In the history of the continent for the next five thousand years, in the long river of brilliant history, every king is a symbol of an era.
Some of them are virtuous, some are tyrannical, some are exalted from the altar, and some are scorned by commentators of every era.
Qin Shi Huang won the government, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, many people mentioned him, that is, he was tyrannical and cruel, but is this really the case?
If you have a wise eye that can read a large number of ancient documents, it is not difficult to find that in the yellowed pages that smell of historical seals, perhaps Qin Shi Huang has really been misunderstood.
Identity is doubtful, helpless move
In many historical stories, Qin Shi Huang is believed to have been Lü Buwei's child, because his mother was closely related to Lü Buwei in his early years, and Qin Shi Huang's reign may not have been purely a princely and aristocratic bloodline.
Therefore, in the eyes of many people, the existence of Qin Shi Huang is a desecration of the blood of the Qin royal family, so this article alone, in the ancient times of strict class, many old nobles did not very agree with Qin Shi Huang's rule.
They believe that Qin Shi Huang was not of the blood of the Huan clan, but the son of Prime Minister Lü Buwei.
In his early years, Lü Buwei was a merchant, and in that era, he pursued the class system of farmers, peasants, industry and commerce, and many people looked down on Yingzheng in their hearts, thinking that he was the son of a lowest-ranking merchant, which also laid the groundwork for many people to smear him later.
But is it too one-sided to judge Qin Shi Huang solely on the basis of his origins, ignoring his character and contribution to historical development? And Qin Shi Huang's life is likely to be just an excuse used to attack him, and the wise thing is that at this point, it is indeed impossible to say with a mouth, and successfully planted nails in everyone's hearts.
In that year, after ending his life as a hostage in the state of Zhao, he returned to the state of Qin and was made crown prince of the state of Qin, and later the king of Qin.
Qin Shi Huang's mother, Empress Dowager Zhao Ji, was confused with her concubines, and spent all day entertaining in the Great Political Palace, and even secretly had two sons with her, smearing the ancestors of the Qin state.
Zhao Yi also tried to assassinate Qin Shi Huang Huan Zheng and let his two sons ascend the throne, and his mother Zhao Ji did not make a clear response, and even acquiesced to Qiu Yi killing Huan Zheng, which really made Huan Zheng cold.
Later, Ying Zheng put down the rebellion, imprisoned his mother in a fiefdom, and decided to never see Zhao Ji again in this life.
Many people feel that he is impersonal and should not treat his mother like this, but it cannot be ignored that he is the king of the Qin State, and behind him is the century-old inheritance laid by the ancestors of the Qin State with their own blood and sweat.
If he really stole the country by the son of fornication, after a hundred years, what face would he have to face the questioning of the ancestors of the Qin Kingdom?
What's more, in many dynasties, if something like Zhao Ji happens, the end is not only imprisonment, Zhao Ji may not even be able to save his life, which shows that King Huanzheng of Qin finally let his mother go.
Many rumors, to be discussed
In addition to being hacked in his background, the most commonly criticized thing about Ying Zheng is cruelty and unkindness, and he treats human life like grass.
For example, Meng Jiangnu crying on the Great Wall, one of the four most touching love stories of the people, describes a general named Qiliang in "Zuo Chuan", who is a general of the State of Qi.
In the battle with Ju, Qi Liang died in battle, and his wife wept for him on the side of the road, which actually had nothing to do with Qin Shi Huang.
In the Western Han Dynasty, in the book "Warring States Policy" compiled by Liu Xiang, he added the plot of the crying city, saying that Qiliang's wife even cried down the Great Wall to allude to the tyranny of Qin Shi Huang, resulting in a poor life for the people.
In the Tang Dynasty, when literati and ink tourists were endless, the poet Guan Xiu had a poem called "Qiliang Wife", which set the background of this story for the first time for Qin Shi Huang to build the Great Wall.
This practice is taken out of context, and another book called "Tongxian Ji" gave Qiliang's wife Meng Jiangnu the name.
Later, this story evolved into the story of Meng Jiangnu crying on the Great Wall that has been passed down through the ages, and the process of compiling this story is very tortuous, spanning three dynasties, the Spring and Autumn, the Western Han Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty, so many ancient literary heroes actually created a story to belittle Qin Shi Huang.
Because folk tales are easy to spread, Qin Shi Huang was burdened with a thousand years of insensitive and tyrannical evaluation, in fact, not to mention that the war of the State of Qi had nothing to do with the State of Qin, and even the creation time span between the Great Wall of the State of Qi and the Great Wall of the State of Qin was about two hundred years, why did Meng Jiangnu cry down the Great Wall of the State of Qin?
Moreover, according to the history book Danqing, Qin Shi Huang built the Great Wall to pay salaries, and the daily salary for the construction of the Great Wall was eight yuan, and if the government needed to provide food, the daily salary was about six yuan.
According to the material calculation of the Qin Dynasty, three coins can buy 12.5 kilograms of rice, so their daily salary is converted, and they can even buy 33 kilograms of rice, if according to the salary, it can be regarded as a high welfare work. In other words, the cruelty and ruthlessness evaluated by Qin Shi Huang by later generations are actually not so reliable.
Nailing Qin Shi Huang's government to the pillar of historical shame is also the famous book burning pit Confucianism.
Many dynasties used the mainstream development ideology of controlling society as their means of rule, some dynasties relied on Confucian classics, some dynasties were committed to promoting Legalism, and some even admired Mojia masterpieces, which was a common means for many emperors.
