Evaluation of Qin Shihuang and Han Wudi

He was the first emperor in China, the founder of the emperor's honorific title and the founder of the emperor system in China, which made China enter the era of multi-ethnic centralized monarchy. He also made China achieve political reunification for the first time, forming a situation of "cars on the same track, books on the same page", which laid the foundation for the later dynasties to seek reunification. But since ancient times, Qin Shihuang has always been a controversial figure.

1, evaluation

Positive

When Qin Shihuang was in power, he annexed six countries and sent troops to explore the north and south. Historically, it has been said that "a land of a hundred miles, bow to the knees" and "the king of Qin sweeps the Liuhe River". According to the map of the Warring States, the territory is almost twice that controlled by the seven heroes of the Warring States. Moreover, Qin Shihuang "set up a county" and paid attention to the rule and system construction of conquered land, unlike other contemporary conquerors such as Alexander of Macedonia or Rome, which only paid attention to conquest and did not pay attention to system construction; Thus stabilized the unified land rule and laid the foundation for the present Chinese territory. Later generations thought that "his contribution was greater than Qin Huang's Hanwu". Qin Shihuang is ahead of Han Wudi in martial arts, which is unparalleled in history. Today, the English name for China, China, also evolved from the Roman word Chin, which shows the influence of the Qin Empire from one side.

Since Shang Yang's political reform, Qin attached great importance to the rule of law. Qin Shihuang inherited this tradition and admired Han Fei, a legalist figure. He once lamented that "if you walk with him, you will have no hatred." Reward and punish generals according to law. Although Qin Shihuang was autocratic and thought that "we rule the world", he still ruled the country according to law in the Qin Dynasty. Chen Sheng and the uprising, the reason is that "Qin law is harsh", and its crime is capital crime, so it has to be reversed, but the law forces the people to rebel. Nor is it like the "Zhumen wine stinks and frozen bones" in later generations. Because of serious corruption, officials forced the people to rebel. Later Confucianism advocated the rule of man, but not by law. A word was decided by the monarch, but the wind of rule by man and flattery still exists today.

Qin Shihuang initiated the post station system and built post roads. It laid a technical foundation for the decree access of the huge empire and the resulting county-based imperial power country. "Building a post road and establishing a county" is a necessary condition for China to adopt the advanced county system to replace the western enfeoffment system. At the same time, Rome can't effectively control the occupied areas, and there is only one powerful governor (the governor is in charge of the military and political power of a place, all of whom are nobles, and the grass-roots organizations rely on the original local organizations), which is still similar to the enfeoffment system, which is a very important reason for the later division of the Roman Empire. The county system is a civilian system, and its military and political leaders are appointed by the emperor. According to their political achievements, their military achievements can be raised or lowered and leveled, which leads to the emergence of professional bureaucrats and professional soldiers. Professional bureaucrats and professional soldiers can come from civilians, and county bureaucrats effectively protect the rights of civilians (Brazzaville) to participate in the discussion of state affairs (such as Reese and Meng Ao). It's all cloth, only according to the military). Compared with the feudal aristocratic politics, it is undoubtedly a great historical progress. This is the origin of the civil service system and the military system in modern countries.

The Qin Empire established by Qin Shihuang laid the foundation that China's political system was more advanced than that of the West in recent 1700 years. China, the so-called "Han inherited the Qin system", "Since Qin, its system has not changed" and "Hundreds of generations still follow the Qin law and govern", basically followed the Qin system in the political system for two thousand years in the imperial power era.

Li Bai's "Antique" poem: "Qin Wang sweeps Liuhe, he looks at him!" Sang Hongyang's exposition affirmed Qin Shihuang's achievement in unifying China. Zhang Taiyan of the Qing Dynasty also praised Qin Shihuang in his Qin Zhengji written in 19 13.

Negative; Negative; Negative; negative

Because Qin Shihuang promoted the Legalist theory of "ruling the country according to law", and later the rulers of China promoted the Confucian theory with benevolence and the golden mean as the core. Therefore, Qin Shihuang often appears as a negative example in various essays and historical records. Such as Jia Yi's On Qin and so on.

"Historical Records of the First Qin Emperor" Qin Wang was greedy for money, self-motivated, did not believe in merit, did not kiss the gentry, abolished the royal power, established private rights, prohibited documents from cooling the law, and bullied power before righteousness, which began with tyranny.

