Ying Zheng, the first emperor of Qin Dynasty
[ascend the throne]
In the third year of emperor Zhuangxiang of Qin Dynasty (247 BC), Emperor Zhuangxiang of Qin Dynasty died, and Zhao Zheng became king of Qin. When he ascended the throne, because he was young, the government of the country was controlled by Lu Buwei, the prime minister, and he respected Lu Buwei as his second father. Lu Buwei, the great emperor of Qin Shihuang, not only controlled the imperial court, but also had an affair with the Empress Dowager (Zhao Ji). Seeing that Qin Shihuang was getting older, he was afraid that he would find out that he wanted to leave the Empress Dowager. He was also afraid that the Empress Dowager would resent him. So he offered a fake eunuch to the Empress Dowager. He only pulled out his beard and went to the palace. Qin Shihuang grew up day by day, so they cheated Qin Shihuang, saying that the fengshui of the Empress Dowager's palace was not good and that they should move away from here. Qin Shihuang believed that it was true, so they moved to a place far away from Qin Shihuang. As a result, the Empress Dowager gave birth to two illegitimate children, and the fake eunuch Gua also regarded himself as the king's father. With the help of the empress dowager, he sealed a long letter to the Marquis, and took possession of Shanyang, Taiyuan and other places. He had been operating in Yongcheng for many years and established a huge force. He was another powerful political force after LV Buwei.
It is inevitable that a villain will succeed. After getting drunk, he scolded a minister: "I am the false father of the king of Qin. How dare you provoke me." After hearing this, the minister was very angry and secretly found an opportunity to tell Qin Shihuang. I'm flustered and ready to rebel.
In 238 B.C., the first emperor of Qin held a crown ceremony at the Qinian palace in Yongcheng. He used the imperial seal of the king of Qin and the Empress Dowager's seal to launch a rebellion and attack the Qinian palace. Qin Shihuang had already arranged 3000 elite troops in the Qinian palace to defeat the rebels. He turned to fight Xianyang palace, where there had been troops for a long time. He fled alone and was arrested soon after. The first emperor of Qin dismembered the corpse of Gai and exposed it to the public. Then he put his mother Zhao Ji into the Fuyang palace in Yongcheng and killed the two illegitimate children born to gai and the Empress Dowager. Qin Shihuang then removed LV Buwei from the prime minister position and exiled him to Bashu. After that, although he obeyed the words of the nobles of the Qin State and issued the "expulsion order" to expel the diners of the six kingdoms, he was dissuaded by Li Si's "admonishment and expulsion book", and later he appointed Wei Liao, Li Si and others.
[Qin seizes nine tripods]
It is said that the nine tripods were made by Xia Yu and symbolized Kyushu. They have been protected by many countries and were made of copper tribute from Kyushu. Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were regarded as national treasures, and those with nine tripods were the emperor. In 256 BC (the 51st year of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty and the 59th year of King Nan of Zhou Dynasty), the Qin army attacked Handan of Zhao state and continued to attack Han and Zhao. On this occasion, the eastern countries launched a joint anti Qin campaign. Under the influence and coercion of Han, Zhao and other countries, the ignorant Duke of Western Zhou was also involved in this activity. Under the banner of King Zhou, the Allied forces fought against Qin. King Zhao was furious. The state of Qin had long wanted to erase the Western Zhou Dynasty from the map and remove an obstacle to the unification of the world as soon as possible. The participation of the Western Zhou Dynasty in the anti Qin war just gave the Qin state an excuse to send troops. In 256 BC (the 59th year of King Nan and the 51st year of King Zhao of Qin), Qin soldiers attacked the Western Zhou Dynasty. King Nan listened to the words of Duke Xi Zhou and descended to Qin with thirty-six cities and thirty thousand households in the Western Zhou Dynasty. King Qin demoted King Nan of Zhou as king, and Duke Xi Zhou as a family minister, and granted him the title of Liangcheng (now south of Hancheng County, Shaanxi Province). King Nan died in January when he arrived at Liangcheng, and the state got rid of him. He placed nine tripods in Xianyang (one tripod fell to Sishui on the way, so the state of Qin only got eight tripods, but it is still called nine tripods in custom). From the following year (the 52nd year of King Zhao, 255 BC), historians began to record the year by King Qin. In 255 BC, Jiuding moved to Qin, which means that the king of Qin will be the master of the whole world, and he can fight against the vassal states.
