I saw an interesting hypothesis on the Internet - if Qin Shi Huang did not die, Xiang Yu could still dominate the world, and Liu Bang could establish the Han Dynasty.
Many people say that if Qin Shi Huang dies a few years later, he will die in one lifetime, leaving a laughing stock in vain, I think it is impossible. The first emperor FenVI ruled the world, and his prestige and ability were beyond doubt. Even if later generations evaluate him as a tyrant, abuse of people's power, and make great achievements, it has to be said that Qin Shi Huang's reign is definitely outstanding among hundreds of emperors in China for more than two thousand years. Qin Emperor Han Wu, Tang Emperor Song Zu, he ranked first, not only because he was the first emperor in the true sense, but also because he did have many extraordinary features.
Throughout history, the Qin Dynasty was the most important era in the development of Chinese civilization. However, due to the short-lived appearance of the Qin Empire and the prejudice of later generations of Confucianism, the Qin Empire seems to have become synonymous with "tyranny and harsh government". Even a great historical figure like Qin Shi Huang, under the wanton debasement of history, has become a tyrant that everyone spurns. After Qin Shi Huang's death, his descendants were either killed or incognito, unable to justify him and dress up. And the Han Dynasty, established on the ruins of the Qin Dynasty, out of the needs of realpolitik, disparaged Qin Shi Huang as much as possible in the history books recorded for the Qin Dynasty, which is conceivable. For example, the historical Qin Shi Huang's book burning pit Confucianism is nothing more than a cultural movement to unify ideas so that the whole country can form common values, what is the difference between it and the Han Dynasty's deposition of Confucianism? If we talk about pit Confucianism, then where did the more than thirty doctors and Confucians who appeared at the court at the same time at the time of Qin II come from? A careful study of the historical materials reveals that most of the people he killed were mainly warlocks who deceived him, and a small number of Confucians who strongly opposed his strategy of governing the country.
For example, historical evaluations of Qin Shi Huang always said that he was a tyrant, but he also had many benevolent aspects that later emperors did not have. He never killed meritorious figures, nor did he indiscriminately kill the elders of the former nobles of the Six Kingdoms, and he built water conservancy to encourage farming and production. Qin Shi Huang's military conquest of the Six Kingdoms inevitably killed and wounded enemy troops on the battlefield, and even sometimes slaughtered prisoners of war, including the 400,000 in the Battle of Changping. But he never slaughtered the city and killed innocent civilians, even in the "Book of Han", "Shiji" and other books, there is no record of Qin Shi Huang slaughtering the city. On the contrary, among the anti-Qin rebel army holding high the banner of the division of benevolence and righteousness, not only Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, slaughtered the city many times - Tu Xiangcheng, Tu Dingtao, Tu Xianyang, and even Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Great Han Dynasty, also had a record of slaughtering the city, and it was recorded in the history book - "Shiji Gaozu Benji", (Xiang) Liang Lingyu and Pei Gong attacked the city of Yang and slaughtered it.
The past is like the wind, and the old traces are mottled. When we recall the footsteps of Qin Shi Huang, we must not only see the tyranny of King Qin, book burning and confucianism, but also his historical achievements that can never be erased in the long river of history.
So, let's open the table of Qin Shi Huang's achievements: First, he ended the centuries-old war and turmoil pattern of the Spring and Autumn Warring States, swept away the six countries, and unified the sea, which conforms to the general law of development that history must be united for a long time. Second, he created the imperial system, abolished the division of seals, changed the name to counties, appointed three dukes and nine secretaries to manage state affairs, strengthened central rule, pushed China into the era of great unification, and opened up a new situation for the establishment of an authoritarian centralized system. Third, books are on the same page and cars are on the same track, and the unified text, currency, and weights and measures are conducive to socio-economic and cultural development. Fourth, build a road, build the Great Wall, sweep away troubles, open up the territory, attack the Xiongnu in the north, conquer a hundred yue in the south, develop northern Xinjiang, and open up the southwest. It was in the era of Qin Shi Huang that the territorial map of China's unified multi-ethnic country was laid, the cultural foundation of great unification was laid, and the basic pattern of China's political system for more than 2,000 years was laid. Qin Shi Huang was a great hero born in the era of heroes of the princes' conquests, and his heroic talents and great achievements had a profound impact on Chinese and world history, worthy of being a politician, strategist, reformer, and was praised as "the first emperor of the ages" by the Ming Dynasty thinker Li Xian.
