 Fénshū 》, yīnwei tā juéde zhè běn shū zǎowǎn huì bèi shāodiào.
Li Zhi called his book A Book to Burn because he thought it would be burned sooner or later.
HSK 7-9
古代有的皇帝下令焚书，想控制人们的思想。
Gǔdài yǒude huángdì xiàlìng fénshū, xiǎng kòngzhì rénmen de sīxiǎng.
Some emperors of the past ordered books burned to control what people thought.
HSK 7-9
秦始皇焚书以后，很多古书都失传了。
Qínshǐhuáng fénshū yǐhòu, hěnduō gǔshū dōu shīchuán le.
After Qin Shi Huang burned the books, many ancient texts were lost.

Tips

history
In 213 BC, on the advice of the chancellor 李斯, 秦始皇 ordered the histories of the conquered states and private copies of the Book of Songs and the Book of Documents burned, sparing books on medicine, divination and farming. Together with the killing of scholars the next year it is remembered as 焚书坑儒.
culture
李贽 (1527–1602) published his letters and essays under this title in 1590, sure that their attacks on the hypocrisy of Confucian scholars would get them burned. The Ming court did ban and burn his books in 1602, and he died in prison. Its pieces are cited by title, as in 焚书·童心说.

Stroke Order

焚 fén
书 shū