First, life experience
Qin Shihuang was born in the first month of the forty-eighth year of Qin Dynasty (259 BC), and Wang Xiang of Qin Zhuang married Zhao's son. But there are also views that Qin Shihuang was the son of Lv Buwei. Qin and Zhao belong to the same clan (Historical Records of Qin Benji), so Qin Shihuang is also called Zhao Zheng.
Sima Qian's Records of the Historian contains both of these statements: The statement in Records of the Historian Qin Shihuang's Biography is that Qin Shihuang is the son of an alien (that is, the king of Qin Zhuang). However, in the Biography of Historical Records and Lv Buwei [2], it is said that Lv Buwei gave Zhao Ji, who was pregnant with Lv Buwei's blood, to outsiders, that is, Qin Shihuang was the son of Lv Buwei, because Evonne was pregnant in December, so outsiders did not doubt it.
Many people question the truth of Qin Shihuang's claim that he is the son of Lv Buwei, because according to common sense and medical statistics, twelve months' pregnancy is rare, and menopause, as a sign of pregnancy, will be doubted by strangers. But some people support this statement.
However, some scholars believe that if Ying Zheng is the son of Lv Buwei, under the eyes of the Qin court, Ying Zheng will grow up like Wang Xiang or Lv Buwei in Qinzhuang, which is probably beyond Lv Buwei's power. Therefore, becoming Ying Zheng is one of the powerful empirical arguments of Wang Xiangzhi Zi in Qin Zhuang.
Second, enthronement.
Qin State is one of the Seven Heroes in the Warring States Period. Qin Zhaowang, the great-grandfather of Qin Shihuang, adopted the strategy of "making friends far away and attacking near", and selected the targets of the attack as neighboring countries South Korea and Wei, and made an alliance with Zhao in the distance. According to the practice at that time, Qin and Zhao exchanged hostages to show their sincerity. This is Zi Chu, the father of Qin Shihuang, who was sent to Zhao by the State of Qin. At that time, the status of barbarians in Qin was not very high.
Lv Buwei was a key figure in the process of Qin Shihuang's accession to the throne. When he met an alien hostage in Zhao, he was already a wealthy businessman, but he had great political ambitions and felt that aliens were "rare things in life". He soon became good friends with aliens and introduced Evonne (the mother of Qin Shihuang). In order to let strangers ascend to the throne in the future, he took out 1000 gold as capital, of which 500 gold was given to strangers to make friends in Zhao Guoguang, and the other 500 gold was used to buy rare treasures, and then he personally brought them to Qin to please Prince An and his wife Huayang. Mrs. Huayang has no children. Lv Buwei persuaded Mrs Huayang to adopt an alien as her adopted son through her brother and sister, and Mrs Huayang persuaded Ann Guo Jun to adopt an alien as her adopted son, so that Mrs Huayang could avoid falling out of favor in her later years. Mrs. Huayang accepted this statement and met strangers in person. As Mrs. Huayang was a nobleman married by Chu, she took the "homesickness offensive", taught foreigners to wear Chu clothes and speak Chu language in advance, and with the appropriate response of the foreigners themselves, Mrs. Huayang was really moved, so that the foreigners changed their names to "Zi Chu" and adopted them. And persuaded a Guo Junren to let Zichu be his son. In this way, the alien became the heir of Guo Jun, and his position in the State of Qin was greatly improved.
25 1 years ago, Zhao Haoqi, the state of Qin, died, and Ann Guo Jun acceded to the throne, namely King Qin Xiaowen, Lady Huayang as the queen and Zi Chu as the prince. King Xiaowen's reign was very short, first he mourned for a year, and then he officially became king and died three days later. Subsequently, Zi Chu acceded to the throne, namely the king of Qin Zhuang, and appointed Lv Buwei as Prime Minister and Wen Xinhou. However, the reign of King Xiang Zhuang was not long, and he died three years later.