After analyzing the historical achievements made by Qin Shi Huang, let's analyze his own character characteristics. Jin Wuzu is not perfect, and Qin Shi Huang naturally has shortcomings, such as good joy, such as suspicious nature, such as advocating violence. But as a ruler of a country, Qin Shi Huang's advantages clearly outweigh his shortcomings. In stark contrast to his successor, Hu Hai, the second Qin dynasty, the first personal merit of the first emperor was very diligent, and the history books say that he "sentenced (handled) prisons (cases) during the day and handled the book at night". According to records, the various recitals he had to review every day weighed more than 130 pounds, and he stipulated that he must complete this amount every day. After unifying the world, he worked tirelessly, toured the east many times, traveled thousands of miles, and went directly to the scene to inspect the governance of various counties and counties. He also particularly liked to read Shang Martin's "Book of Shang Jun" and Han Fei's writings, even when he went out on patrol. On the other hand, the second Hu Hai, after plotting to seize the imperial throne that should have belonged to his brother Fusu, ignored the imperial government at all, and stayed in the harem every day to enjoy. The man-made rebellion of the world is about to hit Xianyang, and he doesn't even know it.
The second advantage of the first emperor is that he attaches great importance to talent construction. He recruits talents, knows people well, and is good at finding talents and reusing talents. Qin Shi Huang gathered the world's first-class military, political, diplomatic and other talents at that time, such as Wang Yi, Wang Bian, Meng Tian, Li Si, Wei Yi, Yao Jia and so on. At the beginning of the conquest of the Six Eastern Kingdoms, in order to obtain Wei Yi, a famous strategist and general in the Wei state at the time, Qin Shi Huang tried all means, including sending Li Si to Wei to persuade, and finally persuaded Wei Yi to join Qin and become one of his main advisers in the crusade against the Six Kingdoms. Someone passed on the book of Han Fei, a Korean prince who was rich in imperial power schemes, to the Qin state, and when Qin Shi Huang saw Han Fei's "Lonely Anger" and "Five Beetles", he not only praised: "Huh! The widow must see this person, swim with him, and die without hatred (regret)!" In order to obtain Han Fei, he did not hesitate to attack Korea, which finally forced King Han to send Han Fei to Qin. In the battle to conquer the state of Chu, Qin Shi Huang went to visit three times in order to invite the general Wang Chui, who was ill at home, to come out of the mountain, and finally impressed Wang Chong to agree to be the commander of Chu. Qin Shi Huang used talents in an eclectic manner, and gathered a large number of "guest secretaries" with professional talents, and these reused "guest secretaries" were roughly counted as follows: Prime Minister Li Si (from the State of Chu), Zhao Gao (from the State of Zhao), military expert Wei Yi (from the State of Wei), General Zhao Tuo (from the State of Zhao), Shangqing Ganluo (grandson of the Qin general Gan Mao, Gan Mao from the State of Qi), general Meng Wu and his son General Meng Tian, Meng Yi brothers (Meng Wu is the son of the old Qin general Meng Qi, Meng Wei is from the State of Qi), and water conservancy expert Zheng Guo (from South Korea) , Imperial power theorist Han Fei (from South Korea), Hakking Mao Jiao (from the State of Qi), musician Gao Wanli (from the State of Yan), Dr. Chun Yuyue (from the State of Qi), Fang Shi Xu Fu (from the State of Qi), Lu Sheng, Hou Sheng (from the State of Yan)... It's really talented.
In the hands of the second Huhai, he not only had no humanity, he killed all thirty-three of his brothers and sisters in one go, but also mutilated the ministers for no reason. Prime Minister Li Si was killed, Right Prime Minister Feng Quqian and General Feng Yu committed suicide, General Meng Tian took poison, and Meng Yi was killed. Under the shadow of the sword and sword, in the bloody rain, the conspirators inside and outside the imperial court were almost killed, and Zhao Gao, the only person around Hu Hai who had transformed from a legal expert into a conspirator, was accused by him of playing with deer for horses, and finally was forced to kill himself by Zhao Gao's people. The last ruler of the Qin Dynasty, the son who succeeded him, did not even dare to claim to be the third emperor of Qin, and after only 46 days of reign, he led the city to surrender to Liu Bang, declaring the end of the Qin Dynasty. It is a pity that Qin Shi Huang, who swallowed the world by Liuhe, just three years after his death, the Great Qin Empire collapsed and ceased to exist.
