As the starting point of Chinese medieval society, the Qin Empire, which had existed for only 16 years, became one of the shortest lived dynasties in Chinese history. History and reality have raised a puzzling but unavoidable problem: Why did Qin overthrow Qi, Chu, Zhao and other big countries with the momentum of overwhelming destruction? Why did “II die” after reunification? To a large extent, it stems from the lack of political belief.
In 221 BC, Qin, a great empire of unprecedented scale, was born in China. This great empire includes many vassal countries that previously existed on the land of China, extending to the sea in the East, Baiyue in the south, Diqiang in the west, and beyond the Great Wall in the north. Just as legalist ideology advocating material interests and the rule of law prevailed over other doctrines in the ideological field, Qin, which advocated martial arts politically, eventually annexed the feudal states of Qi, Chu, Zhao and so on. The establishment of the Qin Empire marks political unification, and what it will continue to carry out is the unity of political thinking. In human political history, any form of state or politics needs authority. For the Qin Dynasty, what it showed to the world was not political propaganda, but naked violence, a direct confrontation between people, and a contradiction between a few people who monopolized political power and others in society.
On the surface, the Qin Dynasty was a country that paid more attention to practical work than theory. In the relevant historical documents of the Qin Empire, it is difficult for us to sort out systematic political theories. From the perspective of political belief, the Qin Dynasty sneered at the use of the authority of ghosts and gods to purge the hearts of the people and govern the country, believing that it was political deception, which was not only futile, but also harmful to politics. Langxie engraved words wrote: “the five emperors and three kings of ancient times knew different religions, and their laws were unclear. They deceived the distant places with false power, ghosts and gods, but they didn’t call their names, so they didn’t last long.” Here, the Qin Dynasty is also summing up historical experience. It believes that the reason why the five emperors and three kings died was that they did not care about reality, did not talk about the rule of law, and advocated falsehood. Therefore, in the 33rd year of the reign of the king of Qin (214 BC), it was ordered that “no ancestral temple should be forbidden”. Although it is difficult for us to specify the objects of worship, this is generally consistent with the ideological tendency of Lang Xie’s inscriptions.
The Qin Dynasty did not have a systematic and clear political belief, but to a certain extent, it continued to use traditional religious activities. In the third year (219 BC) after the unification of China by Emperor Qinshihuang, “Mount Tai, stone, seal, and worship”. This is the only Fengchan activity held by the Qin Empire. Why did Qinshihuang practice Fengchan? Is it telling heaven to change the dynasty? Of course not, because what is recorded in the stone carving of Fengchan is to praise the great achievements of Qinshihuang in unifying China, and to ask his subjects and descendants to “abide by the imperial edict and always bear the precepts”. The inscriptions of Fengchan show the sanctity and majesty of the emperor to the people, leaving no important position for the gods.
On the way of this tour, when Qin Shihuang passed Pengcheng, “fasting prayer temple, to go out of the Surabaya of Zhou Ding”, which reflects that the thought of destiny still exists in the deep heart of Qin Shihuang. However, when he went to Xiangshan temple to cross the river and was in danger, he showed great disrespect to the God “Xiangjun”, and “made 3000 prisoners cut down Xiangshan trees and zheji mountain”. This seemed to mean that he could not tolerate any offence from anyone or any God.
In the 37th year of the reign of King Qin (210 BC), when he went on a tour to Yunmeng, he “worshipped Yushun on Mount Jiuyi”. It can be seen from this that the political religious activities involved by Qin Shihuang were random. He had expectations for the gods, but he did not want to be bound by the gods, and the gods should not go against his wishes. The first emperor of Qin also followed the traditional activities of worshiping the Yongsi God in the suburbs of Qin state. Qin regards winter and October as the beginning of the year, so the first emperor of Qin usually worships in October in person, dressed in white clothes, and offered sacrifices, “by the side of Xianyang”. The suburban sacrifices of Xiwan and qiwan were presided over by the ancestral temple officials, “do not go there personally”. The situation was probably the same in the Qin II. Tai Bu Guan once commented, “Your Majesty worships in the spring and autumn suburbs, worships the ghosts and gods of the ancestral temple, and fasts unknown.” Generally speaking, the Qin Empire had serious deficiencies in political beliefs.
From the opposite standpoint, the Qin Dynasty believed in force and power. The emperor of Qin Dynasty regarded the country as his personal private wealth, and the emperor could be extravagant, which was vividly shown in the political practice of Qin Dynasty. Qinshihuang ascended the Langxie platform in the South and was very comfortable, so he “moved 30000 households under the Langxie platform in the head of Guizhou, and returned (tax-free) to the age of 12”. There is no reason for this, nor does it need any reason.
