Is Shihuang Qin A Good Or A Violence Emperor History Research Paper

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WAS QIN SHIHUANG A GOOD OR A VIOLENT EMPEROR?
Qin Shihuang is the first emperor who is credited with ending the warring states period of China and creating a unified country. He is most famous for building part of the Great Wall spanning 1200 miles on the northern territorial boundary of his empire and for ordering the construction of his mausoleum. And he also ordered thousands of sculptures made of clay to be put into the mausoleum to guard him his afterlife. He became the emperor of Qin when he was 13 years old and united the whole country when he was 29 years old. His reign lasted only 15 years but his legacy has endured for millennia. For example, he coined the term “emperor” (huangdi). Qin Shihuang shunned the use of the ‘King” as his title and adopted emperor, a move the subsequent rulers of the country followed. Qin Shihuang has left an indelible mark in history which has endured to date. His legacy has been controversial because on one hand he did many good things for the Chinese people and on the other hand his brutality earned him a place as one of the most ruthless rulers of China. Qin Shihuang has come to be the most famous and controversial emperor among all the emperors in China’s history.
One of the reasons why Qin Shihuang has earned a bad name in history is because he enslaved, conscripted and forced people to do manual labor for the state. He had many ideas of mega-projects that needed a lot of man hours such as his mausoleum, Lingqu canal, and the north border great wall. The cost of human labor for these projects also came with death to manyCITATION DrB15 \p 380 \l 1033 (Fagan and Scarre 380). The building of these two projects must have needed a lot of man hours especially since they were sophisticated and they were built with relatively primitive technology by today’s standards. They are also very big hence they must have required the efforts of thousands of people. All this work was done for free. Some people estimate that nearly 400,000 people who worked on the great wall died in the process and were buried within the wall itselfCITATION Jos10 \p 48 \l 1033 (O'Neill 48). Secondly, he was ruthless with these people who worked for him. The Mausoleum in which thousands of people worked and died was a mega-dream because it is not plausible that he believed that armies of sculptures would protect him in his afterlife and forced many people to create them. Though it is said he did not leave elaborate plans for his remains, he conscripted about 700,000 people to build his grave and they were killed in the chamber to conceal its secretsCITATION DrB15 \p 380 \l 1033 (Fagan and Scarre 380).
Qin Shihuang is also thought to have ordered burning of all books not concerned with agriculture, medicine, prognostication and historical records of Qin. He had ordered their burning because Confucian scholars were calling for the return of the old feudal systemCITATION Kev12 \p 95 \l 1033 (Reilly 95) . The emperor also was infatuated with the idea of immortality and he had tried all means necessary and available to him as well as mobilizing all resources he had to find the elixir of immortality. He had also sent an expedition into the eastern sea in a bid to find the elixir. When some Confucian scholars questioned the Emperor’s decisions, he ordered them to be killed. 460 of them were buried alive for opposing his ideas for finding the elixir of immortalityCITATION Fan15 \p 55 \l 1033 (Fang 55). The two mega projects he initiated, the building of the great wall and the construction of his mausoleum, coupled with the infatuation to find the elixir of immortality that prompted him to kill Confucian scholars all point to an evil man who used his position, power, authority, materials at his disposal to pursue senseless dreams at the expense of the lives of others.
Qin Shihuang was also known to be ruthless to his enemies. While he ended the era of the warring states in China and unified the country under one central leadership, it came at a great human cost. As he sought to expand his territory, he conquered many countries and captured many people whom he ordered to be castrated. [cite your source] Qin Shihuang’s convicts were all castrated and enslavedCITATION Zhe93 \p 111 \l 1033 (Fu 111). They are the people believed to have built his projects. The most likely sin for the people he ordered to be castrated was that they were citizens of another country. His cruelty is also evident in the way he treated the wrongdoers. The Qin law code stipulated very harsh punishments for crimes. Even for mundane crimes, the wrong doers were either ordered to pay hefty sums of money or some of their wealth was confiscated, in other cases they were flogged and sentenced to hard labor on public works or banished CITATION Con99 \l 1033 (Constitutional Rights Foundation). For more serious crimes, criminals could be castrated, one or both feet could be amputated or their noses cut off, or their faces tattooedCITATION Zhe93 \p 111 \l 1033 (Fu 111). In other cases, the criminals would be put to death in the most humiliating and painful way. They would either be beheaded and or their families beheaded or cut at their waist, boiled in a cauldron and torn apart by horses. These punitive sentences point to a man who was very cruel. Lao Ai, one of the people who attempted to assassinate the emperor, is one of the documented cases of someone who was killed by being tied to horses who were then driven in opposite direction...