Qin Shi Huang Emperor of China

Fiction. And Fact.

Peace Maker. Nation Builder.

Qin Shi Huang 259 – 210 BCE

How Qin Shi Huang achieved greatness

The king of a small state in what was known as the “Middle Kingdom” – became first emperor of China. His achievements were monumental.

•He ended the 200 year-long "Warring States period." In only ten years. •He founded the empire of China – without the use of force.•He made China a populist state based on law, rooting out the privileged and laying off the military.•He established a formal, educated and competent bureaucracy.•He ended feudalism - centuries before that happened in Europe.•He built an economic foundation and brought prosperity to the people.•He introduced standards in language, transportation and financial management.•He brought peace to China as his single most important gift.

The fundamental questions about Qin Shi Huang

•How did the Middle Kingdom state of Qin end 200 years of inter-state war in just a decade? •Did they really achieve that without conflict?•How can we deny the “wisdom” that in all of human history, tyrants conquer – not peacemakers? It’s obvious, is it not, that states are not won over by olive branches but swords and cannon. •If it was by peaceful means, did previous arch enemies really welcome joining together to found an empire under the leadership of one of the (smaller) states?•Did Qin Shi Huang win over everyone – i.e. did he have enemies?•Why did the first dynasty end so soon?

Qin Shi Huang’s gift to the world

• Qin Shi Huang destroyed the dragon of determinism that had enslaved the people of the Middle Kingdom and China for centuries.

• He proved that war was not inevitable, and that peace could be achieved – with work.

• He demonstrated the benefits of a peace-based economy guided by common law.

• He showed that states working together could build a great nation. States at war had hurt only themselves.

• He proved that fairness, equality and benevolence are the essential ingredients for national (and international) happiness and prosperity.

Why is his story not sung from rooftops?

• Many historians are married to China’s revered “Grand Historian” – a propagandist employed (through torture) by the second (Han) dynasty. One of his jobs was to totally discredit the first emperor. He succeeded.

• History authorities who accept the propaganda deny themselves the opportunity to view events from a fresh perspective.

• History and social science and also unapologetically deterministic. They are convinced there is something called “human nature;” that humans are “naturally warlike;” and that only if communities and countries are "lucky" will peace "break out.” But we are not sure how that happens.

• The vast canon of pre- and post-empire literature that follows these themes and trends is perceived – by its very volume – to be insurmountable (and therefore inerrant).

• These conditions weight against – and discourage - fresh, objective, and horizontal (multi-disciplinary) analysis and reporting.

What was his secret?

• Qin Shi Huang learned an amazing lesson: rulers need advisors. Advisors need to be the best that can be had.

• There is absolutely no room for personal advantage and privilege if you are building for the millennium.

• Successful rulers rule with benevolence.• People are happiest and most productive when they do not live under a dome of

fear.• Peace making and nation building require comprehensive, high level principles

and best practices to work. Developmental and operational tactics are also required.

• Dramatic, visible action will articulate for the common people what is important, what needs to be done, and what is being done.

• War is not won by war. War is stupid. It is prevented by diplomacy, intrigue and persuasion. Qin Shi Huang passed his principles and methods for winning without war to us. We have done a brilliant job of handling all of that with misunderstanding and confusion. And disbelief.

What sort of person was the first emperor?

• He was what we would call an “intellectual” today. He was a student of governance. He truly wondered how countries and societies could be made to live and work in a more benevolent and supportive way.

• He was completely open to questions and ideas of all sorts. He despised “yes men” almost as much as he despised those who insisted things could not and should not change.

• He understood the value of training and education. He understood what “competence” (and incompetence) was all about.

• He was a visionary who did not shirk for either the big picture or the small detail.

• He suffered from a surplus of trust and a deficit of caution. He believed his truths were self evident – but he did not consider those who find truth only in their own beliefs.

How did the empire come into being – without war?

• The Qin academies concluded that (1) war was not desirable or useful; (2) it was nor inevitable and (3) peace did not come from war.

• Qin concluded that the Middle Kingdom states also needed these realizations.

• Qin launched a propaganda assault using talented “persuaders” who told stories that challenged the old and accepted, and encouraged the new and exciting.

• Qin was a model of peace, prosperity, learning and good government.• As the country had been ravaged by war and the people driven to

desperation, they proved a willing audience for these messages. • The states – hearing their citizens – willingly entered into alliance with

all the other states under the benign leadership of Qin.• Qin gathered up all weapons, prohibited war, and launched an empire

based on law, equality and opportunity.

Fiction and Fact I

• QSH was a tyrant, despot, and dictator.

• He developed a sound body of law for the empire and governed according to those laws.

• He ended feudalism (long before Europe did)

• He prohibited nepotism and favoritism - even preventing his royal family from gaining high rank and privilege - unless they earned it.

Fiction and Fact II

• Qin Shi Huang was the bastard son of a courtesan.

• This is second dynasty propaganda. He was born into the royal family, but was low in succession.