In the first 247 years, Ying Zheng, who was only 13 years old, ascended the throne of Qin. When he acceded to the throne, because he was young, national politics was dominated by Prime Minister Lv Buwei, and Lv Buwei was honored as Guan Zhong. Lv Buwei helped Ying Zheng eradicate many potential political threats, including Ying Zheng's younger brother Cheng Jiao. Lv Buwei not only monopolizes power, but also has an affair with the Empress Dowager (Evonne). With the growth of Ying Zheng's age, Lv Buwei's behavior was restrained, and he proposed to let false eunuch Laoai "wait on" the Queen Mother. As a result, the Queen Mother and Ai gave birth to two illegitimate children. False eunuch Laoyi also claimed to be a "fake dad", named himself a "fake dad", sealed a long letter, owned Yang Shan, Taiyuan and other places, and collected his own confidants. He has been operating in Yongcheng for many years and established a huge power.
238 years ago, 22-year-old Ying Zheng held a coronation ceremony at Yi Nian Palace in Yongcheng. Lao Ai used the decree to launch a rebellion and attack the Hall of Prayer for the New Year. Ying Zheng has already arranged 3,000 chosen men in the Prayer Palace to defeat the rebels. Lao Ai turned to Xianyang Palace, where there was also the army of the King of Qin, and Lao Ai finally arrested him. Ying Zheng dismembered Ai, violently corpse, and wiped out the three clans. Two illegitimate children of Empress Zhao and Lao Ai were also killed. Ying Zheng then locked Queen Zhao in the Luyang Palace in Yongcheng.
Ying Zheng then dismissed Lv Buwei in the name of dereliction of duty and exiled Lv Buwei to Bashu. Two years later, Ying Zheng sent someone to send a suicide note to Lv Buwei. In the letter, Lv Buwei was reprimanded and Lv Buwei committed suicide by taking poison. At this point, Ying Zheng swept away the internal threats of the regime and became a veritable king of Qin.
Third, unify China.
In the same year, Ying Zheng eradicated Ai, got rid of Lv Buwei and began to take charge of state affairs. At that time, he listened to the words of the nobles of Qin State and issued a "eviction order" to expel diners from six countries, but was discouraged by Li Si's "eviction book". Since then, Ying Zheng has recruited talents and made great efforts to prepare for the unification of the world. He has many talented people, including Wei Liaozi and Li Si as civil servants, Wang Jian, Wang Ben, Wu Meng and Montaigne as military commanders, and Yao Jia and Dunwei who are good at espionage.
From 230 years ago to 229 years ago, Ying Zheng adopted the strategy of making far-reaching friends and attacking near, divided and alienated from each other, and launched the Qin War to destroy six countries. /kloc-Qin destroyed Korea in 0/7, Zhao in 0/8, Wei in 20, Chu in 24, Yan in 25 and Qi in 26. Finally, the first unified, multi-ethnic and centralized monarchy in the history of China, the Qin Empire, was established.
Korea was the first to be wiped out. In the first 233 years, South Korea ceded territory and became a vassal, which failed to save its fate. Three years later, in the first 230 years (Qin 17), Qin captured the king of South Korea, and South Korea perished.
Since the first 234 years, the State of Qin has attacked the State of Zhao many times, but all of them were blocked by Li Mu, the famous soldier of Zhao. In the first 229 years (Qin 18), Li Mu was executed by the State of Qin with the help of Zhao. Three months later, Zhao was defeated, Zhao Wang was captured and Zhao perished. Zhao Gongzijia fled to Dai Jun (now Yuxian County, Hebei Province) and proclaimed himself emperor, uniting Yan and Wei against Qin.
In 227 years ago, Yan Taizi Dan sent Jing Ke to assassinate the king of Qin. In the first 225 years (the 22nd year of the King of Qin), Wei was annexed by Qin Jun. In the first 224 years, Wang Jianhe, a veteran of Qin, led the troops to attack Yan, defeated the allied forces of Yan in the west of Yishui and captured the capital of Yan. The prince killed Taizi Dan for peace and retreated to Liaodong. In the first 222 years (twenty-five years of Qin Dynasty), the State of Yan was captured and completely destroyed. In the same year, Dai Wang was captured and Zhao was completely destroyed.
In the first 225 years, Li Xin and Wu Meng, the generals of the State of Qin, led 200,000 troops to attack the State of Chu. They were defeated by Xiang Yan, the general of the State of Chu, and were almost wiped out. In the first 224 years, the king of Qin sent veteran Wang Jian to war, followed his advice, gave 600,000 troops to defeat the Chu army, captured Shouchun, the capital of Chu, and captured the king of Chu. The following year (twenty-four years of Qin Dynasty), Wang Jian destroyed the remnants of Xiang Yan and the State of Chu perished.
