preface
As the first emperor in the history of the mainland, Qin Shi Huang's achievements are undoubted, but for thousands of years, people have often called Qin Shi Huang a tyrant, one of the reasons is that the excessive forced labor during the Qin Shi Huang period caused the people to be severely oppressed, and finally rose up.
A considerable number of projects were built during the reign of Qin Shi Huang, and many of them were rare "super projects" in the world at that time, and six of them are still world-famous.
Of these six items, four are still clearly visible even after more than 2,000 years, and the remaining two are now archaeological remnants of the time that people can see.
1. Zheng Guoqu
As Qin Shihuang's ambition to destroy the Six Kingdoms became more and more obvious, Korea, which was the weakest among the Six Kingdoms in terms of land area and strength of the Qin State, was very afraid, so the King of Han wanted to consume the national strength of the Qin State, drag down the pace of the Qin State to the east, and let a person named Zheng Guo go to the Qin State to suggest that Qin Shihuang build a canal between Jingshui and Luoshui.
After Zheng Guo met Qin Shi Huang, he claimed that this canal was to make Qin State stronger, so Qin Shi Huang did not suspect that he had other purposes at the beginning, and directly approved it.
But when Zheng Guo's identity as a spy was discovered, he was arrested and prepared to stop the project, but Zheng Guo defended Qin Shi Huang instead: "Although this canal consumes national strength in a short time, it will be beneficial and harmless in the long run!" ”
Qin Shi Huang felt that he had a point, so he asked Zheng Guo to continue to preside over the construction of the canal, and named it "Zheng Guo Qu", which really greatly increased the agricultural output of Qin State, and eventually accelerated the demise of Korea.
Second, the spirit canal
After unifying the Six Kingdoms, Qin Shi Huang was not satisfied with the overall size of the country, but decided to continue to expand his territory, and he set his sights further south, that is, the Baiyue region, which was considered a wild land at the time.
At that time, Baiyue was a symbol of barbarism, although it was not a terra nullius, but the Shanyue people who lived here had little contact with the Central Plains for a long time, and they were very resistant to the Central Plains culture.
As the Qin army continued to be defeated during the expedition to Baiyue, Qin Shi Huang finally decided to dig a "spiritual canal" to improve the efficiency of grain and grass transportation and reduce the difficulty of attacking.
Sure enough, after the Ling Canal was dug, although the Qin army was still unaccustomed to the water and soil in the south, its combat effectiveness improved significantly, and finally succeeded in capturing this land, expanding the territory to the Lingnan region as never before, providing a new standard for the territory of the later Great Unification Dynasty.
3. The Great Wall
Many people have heard the story of "Meng Jiangnu Crying on the Great Wall", which tells the story of Qin Shi Huang when he built the Great Wall, because of the forced conscription of the people, which led to the destruction of many families and the pain, but the military and historical significance of the Great Wall is definitely worth the price that Qin Shi Huang paid.
After Qin Shi Huang unified the six countries, although there were many fewer domestic wars, the biggest problem became the problem of foreign invasion, and he could not sit idly by while the Xiongnu invaded.
So Qin Shi Huang ordered Meng Tian to meet the Xiongnu, and after defeating the Xiongnu, he ordered Meng Tian to supervise the construction of a Great Wall, which was not built from scratch, but on the basis of the city wall built by Yan and Zhao to defend against the Xiongnu.
The Badaling Great Wall we see now was actually gradually improved by later dynasties on the basis of the Great Wall of Qin, and finally completed in the Ming Dynasty, and its majesty has also made it one of the world's architectural wonders.
Fourth, Qin Zhidao
After Qin Shi Huang conquered the Six Kingdoms, the great unification had not yet been fully realized, because the Six Kingdoms originally had their own writing, currency and weights and measures, so Qin Shi Huang ordered them to be unified according to the standards of the Qin State, which is the so-called "car on the same track, book on the same text".
Yes, the unification of road widths is also an important aspect of unification, or many people find it unnecessary, but in reality, this law is a good example of the difficulty of cultural differences in governance.
Before the unification of Qin Shi Huang, in order to show the differences between countries, even the distance between the carriages was different, and the width of the roads was even more different, which made it difficult for the carriages of the Qin State to travel on many roads, which invisibly increased the cost of transportation and military costs.
Therefore, in order to consolidate the unity and strengthen the ties between the regions, Qin Shi Huang made this decision, so that even if there was a rebellion in any place, the Qin state could quickly send troops to suppress it, so as to strengthen its rule.
5. Afang Palace
The Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu wrote in "A Fang Gong Fu": "Six kings, four seas and one, Shu Mountain, A Fang out." Covering more than 300 miles, isolated from the sky. "The majesty of Afang Palace is directly displayed in front of people's eyes.
This article has become one of the sources of imagination for later generations of Afang Palace, many people think that Afang Palace still existed even in the Tang Dynasty and stood for more than a thousand years, but in fact, this "Afang Palace Fu" is just Du Mu's imagination, because Afang Palace was burned down before it was completed.
After Qin Shi Huang unified the six countries, the scope of management expanded several times from one acre and three points of land in the original Qin State, which also led to the lack of the original Qin State's royal palace, and Qin Shi Huang ordered the construction of a new palace, that is, Afang Palace.
However, Qin Shi Huang died before the completion of the Afang Palace, a few years after his death, the Qin Dynasty was also overthrown, the Han army and the Chu army entered Xianyang City successively, Xiang Yu burned the Qin Palace, and the unfinished Afang Palace was burned down in this way, as the so-called "Chu people are a torch, poor scorched earth".
6. Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang inherited the throne at the age of 13, and during his 37-year reign, one project continued uninterrupted: the construction of Qin Shi Huang's own mausoleum.
When Qin Shi Huang was only the king of Qin at the beginning, the tomb was naturally built according to the specifications of the princes and kings, but later Qin Shi Huang was called the emperor, that is, the lord of the world, and his status was naturally extraordinary, so the specifications of the mausoleum naturally had to be expanded on a large scale.
The construction time of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang lasted for nearly 40 years, that is to say, the imperial mausoleum was not repaired when Qin Shi Huang died, and it was not until Qin II ascended the throne that the construction of Afang Palace was stopped to repair the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang.
Historical records record that there are countless treasures buried in the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, but later people have always doubted whether it is true, until the unearthing of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, not only shocked the world, but also officially opened a corner of the mystery of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, making people more convinced of the history books and more curious about the interior of the Imperial Mausoleum.
epilogue
Being able to continue from the Qin Dynasty to the present means that these projects are not only witnesses of history, but also symbols of history, even of Qin Shi Huang's great achievements.
They can become a humanistic wonder that is widely recognized in the world, which is not only the advanced place of mainland culture, but also the greatness of Qin Shi Huang, the ancients more than 2,000 years ago can still influence the world more than 2,000 years later, this is not a miracle?