• Living in exile, he had the good luck and good judgment to come into association with a brilliant strategist when a young man.

• He learned from him, among other things, that competent rulers have competent advisors.

Fiction and Fact III

• QSH conscripted millions of men for military service and public works.

• There was no military service in Qin, and "conscription” was employment for public works and in the diplomatic arts. Major works included a canal and irrigation system that made Qin the richest state in the Middle Kingdom.

• QSH did have an army – one trained in the diplomatic art of "persuasion." They travelled to markets and courts to spread the messages of peace and empire.

• They were trained in Qin's academies - institutions that had written many great works on diplomacy, strategy and empire building including the Tao Te Ching and Ping-fa.

Fiction and Fact IV

• QSH taxed his people into poverty and ruin.

• No facts support this assertion.

• A similar allegation is made regarding the emperor's tomb - which is usually described as extravagant, wasteful and the cause of massive loss of life by the thousands "conscripted" to work on it.

• This was a normal public work, and its builders were most likely honored to be part of it. The actual tomb component of the Xi'an site is only a small part of a very large memorial to the end of war and the foundation of the empire.

Fiction and Fact IV(a)

• One of the world’s great attractions is a terra cotta army constructed to protect the emperor in the afterlife.

• No research has been published supporting this assertion.

• There is no historical / archaeological precedent for such a thing.

• The first emperor was a Legalist, and hence an atheist; therefore, the notion of his belief in an afterlife is problematic.

• But seriously, by what process do clay soldiers become converted into active soldiers in the “afterlife”? When we excavate the tomb, we should see the activation instructions. Yes?

• Why it so hard to see the obvious: that the terra cotta array was demonstration, not accessory?

Fiction and Fact V

• Exactly what was the purpose of the terra cotta “army”?

• Terra cotta soldiers protect nobody - in life, or afterlife.

• While it may have been the practice in antiquity and later to bury attendants with a deceased noble to "serve" that noble in death, the very idea that clay staff would be made "live" in the "afterlife" is sheer nonsense.

• QSH's terra cotta array was meant to be visited, and to astound those visitors with the magnitude and cost of armies, and war.

Fiction and Fact VI

• QSH built the Great Wall.

• He did not. He merely added to an existing series of walls that long after his death became a continuous string known by that name.

Fiction and Fact VII

• QSH buried scholars and burned books.

• He did not. • These notions were

generated by the Han's "historian" and refer either to fictional events or misunderstanding.

• Sima Qian's "official history" of Qin Shi Huang that describes these alleged events was written long after his death.

Fiction and Fact VIII

• QSH was fanatical about his own immortality QSH was fanatical about his own immortality

• There is no reason to suspect that QSH did not want to live a long and healthy life - most people do.

• His surviving writings suggest he had great dreams for China and the Chinese people - dreams that would take time to realize.

• To argue that he took mercury to prolong his life is both a personal and cultural insult. The level of general and medical knowledge in China at that time - as now - was profound. While the consequences of ingesting mercury may have been unknown, there was certainly no evidence that mercury ingestion would facilitate longevity or immortality.

• It’s more likely the Confucians at court who despised him fed him mercury to end his life as early as possible. In other words, QSH could well have been assassinated by Confucians.

QSH was fanatical about his own immortality.

Fiction and Fact IX

• The Qin dynasty was ended by a peasant revolt.

• First, there was absolutely no reason why the peasantry would want to end the dynasty.

• There was widespread prosperity. Farm productivity and profits were high and people had food on the table. There was education, transport, freedom of movement, rule by law and peace.

• After 200 years of war, families could see an even brighter future ahead. They had an emperor who made several major excursions into the country to meet his people, see their work, and gather reactions to his government.

• A "revolt" in the empire would require only a small number of court assassinations. There was no standing army, and no evidence of even a significant palace guard. Transition to a new dynasty would involve only replacing key officials. The transition - years in planning - probably happened in a matter of days.

Postscript

The military and Confucians conspired, and succeeded, in ensuring the first dynasty was a short one. With Qin Shi Huang’s family liquidated, they then ushered in the Han dynasty of 400 years - an era characterized by a frenzied drive to rid the historical record of the nature and achievements of the first emperor. Ironically, the second empire retained all that was sound and beneficial of the Qin dynasty - which was most of it. The Han declared the dynasty of Qin Shi Huang to be nothing more than an evil interregnum that was best forgot.

To this day the Chinese people refer to themselves as "Han.”

• The School of Sun Tzu details – for the first time – the means by which the empire of China came into being, and the dramatic role played by the Schools of Lao Tzu and Sun Tzu.

• Academies of learning and training, they developed the neo-Taoist Tao Te Ching and the Ping-fa, known (incorrectly) for many years as “The Art of War.”

• These two brief texts provide principles, polices and practices for both peace-making and nation-building. They are a dramatic pair of books, and they could easily be put to work again. The world awaits.

• Support my research! ISBN 978-1-4697-6911-0