I want to talk about my opinion. First, contribution. It is this man's great contribution that makes people unable to forget him. What is the contribution of Qin Shihuang? In my opinion, Qin Shihuang's life contribution is only two words-"unification", which is his greatest contribution. This unification includes two aspects, one is the unification of territory and the other is the unification of system. Let's talk about unifying the territory first. Qin Shihuang annexed six countries to unify the world. This was the first time that the Chinese nation achieved real reunification, which laid the basic framework of modern China for the Daqin Empire. After the reunification of the Qin Shihuang era, although there were divisions later, that is, the division of the Five Dynasties and Ten Countries and the division of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, these divisions were short-lived and the reunification trend was irreversible! Qin Shihuang didn't live long, only fifty years old. It's not easy to do so many things in fifty years. Many people lived longer than Qin Shihuang. How many people can do so many things like him? He is not easy. After Qin Shihuang succeeded in annexing the six countries, he immediately sent 300,000 troops north to attack the Huns and build the Great Wall, and then sent 500,000 troops south to conquer South Vietnam. We have said a lot about attacking Xiongnu in the north, and we might as well say a few more words about conquering South Vietnam. Qin Shihuang conquered South Vietnam with an army of 500,000, which was the biggest use of troops after his successful annexation of six countries. This battle lasted for four years, two coaches were changed, and finally the whole place in South Vietnam was occupied. The so-called South Vietnam refers to Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Yunnan, including northern and central Vietnam. Finally, Nanhai County (Guangdong), Guilin County (Guangxi) and Xiang County (northern and central Vietnam) were established, all of which were incorporated into the territory of China by Qin Shihuang. After the uprising of Chen Sheng and Guangwu, the Southern Expedition Army did not come back, but stayed there. There is a key figure named Zhao Tuo, a native of Zhengding, Hebei Province, and now a native of Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province. Zhao Tuo established Nanyue State there, calling himself the King of Nanyue, and later surrendered to the Han Dynasty. Zhao Tuo's 500,000 people settled in South Vietnam and became the ancestors of Hakka people in Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian today. Zhao Tuo once reported to Qin Shihuang when he was a magistrate of Longchuan County, asking Qin Shihuang to send him 30,000 women from the Central Plains. Why? Is to let those women combine with some soldiers of his 500 thousand army, organize families and reproduce. He asked for 30,000 yuan, and Qin Shihuang gave him 1.5 million yuan (this later became a rule, and reporting will be more important, and approval will always give you a knife). After 15,000 women from the Central Plains arrived in Guangdong, they became the "Hakkas" in Guangdong today, and the Hakkas are their grandmothers. Later, there were two large-scale Hakka migration movements. Now you go to Heyuan City, Guangdong Province, where there is a town in Longchuan County. There are still nearly 50 ancestral halls with surnames, which shows that there are more than 200 surnames in this town. This is a phenomenon left over by Qin Jun who went south at that time. Qin Shihuang incorporated all these places into Chinese territory, and established a vast territory stretching from Fujian and Guangdong in the south to the coast in the east, Lintao in the west and the Great Wall in the north. This is the first time that he laid the basic framework of China as a great power. Of course, the territory of the Qin Dynasty could not match the territory of China today. Later, after the expansion of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the geographical pattern of such a big country as ours was basically formed. This is a great geographical heritage. From the perspective of national defense, in today's world, the most powerful countries and powers have the right to speak; If your country is big and strong, then you have full right to speak. With a vast territory, it has unparalleled advantages in the depth of national defense, and a small country can cross the country in just one hour. China can run freely from the eastern coast to Xinjiang, which is enough for you to run for a while. With this national defense depth, we can carry out cascade defense, which is a unique national defense condition. Economically speaking, a big country is much more resistant to risks than a small country, because a big country has a vast territory, huge population resources and huge domestic demand capacity, which is beyond the reach of a small country. Therefore, it is a big country that can really withstand the wind and waves. The reason why the aircraft carrier is terrible is precisely because of its huge size. And all this is the foundation that Qin Shihuang laid for us. Another is the system. Qin Shihuang not only created a vast territory for us, but also established a complete political system, which is the centralized system headed by the emperor. Under this system, Qin Shihuang completed a series of work, unified writing, unified train tracks, unified weights and measures, unified currency, and achieved national unity in the overall sense. The political system of mankind is not the original creation of any one person, but the inevitable development of a nation's history, which is finally formed under the influence of many factors. The system founded by Qin Shihuang brought the prosperity of imperial society for more than two thousand years to future generations, and also brought profound disasters to the people. With the passage of time, the decay of this system gradually appeared. This system has finally come to an end. The person who ended China's imperial system for more than 2,000 years is Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Sun Yat-sen and Qin Shihuang are iconic figures in the history of political system. They ended one system and started another. Centralization of authority, established by Qin Shihuang, lasted for more than 2,000 years and finally died out. So why can the political system he founded be accepted by people? I think the most important things are two points: first, the system itself has advantages; Second, the system is irreplaceable. That is, there is no better system in that society, or no system that can replace it. Therefore, after the successful uprising of peasant leaders, they still want to be emperors. Aren't Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang going to be emperors? Because there is no more advanced political system. This is also one of the reasons why Qin Shihuang is constantly mentioned by people.