Jia Yi's "On Qin": One person is in trouble for seven temples, and his body is dead and his hands are dead. What is the joke of the whole world? Be merciless, and the offensive and defensive trends are different.

Qin Shihuang was regarded as a tyrant by many historians and would do anything for power.

The Great Wall of Wan Li, Qin Chi Road, Lingqu, Epang Palace and the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor are all very large, and the population of the whole country is under construction. Many documents denounce the death and injury of many people in the construction process, but on the other hand, they have further developed the transportation in various places and contributed to the future transportation, economy and trade and the integration of all ethnic groups. Therefore, whether Qin Shihuang's achievements are great or too great has always been a point of debate in the history circle.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty: At the beginning of Emperor Wu's accession to the throne, on the one hand, the political situation was relatively stable and the national economic situation was quite good. On the other hand, the separatist factors of vassal States still exist, and the potential threat is not small. Therefore, while continuing to implement the policy of Emperor Jing, he took a series of measures to strengthen the centralization of absolutism.

Politics: On the political side, firstly, the "favor decree" was promulgated, which allowed the vassal king to enfeoffment more children and carve up the fiefs of the kingdom, thus further weakening the influence of the vassal king and subtly eliminating the threat; Secondly, the establishment of China and North Korea weakened the relative strength and consolidated the sacred position of imperial power; Another 13 secretariat departments were established, which strengthened local control. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also made some innovations in ancient times, including the right to receive photos, the establishment of secretariat and other major reforms and innovations, and established a systematic and complete political system that embodied the principle of Legalists "ruling the country by law and not avoiding relatives and friends". This legal tradition became the basic paradigm of China's imperial system in the next two thousand years. ?

Military: militarily, it is mainly to concentrate military forces and enrich the central military forces; Reform the military system.

Economy: On the economic front, rectify the finance, issue "counting" and "warning" orders, levy a tax on businessmen's assets, and crack down on wealthy businessmen in dajia; Sang Hongyang suggested that smelting iron and boiling salt should be returned to the official camp, and it is forbidden to cast money in counties and counties; The establishment of leveling officials and loss-sharing officials, as well as the government's management of transportation and trade, have greatly enhanced the country's economic strength. At the same time, building water conservancy projects, emigrating to the northwest and implementing the "land substitution law" are conducive to the development of agricultural production. Another important measure in the economy was to unify the currency at that time.

Thought: In terms of thought, Dong Zhongshu's suggestion was adopted to oust a hundred schools of thought, and Confucianism was the dominant thought in China society, which had a far-reaching impact on the politics, society and culture of China in later generations.

Personnel: Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also attached great importance to the development of talents. He established an inspection and evaluation system, which is the origin of China's systematic talent selection system and has a great influence on later generations.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty conducted the first population statistics in human history.

Diplomatic relations

Launch a war against the Huns.

On the one hand, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ended the pro-Xiongnu policy since the Battle of Mayi in 133 and began to formally declare war on Xiongnu. Expeditions were sent to Li Guang, Wei Qing and Huo Qubing successively, which relieved the threat of Xiongnu, expanded the territory of the western regions, and put Xiongnu in a passive position, thus ensuring the economic and cultural development in the north.

Send Zhang Qian to the Western Regions.

While waging war against Xiongnu, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian to the Western Regions, which opened up the famous Silk Road, further strengthened the rule of the Western Regions and developed the economic and cultural exchanges between China and the West.

Use troops to the northeast and south to expand the territory.

In the northeast, he sent troops to destroy Weishi Korea (now northern Korea), and set up four counties, namely Le Lang, Xuantu, Lintun and Fan Zhen, and the territory of the Han Empire was basically formed.

At the same time, Yelang and Nanyue regimes in the south were eliminated, and seven counties were established in the southwest, the southernmost of which surpassed Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam today, which also made today's Guangdong and Guangxi regions return to Chinese territory after the Qin Dynasty.

result

In the later period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, due to the constant use of troops against Xiongnu and the Western Regions, as well as the profligacy of meditation and worship of gods and immortals, the corvee was aggravated and taxes were increased, which led to the bankruptcy and exile of a large number of farmers. In the second year of Tian Han (the first 99 years), peasant uprisings of different scales broke out in Qi, Chu, Yan, Zhao and Nanyang.