History of Early China: The Life and Contributions of the First Emperor of Qin Dynasty - Term Paper Example

King Zhen-The First Emperor in Chinese History The Qin dynasty was the first feudal epoch in China, which lasted for almost two thousand years. King Zheng founded the Qin dynasty. In the year 247 BC, despite his being the ruler, his father’s officials ruled on his behalf for nine years, because it was reckoned that he was too young to exercise independent judgment and take political decisions1. King Zheng lived in that period of Chinese history in which wars were very frequent. During that time, many independent and small states were fighting wars with their neighboring countries over land. Being ambitious and daring, his first decision was to start wars with the six remaining states, namely Chu, Zhao, Yan, Wei, Chu, Han and Qi. After nine years of large scale wars, King Zheng succeeded in conquering these six states. He then made Xian yang, which was located in Shaanxi province, the capital of the Qin Empire2. By the year 221 BC, King Zheng emerged as the absolute ruler of China. In fact, this was the first time that China became one country. He declared himself as Qin Shi Huang Di or the first emperor ever, of China. King Zheng was extremely concerned about his power and control over this massive country, and was very much interested in retaining power for his family. Therefore he made some bold changes, sometimes involving a great deal of cruelty, in order to establish a country based on institutional laws and systems with centralized control emanating either directly from him or his officials, who had to be absolutely loyal and faithful to him. Some of these measures and changes are discussed below3. Qin Shi Huang Di carefully developed and implemented strict measures to establish a central government. He especially aimed to make his government function properly, while dealing with a massive population that was located within a huge territory. First of all, he strengthened the power of his royal family by passing a law that enabled his heirs to inherit his position. Therefore, his successors were to be designated as the Second Qin emperor, the Third Qin emperor, the Fourth Qin emperor and so on. In addition, he made it mandatory for the future emperors to call him Zheng, in order to recognize his power and legend even after his death. Furthermore, he introduced many court practices, which had to be strictly followed and built a system that managed the records of all dealings and that recorded all significant historical events. All these measures helped to tremendously glorify the emperor’s status, magnificence and dignity, and helped to perpetuate legends about King Zheng. These designs proved to be very effective in controlling the actions of the emperor’s servants and officials, and the manner in which they were doing what they had been ordered to do4. Moreover, a new system of merit was developed by King Zheng to replace feudal rule. Officials were appointed on the basis of their capabilities instead of hereditary. This administrative system was extended to all the juns or provinces of China. King Zheng was very concerned about his power and this centralized system proved to be very effective for retaining power and remaining as the sole ruler of the country. With centralization the entire nation had the same laws and administrative processes, which resulted in a feeling of belonging to a single unified country among the masses. Building upon this strong foundation, King Zheng implemented a series of laws that encouraged trade activities and interactions among the different population groups in the country5. King Zheng contributed greatly to the Chinese culture by implementing a common script throughout China. Previously, different scripts from different areas and provinces had prevented officials and professional from doing the same work in different places. However, with the decision to enforce the use of the Qinzhuan script across the entire country, King Zheng made the communication within China much easier and more standard. Furthermore, King Zheng ordered the provinces to utilize the same measures for weights, heights and distances. A common currency was also established, through the usage of a round copper coin with a square hole in its center. This coin was called the Banliang Coin. All these developments improved economic growth, trade and communication in China. However, King Zheng also desired to control the very thoughts of his people. Accordingly, he made his ministers to control information flow and minimize influences on his people that did not agree with his policies. Thus not only did he enforce a standardized set of laws and government functions, but also censored information all the time. This resulted in the bad reputation that he was credited with in history. Specifically, he disliked recommendations to form a decentralized political system, to such an extent that he put to death all the ministers and people who held that view, by burying them alive in mud on a mountain. He also believed that books conveyed wrong information and ordered most of the books to be destroyed in fire. In this manner King Zheng destroyed a significant portion of many Chinese traditions and the accumulated wisdom of a nation6. King Zheng’s leadership and ambition to build a great country resulted in an infrastructure that enhanced its people’s day to day well-being. The existing roads were connected to form complicated networks, while new roads and canals were also built. As transportation improved greatly, King Zheng, who was a firm believer in the afterlife, decided to build numerous magnificent palaces for himself. This was one of the reasons for the downfall of the Qin Dynasty, shortly after he died, because King Zheng forced his people to go undergo years of hard labor to build those palaces and separation from their families. A large number of people were killed during this process and the taxes were made extremely high as they had to finance his constructions. He built the Terracotta tomb in Xi’an with thousands of life sized clay soldiers, so that they would serve him after death7. King Zheng achieved significant military success. He lived and survived the period of fierce wars and he made great efforts to secure his territories and political autonomy. He ordered the enhancement of the existing defensive structures and the construction of new ones to prevent invasions by barbarians from neighboring countries. General Ming Tian was