The unification of China by Qin Shihuang in 22 1 BC was an epoch-making event in the history of China. It expanded the territory of China and basically laid the territory of China's unified multi-ethnic country; It ended the endless war of plunder and annexation for hundreds of years, created an environment of national unity and social stability, provided extremely convenient conditions for the development of the Chinese nation and economic and cultural exchanges among all ethnic groups, and made great contributions to the prosperity of social economy and culture: it realized the idea of great unity put forward by many outstanding thinkers since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, leaving people with valuable ideological heritage.

As a result, Qin Shihuang, as the biggest hero of this incident, was crowned with various auras, "managing the internal affairs through solid development", becoming a visionary and brilliant hero in the eyes of future generations, and "being an emperor through the ages" went down in glorious history. Sang Hongyang, the imperial adviser of the Han Dynasty, said at the Salt and Iron Conference that Qin Shihuang's great achievements "are like hills and valleys, and their names will be passed down to future generations." Dr. Yan added: "When the king of Qin invaded the world and annexed the Warring States, he was named emperor ... Li Yuanyuan Min survived the Warring States, and everyone thought he would stand on his own feet tomorrow." 【 Historical Records. ZhuFuYan biography]. In fact, however, I don't think it is appropriate to put all the fruits of reunification on Qin Shihuang.

First of all, "almost all general history, dynastic history and articles about Qin Shihuang's evaluation published after liberation support this statement without exception-Qin Shihuang complied with the trend of historical development, met the requirements and aspirations of the people, and completed the cause of reunifying China." [Xu Re-explore the reason why Qin unified China]. But I think that the evaluation of a historical figure should be objectively analyzed and commented in the specific historical environment at that time, so as to achieve the unity of subjective and objective concrete history. As the representative of the interests of the feudal landlord class, Qin Shihuang could not stand on the people's interests and realize the unity of politics, economy, ideology and culture, so as to meet the people's interests and realize the great unity of China society. He may not even have thought about what kind of life people need and how society should develop, let alone what the historical development trend is. What he cares about and constantly strives for is nothing more than expanding the scope of his rule and the objects of exploitation and competing for more land, population and wealth, which is completely a manifestation of his personal ambition and the nature of the landlord class-annexation. In fact, the war launched by Qin against the six countries brought profound disasters to the people of the six countries, and also caused deep hatred between Qin and the people of the six countries, laying a hidden danger for the future demise of Qin. Therefore, we should not overestimate his subjective motivation to launch a unified war; However, after the demise of the Six Kingdoms, his series of policies seemed to have a far-reaching impact on later generations, such as unifying words, imprisoning thoughts, unifying currencies, weighing and measuring, and formulating Qin laws. Apart from the pain he brought to the people by taking extreme measures in the process of policy implementation, is the primary subjective purpose of his promulgation of these policies really for social development and people to live a happy life? Or to consolidate and maintain their own rule and suppress people's resistance?

Secondly, during the Warring States period, the feudal merger wars were frequent and fierce, and the development trend of the merger wars gradually turned into a feudal unification war, thus resulting in the historical characteristics of moving from feudal separatism to feudal unification. Ending the feudal separatist regime and realizing national reunification are the aspirations of the people and the general trend. In other words, unification is the necessity of social and historical development, which cannot be created by any great man. So some people say: Qin Shihuang is a lucky man. He didn't come to the orchard to pick the fruit until it was ripe. "At the time of the incident, Qin had merged with Bashu Hanzhong, ... destroyed for two weeks and set up Sanchuan County." By the time Ying Zheng ascended the throne, Qin had become the most powerful country among the seven countries. At that time, Qin had a unified strength. Although Qin Shihuang showed extraordinary talent in recruiting talents and strict rewards and punishments, the realization of reunification can never be entirely attributed to him personally.

Thirdly, the society and people who have experienced long-term war turmoil need great unity. What they need is peace and stability, which can make people recuperate and social development and progress. However, what did Qin Shihuang give them after he completed his hegemony? This is tyranny!

