Great Chinese Leader Or Oppressive Tyrant?

Qin Shi Huangdi

Great Chinese Leader or Oppressive Tyrant?

Directions: As you read, complete following.

1. Underline evidence of Legalism in Shi Huangdi’s policies.

2. Circle significant cultural or political advancements during Shi Huangdi’s reign.

Shi Huangdi was the first emperor of the Qin dynasty in the third century B.C. He is most famous for his building programs that included the consolidation of state fortifications into the Great Wall of China. He also constructed a fabulous tomb full of terra-cotta statues of soldiers that can be seen today in Xian.

Shi Huangdi was born Zhao Zheng in 259 B.C. (during the Era of Warring States) to his father, Zhuang Xiang, the eventual king of Qin, and his mother, who had been a concubine of Lu Buwei, a successful merchant. Zheng became king of the Qin clan in 246, at the age of 13, and then, in 221, became the first emperor to rule the entire country of China. As emperor, he united the seven warring clans and took the name Shi Huangdi, meaning "first emperor." The words "Huang" and "Di" were titles used by eight legendary kings, and they had not been employed by earthly kings before. Subsequently, Shi Huangdi's use of the names implied that he thought he was greater than all those legendary kings put together and that he intended for his descendants to rule China forever.

Shi Huangdi immediately set about centralizing China's government and neutralizing the power of the warring nobles. He employed Legalist philosophers to help him make decisions. He abolished feudalism and insisted that the nobles move to his capital city, Xianyang, where they could no longer exert local power. He divided China into 36 territorial divisions, each of which had its own government and army. Those territorial governments worked with the national government to run the country efficiently. He often traveled to the northern cities to ensure that his bureaucrats were doing their jobs and to show off the splendor of the emperor.

Keeping close ties on the local rulers did not earn Shi Huangdi the love of his people, especially not the nobles whose power he had taken. He was known as a tyrant, who ruled with a heavy hand and was unwilling to loosen his grasp on the nation lest he lose his authority completely. His laws were extremely harsh and oppressive to nobles and commoners alike. Unhappy Chinese occasionally tried to have him assassinated when he came to visit; the most famous of his would-be assassins was Zhang Liang.

China, under the Qin dynasty, underwent many societal advances. Shi Huangdi standardized China's writing system and its units of weights and measures, which made communication much easier than it had been. He implemented a standard form of currency and promoted religion, publicly praising the gods for helping him to unite China. He had his accomplishments recorded on a set of tablets that still exist today.

One of his greatest accomplishments was in the area of transportation and commerce. He built roads and canals throughout China. In the northern regions of China, people had built walls on the borders of their states, and Shi Huangdi ordered them to connect those walls into one great wall. The massive building projects ran up exorbitant costs, so to compensate, he imposed notoriously high taxes. Commoners were often pressed into service to work on the massive building projects, provoking a great deal of discontent among them.

Shi Huangdi was constantly afraid of losing his tenuous grasp on the empire, so censorship was at a premium. He found Confucianism especially threatening. In 213, he and his council ordered banned all books not exploring agriculture, medicine, or divination. As a result, such references as tomes on Confucianism were burned. Only technical and scientific handbooks survived.

One of the first things Shi Huangdi did when he became king was to commence work on his tomb, which took thousands of prisoners of war 36 years to complete. Shi Huangdi had it filled with an entire terra-cotta army of 6,000 life-size, uniquely crafted soldiers and horses. All of the figures were arranged into military formations, facing east to guard against enemies coming from that direction. The tomb was discovered in 1974 by Chinese peasants and can be visited today.

In his later years, Shi Huangdi became preoccupied about the subject of death. He embraced mysticism and hired magicians and alchemists to create an elixir that would make him immortal; he wanted to become a divine emperor.

In 210, he traveled to Zhifu Island in Japan searching for a potion that would grant him eternal immortality. He died shortly after his return to China in his palace in the Shaqiu Prefecture. Shi Huangdi never wrote a will, and after his death, his imperial secretary, Li Si, and his chief eunuch, Zhao Gao, persuaded his second son, Ying Huhai, to forge a will in his name. They made Shi Huangdi's first son, Ying Fu Su, commit suicide. Ying Huhai became emperor, but the Qin empire collapsed three years later.

Qin Shi Huangdi

Great Chinese Leader or Oppressive Tyrant?

1. What evidence of Legalism did you find in Qin Shi Huangdi’s policies?

2. How did Qin Shi Huangdi help China advance culturally and politically?

3. Discuss the following with your partner before explaining your thoughts below. Should Qin Shi Huangdi be remembered as a great Chinese leader or an oppressive tyrant? Why?

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