For example, Emperor Wudi of Han deposed Confucianism, and the Tang Dynasty devoted itself to Taoism and Buddhism, which shows that this act was not done by Yingzheng alone, but a spiritually oriented operation.
Moreover, the so-called burning of books by Qin Shi Huang did not actually burn books on medicine and agriculture, and even many Confucian classics were retained in the Qin Palace by Qin Shi Huang in order to survive, so the burning of books is up for discussion.
The so-called pit Confucianism is even more distorted by history, and the source here is actually that Qin Shi Huang disposed of more than 400 charlatans who lived in the rivers and lakes every day, shaking their lips and demagogizing people.
These warlocks boasted that they could make Qin Shi Huang immortal, asked Qin Shi Huang for a large amount of gold and silver jewelry and virgin boys and girls, went to find a panacea, and even threatened to leave Qin Shi Huang at his disposal if he could not find such a medicine.
Later, after these charlatans squandered the gold and silver jewelry rewarded by Qin Shi Huang, they knew that they would definitely die, so they wantonly smeared the government among the people and tried to excuse themselves, so Qin Shi Huang buried them alive in the Qin state.
But in later generations, Qin Shi Huang became a crazy person who killed more than a thousand Confucian children, which is really embarrassing.
At the same time, there is also the famous Chen Sheng Wuguang Uprising in people's hearts in history, Chen Sheng Wuguang because of the oppression of the uprising, first described in the Sleeping Tiger Di Qinjian unearthed in Yunmeng, Hubei Province, on which the rules of obedience to conscription in the Qin Dynasty are clearly described.
Roughly translated as verbal criticism if one is three to five days late for obedience, and ten days is punished with money for one shield.
If you are ten days or more late, you may be fined money for a set of armor, and you can be exempted from conscription in case of force majeure such as bad weather or rain.
However, in the article of Chen Sheng Wuguang's uprising, it may be precisely to erase this point, saying that due to the delay of the trip due to heavy rain, so it may lead to the loss of life, so Chen Sheng Wuguang then shouted the slogan "Destroy the Dao, Blame Qin".
It can be seen that the laws of the Qin Dynasty may not be as brutal as those criticized by the literati in history, and even according to many ancient books, from the side, the laws of the Qing Dynasty can even be regarded as more reasonable.
For example, in the spring of February, it is forbidden to cut down trees in the forest, or if you are less than one meter thirty-eight meters tall, you can be exempted from punishment, and these various laws may be reasonable to show the laws and regulations of the Qin Dynasty.
The above arguments all overturn the argument that Qin Shi Huang is tyrannical and Qin Law is cruel and unreasonable, so why are there so many unbearable evaluations about Qin Shi Huang? Why was a generation of emperors called tyrants and lasted for thousands of years?
Part of the reason is because the old nobles, most of them came from Zhao Weichu and other countries, they all had their own countries in the early stage, but Qin Shi Huang ruled the world, they were not really subordinate to the rule of the government, in a certain aspect, they always held a grudge against the government, originally a majestic king of a country, but to subordinate to others, how could they be willing.
And with the death of Qin II later, the Western Han Dynasty was established, Liu Bang was the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty, and Liu Bang was a rural villager at the beginning of his youth, and he went through many hardships to establish the Great Han Dynasty.
If people's minds are not controlled, then how can his throne be as stable as Mount Tarzan? So naturally we have to owe more to ourselves.
He declared that Qin Shi Huang was tyrannical, the politics and laws of the Qin State were harsh, and he was the savior who rescued the people from the bottom from fire and water.
In this way, people can submit to his rule, and the general history of history is written by successful people, so Liu Bang's judgment about Qin Shi Huang and the Qin Dynasty may be unfair, may be with personal feelings, and erase many of Qin Shi Huang's achievements.
Therefore, since then, the image of Qin Shi Huang has undergone a huge turn.
Ten thousand merits, one emperor through the ages
In fact, before Qin Shi Huang, countries have been in a state of division, Qin Shi Huang unified weights and measures and writing, and created a precedent for books and literary vehicles to be on the same track, promoting the development of history, and keeping all ethnic groups away from being divided.
During his reign, he knew that transportation was the bloodline of the country's development, so he founded Zheng Guoqu, the Qin state was originally in Shaanxi, and the grain industry was not very developed in ancient times due to climate problems.
After the Zheng Guoqu, the large-scale development of grain crops, waterway transportation and other industries in the Qin State achieved the economic development of the Qin State in a short period of time and accelerated the speed of Qin Shi Huang's unification of the six countries.
Even later, after Qin Shi Huang destroyed the Six Kingdoms, although he could enjoy the world in peace, he chose to start building the Great Wall, just to end the border pass campaign and other tribal harassment, and create a stable and peaceful living environment for his people.
This merit has played a role even for thousands of years, resisting the Xiongnu's invasion of our Chinese nation countless times, and even the Great Wall built in the Qin Dynasty was used until the Qing Dynasty, which is a merit that benefits all the people and benefits future generations.
Qin Shi Huang had a bumpy and difficult childhood, became an emperor at a young age, worked hard all his life to achieve enviable achievements, did not indulge in pleasure and drinking for a long time like other emperors, and in the long river of history, it is undeniable that he is a legendary emperor.
Perhaps he did have flaws, but people should not deny his legend and merits, such an emperor deserves to be named.