When the State of Qin used troops against five other countries, Qi not only stood by and made an alliance with the State of Qin without making any preparations for war. By 22 1 year ago, the other five countries had been destroyed, and Qi sent troops to fight against Qin and broke diplomatic relations with Qin, but it was too late. 22 1 year ago (the 26th year of King Qin), Wang Ben, a general of the State of Qin, led his troops south, captured Wang Jian of the State of Qi in World War I, and the State of Qi perished.
At this point, Ying Zheng, king of Qin, destroyed the six countries and unified the world, ending the feudalism dispute since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and establishing the first highly centralized monarchy in China history.
Fourth, centralized rule.
After Qin Shihuang pacified the world by force, he carried out a series of reform measures, which played a great role in the unification and development of China's politics, economy and culture.
Qin Shihuang changed the traditional title of emperor, established the title of "Emperor" and established the prestige of the emperor. Qin Shihuang thought that his contribution was higher than that of Huang Sanhe and Five Emperors, so he decided to call the title and emperor "the emperor" and called himself the first emperor, and announced that his descendants would be called II and III, even passed down from generation to generation. In order to maintain the dignity of the emperor, Qin Shihuang also made specific provisions on the appellation related to the emperor, such as the emperor claiming to use "I", the emperor's life called "system", the order called "imperial edict", and so on.
Qin Shihuang reformed the central political system. The emperor has the highest political and military power. There are three officials and nine ministers under the emperor. The "three publics" are the Prime Minister, Qiu and Tai Yi. The prime minister is the chief executive and assists the emperor in handling government affairs; Qiu is the highest military and political officer, responsible for military affairs and assisting the emperor in handling military affairs; The inspector is responsible for supervising officials and is also the deputy prime minister. "Jiuqing" is in charge of ancestral temple etiquette, national diplomacy, central finance and other government affairs respectively.
Qin Shihuang carried out a far-reaching reform of the state system, the most important of which was to abolish the enfeoffment system and implement the county system, thus strengthening the centralization of the monarch. When discussing the state system, Reese opposed the historical enfeoffment system. In his view, because of the enfeoffment system in the Zhou Dynasty, the children were king everywhere, and the emperor could not effectively control it. After several generations, the relationship was alienated, which eventually led to the disintegration of the Zhou Dynasty. The state of Qin wants to set up counties, and the emperor personally appoints officials to govern, and the power of recall is also in the hands of the emperor. This will make the world stable for a long time, and the political power will always be in the hands of the central authorities. Qin Shihuang supported and adopted Li Si's suggestion, and set up counties all over the country, which had jurisdiction over townships, pavilions, Li, Shi and Wu. In this way, Qin Shihuang established a centralized bureaucratic system with the central government as the core and from the central government to the local government, and the whole country was under the direct control of the emperor.
Qin Shihuang advocated the idea of legalism governing the country. On the basis of the original laws and decrees of Qin, he absorbed some provisions of the laws of six countries and formulated and promulgated unified laws throughout the country. The management of officials in the Qin Dynasty was very strict, and many laws were enacted to punish officials. Officials who break the law don't enjoy the privilege like the Western Zhou Dynasty, that is, "the punishment is not on the doctor", but the punishment is aggravated. This made the bureaucracy of the Qin Dynasty very clear and the efficiency of the government extremely high. The Qin dynasty also required officials to be familiar with the law, and the people needed to learn the law from officials. The so-called "taking officials as teachers".
Economically, Qin Shihuang implemented the policy of emphasizing agriculture and restraining business, including evaluating officials' achievements in agricultural production, encouraging the development of wasteland and encouraging private farmland system to increase national income.
In terms of culture, Qin Shihuang formulated seal script according to the popular characters of Qin State, which was promulgated throughout the country. Qin Shihuang also reformed and unified the original chaotic weights and measures and currency, and unified Chinese characters, which had a far-reaching impact on China's economic and cultural exchanges and development. In addition, Qin Shihuang moved the former nobles of the six countries to Guanzhong and Bashu [source request], demolished the original city walls between the six countries, and dredged the moat, which was called "breaking the river and falling into the city" to prevent their separatist activities and insurrection. Qin Shihuang also banned folk weapons collection, destroyed confiscated weapons and cast 12 gold men.
