Click2Biography - First Emperor of China - Chapter 3

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>FIRST EMPEROR OF CHINA</p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 3 - HARSH LAWS</b></font></p> </div>  <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">To accomplish so much in so short a time, the First Emperor imposed tough laws. For example: If a member of a public works team didn’t show up at the job site on time, his entire team would be killed.</p> <p>Confucian scholars disapproved of the Emperor’s <a href="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000JS6X.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif" target="_blank"><b>methods</b></a> - and said so in their commentaries, articles and poems. The Emperor’s response was harsh. He followed his prime minister’s advice who</p> <blockquote><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>...urged the <a href="http://www.wsu.edu:8000/wciv/a/aa/aad/aad68.jpg" target="_blank">burning</a> of the histories of all the former states except Qin [Ch’in], folk collections of poetry and articles and books by scholars of schools with views different from those of the Qin. [The First Emperor] ordered this done, but books on medicine, agriculture, and copies of condemned books were preserved in the Imperial capital. A year later he arrested some 400 Confucian scholars, the most active of whom had continued to attack him, and had them buried alive.</blockquote></b></i></font> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">(See <a href="http://www.easc.indiana.edu/pages/easc/curriculum/china/1996/EACPWorkBook/trad/qin_dyn.htm" target="_blank"><b>page two</b></a> of Indiana University’s site on the Qin [Ch’in] Dynasty.)</p> <p>Ancient sources report that burying people alive was an old practice among the Qin. Nearly <a href="http://www.miami.edu/phi/bio/Buddha/xunbio.htm" target="_blank"><b>400,000 soldiers</b></a> (scroll down halfway) were killed in that fashion after Qin’s defeat of Zhao in 260 BC. At the time, servants were also <a href="http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/academic/cult_sci/anthro/asb_china/ancient_china.html" target="_blank"><b>buried alive</b></a> to ensure their masters received appropriate care and attention after death.</p> <p>Despite his ruthlessness, the first Emperor spared soldiers from a similar fate in his own <a href="http://www.nga.gov/education/chinatp_emp.htm" target="_blank"><b>tomb</b></a>. Instead, about 700,000 workers over 36 years constructed his <a href="http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shaanxi/xian/terra_cotta_army/mausoleum_4.htm" target="_blank"><b>mausoleum</b></a> and created thousands of life-size terra cotta soldiers to stand guard over Shi Huangdi after his death.</p> <p>Those soldiers are now known as the 8th Wonder of the World.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="emperor_china_ch2.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="emperor_china_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER  </a>   <a href="emperor_china_ch4.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>