Technology

The Classic of Poetry is a book made of bamboo slips.

At that time, paper-making was not popularized. Most of the books were still made of bamboo slips. Some wealthy people would also use silk and silk to write.

This picture is of Qin bamboo slips, bamboo slips from the Qin Dynasty. Here is the family letter written by the officers of the Qin Dynasty to their families, recorded on bamboo slips.

It can be seen that most people still used bamboo slips at that time, and the Classic of Poetry was also recorded on the bamboo slips because most of them were destroyed by Qin Shihuang and have not been found so far.

The bamboo slip book is to split and polish the bamboo into small flat strips that can be written, then write on the small strips with a brush, and finally put these small strips into a bamboo slip book.

According to the records of Records of the Historian (史记), Qin Shihuang ordered that all historical books except "Qin Ji", as well as the Classic of Poetry and "shu" be burned.

Qin Shihuang asked people to turn in the books in their hands to the county guard and the county lieutenant, and then the county guard and the county lieutenant would burn them together.

Qin Shihuang did not allow people to read and study historical records, so in addition to burning, he also ordered that people not be allowed to own or sell or even talk about relevant content, otherwise, he would be headed for publicity. In this way, the Book of Songs became a banned book in the Qin Dynasty. Qin Shihuang only allowed it in the library of the palace, the people did not allow it, so the Book of Songs is also on the verge of extinction.