placed at the head of 300,000 soldiers and ordered to guard the borders. This was the period when the Great Wall of China was built, which stretched from Lintao to Liaodong covering about 5,000 kilometers and crossing the yellow river. However, like he had forced his people to work on his palaces, he also compelled a large number of peasants to build the wall and the majority of them died during the construction due to the terrible working conditions and the extremely demanding physical work8. Since, King Zheng treated his people so badly, the masses started to form rebellious groups against the government and several assassination attempts were made against him. King Zheng survived, and became even more anxious to attain immortality. In order to achieve this, he tried to engage magicians, saints and alchemists. He was attracted to the idea of making a magic potion that would make him live forever. He also sent one of his officials named Xu Fu, along with several servants, to search for the Penglai Mountain, which was alleged to be the home of saints who lived forever9. However, there was growing criticism from the Confucius school of thought against King Zheng because of the severe consequences that his search for immortality had on his people. With his usual brutality, King Zheng ordered a significant number of these scholars who spoke against him to be beheaded10. It was clear why there were such a discrepancy between King Zheng’s ruling philosophy and that of the Confucius school of thoughts. The latter firmly believed that there should be a father-like government, in which the king takes care of his subjects, like a father takes care of his children. However, King Zheng established a dictatorship with an extremely centralized government system and strictly executed the day to day operation on the basis of law and legality. This legalism combined with a centralized system greatly strengthened the Qin dynasty’s military power11. On the other hand, King Zheng had such a strong desire to have total control that he ordered another reform, which prohibited officials and ministers who advised against King Zheng’s orders from discussing their work and publishing their thoughts in written form12. The major infrastructure projects like the Great Wall placed a significant economic burden on the masses in the form of high taxation. Therefore, not only did peasants have to work for these projects, which provided very little financial reward and involved terrible work conditions, they were also enlisted in the army to guard the borders and fight in various battles, while their wives and children at home had to work very hard to pay the taxes. Even though severe punishments would follow if anyone disobeyed orders from the government, there were more and more violations and protests against these orders from the citizens. Thus, lack of money and continuous rebellions from the masses finally led to the end of the Qin dynasty13. King Zheng is regarded as a highly legendary figure in Chinese history. However, he is more notorious than famous because of the brutality with which he ruled the country. Confucians and other scholars who became the mainstream philosophers of China severely criticized King Zheng for his destructive obsession with immortality. However, western historians generally favored his accomplishments, especially his ambition to establish a bureaucratic political framework with a strong emphasis on centralization. The Qin Dynasty quickly ended upon his death and later dynasties upheld his philosophy14. The causative event for the collapse of the Qin Dynasty was the delayed arrival of nine hundred laborers to their work stations when they encountered heavy rain on their way to work. According to the rule, delay in reporting to work was punished with death. Considering they had no other option, these nine hundred men rebelled against the government15. Liu Bang replaced King Zheng’s son Hu Hai, who served as the second Qin emperor for only four years. Liu Ban founded another dynasty, namely the Han dynasty and expanded China’s land significantly, including the invasion of Korea. He was successful in preventing the Xiongnu people from coming into China16. In conclusion, King Zheng had always been a controversial figure in Chinese history. His contribution to Chinese civilization was as obvious as the disasters that he imposed upon his people. On one hand, he united China and standardized many common issues among the different provinces, and some examples are currency and weights and measures. He also valued people more on their merits instead of their family background and seniority in service. However, he disregarded the lives of his people, and destroyed thousands of lives due to his obsession with immortality and the construction of grand palaces. His laws were too cruel to obey and he punished anyone who did not agree with him, by imposing very severe punishments. People were put to death for even the smallest of inappropriate acts. The masses were fed up with his ruthlessness and were on the verge of rebellion, consequently, his son was ultimately deposed from the throne17. Bibliography 1. China: early imperial history 221 BC-AD 1279. In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia including Atlas. 2005. 19 October 2007 . 2. Dillon, Michael. China: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary. London: Routledge Curzon. ISBN: 0700704396, 1998. 3. Han dynasty. In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia including Atlas. 2005. 19 October 2007 . 4. Hsu, Cho – yun. Qin Dynasty. In Microsoft Encarta. Microsoft® Student 2008 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2007. 5. Luo, JIng. Over A Cup Of Tea: An Introduction To Chinese Life And Culture. University Press of America. ISBN: 0761829377, 2004. 6. Qin or Ch'in; (221 - 206 BC). In The Macmillan Encyclopedia. 2003. 18 October 2007 < http://www.credoreference.com/entry/3309046 >. 7. Shi Huangdi (Qin Shi Huangdi). In Andromeda Encyclopedic Dictionary of World History. 2001. 18 October 2007 . 8. Shi Huangdi(or Shih Huang Ti) (c. 259 - c. 210 BC). In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia including Atlas. 2005. 19 October 2007 . 9. Shihuangdi, or Shih Huang-ti orig. Zhao Zheng. In Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. 2006. 19 October 2007 . 10. Turnbull, Stephen R. The Great Wall of China 221 BC – AD 1644. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN: 1846030048, 2007. 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