Li Ssu

Li Si

 or Li Ssu

(born 280 BC?, Chu state, central China—died 208 BC, Xianyang, Shaanxi province) Minister of the Qin dynasty in China who utilized the ideas of Hanfeizi to make the Qin the first centralized Chinese empire. His ordering of the “Qin bibliocaust”—the burning of all books—earned him the opprobrium of future generations of Confucian scholars.

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Li Ssu 

Date of birth unknown; died 208 B.C. Statesman of ancient China. First adviser to the Ch’in emperor Shih Huang-ti (221–210 B.C.).

Li Ssu carried out reforms to strengthen imperial authority. He helped standardize the system of pictorial writing. Li Ssu was an opponent of Confucianism (in 213 B.C., on his initiative, Confucianist literature was burned and 460 scholars were buried alive). He was a supporter of the legalist school. During the reign of Erh Shih-huang (209–207 B.C.), as a result of court intrigues, he was slandered by rivals and publicly executed.