[unify the six countries]
From 230 BC to 221 BC, the first emperor of Qin Dynasty launched the war of annihilating the six countries by adopting the strategy of long-distance and close attack, division and estrangement, and cooperation. He destroyed Korea in the 17th year of the first emperor of Qin Dynasty (230 BC), Zhao in the 19th year (228 BC), Wei in the 22nd year (225 BC), Chu in the 24th year (223 BC), Yan in the 25th year (222 BC) and Qi in the 26th year (221 BC). Finally, Qin Dynasty, the first unified, multi-ethnic and centralized autocratic state in Chinese history, was established.
General policy
After the Qin Shihuang's political affairs, he listened to the proposal of Li Si Jin to destroy the six countries and began to plan the major cause of unifying the six countries. Its general strategic policy is to concentrate on strength and break through each; first, Zhao is taken from the north, Wei in the middle, South Korea is taken, and then Yan, Chu and Qi are enterprising.
[first known as emperor]
In his twenty sixth year of becoming king of Qin, the Qin King finally unified China. The first thing that the 39 year old Qin king wanted to do was to re - establish a title for himself.
In the spring and autumn and Warring States period, all the princes in all countries were called "King" or "King". In the late Warring States period, Qin and Qi States once called "emperor", but the title was not the same at that time. The Qin king, who has already ruled the world, thought that the past titles were not enough to show their respect, "today's name is not more, it is not successful, passed on to the later generations". He ordered the ministers to discuss the title.
After a discussion, Wang Wan, the prime minister, Fengjie, and Tingwei Li Shi, etc., believe that the Qin king was "responsible for the army, killing the disabled and settling the world", and his achievements "have not been tasted since the ancient times, and the five emperors have not been able to do so". They quoted traditional honorific claims that "there were emperors in ancient times, emperors with land, emperors of Thailand and most expensive emperors of Thailand". They suggested that the Qin king should adopt the title of "emperor Tai". However, the first emperor was not satisfied with this. He only used one word "emperor", and added a word "emperor" under it because of the "Three Emperors and five emperors", and created the new title of "emperor" to grant himself.
Since then, "emperor" has become the title of the supreme ruler of China.
The emergence of the title of "emperor" not only reflects the simple name change, but also reflects the emergence of a new concept of notice. In ancient times, the emperor means "big". People sometimes call it "emperor" to ancestor gods and other gods. Emperor is the Supreme God that dominates all things in the imagination of ancient people. Qin Shihuang combined the words "emperor" and "emperor". First, it explained that he wanted to express his supreme position and authority, which was given by heaven, that is, "divine power". Second, he felt that he was not satisfied with being a ruler in the world, but also being a God.
It can be seen that the title of "emperor" is a product of the divine monarchy of the Qin king.
Qin Wang Zheng became the first emperor in Chinese history, claiming to be the "beginning emperor". He also stipulated that when the throne was passed on to the children after his death, the successors were named emperor II, Emperor III and even the world. The dream of the emperor of Qin Shihuang will always be inherited by his family, "endless transmission" (historical records, Qin Shihuang's original discipline).
In order to make the emperor's status sacred, Qin Shihuang took a series of measures of "respecting the emperor"
Cancel posthumous. Shi Fa, which started in the early Zhou Dynasty, was given the title of evaluation according to his life and deeds after the death of the king. But Qin Shihuang thinks that such "son talks about father, Minister discusses the monarch", is too incongruous, even meaningless. He announced that he abolished posthumous law and was not allowed to judge himself by his descendants.