There is another reason why people have been mentioning Qin Shihuang for more than two thousand years, which is manifested in one word-"curse", which is endless. People always curse Qin Shihuang. From the cursing of Qin Shihuang, we can see that it is a law that literati and politicians in past dynasties will never have the same evaluation of Qin Shihuang as long as they have different purposes, different visions, different times and different angles. Therefore, people's evaluation of Qin Shihuang is also different. Of course, the evaluation of Qin Shihuang focuses on three issues: first, burning books to bury Confucianism, second, using harsh laws, and third, abusing people's power. These three points should be analyzed. For example, we can see from the comments of some scholars in Ming and Qing Dynasties that most of them think that burning books and burying Confucianism is only a temporary move, not a continuous killing. Burning books is first of all cultural autocracy, which is to be criticized; Pit Confucianism is a temporary act made in anger. As far as the number of victims is concerned, it is not the largest. Of course, it is wrong to kill a person for nothing. When we talked about Lv Hou before, we said that Ming Taizu Judy killed ten families in Fang Xiaoru, killing 837 people at a time. No one said he was a tyrant. If the tyrant is determined by the number of murders by kings of past dynasties, then Qin Shihuang is not the only one; If a tyrant is identified by building tombs and palaces and abusing people's power, there will be no emperor who does not build tombs and palaces. We heard that the mausoleum of Empress Dowager Cixi was built with more than two million pieces of silver, and it was demolished and rebuilt, which cost countless money. If we use harsh methods to evaluate whether the emperor is a tyrant, the whole Han Dynasty inherited the laws of the Qin Dynasty, Emperor Hui of Han Dynasty abolished the cooperative order, and the crime of three clans was abolished in Lv Hou period. In the end, the three clans became five clans, five clans became seven clans, seven clans became nine clans, and nine clans became ten clans, but the more they killed, the stricter the laws of which dynasty were.
Of course, we should see that Qin Shihuang did have a cruel side. For example, after he killed Zhao, he went to Zhao himself and killed everyone who had enemies with his mother. This was Qin Shihuang's only revenge when Qin destroyed six countries, but this incident was only an individual phenomenon. He didn't kill a country, which is related to his history. Qin Shihuang's actions are often called tyranny, such as building the Great Wall, crossing the road, going straight, imperial tombs, palaces and so on. These things should be analyzed in detail, and we can't judge them in a cage. There are two types of Qin Shihuang's projects. First, it is conducive to the stability of the empire, and the Great Wall, Chidao and Zhidao projects are conducive to the stability of the empire and the peaceful and stable life of the people under agricultural civilization. Of course, these projects have indeed brought great disasters to the people. Another kind of project is purely for his personal enjoyment, such as palaces and imperial tombs, which is what we should criticize. In my opinion, the reason for the demise of the Qin empire lies not in the projects undertaken by Qin Shihuang, but in the haste and concentration of these projects. From the founding of the People's Republic of China at the age of 39 to his death at the age of 50, Qin Shihuang completed so many projects in 12, many of which were necessary. But this completely ignores the lives of ordinary people. So many projects are launched at once, which makes the people overwhelmed. Of course, ordinary people can't live. Therefore, when Bobby Chen and Guangwu revolted, the people would respond enthusiastically. In this way, Qin Shihuang is a tyrant, and he is worthy of the standards of a tyrant. But emperors who are equally cruel in history are not called tyrants. It is a bit unfair to say that Qin Shihuang was a tyrant. Mr. Lu Xun once said a very interesting sentence: "Qin Shihuang was really wronged." His loss died the next year, and a group of idlers spoke ill of him for the new owner. " "Helping leisure" refers to those literati, and the "new owner" is Liu Bang. It seems that Mr. Lu Xun asked this question very accurately.
