How great was Qin Shihuang? Take a look at his influence on China's three court discussions in two thousand years. The following written materials were collected and organized by Xiaoyisou for everyone. Let's take a quick look!
In the Biography of the Qin Emperor, Sima Qian recorded three important court discussions after King Qin Yingzheng unified the six kingdoms. The themes discussed in these three court discussions had a profound impact on Qin and even later generations.
The first palace meeting: discussing the emperor's title and abolishing the legacy law
The six kings are completed and the world is one family. At the first court meeting, Qin Shihuang demonstrated his achievements: With this small body, I fought for the uprising and relied on the gods of my ancestors. The kings of the six kingdoms were punished for their sins, and the world became stable. Now, if I don't change my name, I can't showcase my achievements and pass them on to future generations. Please discuss the emperor.
Prime Minister Wang Wan, ancient scholar Feng Jie, and Tingwei Li Si all said: We respectfully consulted the doctor and said: In ancient times, there were emperors, Dihuang and Taihuang, and Taihuang was the most noble. We, the courtiers, accept the death penalty and salute you. The king is called the King of Thailand. The imperial edict is called writing a book, the imperial edict is called an imperial edict, and the emperor calls himself jealous. The King of Qin said: Remove the word "Tai", leave the word "Emperor", use the ancient word "Emperor", call it "Emperor", and do the rest according to your discussion. He also ordered him to say, I heard that there was a nickname in ancient times, but there was no nickname in the Middle Ages. After my death, I gave myself a posthumous title based on my life's deeds. In doing so, it is meaningless for my son to talk about my father and my courtiers to talk about my monarch. I don't take this approach. From now on, the review law will be repealed. I am called the first emperor, and future generations will start from me, saying that the second and third will last forever, and they will never be exhausted. "
This is of course a name that must respect the emperor, who has established an unprecedented great cause for the newcomer. The final determination of the emperor's title is not a simple change of the emperor's title, but reflects a At the same time, he also took other measures to sanctify imperial power, such as changing the words that most people could use to the emperor's proper noun. It also abolished the ancient method of reviewing laws. The system does not allow others to talk about themselves. Since then, titles such as emperor have continued in China for more than 2,000 years.
The second court hearing: counties abolished the feudal system
Prime Minister Wang Wan. Waiting said: The princes have just been defeated, and Yan, Qi, and Chu are all remote. If they don't have a king, they can't be comforted there. I hope the emperor will approve this suggestion. After considering it for the ministers, they all thought it was beneficial to do so.
Ting Si said differently: There are many children and relatives with the same surname, but their descendants gradually become alienated and attack each other, just like enemies. , the princes fought with each other, and Zhou could not stop them. Now the world is unified by the power of your gods, and all the gods are divided into countries. For the prince heroes, they are rewarded with public taxes. This makes them easy to control. This is a good way to make the world peaceful, so that there will be no evil in the world.
The late emperor said: In the past, everyone in the world was because of those princes and princes. The king suffered endless wars. Now that I rely on the gods of my ancestors, the world has just settled down. If it is like starting a war again, isn't it right?
At the beginning of unification, there was a debate about whether to divide the schools into kings. Tingwei Li Si had the same idea as the heroes of the first emperor. The implementation of Qin Shihuang's county system was a reality that Qin Shihuang strengthened centralization and consolidated unity. Needed. After that, the Qin Dynasty's political system established the basic pattern of China's political system for thousands of years.
The third court meeting: Burning Poetry
Qin Shihuang held a banquet in Xianyang Palace. 70 doctors presented wine to celebrate his birthday. Zhou Shizhong praised: The land of Qin is thousands of miles away. It relies on your Majesty's god to pacify the world and drive away barbarians wherever the sun and moon shine. There is no disobedience. By changing the vassal states to counties, everyone can live and work in peace and contentment, and the merits can be passed down from generation to generation. The first emperor has never been more happy than before. /p>
Qi Yuchun said: I heard that the Yin and Zhou Dynasties ruled the world for more than a thousand years, and were assisted by their descendants and heroes.
Your Majesty owns the whole world now, but your children are ordinary people. Once such a phenomenon occurs, such as Tian Chang and Jin of Qi, who murder the monarch's courtiers without aid, who will help? I have never heard of anything lasting without learning from the ancients. The flattery Zhou heard made His Majesty's sins even worse. This is not a loyal minister. Qin Shihuang gave their opinions to the ministers for discussion.
Prime Minister Li Si, the senior brother of Xunzi and Han Feizi, once again expressed his high opinion: Today, the emperor has unified the world, and distinguishing right from wrong, everything depends on the supreme emperor alone. However, private schools criticize the law together, educate people to discuss based on what they have learned when they hear that there are orders, blame them in their hearts when they enter North Korea, talk on the streets when they leave North Korea, and brag about themselves in front of the monarch to obtain Fame and wealth, pursuing strange remarks to improve themselves, and taking the lead in slander among the people. If you do not forbid it thus, the power of the monarch will decline above, and the power of cliques will form below. I think it is appropriate to ban these. I ask historians to burn all books that are not about Qin. In addition to the doctors in charge of the government, all the world dared to collect poems, books, and works of a hundred schools of thought, all of which were sent to local officials to be burned together. Some people who dare discuss poems and books together will be put on public display and they will exploit the past and present. If an officer knew about it but failed to report it, he would be subject to the same punishment. Those who fail to burn books after 30 days of being ordered to do so will be sentenced to four years in prison by having their faces tattooed. They will be sent to the border to prevent bandits during the day and build cities at night. What was not banned were books on medicine, divination, and cultivation. If someone wants to learn laws and regulations, he should learn from officials.
Qin Shihuang said: Yes.
At this banquet in Xianyang Palace, there was a debate about learning from the past or learning from the present. Confucian scholars, who never forgot to restore the etiquette system, once again challenged the county system. The dispute resulted in the burning of books. In order to establish the absolute authority of the monarch's power, Li Si proposed to Qin Shihuang to burn ancient books. This kind of control of thoughts and speech from below is rude and barbaric.
In the second year after the book burning, another incident of burying Confucian scholars occurred. The entrapment of Confucians was not a direct continuation of the burning of books, but was caused by some alchemists and Confucian scholars slandering Qin Shihuang.
The burning of books and entrapment of Confucians is an extremely cruel event in Chinese history: first, a large number of ancient books were burned in the pre-Qin period, causing huge losses to Chinese culture; second, the spirit of free thought that has prevailed since the late Spring and Autumn Period suffered a fatal blow; third, it set a bad example for future generations to implement cultural autocracy policies.