Whether the emperor was good or not, the people at that time had the most say, but later generations judged whether the emperor was good or not mainly by his influence on later generations. From this point of view, Kangxi naturally can't call it the "most" word.
Kangxi basically inherited and didn't innovate much. Although he made outstanding achievements in capturing Ao Bai, settling in San Francisco, incorporating Taiwan Province, incorporating Junggar, expelling Russia, etc., it seems that his essential influence on later generations is not great.
The natural angelica which has the greatest influence on later generations belongs to Qin Shihuang, not Kangxi. Why do you say that?
It is no exaggeration for Qin Shihuang to call him a tyrant when he was in office. Many people deeply hate him. In his later years, someone wrote the words "Qin Shihuang died here" on a stone. The rule of Qin Shihuang brought great disaster to the people at that time.
However, Qin Shihuang, as the first emperor, had an impact on later generations that no emperor could surpass.
I. System
The system of the Qin Dynasty was basically continued by the Han Dynasty. When Liu Bang entered Xianyang City, although he made a pact with the people to simplify the Qin law in three chapters, it basically continued later and was influenced by the law.
At that time, there were two schemes in the Qin dynasty, one was to realize the county system close to the Qin dynasty, the other was the mixed system of the present enfeoffment system far away from the Qin dynasty, and the other was the comprehensive county system. The former set was put forward by Prime Minister Wan, and the latter set was put forward by Tingwei Reese.
Qin Shihuang chose the second set, and Liu Bang chose the first set.
Later generations basically mended Qin Ding's plan. The title of emperor established by Qin Shihuang was continued by later generations, and centralization of authority directly influenced it for thousands of years.
Second, culture.
By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the influence of the Zhou royal family had been very weak. Confucius always wanted to restore the style of the Duke of Zhou, but unfortunately he achieved nothing in his life. Due to the different living environment, the vassal States formed completely different cultures, and there was no mainstream culture at that time.
After Qin unified the six countries, it deleted and selected the culture, hoping to regard the culture of Qin as the mainstream culture. From the perspective of future generations, "burning books to bury Confucianism" is cruel and a constraint on people's thinking, but the unexpected effect is to make culture the core.
Qin Shihuang also integrated the cultures of the six countries. For example, he went to Mount Tai to worship Zen, which was a recognition of Qilu culture to some extent.
Third, life
Qin Shihuang's unified measurement, coinage, writing, and construction of expressways from Xianyang. , will be national integration, laying the foundation for mutual exchange and recognition. Without what Qin Shihuang did, with the thinking of the six countries at that time, it would probably be difficult to gather into the Western Han Dynasty. It is precisely because Qin Shihuang had this idea that Liu Bang spent a lot less effort in governing the world. To some extent, Liu Bang was exposed to the light of Qin Shihuang.
Later dynasties also occupied his light.