The son of heaven calls himself "I". The meaning of the word "I" is the same as "I", which was generally available to everyone before, but the emperor of Qin restricted that only the emperor could call himself "I".
The emperor's order is called "system" or "imperial edict".
The name of the emperor is not allowed in the text, and it should be avoided. When there are words such as "emperor" and "Shi emperor", a new line of top case should be written.
Only the large seal which is used by the emperor and carved in jade can be called "seal".
The above regulations are aimed at highlighting the special status of the emperor, emphasizing the difference between the emperor and strengthening the mystique of the imperial power in people's mind. Qin Shihuang imagined that with these measures, his throne would be continued in his descendants for generations.
[centralization]
In order to manage the country effectively and lay the foundation for future generations, Qin Shihuang absorbed the specific experience of setting up official posts in the Warring States period and established a complete set of centralized system and political power institutions.
Taishan Fengchan
In 219 BC, Qin Shihuang led 70 civil and military ministers and scholars to Mount Tai to hold the ceremony. Fengchan is a ceremony for ancient rulers to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth. The so-called "Feng" refers to the building of Earth altar to worship heaven. The so-called "Zen" refers to land sacrifice, that is, land sacrifice on the flat land of the hill below Mount Tai. Because such activities were not held for a long time, the ministers did not know how to carry out the ceremony, so Qin Shihuang called the Confucian scholars to inquire. Scholars have different opinions. When Qin Shihuang heard that it was difficult to implement it, he repulsed the Confucians, opened up a driveway according to his own ideas, and set up a monument on the top of Mount Tai to hold a ceremony. Then he went to the nearby Liangfu mountain for a Zen ceremony.
[die in the sand dune]
In the 37th year of the first emperor (210 BC), Qin Shihuang, known as "the first emperor of all ages", died on his fifth tour to the East. Perhaps the first emperor of Qin is destined to be a controversial figure in history. His death, such as his life experience and his great talent, also caused controversy among later generations. At present, there are two completely different views in the field of historiography, one is to die of disease, the other is to die unnaturally.
Those who hold the first view hold that there are many records about the death of Emperor Qinshihuang in historical records, which can be found in the biography of Emperor Qinshihuang, biography of Lisi, biography of Mengtian and so on. In 218 BC, the first emperor of Qin Dynasty was assassinated when he was on a tour to the East, and a vice car behind him was smashed to pieces by the assassin with a heavy hammer. Later, a meteorite engraved with "the first emperor died and divided" and a "immortal" who said "this year's ZuLong died" were found. Qin Shihuang was superstitious, and these phenomena made him feel scared and uneasy. In order to eliminate the disaster and seek the elixir of immortality, the first emperor of Qin followed the advice of a diviner and prepared for his fifth tour. However, due to the tiredness of the journey, Qin Shihuang fell ill when he went to pingpingjin (now near the Shandong plain). Zhao Gao was ordered to write a letter to Fu Su, the eldest son of the first emperor of Qin, who was ordered to supervise the army in Hetao: "he was buried with Xianyang." Before the letter was sent out, the first emperor of Qin died in the sand dune Palace (now near Guangzong, Xingtai City, Hebei Province).
Some scholars believe that Qin Shihuang was ill from childhood, so his constitution was weak. He was also headstrong, and had to judge everything in person. He was extremely tired from his daily work when he read 120 kg of documents. In addition, the high temperature in July during the cruise caused him to fall ill and die on the way. As for what disease he died of, some people think he died of epilepsy. Epileptic seizures are generally divided into four periods: dizziness and stomach discomfort at first, sudden loss of consciousness, spasm of septal muscles, cyanosis, mydriasis, apnea, muscle twitch, mouth foaming, and waking up in the last dozens of minutes. According to the records of Guo Moruo, the first head of the Qin Dynasty is the wolf, and the first head of the Qin Dynasty is the wolf It is speculated that Qin Shihuang suffered from chondropathy and bronchitis when he was young, so when he grew up, his chest was like a bird of prey, and his voice was like a jackal. Later, due to heavy government affairs, he suffered from meningitis and epilepsy. Later, when Qin Shihuang crossed the Yellow River, he suffered from epilepsy and carbuncle attack, and his back skull hit the bronze ice mirror, which aggravated the condition of meningitis and made him in a coma. When the car arrived at the sand dune the next day, Zhao Gao and Li Si found that Qin Shihuang had been dead for a long time.
