Is Qin Shihuang a tyrant or a good emperor?

First, in the thirty-second year of Qin Shihuang, General Meng Tian was ordered to lead 300,000 troops to attack the Huns in the north and seize the "Henan Land" (now Hetao and its south area in Inner Mongolia).

Second, in 33 years, people who committed the crime of escape, sons-in-law adopted by their in-laws and businessmen seized "Lvliang land" and set up three counties of Guilin, Xiang Jun and Nanhai to resettle forced immigrants.

Third, in 34 years, prison officers who handled unjust cases were sent to repair the Great Wall or moved to South Vietnam.

Fourth, in 35 years, a palace was built in Shanglinyuan, south of Weihe River, and more than 700,000 criminals and prisoners were recruited to build Epang Palace or Lishan Tomb.

The second of these four items is actually a continuation of the previous expedition to 500,000 troops in South Vietnam. Because they never won, these people were made up. However, after the conquest of South Vietnam, except those who died in the battlefield and settled in South Vietnam, everyone can return to their hometown. The 34-year conquest of South Vietnam has basically ended. The number of the third item is obviously small, and South Vietnam is still forced to immigrate. It can be seen that the perennial expropriation is to build Epang Palace, Mount Li and the Great Wall. The first two items expropriated 700,000 yuan, while the latter one has no specific figures. However, Meng Tian's invasion of 300,000 yuan is a constant amount, and the three items add up to * * * one million yuan.

As for other formal projects, such as building the Great Wall, guarding the border crossings, joining the army (including guarding Qin Shihuang's patrol), and local conscription, they are all undertaken by the daily corvee. According to expert research, the daily corvee in the Han Dynasty is no different from that in the Qin Dynasty (see, for example, Huang's Research on Corvee System in Qin and Han Dynasties, Jiangxi Education Publishing House, 1988 edition).

On the other hand, the population of the Qin Dynasty was more than 20 million. According to my research conclusion in Population History of China, the population of Qin Dynasty was no less than 40 million at most, so the proportion of conscripts in the total population should be much lower, accounting for only about 2.5%.

To say the least, even if the manpower recruited by Qin Shihuang is as high as 15% of the total population, it will not cause too serious consequences. Because at that time, teenagers could be engaged in agricultural production, and men over 60 were still serving or working. In the case of low life expectancy, there are not many people of this age. When Emperor Huidi of the Western Han Dynasty recruited women to participate in the construction of Chang 'an city wall, it can be seen that women can also be recruited when necessary, and women at that time were generally engaged in productive labor. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Chao Cuo had a saying: "Today, a family of five farmers has no less than two servants." . It can be seen that the working population accounted for a high proportion of the total population in Qin and Han Dynasties. If Qin Shihuang only recruited 15% of the population, there would be no problem.

In this way, isn't the corvee collected by Qin Shihuang heavy? No, but the other two aspects have been neglected in previous studies, one is the forced migration of Qin Shihuang, and the other is the manpower consumed and the extra population recruited to maintain the survival of this forced migration. In fact, the labor force recruited by Qin Shihuang was many times higher than 15%.

Spontaneous immigrants do not receive government funding and do not have to rely on government relief. They usually make preparations in advance or produce their own subsistence food immediately after they settle down. However, forced immigration is different. Their livelihood and food production must be solved by the government during the period of immigration and at the beginning of settlement. It is impossible to produce food in some places where immigrants are forced to settle down, or these immigrants will not produce food themselves.

Similarly, according to the Records of Historical Records of Qin Shihuang, the forced migration carried out by Qin Shihuang mainly includes:

First, in 26 and a half years,120,000 "the richest man in the world" moved to Xianyang, and each family of five should have 600,000 people. In thirty-five years, thirty thousand Xianyang residents moved to Yili (now northeast of Lintong County, Shaanxi Province) and fifty thousand households moved to Yunyang (now northwest of Chunhua County, Shaanxi Province). However, most of these 80,000 households should belong to120,000 households who moved to Xianyang before, so there is no need for new immigrants.

Second, in thirty-four years, after Meng Tian expelled the Huns, forty-four (thirty-four) new counties were established from Yuzhong, east of the Yellow River to Yinshan, and the forcibly moved people were placed in these new counties. Thirty-six years later, 30,000 households moved to Beihe and Yuzhong, giving each household a first-class reward. Based on the scale of 500 to 1000 households in each county, the first batch of immigrants should be10000 to150000. The second batch of immigrants should be120,000 to150,000, with a total estimate of 300,000.

Thirdly, in the history of China's immigration, I estimate that the number of people who have forcibly moved to South Vietnam is100000 to150000.