More objectively, a person's life is divided into several stages. From zero to thirteen, this is the first stage. Qin Shihuang spent his childhood in Zhao, and spent the first nine years as a hostage with his father in Zhao. These nine years have not even guaranteed his right to exist. After nine years old, he came back with his father and became the king of Qin. By the age of thirteen, his life was much better. In his childhood, Qin Shihuang was not a king, not a monarch, not a tyrant. The age from thirteen to twenty-two is the second stage of Qin Shihuang's life. Although he became the king of Qin at this stage, because of his youth, his power was in the hands of his mother Evonne, Miao Du and Lv Buwei. At this time, the king of Qin was actually an empty shelf. Although he is not in power, he has seen the dark side of the court. The age from 22 to 39 is the third stage of his life. Ying Zheng, king of Qin, did three great things: first, he got rid of Miaodu and Lv Buwei; Second, a lot of preparations have been made for the merger of the six countries; Third, initiate and complete the merger of the six countries. This stage is the most brilliant stage in Qin Shihuang's life. What we see is a wise, decisive and good at listening to opinions, and there is no tyranny at this stage. From the age of 39 to 50, this is the fourth stage of Qin Shihuang's life. He founded the emperor system, engaged in three public offices and nine departments in the central government, and engaged in the county system in local areas; Building the Great Wall, attacking Xiongnu in the north and conquering South Vietnam in the south; He also restored palaces, tombs, equator and straights, and did many things. During this period, his achievements were numerous, but his merits and demerits were mixed. The root cause of Qin Shihuang's mistakes is his complacency after he became famous, which determines that his administration is first bright and then dark. The more he came to the end of his life, the more stupid he became-46 annual repair Great Wall, 47-year-old poet, 48-year-old pit warlock, 50-year-old died. People accused him of repairing the Great Wall later and burning books to bury Confucianism. It should be affirmed that Qin Shihuang basically did a good job in his life, but he made a series of mistakes in his later period. Finally, history has only proved a well-known adage: you must conquer yourself. This is the tragedy of Qin Shihuang and all dictators in the world. This is how all dictators end. This is the second reason why Qin Shihuang is always remembered by people.
Qin Shihuang's short life left a lot of room for thinking for future generations. People always think about Qin Shihuang, including today's people want to get some inspiration from Qin Shihuang. I think there are probably the following questions worth thinking about: first, about the ruling ideology. Qin Shihuang can be regarded as a relatively successful person, and centralization of authority, headed by the emperor, which he established, is a successful model. But the failure of Qin Shihuang was that he didn't find a suitable ruling thought. What I want to emphasize here is that the long-term stability of a country depends not only on the system, but also on thinking; System depends on integration, and thought depends on innovation. In this regard, Qin Shihuang gave us a lot of inspiration. As we said, Qin Shihuang did not abolish Confucianism, but preferred legalism, which brought problems. Legalists emphasize absolute monarchy, which means that no one can control and restrict the emperor. Once the unruly emperor made a mistake, the empire collapsed. One of Qin Shihuang's great mistakes in ruling ideology was that he didn't realize the importance of Confucianism. Legalism is the way to strengthen the country and Confucianism is the way to govern the country; The rule of law is indispensable, as is the rule of virtue; Legalism makes people afraid, while Confucianism makes people loyal. Legalists emphasize the rule of law, and the emperor is outside the law. Confucianism pays attention to the sage's personality, which not only educates subjects, but also binds kings. If a ruling idea can't restrain the king, the king will be autocratic, make mistakes and his empire will perish. Qin Shihuang's empire was too short-lived He was the first person to create the emperor system, but he didn't know how important Confucianism was to governing the country. This is the first thing we should think about. Second, the decay of the ruling class, which we seldom talked about in the past. Many people attributed