焚书坑儒

fén shū kēng rú

to burn the Confucian classics and bury alive the Confucian scholars (acts supposedly committed by the first emperor 秦始皇[Qin2 Shi3 huang2])

焚

fén

to burn

书

shū

abbr. for 書經|书经[Shu1 jing1]

坑

kēng

variant of 坑[keng1]

儒

rú

scholar