According to documents, he sent 300000 troops to attack the Huns because of the prophecy of “Hu ye, the one who died in the Qin Dynasty”. He can, according to his own wishes, “camp the chaogong Weinan Shanglin garden. First make the front hall a-fang, 500 steps from east to west, 50 feet from north to south, with 10000 people sitting on it and a flag of five feet under it”. More than 700000 apprentices were used to build Afang palace and Lishan tomb alone. In the process of unifying China, every time Qin Shihuang conquered a country, he had to follow the style of the palace of that country and rebuild it in the north of Xianyang city. The beauties of the princes and bell and drum artifacts he obtained were moved into it. “San Fu’s old story” exaggerates: “the first emperor thought the east gate of Qin Dynasty, the west gate of Qin Dynasty, and the hall of heaven and earth. There were more than ten thousand women in the harem. They were angry.” The vicious development of this extravagance and lust in the Qin Dynasty led to a sharp confrontation between the emperor, who was alone, and the people all over the world.
In order to consolidate his personal authority, Qin II plotted countermeasures with eunuch Zhao Gao. Zhao Gao claimed, “at this time, we will not learn from literature but decide to use force.” Don’t make any sense. Whoever has power has the final say. This is Zhao Gao’s theory of power. So Qin II “killed ministers and Princes” and “six princes were killed by Du”. At that time, the three brothers, Prince Jiang Lu, were imprisoned in the inner palace. Qin II sent someone to say to Prince Jiang Lu, “if you don’t obey me, you should die.” Jiang Lu questioned, “I have never dared not to accept the ceremony of Que ting; I have never dared to disobey the position of langmiao; I have never dared to disobey the order to deal with it. What is disobedience! I am willing to die after hearing the sin!” The messenger said: I don’t know. I just act according to orders. Jiang Lu looked up to the sky trombone: “God! I’m innocent!” The three brothers pulled out their swords and committed suicide.
In fact, there was no strict law in the Qin Dynasty. The will of the emperor was the supreme law. In this country, only the emperor had human rights. Since then, the same political laws have played a role in the murder of Qin II by Zhao Gao and the murder of Zhao Gao by his son and baby. Long before Qin unified China, King Zheng of Qin appreciated Han Fei’s theory of extreme autocracy very much, saying, “I don’t hate it if I see this person traveling with him!” Qin II also publicly quoted Han Fei’s words, saying that Yao and Shun had “the custody of the prison gate” for the king, and Dayu had “the labor of the ministers and prisoners” for controlling the flood. He believes that being such an emperor is meaningless. He has the world and should be “wanton and lustful”. So far, it is not difficult for us to understand that the deep-seated political thinking of the Qin Dynasty is Han Fei’s extreme autocracy theory. The death of the second Qin Dynasty is the evil result of Han Fei’s autocratic theory.
Any regime will publicize its rationality, so as to obtain theoretical fulcrum for itself. The Qin Dynasty is no exception. After Qin unified China in 221 BC, someone immediately came out to offer advice: “the Yellow Emperor got tude, and the yellow dragon was seen in the land (vermis); the green dragon ended in the suburbs in xiade mude, and the grass and trees were luxuriant; Yin de Jinde, silver overflowed from the mountain; Zhou de Huode, with the symbol of red and black; when Qin changed Zhou and shuide, Duke Wen of Qin went hunting and captured black dragons in the past, which is the glory of his water virtue.” This is to use the theory of “five virtues against each other” to serve political rationality: the virtue of the Zhou people is “fire”, the virtue of the Qin people is “water”, and “water” conquers “fire”, so the Qin people replaced the Zhou people to rule the world. Qin Shihuang did not hesitate to bring this set to serve the political rationality of the new dynasty. The Qin Dynasty defined itself as shuide. Shuide belonged to the north, and its color matched with black, so the clothes and banners all advocated black. The numbers were based on “six”, and the symbols and legal crowns were all stipulated as six inches. Riding six horses, the Yellow River was renamed “Deshui”, and so on. This shows that the new dynasty urgently needs to show its political rationality.
The question is whether this kind of propaganda can achieve a convincing purpose and serve the long-term stability of the country. From today’s standpoint, it can be said that the five elements of the Qin Dynasty is a kind of political rationality, but it is not a political belief in the strict sense. In terms of the background of the emergence of the five elements theory, it is a rebellion against the traditional view of destiny, trying to explain the movement of the universe and society from the evolution of the material world, and its nature is similar to the simple theory of yin and Yang and the theory of Qi.
In short, the Qin Dynasty did not form a systematic political belief, and did not solve the rationality of social order and political system. It pursued a strong policy and the ideological line of the supremacy of imperial power, which had a negative impact on politics. It is difficult to say that the rapid death of the Qin Dynasty had nothing to do with this.