Whether Qin Shihuang is a tyrant should be judged. He died because of the second generation of the Qin Dynasty. The official classics cannot beautify Qin Shihuang, which means that they have lost the right to speak. In addition, the description of the first emperor in the "Historical Records" has left him with a cruel name for later generations. According to this, the first emperor is described as a tyrant along with Jie and Zhou. Some burned books and destroyed the culture of the pre-Qin Dynasty, while others enslaved Confucians and killed the literati of the time.
The Epang Palace was built to be extravagant, lascivious and lustful, with harsh laws and strict laws to kill people. But if you look carefully, which king in later generations has not done these things, whether it is the founding emperor or the last king. Therefore, it is said that portraying Qin Shihuang as a tyrant is out of political necessity. ?
Qin Shihuang ascended the throne at the age of thirteen, and was assisted by Lu Buwei, who took charge of the government at the age of twenty-one. During this period, he successively put down the rebellions of Lao Ai and his brother Chengjiao, and launched the prelude to the unification of the six countries. Unification at the age of forty-five The world. Becoming the first emperor in Chinese history and laying the political example and foundation for later dynasties, Qin Shi Huang died at the age of forty-nine.
The tyranny mentioned by later generations should refer to the last four years of Qin Shihuang's life. We might as well jump through time and space to imagine that a few years ago, you traveled to the past five hundred years or earlier (before the emergence of thermal weapons), you unified the entire world, what was the first thing you had to do, and Qin Shihuang faced It is such a "world" that has just been unified by him. What Qin Shihuang did was to unify everything, from politics (prefectures and counties) to culture (weights and measures), from military to law, everything must be unified. One can imagine the resistance encountered during this period. To carry it out, it must be supplemented by violence, and this is the price that must be paid. The name of tyranny remains. ?
Later generations say that the Han and Tang Dynasties were the pinnacle of China’s feudal era. The Qin and Sui dynasties both fell under tyranny, but the problem is that the greatness of the Han and Tang dynasties was based on the tyranny of the Qin and Sui dynasties. The Qin and Sui dynasties ignited themselves and illuminated others, because the Qin and Sui dynasties were subversive to the changes in the national system and must be Killing people to establish power, but the resistance encountered for this is also huge. The end result is that both sides lose, and the emerging class rises to replace everything.
Qin Shihuang overcame all obstacles and left a good foundation for Qin II. Unfortunately, Hu Hai was incompetent, which led to the death of Qin II. Another point is that after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Confucianism gained the right to speak in the country, and naturally had to deal with the non-Confucian Qin Shihuang (the Qin Dynasty was a Legalist).
Criticisms and false accusations were made to demonstrate the legitimacy and political correctness of the Han Dynasty. In fact, Qin Shihuang rarely acted arbitrarily in governing the country during his reign. The reason why the Qin Dynasty perished was that Jia Yi was right. Hegemony can conquer the world, but to defend the world, one needs to use kingly methods. As the first unified dynasty, Qin Shihuang lacked experience and reference.