Qin Shihuang, named Ying Zheng, was the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty. He later destroyed six countries and unified China. For two thousand years, the evaluation of him has been controversial, so what kind of person is Qin Shihuang?
Qin Shihuang made great efforts to govern and adopted the strategic policy of "making friends far away and attacking near". It took him ten years to destroy the six countries and unify China. After Qin Shihuang pacified the world by force, he carried out a series of reform measures, which played a great role in the unification and development of China's politics, economy and culture.
First of all, he abolished the enfeoffment system nationwide and replaced it with the county system; Under the direct control of the emperor, a whole set of bureaucracy was established from the central government to the counties. On the basis of the original laws and decrees of Qin, it absorbed some provisions of the laws of the six countries and formulated and promulgated unified laws. The nobles before the Six Kingdoms were moved to Guanzhong and Bashu to prevent their separatist activities. It also explicitly prohibits the collection of weapons by the people, destroys the confiscated weapons, and casts 12 gold men.
Then, economically, the policy of emphasizing agriculture and restraining business was implemented to foster the development of feudal private ownership of land. In the thirty-first year of the first emperor (2 16 BC), landlords and yeomen who occupied land were ordered to declare the amount of land to the government and pay taxes. Their land ownership was recognized and protected by the government, and the national weights and measures system was unified with the weights and measures formulated by Shang Yang as the standard. Unify the national monetary system. In order to develop China's land and water transportation, the "car on the same track" was implemented, and the Chidao from Xianyang to Yanqi and Wu Chu and the straight road from Xianyang to Jiuyuan (now Baotou West, Inner Mongolia) via Yunyang were built. Wuchi Road was built in the southwest, and a canal was dug to connect Xiangjiang River and Lijiang River.
In terms of cultural thought, based on the popular characters of Qin State, Biography was formulated and promulgated throughout the country. And using the theory that the five virtues of Yin and Yang in the Warring States period began at the end, Qin gained water virtue, the water color was black, and the final number was six. Therefore, it is stipulated that clothes, banners and flags are still black, and there are six kinds of symbols, crowns and riding systems. Water dominates yin, which represents punishment and killing, so the implementation of criminal law is aggravated on this basis. In the thirty-fourth year of the first emperor, Qin Shihuang severely punished the law, which caused dissatisfaction among scholars and accused Qin Shihuang in succession. Reese, who has been promoted to prime minister, advocates severely suppressing these audacious scholars. He wrote a letter to Qin Shihuang, demanding that the book be burned. That is, all the history books except Ji Qin have been burned, and the classics collected by the people and scholars all over the country and the classics of a hundred schools of thought have also been burned by the government. Anyone who dares to disobey orders and discuss affairs will be put to death. If the official deliberately conceals it, he will be punished by the bookkeeper. Except for a few history books, only books about agriculture, divination and medicine were left. This is a cleansing of China culture, and China culture, like the law, embodies the tyranny of the Qin Dynasty. Burning books just can't stop scholars' mouths, but it arouses greater resistance. People and scholars are extremely disgusted with Qin Shihuang's tyranny, and the remarks against him are all over the world. This made Qin Shihuang fly into a rage and sent the empire to trace it all over the country, and finally arrested more than 460 people. Qin Shihuang ordered a piece to be taken to Lishan Valley and buried alive. Because most of these people are Confucian scholars, they are called "pit Confucianism" by later generations. Burning books and burying Confucianism is a big stain that Qin Shihuang can't erase, which greatly offsets his historical achievements in unifying the country.
After Qin Shihuang ascended the throne, he sent Meng Tian to crusade against the Huns, and linked the Great Wall in the northern part of Qin, Zhao and Yan during the Warring States Period, and built the Great Wall of Wan Li from Lintao (now Minxian County, Gansu Province) in the west to Liaodong in the east. After conquering Baiyue area, Guilin, Xiang Jun and Nanhai were established. At the end of the first emperor, the number of Qin counties increased from 36 counties at the beginning of unification to more than 40 counties, with the territory of "East to the Haichao, West to Lintao and Zhong Qiang, South to Beihu, North to the River, and Yinshan to Liaodong".
After the unification of the six countries, Qin Shihuang built the luxurious Epang Palace and the tomb of Mount Li, made five large-scale cruises and carved stones in famous mountain resorts to show off his prestige. In order to live forever, he sent alchemist Xu (that is, Xu Fu) to lead thousands of boys and girls to the East China Sea to seek immortality. It has consumed huge financial and human resources and deepened people's suffering.
For more than 2,000 years, Qin Shihuang was regarded as a tyrant by most people, and people criticized him for burning books and burying Confucianism, repairing the Great Wall, building palaces extensively and building great buildings. However, some people praised him as "an emperor through the ages" and affirmed his contribution to reunification, unified measurement and the territory of China. So, was Qin Shihuang a tyrant or an emperor? This is actually your evaluation of him. Different angles have different evaluations, so there are two different Qin Shihuang. In fact, when we evaluate a person, we should affirm that the character of "person" is three-dimensional, that is to say, the character is multifaceted, so we can't draw conclusions unilaterally, and the same is true for evaluating Qin Shihuang. We often say that Emperor Qin built the Great Wall and palaces, wasting people and money. However, in that era of Qin Dynasty, the building technology was not developed. You don't have to use a lot of people's strength, but you should also build a military defense line like the Great Wall, okay? Although it brought pain to the people, it built a solid defense line for the Qin Dynasty to resist the invasion of Xiongnu, and also provided a foundation for future generations. Can't this be called meritorious service? Qin Shihuang's other actions, such as merging the world, claiming the title of emperor, abolishing feudalism, setting up counties, selling weapons, moving to enrich the people, overcoming difficulties, conquering Baiyue, driving away Huns, dredging ditches, sharing the same track with cars, adopting laws, etc., have great influence on the great unity of the country, the establishment of China's political system, the establishment of China's territory and the inheritance of the Chinese nation. However, Qin Shihuang's autocracy, exorbitant taxes and harsh punishments not only led to the demise of the Qin Dynasty after the reunification of China 15, but also led to the autocratic monarchy of China for more than 2,000 years, which made the people of China live an unbearable inhuman life for a long time. We should not just defend Qin Shihuang, a tyrant. It can be seen that Qin Shihuang, on the one hand, was the "one emperor through the ages" who created a unified situation, and on the other hand, he was an autocratic tyrant, which just confirmed the fact that human nature was three-dimensional. Therefore, judging a historical figure is not one-sided, and it needs to be discussed from multiple angles before it can return.