At this point, we can say that the demise of the Qin Dynasty, this account cannot all be counted on the head of Qin Shi Huang. The real reason for the demise of the Qin Dynasty was not the tyranny of Qin Shi Huang, although Qin Shi Huang had rough places, his purpose was to benefit the country and the people. What really brought the Qin Dynasty to death was the selfish stupidity and brutal rule of Hu Hai of Qin II.
When Qin Shi Huang toured the east, although there were early signs of rebellion and some assassinations of the emperor himself, the inscription curser wrote only "the first emperor died and the earth was divided." If the first emperor does not die, it will be difficult for the world to be truly shaken, and his two advantages of diligence and good use of talents are enough to ensure the survival of the empire without too many mistakes. The power of such an iron-fisted political strongman as the First Emperor lies in the fact that even if he makes serious mistakes, the ruling group can basically maintain stability, and the ruling foundation will not be greatly shaken, so it is impossible for the world's man-made rebellion to have a chance to succeed. Emperor Wudi of Han is another example of later generations, if Emperor Wudi of Han lived for a few years and died suddenly like Qin Shi Huang, and did not have time to adjust national policy and properly arrange the aftermath, the Western Han may also die early. However, Emperor Wudi of Han was obviously much better luck than Qin Shi Huang, and when the country was facing collapse, he promptly issued the Luntai Edict, adjusted the national policy of using military force, and established his son Liu Fuling and killed his mother Lady Hookyi, ensuring the continuity of the dynasty. The successor Liu Fuling, the Han Zhao Emperor, under the auxiliary government of Huo Guang, Jin Riwen, Sang Hongyang and other auxiliary governments, followed the policy of Emperor Wu in the later period, strengthened the northern defense while focusing on resting with the people, and the decline trend of the Western Han Dynasty was reversed, and the national strength was restored, which opened the prelude to Zhaoxuan Zhongxing. Returning to Qin Shi Huang's side, if he had not died suddenly, but had successfully succeeded the son Fusu, who was known as a virtuous man, both resolute and courageous, and lenient and politically far-sighted, he would not dare to say what great brilliance he had created, but what was guaranteed was that the rule of the Qin Dynasty would have changed from severe to benevolent, the war would have stopped, the people would have lived and worked in peace, there would have been no turmoil in the imperial court, and the Qin Dynasty would have continued to rule for decades or even centuries.
Having said this, my point of view is clear, the reason why Liu Bang Xiang Yu was able to achieve the great cause recorded in the history books was only because Qin Shi Huang died early and Qin II was incompetent. If Qin Shi Huang had reigned, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang would not have become a big climate at all, leading hundreds of civilians with wooden sticks to rebel, and they would easily be leveled. Even Xiang Yu, who is a descendant of the nobles of the Six Kingdoms, only dares to be envious and jealous when he sees Qin Shihuang's convoy in the vast flow of people, and secretly says gambling words such as "I want to replace him" in private, and then continues to practice his sword lifting and his ding to exercise his muscular physique, at most dominate the streets and alleys and be an underworld big brother. And Liu Bang's kind of little hooligan who wandered the rural city, even Peixian was difficult to make a name, I am afraid that the idea of rebellion did not wait for a clear appearance, just after drunkenly said a few drunken words that were not convinced and resentful, he was arrested and killed.
Out of respect for Qin Shi Huang, at the end of the article, borrowing flowers to offer Buddha, I will quote a poem by Wen You. As for myself, at this moment, I really can't write a more suitable poem.
The bright moon does not change the frost of the year, and the blood of ancient times is not cold.
The Great Wall is still there, and the ancestral soul has transformed rivers and rivers.
The northern Fumo River is cold, and the south is swollen by the sea.
Because it became a Chinese summer, he made an article with the first emperor.