Fourth, in 28 years, 30,000 households moved to Langxietai, and others moved to Bashu and Yuedi.

Because of the difference of immigrant objects and places, some immigrants must rely on official food supply, while others can supply it locally or produce it themselves. The first batch of120,000 "richest people in the world" who moved to Xianyang could not engage in production by themselves, and Xianyang area could not provide them with the food or land they needed. Second, about 300,000 people who moved to Beihe and Yuzhong in the northern frontier could not immediately achieve food self-sufficiency, especially in the early stage of resettlement and production, and had to be imported from other places by the government. Immigrants who move to Langxietai, South Vietnam, Bashu and Vietnam can generally produce their own food on the spot without increasing the government's supply and transportation burden.

Similarly, the extra recruits 1 10,000 people are not engaged in agriculture or other production, but build palaces, tombs, the Great Wall and border defense. They served in Xianyang area and the northern frontier, and their food could not be supplied locally, so they had to import it from other places. So in these years, the Qin government will provide food for 600,000 immigrants in Xianyang, 700,000 prisoners and 300,000 soldiers in the northern frontier, and all or part of food for 300,000 immigrants in the northern frontier in the first few years of 34 years.

The main grain-producing area in Qin Dynasty was Kanto (east of Hanguguan, roughly east of Taihang Mountain and north of Huaihe River), and only Kanto had surplus grain for export. Other areas either have no surplus grain or are restricted by traffic conditions, so it is quite difficult to export. Most of the grain transported from Kanto to Xianyang and the northern frontier of Guanzhong can only be transported by land. Whether using human or animal power, even without considering the loss during transportation, transporters themselves will consume a lot of food on the way. Yan, the father of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, once said, "Qin Shihuang attacked the Huns in the north, causing the world to fly and pull out millet. Starting from the county where Huang, Yi and Lang were responsible for the sea, he turned to the North River, with a rate of thirty-one stone." (See Zhufuyan Biography of Hanshu) One minute is equivalent to six hooves (stones) and four buckets, and 30 minutes is equivalent to 192 hooves. That is to say, from now on, grain will be transported to Hetao from the middle and northeast of Shandong Peninsula, with an effective transportation capacity of only 0.52%. Even considering the short distance to other parts of Kanto, it is estimated that the actual traffic volume is only 1-2%.

Is this result exaggerated? We can find other examples. According to the calculation of Shen Kuo in the Northern Song Dynasty, on average, each civilian can only carry six buckets of rice, and he eats two liters every day. Civilian personnel have to have food when they go back, but actually they consume four liters every day. If animals are used, they may be transported more, but people who drive animals will consume food and animals will consume feed. If animals die on the road, the loss will be even greater. (See Meng Qian Bi Tan, Volume 11). If the civilian worker can walk 40 kilometers every day, if his journey reaches 15 days, that is, 600 kilometers, he just runs out of food on his back; If he walked for fourteen days, he could only leave four liters of grain at his destination and feed one person for two days, with an effective rate of 6.7%. It takes 180 people to maintain a person's food for one year. Assuming someone is in charge, at least fifteen people are needed. To provide for the survival of 600,000 people in the northern frontier, at least 9 million people should be mobilized for special transportation. The distance from the eastern part of Taihang Mountain to Hetao is more than 600 kilometers, so it can only be transported by relay and more labor, so the above estimate is the minimum. Even considering that Guanzhong is close to the grain-producing area, some waterways can be used, and the supply standard of prisoners is very low. It is an extremely heavy burden to supply Xianyang1300,000 people.

Therefore, the labor force recruited by Qin Shihuang is by no means 15% of the population. With a population of 40 million, the number of people who specialize in collecting and transporting extra food is as high as about 20 million, accounting for 50% of the total population. Because of this, in order to maintain daily agricultural production, even the old, weak and underage men and women must be mobilized. The reason why the Qin dynasty lasted for a period of time was because there were some food savings before; Xianyang1300,000 people and 600,000 people in the northern frontier are not enough, and people are constantly fleeing; The highest supply only lasted for one or two years, and some of them began to engage in agricultural production one after another, which eased the supply pressure to some extent. But in any case, Qin Shihuang's collection of population has reached its limit. Of course, this made Qin Shihuang eat his own fruit, but the people lost more. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the population decreased by more than half, and it was not until the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that the population reached its peak.

Coincidentally, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, often referred to as Qin Shihuang by later generations, also repeated the atrocities he devoted himself to. At that time, the total population of the Han Dynasty was less than 40 million, but the degree of corvee collection by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was not lower than that of Qin Shihuang, and forced immigration was greater. Such records abound in Historical Records and Hanshu:

In the fifth year of Yuanguang (130), tens of thousands of people were recruited in Bashu to build a road leading to the southwest Yi area, and tens of thousands of soldiers were recruited to build a road leading to Yanmen County.

