Inventions, Legalism, and Bureaucracy of the Qin Dynasty
The Qin Dynasty is a true example of small but powerful in the eyes of the Chinese people. The dynasty only lasted from about 221 BCE to 206 BCE but within that time frame the Qin Dynasty quickly held one of the longest lasting and biggest cultural impacts on the people of China. I am going to go over these impacts and analyze them.
Before the rise of the Qin Dynasty, China had been apart of a time of many wars and death because it was under the rule of many different states. After the Qin had potentially ended the Warring States period, the victories during this period would begin the completion of the Qin conquest of China. In 221 BCE, the Qin dynasty unified China for the first time in history. They brought the power of the different states together to unify one great nation, similar to America but the colonies of America never really fought against each other nor did the Qin Dynasty have a foreign opponent.
The first Qin leader was a man named Ying Zheng. He later would proclaim himself as Shi Huangdi, which means the first emperor, of China in 221 BCE. Though it was the first time that China had been unified, it does not mean that there was peace. There was peace between all of the states, but there was a lot of death and fear driven by the Qin Dynasty. After the Qin Shi Huangdi made a philosophical rule called Legalism apart of the culture the life of the civilians was much worse than the times of the war. Legalism was a view that people are by nature always evil and selfish. To help maintain the evilness of the people, the legalist made laws that would turn the bad of the good to help the overall state. If someone wanted to kill another then they would probably end up killing, so if you were charged with murder, chances are you would be conscripted to the military to kill others and fight for the cause of the state. Other legalist laws would be how to address superiors, as well as criminal law dealing with theft and murder. Since the government used the laws to maintain the evilness of the people, there had to be severe punishment for breaking the law. People could be put to death, heavily fined, forced to join the army, or sentenced to community service which usually dealt with building monuments or fortifications (The Great Wall). Much of the legalist had books burned if they did not deal with weaving or farming because they felt that reading books on other topics could lead people astray from the legalist ways. They also did this because they believed that uneducated people were easier to control.
Legalism I would say is a terrible creation. Especially since it is based on the beliefs of people that viewed life as all evil and corruption. Legalism seems to be similar to a dictatorship, everyone has to do what the leader says and obey his commands and if you don’t, you pay the price. Though this is terrible, it proved to be an effective way to rule based many of the peasants were to do one job all of their lives which was either weave or farm. It is effective but it is a cruel and manipulative way to govern, which clearly shows why it is not used as much today as it use to.
As if Legalism wasn’t enough, Qin Shi Huangdi also established a system of bureaucracy where the states would be broken down into smaller and smaller provinces each with two government officials. Each small unit had to report to the bigger one and then the bigger one reported to the next biggest unit and so on so forth. This was established so that the Emperor could literally control everyones every minute of their lives.
Though the Qin Dynasty based itself of Legalism, that did not ruin the impact it had on China. The Qin Dynasty also established a form of literacy and language that would be adopted by all states of China so they could now all communicate with the same language strengthening the unification of China. Not only that but they also established a standardized currency, system of measurement, and network of roads and canals. They also would help develop the multiplication table and help develop many projects dealing with irrigation as well as the construction of The Great Wall.
Below is a link to a video going over the rules of legalism and what some of the consequences were for breaking the law or believing another philosophy other than legalism.
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I think it is interesting, really, how Qin was already thinking of bureaucracy in the ancient world. Often times the ruler of these empires would want the single power and authority of their people and the land. Instead of going this route, Qin decided to make states and providences and localize the government more. This allow the empire to continue to expand while still maintaining power. This worked for the Qin dynasty as opposed to some other areas that we have studied where the ultimate ruling power was hesitant to give up their power and they ended up losing everything due to rebellions.
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