Qin Shihuang
apocryphaly(sp?) allegedly ordered the mass burning of Confucian texts and live burial of scholars in an effort to solidify ideology and history, combat heterodoxy, introduce ‘legalism’ as a system of just rule and create a concept of unified China. So he has this reputation as a despot. Memes being memes took this to be that he shot fireballs from his hands to destroy heretics. I don’t think there’s much more to it than that.Theres also this alleged mao quote
He buried 460 scholars alive; we have buried forty-six thousand scholars alive… You [intellectuals] revile us for being Qin Shi Huangs. You are wrong. We have surpassed Qin Shi Huang a hundredfold. When you berate us for imitating his despotism, we are happy to agree! Your mistake was that you did not say so enough.
But it sounds fake as fuck
But, I suppose some in the CPC view him as a historically “progressive” figure who overthrew a decentralized feudal society and instituted a authoritarian bureaucratic state, or it might simply but a nationalist thing since he is the first emperor of a unified China
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So the translated quote above elides the lines
我们镇反。还没有杀掉反革命的知识分子吗?我与民主人士辩论过
We suppressed counter-revolutionaries. Have we not also killed anti-revolutionary intellectuals? I’ve debated this with members of the democratic (parties/groups)…
Which puts the rest of the quote in context of the work China put in to secure the gains of the revolution, rather than engage in anti-intellectualism for its own sake. The mocking tone Mao strikes here is also reinforced by the final parenthetical (大笑) laughter
At least this is my interpretation of the quote based on my own shitty translation/understanding. Thanks for finding it
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(大笑)
(Laughter)
Tongue-in-cheek?
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