In the sixth year of Yuanguang, tens of thousands of soldiers were mobilized to dig ditches, which lasted for three years.

In the second year of Yuan Shuo (BC 127), more than 100,000 people built Shuofang City and repaired the barricade built by Meng Tian. Raise100000 people to move to Shuofang.

In the fifth and sixth years of Yuanshuo, Wei Qing led more than 100,000 cavalry to levy Xiongnu twice.

In the second year of Yuanshou (12 1 year ago), tens of thousands of people were recruited to dig the Shuofang Canal, but it could not be completed after two or three phases. Huo Qubing led tens of thousands of cavalry to levy Xiongnu twice. Li Guang and Zhang Qian led four thousand cavalry to attack from right Beiping. The evil Hun Wang Kun surrendered and dispatched 20,000 chariots to meet the enemy.

In the third year of Yuanshou, he moved more than 700,000 poor people from Kanto to the northwest (now Inner Mongolia, northern Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and other places).

In the fourth year of Yuanshou, Wei Qing and Huo Qubing each took 50,000 cavalry and hundreds of thousands of infantry to transport food and materials.

With regard to the impact of these large-scale projects, large-scale explorations and forced migration, historical records have specific descriptions:

At that time, the Han dynasty opened a road to the southwest, where tens of thousands of people worked. The food they eat is shipped from thousands of miles away, and the rate is only one stone every ten minutes. It took several years to buy roads in minority areas to collect money, but the roads were not built. ..... The whole Bashu area's rent tax is not enough to offset this expenditure. ..... In the east, the battle reached as far as Canghai County (now the central part of the Korean Peninsula), and the manpower consumption was similar to that in the southwest. A dozen people were dispatched to build Shuofang City, and the grain transportation route was very far. The whole area to the east of Taihang Mountain has been affected, spending billions, and the state treasury is even more empty.

In the second year, the general led six generals to the Huns and won fifteen thousand pieces in the first battle of the Huns. Meritorious soldiers received more than 200,000 Jin of gold, and tens of thousands of Huns captured were richly rewarded, and food and clothing were provided by the court. However, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses died in the Han dynasty, and the lost weapons, materials and transportation costs have not been calculated. So Brother Si Nong reported that the state treasury had no money and the taxes had been exhausted, which was not enough to pay the soldiers.

In the autumn of that year, the evil king of Xiongnu led tens of thousands of people to surrender, and the Han Dynasty dispatched 20,000 chariots to meet the enemy. Upon arrival, accept rewards, including meritorious service. The cost in that year was10 billion.

Then move the poor to the west of Guanguan and enrich them in the central area of New Qin to the south of Shuofang. There are more than 700,000 people, who are completely provided with food and clothes by the government, repay the means of production borrowed from them, send government representatives to supervise them in different areas, and officials and vehicles on business trips keep coming. After spending hundreds of millions, the national treasury was completely empty.

At the most, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty moved more than one million people as far away as Hexi Corridor and Hetao. As can be seen from the above historical data, in recent years, they have completely relied on the government to supply food and means of production. Even if Chang 'an is the starting point, the distance to the destination is mostly above 1000 km. Even if the state treasury is sufficient, at least15 million people will be dispatched just to transport these grains. Coupled with other daily recruitment, the population collected by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is no less than that of Qin Shihuang, and it has reached 50% of the total population. The reason why the economy of the Han Dynasty didn't completely collapse was that the imperial court still had savings for many years, and this situation didn't last long. Nearly one million immigrants moved to the northwest gradually turned into settled farmers in a few years, and gradually achieved food self-sufficiency. However, such a large-scale expropriation by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had extremely serious consequences. Since then, the monarchs and ministers of the Han Dynasty all thought that during his reign, the registered permanent residence was halved. According to my research in the book Population Geography of the Western Han Dynasty, during the Han Dynasty, the number of abnormal deaths reached 4 million, and the actual loss reached15 million.

This paper does not want to evaluate Qin Shihuang and Emperor Wudi comprehensively, but I hope to remind some people that when praising their "great achievements" in expanding territory, conquering other nationalities and building huge projects, we should understand the extreme degree of their recruitment by authoritarian means and not forget their crimes against mankind.

One more article.