the demise of the Qin Dynasty to the tyranny of Qin Shihuang and Qin Ershi, and Zhao Gao did many bad things in the middle. But people have neglected one thing, that is, the decay of the nobles themselves in the Qin Dynasty. Let me give you an example. After the uprisings in Chen Sheng and Guangwu, the old aristocrats of the six countries in Shandong were established one after another, but what was the final result of the revival movement of the six countries? All failed. Who won? Liu bang, who was born at the grassroots level. He was the final winner. He founded the Western Han Dynasty. Here's a problem. Is Liu Bang's victory and the downfall of the descendants of the Six Kingdoms accidental or inevitable? In fact, the main reason why the six countries were annexed by Qin was that the nobles of the six countries themselves became more and more decadent in the development of hundreds of years, which led to the final national subjugation, so the nobles of the six countries failed in the Zionist movement of the great uprising at the end of Qin Dynasty. As a tribe, they were established as vassal states by the Zhou Emperor in that year, and were finally annexed by the Qin State. In the course of hundreds of years of development, the aristocratic class itself has decayed. The nobles of Qin performed best, so they were able to destroy the six countries, and the nobles of Qin themselves quickly decayed. It is very cautious for the nobles of Qin State to tread on thin ice before destroying the Six Kingdoms. After the Six Kingdoms perished, the nobles of the State of Qin had no enemies. He will be very cautious when he meets a strong opponent, and he will be extra careful. Once there is no opponent, he will run amok and think he can do anything, but in fact, his death is not far away. This is the terrible thing about the lack of opponents. Therefore, the final demise of the Qin Dynasty was related to the decay of the nobility. The most important nobleman in the state of Qin was the son of Qin Shihuang. How many sons do you think Qin Shihuang had? They are the core of the royal family and nobles of Qin State. What sound did we hear from them? Only when I was a pit warlock did I hear Fu Su's advice. As a result, Fu Su was sent to the border. In other royal families, there is no voice of opposition. It is this Fu Su who many people still believe in and think that he can be a successor. Some even assume that if Fu Su took over, maybe the Qin Dynasty would not perish. This is an incorrect view. Fu Su is actually very incompetent. He just sticks to one principle. He does whatever his father says. Qin Shihuang let him die with a fake letter. He immediately went back to his room and began to cry. After crying, he will kill himself. Even Meng Tian advised him to say, how can you believe it by riding a bike? He committed suicide anyway. This is the only son of Qin Shihuang who has the right to speak, and it is also a person that many people value. Do you think this man can do it? Let me give an example of the Ming Dynasty. When Zhu Yuanzhang died in the Ming Dynasty, his prince Zhu Biao was gone and his great-grandson Zhu Yunwen succeeded him. Judy, the son of the prince, didn't want to. He is sending troops. It shows that among the descendants of Zhu Yuanzhang, this new ruling class is not decadent, so Judy won't listen, but he just dares to fight. Fu Su didn't have the courage of Judy, the prince of Yan. In fact, the nobles of Qin had always been excellent before the annexation of the six countries, but they were decadent after the annexation of the six countries, which led to the inevitable demise of the Qin empire. Liu bang, who was born at the grassroots level, is different. He represented a new class, and he finally unified the whole country. After Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty, a new ruling class headed by the royal family and heroes was formed, which lasted for a long time and finally ended. Why? Or its own decay. At the beginning of the establishment of an empire, the ruling class was relatively healthy and able to control the situation, but with the passage of time, after generations of transformation, it gradually decayed and eventually perished. At the same time, a new class will be brewing. This new class will be healthy at first, and it will eventually replace the old class. History is always cultivating the new ruling class and eliminating the old decadent class. This is the law of historical development. It was under the operation of this kind of law that the Qin Dynasty finally went to the final road of extinction.