Ideologically, Qin Shihuang adopted the five virtues of Yin and Yang in the Warring States Period, saying that Qin gained water virtue, the water color was black, and the final number was six. So it is stipulated that clothes, banners and flags are all black, and there are six kinds of symbols, crowns and riding systems. Because water dominates yin, which represents punishment and killing, Qin Shihuang used it as the basis for his severe punishment. However, Qin Huang's harsh laws aroused the dissatisfaction of scholars, and all kinds of accusations broke out one after another, which was different from Qin Shihuang's legalists. At that time, hundreds of schools of thought contended in the society, which seriously hindered Qin Shihuang's thought of unifying the people of the six countries and threatened the rule of the Qin Dynasty. Prime minister Reese advocated severely suppressing these scholars, and Qin Shihuang supported Reese's point of view and launched an incident of burning books and burying Confucianism:
The so-called "book burning" means that Qin Shihuang, in order to unify the thoughts of the people of the original six countries and consolidate the rule of the Qin Dynasty, began to destroy hundreds of works except the legalists, and destroyed the history books of other six countries except Ji Qin, leaving only official ideological theories and history books, as well as books on agriculture, technology, divination and medicine. Anyone who dares to hide banned books and criticize political affairs (such as Hou Sheng) will be put to death; If the official deliberately conceals it, he will be punished by the bookkeeper. This policy was implemented from 2 13 until the demise of the Qin dynasty in 2007. But in fact, Qin Shihuang did order some banned books to be kept in the royal library, and these books did not disappear completely until Xiang Yu set fire to Xianyang.
The so-called "pit Confucianism" means that in the second year of burning books, that is, in 2 12, Qin Shihuang buried more than 460 Confucian scholars and alchemists in Xianyang, Qin Dou, in order to further exclude different political ideas and opinions.
During the reign of Qin Shihuang, the national territory also expanded. Meng Tian attacked Xiongnu in the north, while Tusui attacked Nanping and Baiyue in the north. During the Qin Dynasty, the territory was extremely vast, from the Great Wall and Yinshan Mountain in the north to South Vietnam in the south, which is now the Lingnan area. Qin also set up four counties in Nanhai, Guilin, Hunan and central Fujian for management. The western boundary of the territory is Longxi and the eastern boundary extends to Liaodong.
V. Construction.
During the reign of Qin Shihuang, great construction was carried out. For the sake of national security and construction, as well as the personal honor and enjoyment of Qin Shihuang, one huge construction project after another was built, which also brought profound disasters to the people at that time.
The most famous building in Qin Dynasty is the Great Wall in Wan Li. After Qin destroyed the six countries, the Great Wall project began in the north. The purpose of building the Great Wall is to resist the invasion of nomadic people in the north. Qin Shihuang connected and expanded the Great Wall in the northern part of Qin, Zhao and Yan during the Warring States Period, starting from Lintao (now Minxian County, Gansu Province) in the west and building the Great Wall in Wan Li in the east. In order to build the Great Wall, more than 400,000 migrant workers are levied every year [3]. However, compared with the modern Ming Great Wall, the scale of Qin Changcheng's projects is far less than that of Qin, Zhao and Yan.
Qin Shihuang carried out large-scale national transportation construction. From 229 years ago, Qin Shihuang began to build a large-scale galloping road with Xianyang as the center and extending in all directions, similar to modern expressways. Chidao and the implementation of "cars on the same track" are both 50 steps wide. The ruler has several functions. One is to facilitate transportation and management in the old places of the six countries. First, the main purpose is to facilitate the supply of the front line of the northern war; There is also a saying that it is convenient for the first emperor to travel unimpeded. Except for Qin Zhi Road and Qin Plank Road, most of them were built on the basis of Qin's hometown, the old roads in the Six Kingdoms and the roads built during Qin's conquest of the Six Kingdoms. The famous lanes include Shang Jun Road, Linjin Road, Dongfang Road, Wuguan Road, Qinplank Road, West Road and Qin Zhi Road.