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Evaluation of Qin Shihuang: How to evaluate the first feudal emperor in China history? Since the death of Qin, it is still a controversial issue. Some people praised him as "an emperor through the ages" (Li Zhi's Book Collection Volume II Catalogue); Some people say that Qin Shihuang "is not as good as the dragon, although he is the fourth or sixth emperor" (Zhang Taiyan's Qin Zhengji); Some people praised Qin Shihuang's reunification cause: "Qin is the master of sweeping Liuhe, and I want to see it!" They all spoke highly of Qin Shihuang's achievements and affirmed his role in history. He is a great historical figure. Others cursed Qin Shihuang for "being greedy for perfection" and "taking tyranny as the beginning of the world" (Jia Yi's New Works of Qin); "The first emperor was tyrannical until his son died" (Volume 8 of Zhenguan dignitaries); "The first emperor was resolute and willing to take punishment as a threat. He is a full-time jailer, and he is lucky to be bored and bored at home "(quoted from Chen's Old News of National History). They all denounced the cruelty of Qin Shihuang's rule and were tyrants. These viewpoints all have some truth, but they are also one-sided because of the different positions and starting points of commentators.

To look at the problem historically is to put Qin Shihuang under the historical conditions at that time, analyze his merits and demerits and study his merits and demerits. To study the historical environment of Qin Shihuang, we should not only pay attention to the general trend of historical development at the end of the Warring States period, but also pay special attention to the historical characteristics of Qin's formation since the founding of the People's Republic of China and its influence on Qin Shihuang. This latter point has been ignored by most people in the evaluation of Qin Shihuang so far. When we systematically study the history of Qin dynasty and then evaluate Qin Shihuang, it is expected to avoid the one-sidedness of the past and draw a conclusion that is more in line with historical reality.

According to this observation, it should be said that Qin Shihuang was an outstanding historical figure who made great contributions to the historical development of China, and was also a brutal tyrant. His achievements are the main aspects, but they can't cover up his sins; His sins are deep, but this should not erase his great historical achievements.

Qin Shihuang's most important historical achievement was to complete the great cause of reunification and establish the first feudal centralized state in history.

Of course, the unification of Qin is an inevitable trend of historical development, and the objective situation has created conditions for reunification. Qin Shihuang came to the orchard when the unified fruit was ripe. But this historical inevitability does not mean that the role of individuals is insignificant. Why was reunification achieved by the State of Qin? Why should reunification be completed in 22 1 year BC? In these respects, it shows the personal role of Qin Shihuang.

After Shang Yang's political reform, Qin became stronger and stronger, showing the vigorous vitality of the new feudal system in all aspects. In the later period of Wang Zhao's rule, the conditions for Qin to annex six countries gradually formed. After Qin Shihuang came to power, although there was a disagreement with Lv Buwei on how to govern China, which led to a massacre, he always adhered to the established national policy of the Qin Dynasty on the basic policy of developing eastward and eliminating separatist countries, without wavering or hesitating. He recognized the favorable situation, made decisive decisions, and accomplished the great cause of reunification in one go. As long as you look at the schedule after Qin Shihuang came to power, you can see that Qin Jinjun's pace is almost non-stop:

From 238 BC to 230 BC, Qin Jun continued to attack Korea, Zhao and Wei to prepare for the large-scale elimination of vassal states.

Since 230 BC, they have been extinguished almost once in one country:

Destroy Korea in the first 230 years

Attack Zhao in the first 229 years.

Destroyed Zhao in 228.

Attack Yan in the first 227 years

Swallows were destroyed in the first 226 years.

Destroy Wei in the first 225 years

1924 attack on Chu.

Chu was destroyed in the first 223 years.

Eliminate a generation in the first 222 years.

In the first 22 1 year.

From the speed of this March, we can see Qin Shihuang's courage and courage to complete reunification. Therefore, Jia Yi said that he "continued to be strong after VI and tried to stay in the palace" ("On Qin" was quoted from Historical Records of Qin Shihuang's Biography), which reflected the role of Qin Shihuang in unifying China to some extent. If Qin Shihuang can't advance the unified war so resolutely and decisively, it is still a question whether the situation of the Warring States can end in 22 1 BC.

Qin Shihuang's contribution to reunification, in addition to making decisions of great historical significance, also lies in making good use of people and being brave enough to make up for it. Some critics praised Qin Shihuang's "military command ability", and there is not much basis for this evaluation. Compared with his predecessors such as Qin Mugong and Qin Wugong, Qin Shihuang almost never directed the war directly; However, Qin Shihuang made more brilliant achievements than his predecessors, except for the luck caused by history, mainly because he was good at employing people and brave in change. On the eve of China's reunification, Qin gathered almost all the first-class military strategists and politicians in China. There are Wang Jian, Wang Ben, Liao Wei, Li Si, Yao Jia and Dunwei. Most of them are not from Qin, but they are all fighting for Qin. All military offensives and political strategic plans to defeat the enemy were formulated and realized by them. The role of Qin Shihuang is to give full play to their role, listen to their advice and be brave in correcting mistakes. For example, when Chu State was destroyed, it began to misuse Li Xin. After the failure, he immediately changed course, invited Wang Jian to go out and delivered all the soldiers in the country to Wang Jian. As a result, he won. This kind of situation, if compared with the situation that unbelief in Li Mu and disinformation led to national subjugation, can be seen that Qin Shihuang, as a monarch, was good at employing people and had the courage to make up for it, which had a great impact on historical development.