Those who hold the second point of view have found something suspicious from several historical books about the death of Qin Shihuang. Zhao Gao, Li Si, Hu Hai and others were the main entourage of this trip, and Shangqing Mengyi was also included in the entourage. Meng Yi is Meng Tian's brother and Fu Su's confidant. However, when Qin Shihuang was seriously ill on the way, Meng Yi was sent back to the border. Judging from the sudden personnel changes, it seems that this is Zhao Gao's stratagem. Because Meng Tian led 300000 soldiers to garrison Shangjun with his son Fusu, and sent Meng Yi away from the side of Qin Shihuang, that is to say, he removed the ears and eyes of Fusu. In addition, Zhao Gao was sentenced to death by Meng Yi, and later regained his official rank because of Qin Shihuang's pardon. Zhao Gao hated Meng Yi to the bone and vowed to destroy the Meng family. Zhao Gao sent Meng Yi away when Qin Shihuang was seriously ill, which also cleared a stumbling block for the implementation of his later strategy.
After the death of Qin Shihuang, Zhao Gao persuaded Hu hai to threaten Li Si. After some conspiracy, they pretended that Qin Shihuang issued an imperial edict, and Hu Hai succeeded to the throne. At the same time, in the name of Qin Shihuang, he accused Fusu of being unfilial for his son and Mengtian of being disloyal for his minister, and made them commit suicide. After getting the exact news of Fusu's suicide, Hu Hai, Zhao Gao and Li Si ordered the motorcade to return to Xianyang quickly day and night. In order to continue to deceive the subjects, the motorcade did not dare to take a shortcut back to Xianyang, but put on the posture of continuing to patrol and made a detour back to Xianyang. Due to the high temperature in summer, Qin Shihuang's body has rotted and smelled. In order to cover people's eyes and ears, Hu Hai and his party bought a lot of fish and put them on the car to confuse everyone. After arriving in Xianyang, Hu Hai succeeded to the throne for Qin II, Zhao Gaoren was the doctor's order, and Li Si was still the prime minister, but the power of the imperial court actually fell to Zhao Gao. After Zhao Gao succeeded in his plot, he began to poison the people around him. He set a trap and forced Lisi to die. When Lisi found out Zhao Gao's plot, he wrote against Zhao Gao. Hu Hai, the second emperor of Qin Dynasty, not only favoured Zhao Gao, but also punished Li Si and finally killed him in Xianyang. Zhao Gaosheng was appointed prime minister. Because he could enter and leave the palace, he was called "Prime Minister of China".
Zhao Gao's ultimate goal is to be an emperor, but he can't control the living Qin Shihuang. Qin Shihuang was seriously ill on his fifth tour, which is a good opportunity for him. Only after Qin Shihuang died, can he fake the imperial edict and implement his strategy step by step. Whether Qin Shihuang died of illness or was killed is not a final conclusion. If he was killed, how did Zhao Gao make Qin Shihuang die?
