Qin Shihuang, named Ying Zheng, was a great emperor in China. During his reign, he followed the historical trend, unified China by force, and then carried out a series of influential reforms, which opened a new era in the history of China.
He was born in the late Eastern Zhou Dynasty. At that time, the Zhou dynasty had existed in name only, and the merger war between the vassal States continued. When Ying Zheng was born, Qin had become the most powerful country among the vassal states. After taking power, he appointed some talented generals and waged a heroic war with other vassal States. In 22 1 year BC, the last vassal state, Qi, perished and China was unified. In order to show that the past emperor was different, he chose a new title-the emperor, calling himself the first emperor.
After Qin Shihuang proclaimed himself emperor, he immediately began to implement many major reforms. In order to avoid the repetition of the division that destroyed the Zhou Dynasty, he was determined to eradicate the whole old feudal system. He re-divided the territory under his jurisdiction into 36 counties, all of which were directly designated by the emperor. Qin Shihuang ordered that the official position of the county chief was no longer hereditary. Therefore, after several years in power, the exchange method between counties was quickly implemented to prevent ambitious county leaders from establishing their own powerful spheres of influence.
Each county has its own Wu county magistrate and a third-party mediator to maintain the balance between the two. Wu county magistrate is appointed by the emperor and can be removed at any time, and the mediator is appointed by the central government. A huge unimpeded road network has been built between the capital and the counties to ensure that the Central Army can quickly reach the counties blocked by the rebels. Qin Shihuang also issued an imperial edict to let the remaining members of the old dynasty move to Xianyang, the capital he built, so as to personally monitor it.
But Qin Shihuang was not only satisfied with China's political and military unification, but also practiced commercial unification. He established a unified system of weights and measures throughout the country, unified currency, standardized various farm tools, standardized the length of axles, and supervised the construction of highways and canals. He also established a unified legal system and unified writing in China.
The imperial edict issued by Qin Shihuang in 2 13 BC is the most famous (perhaps the most notorious) today, which will burn all the books in China. However, technical books such as agriculture, medicine, Qin history and legalist philosophy were not burned. All other schools of philosophy, including Confucius' theory, were destroyed. Qin Shihuang issued this stern imperial edict in order to eliminate the influence of hostile philosophical schools, especially Confucianism. This may be the precedent of the first large-scale political censorship in the whole history. However, he ordered the Imperial Library in the capital to collect samples of banned books.
Qin Shihuang also pursued a tough policy abroad. He conquered the south of China extensively and succeeded. All the areas he annexed were eventually incorporated into the territory of China. His army also won in the north and west. But he can't conquer the local ethnic groups forever. In order to prevent these ethnic groups from launching a sudden attack on China, Qin Shihuang connected the walls of various areas in northern China at that time and built a huge wall, which is the Great Wall of China that has been preserved to this day. The construction of these grand construction projects and years of foreign wars, relying on expropriation and extortion, made Qin Shihuang unpopular. Because it is impossible to overthrow the tyranny of Qin Shihuang through rebellion, people have to try to assassinate him, but all failed. Qin Shihuang died in 2 10 BC.
His second son succeeded to the throne and was called the second emperor. However, he lacked his father's talent, and soon rebellions took place everywhere. Within four years, Emperor II was beheaded, his palace and the emperor's library were burned down, and the Qin Dynasty was completely destroyed.
However, the achievements of Qin Shihuang did not disappear. The people of China are happy for the end of his tyranny, but no one wants to go back to the times before the Qin Dynasty. The next dynasty (Han Dynasty) continued to implement the administrative system established by Qin Shihuang. In fact, the organizational form of the Chinese Empire lasted for 2 100 years according to his route. Although Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty immediately changed the cruel legal system of the Qin Dynasty, the whole legalist philosophy fell out of favor, and Confucian philosophy became the orthodox national philosophy, the situation of political and cultural unification initiated by Qin Shihuang was irreversible.
Now the key role of Qin Shihuang in China and the world is clear as a whole. Westerners have always been afraid of the huge China, but in most history, the population of China is not much larger than that of Europe. The difference between the two is that Europe is always divided into many small countries, while China is a unified big country. This difference seems to be caused by political and social factors, not geographical factors. Natural obstacles such as mountains are as prominent as those in China and Europe. Of course, the unification of China can't be attributed only to Qin Shihuang, and many others, such as Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty, played an important role. There seems to be no doubt that Qin Shihuang played a decisive role. However, if we want to make a complete exposition of Qin Shihuang, we can't help but mention the brilliant and famous prime minister Reese. In fact, Lisi had such an important influence on Qin Shihuang's policies that it was difficult to distinguish the fruits of the great changes brought about by them. I'm not going to make such an attempt, but I want to attribute the same achievement to Qin Shihuang (although Reese can offer suggestions, the decision-maker is still Qin Shihuang).
Later, most Confucianism attacked and slandered Qin Shihuang, partly because he burned books. They accused him of being a tyrant and an illegitimate child, saying that he worshipped superstition and was ruthless, so he was mediocre. But most people in China basically praise him as a progressive thinker. Western writers occasionally compare Qin Shihuang with Napoleon, but it seems more appropriate to compare him with Augustus, the founder of the Roman Empire. The empire established by the two men was roughly the same in size and population. However, the Roman Empire experienced a much shorter period. In the long run, the territory ruled by Augustus failed to remain unified, but the territory ruled by Qin Shihuang remained unified. Therefore, he is the more influential figure of the two.