Qin Shihuang's contribution also lies in laying the foundation of a multi-ethnic feudal country. Some policies and measures implemented after Qin's reunification not only affected the feudal society in the next two thousand years, but also affected the present, such as the unification of characters. The unified measures and systems adopted by Qin Shihuang were bold innovations in the historical development at that time. He not only changed the political culture of the separatist regime, but also made the feudal society and economy develop smoothly. But also changed the inherent historical tradition of Qin in many ways. For example, the State of Qin has always been regarded as a backward area in the West by the Central Plains countries, and Qin Xiaogong is also troubled by this. Although the forces of Qin entered the Central Plains after the Prince of Zhao, the main ruling areas and base areas have not yet left the customs. By the time of Qin Shihuang, its territory had reached an unprecedented level. Faced with this situation, Qin Shihuang created various systems on the basis of the Qin system, but he was not confined to the inherent systems and traditions of Qin, which shows that his political vision was far-reaching. Most of the systems formulated by the Qin dynasty were inherited later, which can prove that these systems and measures were adapted to the historical situation at that time. Qin Shihuang, who created these systems, could not have done this if his political vision did not go beyond the limitations of Qin in the western frontier.

In the history of Qin State, Qin Shihuang is an important figure in the development history of Qin State after Qin Mugong and Shang Yang. In the history of China, Qin Shihuang was also a representative figure who initiated an era.

But Qin Shihuang was still a rare tyrant. Qin Shihuang's cruelty can't be explained only by the general reason of "the nature of the landlord class". Tang Zhen once said: "Since Qin Dynasty, emperors have been thieves" ("Hidden Book Language"), and this view is correct. But the "thief" Qin Shihuang seems to be more tyrannical and guilty than other emperors. He is not only extravagant, but also causes the suffering of the broad masses of people; What is conducive to reunification is measures. Although it was beneficial to social development in the long run, it became a catastrophe at that time, such as the construction of the Great Wall. For decades, hundreds of thousands of people were recruited to do extremely heavy work. From the following records, we can see how terrible the pain caused by the burden of swinging labor is. Yang Tinglie, a A Qing writer, wrote in Fang County Records that a hairy "hairy man" was discovered. It is said that their ancestors were migrant workers who escaped the labor of Qin Shihuang to build the Great Wall. Because they hide in the deep mountains and forests, they are covered with long hair. It is said that when they met the long-haired man, he asked you first, "Is the Great Wall finished?" Is Qin Huang still there? He replied, "The Great Wall is not finished, and Qin Shihuang is still there! "Long-haired men will scare away. Of course, this record can only be regarded as a folk legend. However, if there is no such cruel reality in history, this terrible legend will never appear. It reflects that what Qin Shihuang did was based on the cruel exploitation and oppression of the broad masses of working people, which far exceeded the degree that society could bear, making it difficult to maintain the simple reproduction of society, so even some measures conducive to historical development caused disasters to the people at that time.

The cruelty of Qin Shihuang's rule is closely related to the historical tradition of Qin State. Qin was founded as a nomadic people. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Qin has been in an environment of fighting against the enemy. "Qin people suffer hardships" is caused by history, and the "cruelty" of the rulers is also consistent with the cruel reality of this war. From Qin Xianggong to Shang Yang and then to Qin Shihuang, its ruling methods have been extremely cruel: "Yi San ancestor" and "Yi Jiuzu", which are extremely rare in other vassal States. There are hundreds of martyrs recorded in Qin alone. Qin Shihuang completed the plan of the former monarchs to unify China, and at the same time, the cruel rule of Qin reached its peak. However, emphasizing the tradition of Qin does not mean exempting Qin Shihuang from personal guilt. His cruel personality, ambition and success, especially after reunification, are important reasons for aggravating people's disasters. Because of this, and because he pushed the social economy to the point of collapse at that time, the Qin Dynasty became an extremely dark dynasty in history.

Qin Shihuang is such a historical figure: he is not only a politician with great contributions, but also a tyrant.