It should be said that it is a common view of scholars for more than two thousand years after the death of Qin Dynasty to evaluate the reasons for the rise of the Han Dynasty by the annoyance and simplicity of law, but this has a lot to do with the historical narrative methods of Sima Qian and Ban Gu. The history of a short dynasty is often written by the next dynasty, and the subjective factors involved can be imagined. On the other hand, in the absence of new materials, these "hard words" are hard to doubt. Now, the discovery of bamboo slips in Yunmeng Qin Tomb and Zhangjiashan Han bamboo slips in Jiangling, Hubei Province finally gives us a new understanding of the history of Qin's death and Han's prosperity.
As we know, since Shang Yang's political reform, Qin completely denied the traditional patriarchal clan system of consanguineous aristocrats, implemented the rule of law, and strived to have laws to follow in everything. Legalization turned A Qin from a marginal country regarded as a "barbarian" by other countries into a powerful country, which promoted historical progress. How did the Qin law, which once contributed to great historical progress, suddenly become cruel after reunification? Were there any major changes to the law before and after the reunification of Qin? The excavation of Qin bamboo slips in Sleeping Tiger Land gives us a certain understanding of Qin law before and after reunification. Judging from the Qin law of Sleeping Tiger Land, it is good to say that it is good, but it cannot be concluded that the Qin law is cruel as described by later political commentators, historians and the world. Of course, as a law that embodies the will of the ruling class and a tool for the emerging landlord class to safeguard its own interests, the exploitative nature of Qin law exists, but this is another matter, which has nothing to do with cruelty.
According to the newly unearthed Han bamboo slips in Zhangjiashan, Jiangling, we are surprised to find that the "three chapters of the contract" is far from a summary of the laws in the early Han Dynasty. The laws in the early Han Dynasty were not only strikingly similar to the Qin laws, but also had almost the same sentencing standards. For theft, the Qin law stipulates that money exceeds 660 yuan as "one city Dan", and so does the Han law. Murderers and murderers are guilty of the same crime, so are Qin Law and Han Law. For fugitives who hide their accounts and don't report them, the punishment of Qin law and Han law is also very similar. And so on, there are many more. Therefore, the law in the early Han Dynasty was not so much a new law as a direct inheritance of the Qin law. The question now is: Why are the results so different after almost the same laws are implemented in two societies with basically the same class structure and social conditions? Why did the Qin law, which was regarded as tyranny in the Qin Dynasty, promote social prosperity in the early Han Dynasty? Can the real reason for Qin's subjugation of Han Dynasty be completely attributed to the difference between Qin Law and Han Law? These problems are difficult to be satisfactorily explained from the perspective of pure institutional history.
In my opinion, it is the human factor that plays a decisive role, that is, the quality difference of the highest ruling class. For example, great changes have taken place in the mentality of Qin Shihuang after reunification and Qin Shihuang before reunification, for example, he extremely defended his autocratic power and made the first emperor almost crazy. He was overjoyed at everything, suspicious and suspicious, which prevented him from establishing an effective mechanism for changing the power of the supreme ruler, undermined the operation of the central administrative center, and even caused great trauma to society. His successor, Qin Ershi, pushed Qin Shihuang's rule of man to the extreme. The absurdity of II is well known. Therefore, Qin Shihuang's "everything according to law" and "urgent law" and the so-called "application for decrees" recorded in the history books should be different from Qin Law and Legalism, in fact, it means that they have turned the legal system into the rule of man. Zhao Gao pointed out that deer is a horse, and he said that "deer should be punished by law", which is not a legal problem, but a human problem. This rule of man not only existed in the upper class of the Qin Dynasty, but also influenced the middle and lower class bureaucrats.
Although the law in the early Han Dynasty generally inherited the Qin law, the ideological level of its executors changed greatly. If there is a system of playing divination, the suspected prison will report the verdict step by step to avoid subjectivity. Although Liu Bang's own culture is not high, even a little rogue, he can listen to other people's opinions, such as Lou Jing's suggestion of moving the capital, Lu Jia's suggestion that he can't rule the world at once, and so on, and he has adopted them. There is no extreme hatred for Confucian scholars such as Shu, but they are properly integrated into politics. Although Empress Lu has the heart to win the world, she is different from the second person in human and political life. It is the characteristics of several rulers in the early Han Dynasty not to reward people's happiness, not to punish people's anger, and to hold a basic respect attitude towards the law.
It takes a long time to improve the overall quality of the ruling class in the Han Dynasty because of the remnants of the Qin Dynasty grammarians and the existence of a large number of military bureaucrats. Until the Wenjing period, many people were still talking about the brutality and disobedience of officials, and they were still emphasizing that the history of the late Qin Dynasty was likely to reappear. But after all, the rulers in the early Han dynasty noticed this problem and enforced the law more cautiously. They gradually abolished a few really harsh laws in the Qin dynasty, instilled some "inaction" thoughts in the minds of officials, and made major adjustments to the types and structure of selecting officials. Therefore, although Qin law was generally followed in the early Han Dynasty, the result was quite different from Qin politics. This is because the times are changing and the quality of the ruling class has also changed.
The history of a bad king is not necessarily caused by "bad laws". Wise monarchs in history are not necessarily cultivated by "clear laws". Confucianism or legalism prevail, and political quality cannot be generalized. In the final analysis, the law of feudal times can't fundamentally solve the problem of rule by man, so good governance or tyranny has a lot to do with human factors and can't be completely attributed to law. The death of Qin and the rise of Han are a proof.