Title: The Forgotten Empress: Exploring why Qin Shi Huang's empress is unknown
Qin Shi Huang is a profound and influential emperor in Chinese history, who unified the six kingdoms and established the Qin Dynasty, and his deeds are widely known. However, the queens who stood side by side with Qin Shi Huang were relatively obscure, and few people knew their names and deeds. This article will attempt to unravel the mystery of this history, explore why Qin Shi Huang's empress is unknown, and the influence of historical records and social context on this.
First of all, the era of Qin Shi Huang was in a feudal society, and Confucianism prevailed. In this context, historical accounts focus more on men's political activities and less on women. During the reign of Qin Shi Huang, although a centralized system was established, this did not change the traditional view of women's marginalization in politics. Therefore, there are relatively few records of queens in the history books, and more passively become supporting roles in the historical process.
Secondly, Qin Shi Huang's unification war can be described as long and brutal, and he had many marriages along the way. This made his harem numerous, and the queens who ascended to the throne continued to change. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to record the names and deeds of each empress in detail in historical records, resulting in little understanding of the many empresses of Qin Shi Huang in later generations.
Third, Qin Shi Huang's restructuring and book-burning behavior had a huge impact on later historical records. His emphasis on Legalism and his rejection of Confucianism led to the fact that most of the later historical documents were written by Legalist scholars. Under the guidance of this ideology, the record of Qin Shi Huang's deeds is more biased towards merit and political achievements, and relatively little attention is paid to the empress. This also became one of the reasons why the empresses of Qin Shi Huang were ignored in later historical records.
In addition, after the fall of the Qin Dynasty, the historical record underwent a series of changes. With the rise of new dynasties, the mainstream of historical records also shifted, and most of the documents of the Qin Shi Huang period were destroyed. This made it more difficult to understand the life and personal deeds of Qin Shi Huang's palace, and their names gradually faded out of the stage of history.
In modern times, scholars have gradually restored some historical scenes from the Qin Shi Huang period through the study of historical books and archaeological discoveries in the tombs of Qin Shi Huang. However, due to the situation, cultural background, and the one-sidedness of the historical record, the empresses of Qin Shi Huang are still forgotten by history. Their lives may have been glorious, but they have been drowned in the long river of time because of the changes of the times and the choices of history.
In general, the reason why Qin Shi Huang's empress is unknown is the result of multiple factors such as the limitation of feudal social concepts for women, the one-sidedness of historical records, the change of dynasties and cultural changes. We may never be able to restore the true face of these women who have been unknown in the long course of history, but through reflection on history, we can better understand and recognize the complexity and diversity of ancient societies.