After Qin Shihuang destroyed the Six Kingdoms, he also built a Lingqu (Grand Canal) to facilitate the transportation of troops and materials needed to conquer Lingnan. Lingqu is one of the oldest canals in the world, which was built from 2 19 (the 20th year of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty) to 2 15 (the 23rd year of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty). Lingqu connects Xiangjiang River in the Yangtze River system and Lijiang River in the Pearl River system. Since the connection, it has been the main artery of waterway traffic between Lingnan and Zhongyuan for more than two thousand years. The project is now one of the national key cultural relics protection units.
Qin Shihuang built a large number of magnificent palaces. Before the unification of the six countries, the king of Qin had many palaces. During the conquest of the Six Kingdoms, every time Qin Shihuang destroyed a country, he copied the palace buildings of the countries near Xianyang, so that the whole Guanzhong area, from the north of Weihe River to the east of Yong Men, to Jinghe River, was a palace [4]. After the unification of the six countries, Qin Shihuang immediately began to build Epang Palace (also known as Gong Chao, which was the name of its former temple) on the south bank of Weihe River, with a maximum of 720,000 workers [4] (an imaginary number means a large number). Although some people claim that these people are guilty, the number is still amazing (especially compared with the total population of the country at that time, only 20 million). It is said that Epang Palace can accommodate100000 people, and it needs chariots and horses to transport food and wine [5]. According to Qin Shihuang's Chronicle, a single vestibule covers an area of 693 meters from east to west, north to south 1 16 meters, and the pedestal is as high as 1 1.65 meters, which can seat ten thousand people [4]. However, the archaeological team of Epang Palace, which is jointly composed of the Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology of Xi City, found that Epang Palace was never built, but only completed the foundation [6][7][8]. As for what Epang Palace looks like in history, there is no authoritative statement now.
Besides Epang Palace, Qin Shihuang also built Xingle Palace and Liangshan Palace. According to Three Ancient Stories, there are "145 Chinese and foreign temples" in the State of Qin. According to Records of the Historical Records of the First Qin Emperor, the State of Qin has "300 palaces inside Shanhaiguan, more than 400 outside Shanhaiguan", "within 200 miles of Xianyang" and "270 palaces". Where there is a palace, there must be a beautiful woman. When the Six Kingdoms perished, beautiful women from all countries were plundered and placed in the built palaces [4]. According to Sanfu's old records, the total number of ladies in the palace is more than 10,000, and they are angry. Moreover, after the death of Qin Shihuang, most of these maids were forced to die [4].
Another grand project of Qin Shihuang was to build Qin Shihuang's own tomb of Mount Li, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum. It took more than 30 years to build the tomb of Mount Lishan, and it is said that there are 700 thousand workers every year [4]. The tomb now preserved has a circumference of 2000 meters and a height of 55 meters. The interior decoration is extremely luxurious. The roof is cast in copper, the mercury is rivers, lakes and seas, and the mercury alloy is land, which is covered with institutions. From the air, it looks like the territory of the country during the Qin Dynasty. Moreover, the craftsmen who built the mausoleum were buried alive after the completion of the mausoleum.
Sixth, death.
Qin Shihuang sought immortality in his later years. In order to seek the elixir of life, he sent Fang Shixu (decorated by Xu Fu) to lead thousands of boys and girls to the East China Sea to seek immortality, which consumed huge financial and human resources.
After the unification of the six countries, Qin Shihuang made five large-scale cruises, carved stones in famous mountain resorts to record his merits and show off his prestige. 2 10 years ago (the thirty-seventh year of Qin Shihuang), Qin Shihuang returned to Pingyuan and Tianjin for the last time and fell ill. Walking to the sand dunes (now northwest of Guangzong, Hebei Province), Qin Shihuang died of illness.
Qin Shihuang ordered the eldest son Fu Su to be buried and succeeded to the throne. But eunuch Zhao Gao colluded with Hu Hai and Reese, the youngest sons of the first emperor. After Qin Shihuang's death, he forged a testamentary edict, made Hu Hai a prince, and for the sake of Qin Ershi, gave the prince Fu Su the death penalty. Shortly after Qin Ershi Hu Hai ascended the throne, a peasant uprising led by Chen Sheng and Guangwu broke out. In the first 206 years, four years after the death of Qin Shihuang, the Qin Dynasty perished.
