Good Confucianism book (pdf) - Department of Physics

Confucians, “Confucian” Texts, the Qin Dynasty 129advice, Qin used bribery, assassins, and terror: they are reported to haveonce butchered an enemy army of, so it is said, 100,000 men who hadsurrendered. The aim was to terrify any enemy soldiers facing them in thenext battle. The state of Qin finally conquered all of the China of the timein 221 BCE.The ruler of the state of Qin was now the ruler of all of China and calledhimself “ The First Emperor. ” 29 The same rules and Legalist philosophy ofgovernment that had governed Qin now governed all of China. Li Si continuedas prime minister and devoted himself to centralizing government ashe had in Qin. The old system where the nobility were given land in returnfor loyalty was rejected. Instead the territory was divided and governed byofficials appointed by the central government. Civil and military authoritywere divided and both were controlled by the emperor. This system laidthe foundation for the imperial period to come.Now that one government ruled a unified country, weights and measures,which had been different in each small state, were made uniform. Similarlythe writing system, which had many regional variants, was standardized.Even the size of carts was made uniform so that the tracks in mud roadswould be the same for all.Weapons were gathered from all over the country and wealthy, noblefamilies were moved to the neighborhood of the capital so that the governmentcould keep an eye on them. Spying and denunciation were encouraged.The First Emperor joined together the many walls along the borders ofnorthern states to begin what would become the Great Wall of China. 30He also had a number of palaces built, along with an enormous tomb.Westerners know the First Emperor best through the discovery in 1974 ofthe thousands of terracotta soldiers that guard this tomb. The rows androws of infantry, cavalry, archers, and generals, all made of clay, are consideredone of the greatest archaeological finds of the twentieth century.All of this was expensive. Taxes were high and the walls and the palaceswere built with forced labor. As the First Emperor expanded his territory,people were deported to these new areas.Han dynasty historians hated the First Emperor and accused him ofexecuting anyone who criticized him or his government. They also saidthat in 213 BCE the First Emperor ordered that all books, except those onmedicine, divination, and agriculture, should be burned. Han Feizi was ofthe opinion that books are not good for the state because they encourageopinions; Li Si ’ s rejected texts might glorify the past and use that past tocriticize the present. Given this, the order to destroy books is not out ofline with the First Emperor ’ s thought. There are wonderful stories of bravescholars facing death rather than giving up their books and families thathid their texts in walls and roof thatch. 31 Over 400 scholars approached theemperor and appealed to him to save the books. It has always been thought