[summary as]
Qin Shihuang has made many achievements in the unification of China, and listed several items that have great influence as follows:
1. Unify the text, make it the foundation of a nation and extend it to the present;
2. The separation of the seal and the establishment of counties have become the standard mode of management after the unification of China, which lasted thousands of years;
3. Unify currency and measurement scale, greatly facilitate domestic exchange in business;
4. The same track and distance between vehicles and roads are built to facilitate domestic traffic;
5. Burning the historical books of the six countries objectively unified the thought and avoided the state division due to historical problems; however, it is a pity that the destroyed ancient books of all countries have caused a large part of the ancient culture faults and the ancient history of China to be broken down;
The construction of Lingqu has strengthened the control over the Pearl River Basin and made the area a territory of China forever;
⒎ to build the Great Wall, which has become the natural boundary between agricultural and nomadic peoples, and has long been the national boundary;
8. Strike Huns in the north, take back Hetao area and make the area a territory of China forever.
[historical evaluation]
He was the first emperor in China, the founder of emperor's honor, and the founder of the system of the Chinese emperor, who made China enter the era of multi-ethnic centralized monarchy. He also made China complete political unity for the first time, forming a situation of "car track, book and text", which laid the foundation for the subsequent dynasties to seek unity. But since ancient times, Qinshihuang has been a controversial figure.
[positive evaluation]
When Qin Shihuang was in power, he annexed six countries and joined the army to the north for Northern exploration. In history, the "hundred Yue places, all the places are down", "the North expands thousands of miles" and the Qin King sweeps six harmonies. According to the Warring States map, the territory has almost doubled the control of the seven Warring States. Moreover, the emperor of Qin Shihuang "set up counties" paid attention to the rule and system construction of the land after the conquest, not like other conquerors of the same time, such as the Alexandria of Macedonia, or Caesar of Rome only conquered and did not pay attention to the system construction; therefore, the unified land rule was stable, which laid the foundation for the current layout of China. Later generations thought that "the skill is greater than the Han and Wu of the Qin emperor". It means that Qin Shihuang ranked before the Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty in terms of his achievements, and had no right in history.
Since Shang Yang changed the law, Qin attached great importance to the rule of law. The first emperor inherited this tradition and highly praised Han Fei, a legalist, who once sighed that "if he travels with him, he will not hate it.". The punishment of the general for reward and punishment for his or her merits is in accordance with the law. Although Qinshihuang was autocratic and thought that "I am the world", there was a Qin Dynasty, which still ruled the country according to law. Chen Sheng and Wu Guang revolt for the same reason as "strict Qin law". The crime should be killed and must be reversed, but the law forces the people to oppose. But not as "Zhumen wine and meat stink, road has frozen dead bone" as a result of serious corruption, and the government forced the people to fight. Later Confucianism advocated the rule of man, and ruled by the monarch without law. However, the wind of people governance is still in the wind of flattering.
Qin Shihuang first established the post system and built the post road. It laid a technical foundation for the great empire's command and the county system imperial power country. "Building post roads and setting up counties" is a necessary condition for China to adopt the advanced system of county system rather than the western system of separation. In the same period, Rome could not control the occupied area effectively, but only set up a governor with great rights (the governor took over the power of military and political affairs of a land, all of them were aristocrats, and the grass-roots organizations depended on the original local organizations), which was still similar to the separation system, which was an important reason for the later division of the Roman Empire. County system is a kind of civilian system. The military and political heads are appointed by the emperor. According to the achievements of the military, they can be transferred from the top to the bottom, and can be transferred at the same level. This leads to the emergence of professional bureaucrats and professional soldiers. The professional bureaucrats and the professional soldiers can come from the civilians. The county bureaucrat system effectively guarantees the right of the civilians (cloth clothes) to participate in the political negotiations (such as Li Si, mengao, etc.) and only makes progress according to military achievements. Compared with the separation system of aristocratic politics, it is undoubtedly a great progress in history. The civil service system and military system of modern countries originated from this.
Qin Empire established by the first emperor of Qin laid the foundation for the development of China in political system in the West in the past 17000 years. The so-called "Han inherited Qin system", "since Qin Dynasty, its system has not changed", "the hundred dynasties all performed Qin political law". In the 2000 years of imperial power era, China basically followed the Qin Dynasty system in terms of political system.