Seven, the queen
Scholars of later generations believe that Ying Zheng, the king of Qin, still retains an immortal vassal state-Weiguo. It was not until Qin Hu Hai II ordered liberation. At first, Lv Buwei was from Puyang. He defended the country. After he became the prime minister of Qin, he will also try to defend his hometown. When Lv Buwei fell into exile, he committed suicide. At the same time, Ying Zheng, king of Qin, swept Liuhe to unify the whole country, but he never thought of defending the country until Qin Hu Hai II. Therefore, some scholars believe that this reason must be a historical mystery related to the status of Queen Ying Zheng, King of Qin.
Eight. children
There are about 28 children of Qin Shihuang recorded in the history books (see Sun Jie's Qin Yaohui (Volume 1)). The names in the history books are Fu Su, the eldest son; Hu Hai, the youngest son (see the 18th son in the picture above); Zi Gao; and Lu, the younger son, Hu Hai.
Nine. Related events and folklore
Jing Ke was entrusted by Yan Taizi Dan to assassinate the king of Qin. Jing Ke pretended to dedicate the map of Yan Du Kang to the king of Qin, but actually hid the dagger in the map. Jing Ke slowly opened a roll of maps in front of the king of Qin and explained them one by one. "The map is very poor." . But the King of Qin escaped in time, and Jing Ke finally failed and was killed by the Great Xia of Qin.
At the end of the Warring States period, Yan people were Gao Jianli and good at hammering. He once saw off Jing Ke who stabbed Qin in "Xiao Guest" and sang the eternal swan song of "The wind blows and the water cools, and the strong man is gone forever". Later, because of Gao Jianli's superb skills, he was introduced to the palace by Qin Shihuang. But Qin Shihuang knew that he was a good friend of Jing Ke, so he blinded his eyes to prevent assassination. I didn't want Gao Jianli to be blind, but I poured lead into the building. The king of Qin was fascinated by his building, so he got up and beat the king of Qin with the building filled with lead. Gao Jianli also failed and died. From then on, the king of Qin never dared to approach the former governors of the six countries.
According to legend, during the reign of Qin Shihuang, there was a woman named Jiang Meng. On her wedding night, her husband Fan Xiliang was taken to repair the Great Wall. Meng Jiangnu went not far to Wan Li to find her husband, only to find that he had died in the hard labor of repairing the city. So Meng Jiangnv burst into tears and finally went down the Great Wall in tears and found her husband's body.
"Ancient customs can't help women remarry, and there is no such thing as a festival. The beginning of the festival tree workshop test was based on the widow granted by the first emperor. "
After the famous Korean family, Sean and his Hercules friends once assassinated Qin Shihuang in Bolangsha. It is said that they used a big iron vertebra of 120 kg, but the big iron vertebra hit another car and the assassination failed. Later, Sean became one of the most important advisers of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang.
In order to seek the medicine of immortality, Qin Shihuang sent alchemist Xu Fu to lead thousands of boys and girls across the sea to seek immortality, which cost a lot of money. "Chu Liu Yi Tie" means that Xu Fu and his boys and girls will never come back after they arrive at their destination (today's Japan). Japanese minister Qin Shi is his descendant, but he is suspected by later scholars.
X. valuation
Qin Shihuang is an epoch-making figure in the history of China, with great wisdom. He was the first emperor in China, the founder of the title of emperor, the founder of the emperor system in China, and the first person who made China enter the era of autocratic monarchy. He made China complete the unification of politics and economy for the first time, forming a unified situation of "cars in the same track, books in the same text, degrees in the same balance and money in the same currency", which laid the foundation for the later dynasties to seek reunification [9][ 10]. Throughout his life, he unified the world, proclaimed himself emperor, abolished the feudal system, set up counties, conquered hundreds of battles, chased Xiongnu, repaired the Great Wall, ditched, sold weapons, moved and enriched the people, shared the same car and track, wrote the same books, acted according to the same law, ruled the country according to law, and burned books to bury Confucianism, which had an immeasurable and far-reaching impact on later generations. However, Qin Shihuang has always been a controversial figure since ancient times. Those who praised him called him the "emperor through the ages" who initiated the unified situation, while those who denigrated him called him the autocratic "tyrant".
