Shang Yang, a commoner of Wei State, was a teacher since childhood and was good at the art of punishment. After finishing his studies, he went to Wei and became a guest of Uncle Wei Xianggong. Uncle Cuo recommended Shang Yang to Wei Huiwang before he died, saying that although he was young, he was talented and could be used as a photo. If he doesn't use it, he will be killed and not allowed to leave the country. Wang Wei thought that Uncle CuO was seriously ill and was talking nonsense. The result was useless and didn't kill him. Instead, he was sent to the State of Qin. According to Historical Records of Qin Benji, Shang Yang entered Qin in the first year, with three years of political reform, five years of tenure and ten years earlier as a girder. In twenty-two years, Shang Yang designed to capture Wei son of the general alive and force Wei Xianhe to make peace with Qin Gui. Wei Huiwang suddenly realized this and sighed: "I hate that I don't need Gong Suncuo!" Of course, Shang Yang's greatest contribution is not to fight, but to reform. In the twenty years of Qin State, he carried out two political reforms, which finally made Qin State rise to Xirong and lay the foundation for the unification of China. It is not easy to carry out such an important reform. In order to ensure the formulation of the new law, Shang Yang must first gain the trust of the monarch. In order to convince Xiao Gong, Shang Yang had a heated argument with Gan Long, Du Zhi and other important officials. In response to the platitudes of Gan and Du, Shang Yang not only summed up the historical experience of "three generations of different courtesy, five tyrants of different laws", but also affirmed that "Legalists love the people and all scholars obey the people." It is illegal for a saint to strengthen the country; If you can benefit the people and don't follow their rituals, you will eventually be filial. In order to ensure the implementation of the new law, Shang Yang should not only win the trust of the monarch, but also win the trust of the people. Before the promulgation of the new law, Shang Yang erected a 30-foot-high wood at the south gate of the capital, telling the citizens that whoever can move it to the north gate will get ten gold medals. People who look at it don't believe it, thinking there is such a good thing! So Shang Yang simply raised the reward to fifty gold. As a result, a man carried the wood to the north gate with the mentality of trying, and really got a reward of fifty gold. The story spread all over the state of Qin, and people began to know that Shang Yang's reform, which focused on punishing evil and promoting good, was serious. Any reform and change in history is not only a re-selection of the general plan of governing the country, but also a re-adjustment of the interest relationship. This is the real reason why the reform will be resisted. Because the reform measures such as abolishing rewards and farming in mineral fields violated the monopoly privileges of the aristocratic class on land and official positions, they were strongly opposed by vested interest groups headed by the prince. However, Shang Yang was not intimidated by these powerful people. He believes that laws are not just made to punish ordinary people. Since ancient times, "if the law fails, it is self-inflicted", so he advocated punishing the two teachers who instigated the prince to disobey the new law first. As a result, Gong's face was engraved with ink, while Gong Ziqian's nose was cut off because of repeated education. Shang Yang's move really played the role of "killing the chicken to show the monkey". People see that even the prince's teacher can't escape the punishment of the law, so they dare not take any chances anymore. After the efforts of Shang Yang, the new law has been implemented for ten years, and the Qin people are very pleased. There are no thieves in the mountains, but the family gives enough. People brave public fights, fear private fights, and govern villages and towns. "However, any social practice has to pay a price, especially reform and change. With the death of Qin Xiaogong, Shang Yang lost his power base. With the support of conservatives, the succeeded prince made a comeback and took crazy revenge on Shang Yang. They not only forced Shang Yang to rebel by false accusation, but also dismembered him by the most cruel atrocities. Although Shang Yang suffered great misfortune, the great cause of political reform initiated by him became irreversible because it conformed to the historical trend, and finally had a far-reaching impact on the reunification of the Qin Dynasty. Of course, from today's perspective, Shang Yang's thought of "practicing knife and saw, using armor soldiers externally" is obsessed with violence and despises education, and also has its obvious historical limitations. He used simple and rude political means to deal with ideological problems, burned poems and books, implemented the policy of ignorance and cultural absolutism, and even carried out the method of doing nothing, which had a certain degree of negative influence. It is precisely because of this influence that he died of the revenge of the nobles and was "ruthless by the Qin people", which even many historians since Sima Qian did not really understand.