Public opinion has always been a great force, whether it is for individuals or countries.
In ancient China, public opinion also took many forms:
For example, rumors, rumors, disasters, folk beliefs, and so on.
Especially when the science was not yet fully covered, the Qin people could easily believe the theory of ghosts and gods.
In the face of these public opinions, the attitude of the Qin Dynasty was absolutely impossible to let it go.
After all, from the Shang martingale transformation method began to lay the tone of the Qin Dynasty.
Although the Qin Dynasty had strong political and military strength, the Six Dynasties also had a lot of criticism of the Qin State.
The most impressive evaluation of Qin by the Six Dynasties is the "Land of Tigers and Wolves".
In "Chu Ce", Su Qin said to the King of Chu Wei, "Fu Qin, the country of tigers and wolves, has the heart to swallow the world."
It can be seen from here that the Six Dynasties' attack on the Qin State at that time was mainly to expose the ambitions of the Qin Dynasty.
That is to say, your Qin Dynasty is a war machine, you only have greedy and unrighteous subjects, and you have no pursuit of morality and liturgy.
And the State of Qin itself is in a frontier land, and the civilization it has been civilized relatively late, and culture is indeed its weakness.
Although this influence of public opinion did not prevent the Qin Dynasty from unifying the world, in the hearts of the Six Kingdoms, the impression of the Qin Dynasty would certainly not be good.
At that time, Lu Zhonglian, a Qi man, even said that he would rather go to the East China Sea and jump into the sea and die than go to the Qin State to serve the people.
Therefore, after Qin Shi Huang unified the world, he began to fight back against this public opinion voice.
Public opinion "guidance" method
First of all, he made a list of crimes against these six countries.
"The king of the other day and The Han Dynasty, Nadi Xixi, asked for the sake of the vassals and made a covenant with Zhao Wei to join forces with the qin dynasty to capture his king. The few people think that they are good, and they have a few military revolutions. King Zhao made a covenant with Li Mu, so he gave it to his proton. ...... The King of Yan was in a coma, and his crown prince Dan Naiyin made Jing Ke a thief, and the soldiers were cursed to destroy his kingdom. The king of Qi used the rear victory plan, the qin envoy, the desire to be chaotic, the soldiers and officials, the king, and the land of Qi. The widow with the body of a squat, the revival of the army and the riot, the spirit of the Laizong Temple, the six kings of Xian Qigu, the world is determined"
What does this passage mean?
In general, it is not that my Qin kingdom is belligerent, but that I have an agreement with each of your countries, but you do not abide by it!
It was you who first betrayed your faith and agreed to come together to get me, so of course I did not agree, and I could only fight back.
Qin Shi Huang portrayed himself as a savior who quelled the riots.
It is these six kingdoms that brutalize the people, are tyrannical, and capricious, and I, Qin Shi Huang, are the ones who rescue the people of these six countries.
Or resist you with My "Body of a Fool." So you see, how innocent I am!
After Qin got the right to propagate, he directly returned all the hats that the six countries had previously put on the Qin state.
Moreover, in order to enhance the public's sense of identification with the Qin Dynasty, he also used various ways to publicize these remarks.
For example, when he was cruising, he often asked to carve the merits on the stone.
Because the inscription on the stone has not changed for a long time, Qin Shi Huang believes that this method can make the world always remember the correctness of the Qin Dynasty's unification of the six kingdoms.
In addition, he also adopted the mysterious religious ritual of Taishan Sealing Zen in an attempt to hypnotize the people and convince them of the authority of imperial power.
Public opinion "manufacturing" law
In addition to guiding the direction of public opinion by counterattacking the Six Kingdoms, the Qin Dynasty also adopted a deeper approach to creating public opinion.
To control the minds of the people in a short period of time, it is necessary to establish a complete logical system of rule for the people in order to convince people.
So Qin Shi Huang began to build his imperial authority through legal thought.
First of all, he changed his title to "Emperor", saying that he was "the third emperor of virtue and the five emperors".
