The Merits and Faults of Qin's First Emperor

The Merits and Faults of Qin's First Emperor

The Qin Dynasty (221 to 206 BCE.) is first unified feudal state in the Chinese history thus it has been discussed by many historians. The first emperor of Qin, Qin shi huang di, vanquished the six guo in Shandong Provinces successively, and finally unified the whole state. Because of his success in unifying the whole state, his splendid achievement and incautious misstep are the controversial topics that have been discussed for a long time. Some people argue that Qin shi huang di is a successful emperor because he unified the country. Whereas others believe his methods to achieve his goals are questionable as for Qin dynasty did not last very long. In my perspective, we should consider this question under the historical circumstances. Qin shi huang di is an emperor who had great contribution to the ancient China's development, at the same time; he is also a cruel tyrant. Although his approaches to control the whole state is doubtable, we cannot underestimate his achievements because he is the first person to unify the state and lead China in to a new era.

As the first emperor, Qin shi huang di created the whole "emperor system", the organization of the central government and the system of prefectures and counties. The First Emperor promulgated an administrative system in which his realm was divided into thirty-six commanderies. (Course Reader page.109) As a result, he applied policies help to keep the state unified and increase the government central control over the whole state. Although the unification of Qin was an inevitable result of the history's development, the hard work of personal strive was necessary during the process. His first contribution would be the valuable use of the talents and elites. Before the unification of China, Qin gathered almost all the outstanding militarists and politicians, who planned all the effective military policies and political decisions. Qin shi huang di discovered their expertise in certain aspects and trusted them. He was also good at recognizing his mistakes and correcting them. When Qin had the battle with Chu, he first dispatched Li Xin to the war but failed at first. Then he requested Wang Jian to lead the military and gave him the power to control the whole country's soldiers, finally, Qin beat Chu and won the war. From this example, we can see the importance of recognizing elites and correcting previous mistakes. Qin shi huang di is the kind of person who has these abilities.

Qin shi huang di's another contribution worthy of mentioning is that he created the model of centralized imperial regimes. Qin created a state organized in pursuit of its own goals - political, economic, social, and military - that became a model for all later authoritarian, centralized imperial regimes. (Course Reader page.108) Qin shi huang di announced several important policies after Qin unified the six guo, such as unifying the texts and currency. Those policies had profound impacts in the following dynasties for more than two thousand years. Qin shi huang di was bold and brave enough to apply the new policies that are the revolutionary ideas at that time. He not only changed the politics and culture in the separatist state, in order to promote the social economy in the feudal circumstances, but also changed the unnecessary cliché of Qin such as the expansion of land and the utilization of new policies.

There are much more achievements of Qin shi huang di that we also must take into consideration. He unified the texts and currency. This made the communication and business between people easier than before and it is much convenient for the government to regulate and control. He also unified the measurement. Before the Qin Dynasty, there are different measurement standards from district to district. When people from different areas were doing business together, it was very hard to have the same idea about how size, weights and so on. Unify measure on business consumedly the convenient domestic communication. And He ordered the destruction of defensive "long walls" and city walls. (Course Reader page.109) He also let soldiers and armies to guard along the frontier to protect the state land. The Great Wall not only protected the state from