XI。 Positive evaluation
Qin Shihuang ended hundreds of years of feudalism since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and established the first unified, multi-ethnic and autocratic centralized state in China history, which laid a solid foundation for the development of the Chinese nation. The so-called "Han inherited the Qin system", "since the Qin dynasty, its system has not changed" and "one hundred generations still practice Qin law and politics" The Qin Empire established by Qin Shihuang laid the foundation of China's political system for the next two thousand years, and made China's political system ahead of the West for a long time, thus developing economically and culturally.
After Qin Shihuang unified China, the enfeoffment system was abolished nationwide and replaced by the county system. Under the direct control of the emperor, a whole set of bureaucracy from the central government to the counties was established, and the authority and centralization of the central government were established. In addition to the reform of the political system, Qin Shihuang also widely unified other systems, including the national land and water transportation system (cars on the same rail), the national writing system (books and characters), the national weights and measures system (scales) and the national monetary system (money and coins). He also tried to unify the thoughts of the whole country (burning books to bury Confucianism), but he didn't finish it because of the violence (the unification of thoughts was not completed until Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "ousted a hundred schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone"). It should be said that it is precisely because Qin Shihuang paid attention to the rule and system construction of the conquered land, instead of other conquerors of the same time (such as Alexander of Macedonia or Caesar of Rome) who only paid attention to conquest without paying attention to system construction [source request], which made the unified land rule stable, and also made China not experience truly irreversible division or extinction like other ancient civilizations in the next few thousand years, laying a historical foundation for the territory of modern China.
Qin Shihuang initiated the post station system and built the post road, which laid the technical foundation for the decree access of the huge empire and the resulting county-based empire. "Building a county by building a post road" is a necessary condition for China to adopt this advanced system, rather than the western enfeoffment system. At the same time, Rome can't effectively control the occupied area [source request], so it can only set up a powerful governor (the governor is in charge of the military and political power of a place, all of whom are nobles, and the grassroots organizations rely on the original local organizations), which is still similar to the enfeoffment system, which is a very important reason for the later division of the Roman Empire. The county system is a civilian system, and its military and political leaders are appointed by the emperor. According to their political achievements, their military achievements can be raised or lowered and leveled, which leads to the emergence of professional bureaucrats and professional soldiers. Professional bureaucrats and professional soldiers can come from civilians, and the county bureaucracy effectively guarantees the rights of civilians (cloth) to participate in and discuss state affairs (for example, Reese and Meng Ao, both of whom are cloth, can only stand out according to military merit). Compared with the feudal aristocratic politics, it is undoubtedly a great historical progress. Some people think that both the civil service system and the military system of modern countries originate from this.
Since Shang Yang's political reform, Qin attached great importance to the rule of law. Qin Shihuang inherited this tradition and admired Han Fei, a legalist figure. He once lamented that "if you walk with him, you will have no hatred." During the war, Qin Shihuang rewarded and punished the generals according to law. After the unification of China, Qin Shihuang absorbed some provisions of the laws of six countries on the basis of the original laws and decrees of Qin State, and formulated and promulgated unified laws throughout the country. Although Qin Shihuang was autocratic and thought that "we rule the world", he still ruled the country according to law in the Qin Dynasty. The reason of Guangwu Chen Sheng Uprising is that the Qin law is harsh, and its crime is capital crime, so it must be reversed. It is "the law forces the people to revolt", not "the official forces the people to revolt" caused by such serious corruption as "the drunkenness of Zhu Men is not for the sake of wine, and the road freezes people to death". Some people think that [source request], later, Confucianism advocated relying on enlightenment to implement the rule of man, governing the country according to human etiquette rather than law, and even a word was decided by the monarch, resulting in the wind of rule of man and flattery still existing.
