nomadic attack. It would be renovated and extended in future dynasties.
Qin Shihuang was a bold and ruthless reformer and innovator. Confucianism required its followers to advise a ruler on the principles of benevolence and status quo, even if speaking out put their lives at stake. Qin Shihuang was certainly guilty of violating those principles, so the Confucian scholars bravely criticized him, thereby incurring his wrath and getting themselves executed. The emperor was adamant on having uniformity in thinking, just as he required uniformity in everything else. So he outlawed Confucianism, and confiscated their texts and burned them. He also rounded up over 460 Confucian scholars who stubbornly clung to their principles, and buried them alive. Henceforth, students of the land would be permitted to study only such practical subjects as farming, medicine, divination, and the official history of Qin, and to do so only under the tutorage of government officials.
Qin Shihuang had created precedents for two strains in China’s political tradition. One, educated people imbued with Confucianism would see it as their inescapable duty to speak out on issues concerning the well‐being of their country and people, even at the risk of their lives and fortunes. And, two, the rulers would resort to banning and burning books and persecuting dissidents in an attempt to control people’s thinking. This dual tradition repeatedly asserted itself down to modern times.
Li Bing and the Dujiang Dikes. Li Bing and his son were put in charge of building an irrigation network to water the farmlands of the Chengdu Plain in 256 BCE. The project included drilling a tunnel through a mountain range to channel water from the Min River on its western slope to the farmlands on its eastern plains. How could they manage such a gigantic project without modern machinery?
Li Bing’s peasant workers began by digging a cave into the side of the mountain with hand tools, piling firewood in it, and starting a fire to produce an intense heat. When the temperature of the surrounding rock reached its peak, they would throw cold water on the burning hot rock. The sudden drop in surface temperature would cause the rock to crack and collapse. Again with hand tools, they would smash and remove the cracked rocks. By repeating the process, they eventually reached the other side of the mountain range, leaving behind them a long tunnel.
The Dujiang irrigation system has been watering the Chengdu Plain for the past 2000 years, and it continues to do so.
Legalism was not all about war and persecution. Its goal was “rich country, strong army.” But Qin Shihuang’s numerous wars, huge construction projects, and extravagant lifestyle consumed enormous amounts of human and material resources. To furnish his coffers, his government mercilessly pushed for increased production as well as increased tax and labor service.
The burden fell especially heavily on the backs of the peasantry. When the burden became unbearable, the peasants rose in armed rebellion. The outbreak of peasant revolt in the declining stages of a dynasty would become a recurring event throughout Chinese history. It is a sure sign of the pending downfall of a dynasty. Qin Shihuang died in 210 BCE on one of his many inspection tours of his empire. Court intrigues and assassinations followed in a power struggle. His second son became emperor but was killed by one of his courtiers only two years into his reign. That was the end of the Qin Dynasty. Qin Shihuang had created the title Shihuang for himself, implying that his descendants would reign till eternity. In fact, his dynasty lasted for only 13 years. But the government structure of a centralized bureaucratic empire he invented served as a model for dynastic China for the next 20 centuries.
Qin Shihuang had two additional gargantuan civil engineering projects: the construction of the Eh Fang Palace and his massive mausoleum (the site of the terra‐cotta army). He intended his mausoleum to be a place where he would dwell and continue his rule after death. But it was burned, ransacked, and forgotten by history soon after his death. Then in 1974, a peasant digging in the fields discovered signs of it by accident. It is still only partially excavated, but the portion that is unearthed is enough to inspire awe with its thousands of lifelike terra‐cotta warriors and horses, numerous weapons, many bronze war chariots, and finely crafted luxury goods. The excavation has touched only a small portion of the massive mausoleum, leaving the rest for a later date when funding and technology can ensure better preservation.
The Chinese are deeply ambivalent about Qin Shihuang: They admire him for the unparalleled ability he showed in unifying the country and making it rich and strong, but they abhor the brutal means he used to achieve his ends.
Scholars have struggled with the question of why China was able to create such a sophisticated, powerful, and stable government so very early in its history. One tentative answer is that it was simply a matter of necessity. For China faced two existential challenges throughout its history: (1) an unruly Yellow River, and (2) perennial conflicts with its nomadic neighbors. Both challenges called for a centralized government capable of bringing together all human and material resources to deal with those life‐and‐death challenges. They argue that, had China not had such a form of government, it would not have survived.
The Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE): The Consolidation of China’s System of Empire
One can seize the throne on horseback, but can one govern on horseback too?
—Lu Jia
The collapse of the Qin Empire left a power vacuum. Various interest groups jumped into a frenzied struggle to seize the throne. Liu Bang emerged from the scramble on top, and founded the Han Dynasty. The Qin–Han succession would become a pattern: The founder of the earlier of the two dynasties proved to be an exceptionally competent man who employed the most ruthless and cunning means to defeat his rivals, unify the country, and reestablish order. His dynasty then collapsed after his death, the incompetence of his successor son, and infighting among civilian and military officials. The Qin dynasty lasted 15 years. The founder of the next dynasty – the Han, whose name now identifies ethnic Chinese – took advantage of the accomplishments of the earlier regime, adopted a more measured approach to governance, and succeeded in building a stable dynasty that lasted more than four centuries.
Emperor Liu Bang (aka Han Gaozu, 256–195 BCE) is considered one of the most able, though not one of the finer, emperors in Chinese history. He started life as a village hoodlum and petty government official, and rose to the top by means of vision, cunning, brutality, and sheer brazenness. He employed men who were humble by birth like himself and had fought with him in founding his dynasty, but then got rid of them when he became suspicious of their loyalty. His dynasty was one of China’s longest‐lasting and became the model for imperial government down to the early twentieth century.
Liu Bang had shown a disdain for Confucianism during the war years when he was fighting to seize the throne. But when he was firmly seated on the throne, his advisor cautioned him that he could seize power on horseback (by the use of force), but could not govern a nation in the same manner. In other words, the Legalists’ naked reliance on greed and fear was an inadequate ideology to sustain a great empire. Liu Bang and his immediate successors took to heart the lesson of the quick demise of the Qin Dynasty, and developed an eclectic state philosophy that merged Confucianism, Legalism, and Daoism.
Confucianism appealed to any sitting emperor, because of its vision of a ruler of absolute power positioned at the pinnacle of a hierarchically structured government, commanding a bureaucracy staffed with loyal and educated officials, shepherding a population of loyal subjects dutifully going about their business as scholars, bureaucrats, soldiers, peasants, artisans, and merchants in obedience to him and in harmony with one another. Daoism provided the philosophical underpinning for statecraft. And Legalism remained essential with its practical blueprint for promoting a supreme ruler and building a bureaucracy by which the ruler can make strict laws and enforce them ruthlessly. The Legalist means are harsh, but they work, and their amorality can be balanced by Confucian compassion and Daoist restraint.
For the next 20 centuries, Chinese rulers would all embrace a variable, eclectic mix of Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism. Although they may emphasize different elements of this mix, they would always discreetly call it Confucianism, for the brand name of Legalism had