"The emperor is the whole car is done, in order to gather the evil spirits. Building the Great Wall for Moon Lake in Jingrong. Impose a lot and swallow a little, which is a great shock to the world. The generals run amok and serve foreign countries. Meng Tian seeks chaos from the outside, while Reese treats it from the inside. Things are more annoying than chaos. The law is not just Qin Zi, and rape is not just burning. There are more troops and more enemies. Qin Fei does not want to receive treatment, but those who lose still take violent and crowded measures and use punishment too extreme. " [Lu Jia Xin Yu]

"The king of Qin is greedy and tyrannical, thieves are all over the world, and the poor have their own desires ... people who go to work can't rest, people who are hungry and cold can't eat and wear, and people who die and commit crimes have nothing to say to people and emperors." Greedy and self-motivated ""tyranny is the beginning of the world. " At the same time, it was resentment and the family was not good. When Qin Shihuang was alive, Fu knew the world was bad. ..... But only a few months after his death, the world attacked him from all directions, and the ancestral temple was extinct. "Hanshu Jia Shanzhuan"

"Qin Shihuang and the world, the Lord is not as good as the three kings, and the minister is not as good as the auxiliary ... when the works of the three kings can't get in. There is also the decline of the end of the road, that is, as an unscrupulous thief, the palace has gone too far, trying to stop unlimited financial resources, and can not afford to pay ... punishment is cruel and cruel ... At the beginning of the Qin Dynasty, officials invaded first, and poor middle peasants also invaded the rich officials' homes. At the end of the painting, I invaded the imperial clan. Therefore, when relatives and friends are in trouble, they are bitter outside and sweet inside, so they flee cautiously. People have a fugue, which was initiated by Chen Sheng, and the world collapsed and died of worship, which is a blessing of different surnames. When people mention tyrants, the first thing they think of may be Qin Shihuang, and Qin Shihuang has thus become the first tyrant, a banner of tyrants and a synonym for tyrants. Yes, Qin Shihuang was indeed a tyrant, and he was quite a brutal tyrant: he burned books to bury Confucianism; He enforced strict laws; He extorted money by violence. However, compared with other tyrannies in China's history, he really doesn't deserve to be called the first tyrant in China, at least I think so. His most famous misdeeds of burying Confucian scholars by burning books are only killing hundreds of Confucian scholars and burning tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of books; He didn't kill many people. Since the unification of China until his death, I haven't heard of any decrease in the population of the Qin Dynasty. He is not cruel enough. If he can kill all the nobles of the six countries, just like Zhu Yuanzhang killed all the heroes, even if he later relied on pig and dog partners like Zhao Gao and Hu Hai to keep Daqin Jiangshan; His cruelty is mainly reflected in tyranny, that is, severe punishment and laws, as well as his extortion.

The former is that he inherited and carried forward the tradition of Qin State since Shang Yang's political reform. Although it is really cruel, it can also be understood as a policy choice for the ruling group to maintain its rule. Shang Yang, the initiator, the advocate and accomplice of Qin Wang and Qin Shihuang, who carried out this policy, has never been blamed by Li Si. There are some reasons for the latter. In a positive sense, you can also think that it is to resist the invasion of Xiongnu, defend the country and protect the people, so it can't be erased at once, for example, recruiting 400 thousand people to repair the Great Wall. Here, I have no intention to excuse Qin Shihuang's cruelty at all. I just want to make it clear that his cruelty is completely out of the nature of an iron-fisted feudal emperor, completely out of the need to safeguard his own rule, and completely because he pushed legalist politics to the extreme, not because he purely regarded killing itself as a kind of politics and a means, purely as fun and pure bloodthirsty.

Qin Shihuang became the most representative figure among tyrants. I think there are several reasons: First, Qin Shihuang was too famous, too influential and early; Second, Qin Shihuang burned books to bury Confucianism and offended intellectuals all over the world. History books were written by intellectuals. Third, Qin Shihuang engaged in tyranny, which became the opposite of all those who engaged in benevolent government in previous dynasties and even engaged in democratic politics in contemporary times; Fourth, the Qin dynasty was too short-lived, and the tyranny of Qin Shihuang was only used by scholars in previous dynasties as a mirror for learning from history; Finally, except a few people who have brains and thoughts, most people, including most scholars, follow the crowd. Whoever has the greatest momentum or who has suffered the most will be considered as the best or the worst. Idols are made in this way, and so are negative models. So like a supernova explosion, Super Girl can spread all over the country overnight, covering all other stars who are equally red and purple, and Qin Shihuang must bear all the responsibilities that other tyrants should bear, and be buried as a martyr of his tyranny.