Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo
I agree with Forsaken_Infinity that it's hard to say what "might have" happened. But Cao Cao was a strong and capable personality, so he might have been able to set up something that lasted. Or not.
And as for the First Emperor, we do have to give credit (and blame) to minister Li Si. I find the burning books and burying scholars hard to justify, and the deaths of so many people in constructing things like the Great Wall. But unity was clearly a problem, and the Great Wall at least had some defensive value. As kuroishinigami says, without his "leadership and wile" he couldn't have unified China.
I've read that when the First Emperor sent officials from the new capital to rule the regions, the local aristocratic families were upset. They wanted to continue running their local areas themselves. So they supported rebellions against the Qin. He was ahead of his time, since the country wasn't ready for a real bureaucracy yet.
|
To be fair, there is never a good time when setting up a new cultural norm or ruling regime. It took a Civil War just to get slavery abolished and what Qín Shǐ Huang was trying to accomplish were not just sovereignty but to standardize virtually everything at time.
Not to mention that he was only Emperor for 11 years and with the speed and method he unified the land he needs more time to settle everything down. Personally, I still contribute Qin's quick demise to Zhao Gao and Li Si considering that Fusu was described as a capable and well-respect men and was suppose to be the successor with the aid of Grand General Meng Tian.
As for Cao Cao, he was a capable man, but did not establish Wei, his son did and he himself was know for massacres and city burning. It is hard to say Cao Cao himself will done better considering all three kingdoms had vast advances along with revolutionary policy implementations during that period. Besides, Shu was the kingdom with least internal strife during that period. (But at same time they can't afford to have constant discord the way Wei court did).
Besides, one of the biggest problem Cao Cao had was appointing his successor. If weren't because Cao Pi being a decisive and similarly capable leader the same thing that happened to Yuan Shao and Lui Biao would had happened again. Cao Pi was forced to take power away from his own clan (though he did keep Xiahou Clan's power to maintain central control). But it still led to the rise of Sima clan. Sima Yan learned the lesson and keep the power within the clan similar to the way Cao Cao did but ironically, it was precisely that reason the Jin dynasty lost it's power. The family feud became the cause of Jin Dynasty's down fall 25 years after his death that forced Jin to give up northern territories to different tribes that forms the 16 States. But with that been said, Jin still lasted about 150 years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kuroishinigami
Great wall was needed, due to attacks from northern "barbarian", although whether the sacrifice was worth it or not is very much arguable(the northern land citizens do lose their lives from northern barbarian attack if the wall wasn't errected). The burning book and scholar burying on the other hand was born from paranoia, probably come from first emperor's rough childhood, although some expert theorized that the first emperor an Li Si did that to force the citizens to use the new standardized letter.
Beside that though, his policies was mostly revolutionizing such as standardization of letter, measurements, irrigation system in Sichuan, Lingqu canal, etc. Still, the first emperor image is mostly bad in modern people and it intrigues me a lot that the manga writer decides to make him the protagonist.
|
Though to be fair, most of the walls were already erected by then, he only ordered the connection of those walls.
But I'm loving this, with the main character being one of Yíng Zheng's main generals who was over-shadowed by the more famous and celebrated Meng Tian. Though the two of them (and their peers) had quite a pressure on them with their predecessor Wang Jian and his predecessor Bai Qi both being considers among the top 4 generals during the latter period of Warring States. (other two been Lian Po and Li Mu, both of Zhao)
Li Xin is an interesting choice also because his clan survive into well into Han Dynasty and continues to be a well-known military family has produce multiple known generals. His most well-known descendant is Li Guang, The Flying General. (and yes, Lu Bu's nickname comes from that guy.)