Economically, Qin Shihuang attached importance to agriculture and land policy. He implemented the policy of emphasizing agriculture and restraining business. In the thirty-first year of the first emperor (2 16 BC), landlords and yeomen who ordered to occupy land were recognized and protected by the government as long as they declared the amount of land to the government and paid taxes. Qin Shihuang also vigorously developed land and water transportation throughout the country, and built a straight road from Xianyang to the equator of Yanqi and Wu Chu, from Xianyang via Yunyang (now northwest of Chunhua, Shaanxi) to Jiuyuan (now west of Baotou, Inner Mongolia), and built the "Wuchi Road" in the southwest, digging a lingqu to communicate with Xiangjiang River and Lijiang River. In addition, Qin Shihuang unified measurement and currency, which also laid an important foundation for the economic development of later generations.
During the reign of Qin Shihuang, he also sent troops to fight in the south and expand the national territory. At the end of the first emperor, the number of Qin counties increased from 36 counties at the beginning of unification to more than 40 counties. The territory was "east to Haichao, west to Lintao and Zhong Qiang, south to Beihu, north to the river, and Yinshan to Liaodong", which is recorded in the history books as "expanding thousands of miles to the north" and "a land of hundreds of miles, all bowing". According to the map of the Warring States Period, the territory is almost twice the area controlled by the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period. In order to vigorously develop South Vietnam, Qin Shihuang forced 500,000 people to move into Vietnam to live with the Vietnamese people, which promoted the long-term integration and unity of all ethnic groups. In order to eliminate the repeated invasions of nomadic people in the north, Qin Shihuang forcibly built the Great Wall to resist the Huns. Up to now, the Great Wall of Wan Li has become one of the most important symbols of China and the Chinese nation.
In a word, Qin Shihuang played an extremely crucial role in the unification of the whole country, the establishment of China's political system, the establishment of China's territory and the inheritance of the Chinese nation, and was called "one emperor through the ages". The so-called "great achievements are greater than Qin Huang's martial arts" means that in terms of literature and martial arts, kings of past dynasties have no rights of Qin Shihuang. Up to now, China's English name, China, is also derived from the Roman word Chin (Qin) [source request] [1 1], which also illustrates the influence of the Qin empire from one side. (Refutation: China means porcelain, because early Chinese and western commodities circulated, and the west especially loved Chinese porcelain, and directly called porcelain China's name).
Many scholars and politicians in the past dynasties praised Qin Shihuang. For example, Sang Hongyang, a famous minister in the Western Han Dynasty, affirmed that Qin Shihuang's contribution to the unification of China was "meritorious service, which will be remembered by future generations". Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, said: "In modern times, only Qin Huang and Hanwu have leveled the world and expanded the frontier." Li Bai, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem "Antique": "The king of Qin swept Liuhe and wanted to see it! Swing the sword and set the clouds, and the princes will come to the West. " . Liu Zongyuan, a thinker in the Tang Dynasty, pointed out in his masterpiece "On Feudalism" that Qin Shihuang abolished the enfeoffment system and established the county system, which was in line with the objective and inevitable trend of historical development. The so-called "is not a saint's will, but also a trend." Qin Zheng Ji by Zhang Taiyan, a thinker in the late Qing Dynasty, also praised Qin Shihuang in 19 13: "Although there are four Huang San emperors and six or five emperors, they are not like dragons."
Liu Yimou, the pioneer of China's modern historiography, commented in the Cultural History of China: "The legal system in the era of the first emperor was really a great spirit. China, thousands of miles away from the rule of one government, is the evolution of solid state, which restrained the evolution of thought at that time. " "The year of the emperor, as Ying Zheng said, is the end of the reality two thousand hundreds years ago, and it is also the starting point two thousand hundreds years later, which is a key to non-history. However, although Qin had the merit of unified management, it failed to do its best to unify planning. All the policies of the Qin Dynasty were made by the Han Dynasty. Qin people come back to life, but Han people have emotions. " "The politics of the Han Dynasty was mostly along the Qin law and in the words of Confucianism." Although the Qin and Han dynasties were autocratic monarchies, their local administration still retained the tradition of people's autonomy in the Zhou Dynasty. "In the Qin and Han dynasties, people's speech was very free, and local affairs were mostly decided by the people, and people's governance was more important than official governance." "Qin was criticized by later generations for its autocracy, but in fact the people had autonomy." Qin customs "emphasize equality between men and women", "Qin does not specialize in women's righteousness", and also have equal requirements for men. "First, using the phrase" burning books to bury Confucianism "to think that Qin destroyed ancient culture is really a poor reading of history."
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