It also implemented a series of language systems in which the emperor's order was "system" and the order was "edict", and the emperor called himself "朕".
Completely separate yourself from the people and the previous monarchs, showing your uniqueness and authority.
So Qin Shi Huang successfully instilled this concept of the supremacy of imperial power into the minds of the people.
And the more concise and direct this rule is, the more deeply rooted it is.
Because there is no argument, it seems that the authority of the emperor is more mysterious and leads to the blind worship of the people.
Moreover, the implementation of this system has also made the concept of the supremacy of imperial power more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
It even becomes a kind of truth.
Therefore, public opinion naturally recognized the status of Qin Shi Huang.
In addition to strengthening imperial power, the method of directly controlling public opinion through education is more direct and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Because the education a person receives from an early age can affect the way he thinks throughout his life.
Therefore, after Qin Shi Huang took office, under the suggestion of Li Si, he began to implement the education system of "taking officials as teachers".
They want to crack down on private schooling and bring the education of all under the rule of the state.
Let the national government monopolize and unify this idea, and do not let it run rampant.
This kind of thinking is the consistent spirit of the Dharma.
From the beginning of the Shang martingale, it was believed that the people should be foolish to rule conveniently, and as long as the threshold of the law was set, they would not cross it.
Use the law to teach the people what can and cannot be done.
The people just need to obey, they don't need to think too much.
This is an attempt by the ruler to deprive individuals of the ability to think and suppress the occurrence of public opinion from the source.
"Forceful suppression" of public opinion law
Although there are such methods of guiding and creating public opinion, the emergence of social public opinion is not only related to these two factors.
The social unrest at that time could also make the people spontaneously generate public opinion.
In these periods of alternation between the old and new systems, social contradictions also broke out frequently.
As a result, public opinion also grows like a weed.
In particular, some of the scholarly classes that were quite famous in the Six Kingdoms at that time had a hard time accepting new ideas under the impact of the system.
When neither of the first two methods worked, the Qin Dynasty began a more brutal control of public opinion.
In the early days of the Qin Dynasty's rule, it continued the customs of the Warring States period, and raised a large number of Confucian and other scholars to advise the emperor.
However, in the face of social unrest, these scholars tried to use their cultural influence to manipulate public opinion and get the opportunity to compete with the imperial power.
This made the rulers very dissatisfied, so the notorious "book burning pit Confucianism" in history also came from it.
Beginning with the "Zhou Chun Controversy", Chun Yuyue accused Zhou Qingchen of flattery at the banquet of Qin Shi Huang, believing that the county system was not good.
However, the county system was the system that best reflected imperial power at that time.
As a result, the Confucians, represented by Chun Yuyue, were strongly criticized by the Dharma and accused of confusing and chaotic.
Thus an act of destroying the transmission channels of Confucian thought arose.
Public opinion control failed, and the Qin Dynasty faced the fate of extinction
Qin Shi Huang used such a method to directly eliminate the voices of opponents.
These Confucians, as a group that creates public opinion, are directly "pit killed"
Although the regime was unstable at that time, different public opinion voices could easily cause confusion of thought, especially the rumors deliberately spread by some hostile elements could easily destroy a country.
However, if all different opinions are classified in the field of reaction, it is easy to cause popular dissatisfaction.
In particular, the harsh laws of the Qin Dynasty made people who dared to tell the truth shut their mouths.
We can see that as early as the Qin Dynasty, people have already realized the importance of public opinion. And began to consciously control public opinion. Qin Shi Huang also adopted a variety of ways to control public opinion, trying to consolidate his rule by indoctrinating his thoughts, and immersing the whole society in the thoughts of the rulers.
However, this policy of public opinion control did not achieve very good results, and dictatorship and violence triggered various peasant uprisings at the end of the Qin Dynasty.
The public opinion of the dead Qin rose and fell at the end of the Qin Dynasty, and it could not be suppressed, so they converged into a torrent, completely engulfing the Qin Dynasty.