An interview with the one and only Emperor Qin
The
questions that we all want answered
Sarah
G. - Staff Writer
Me: How did you get to be emperor?
Qin: Well you see my grandfather was
the king of Qin. However, my father had twenty brothers which meant that Ying
Yiren, my father, was not crowned prince. As a result Lu Buwei, a merchant,
came to Ying and saw a great opportunity to help out Ying. Lu fought for Ying
and between bribes and arguments was able to crown Ying prince. As you know I
was named Ying Zheng after my father. When I was twelve he passed away which
meant that the prince would become the new king. Since I was the prince I had
to become king around twelve years old.
Me: Good to know. What was it like
becoming a king at such a young age?
Qin: Actually, I was not scared. My
whole goal was to gain power for the state of Qin. I wanted Qin to be the
strongest it could possibly be. My mind was also focused on conquering the
other six states and reuniting so that China would flow together and less
problems would occur. From watching my father rule as king I picked up on the
way he ruled. I was determined to strengthen China and make it one.
Me: How did you strengthen Qin?
Qin: My main goal was to strengthen
Qin. The way I could do that was by conquering the other six states. Also I
focused on the rule of law. I rewarded the people, such as farmers and
soldiers, who helped build up the economy and military. As time went on I
became very specific and detailed with my laws in order to keep my people in
line. To conquer the other states, I befriended the ones far away, and attacked
the ones close by. After ten years the states near Qin were conquered. A little
while after, I was able to take control of the other six states. By 221 B.C., I
had formed the largest dynasty in Chinese history.
Me: It is said that you are a
legalist. Is that true and if so what are your beliefs?
Qin: I am in fact a legalist. As a
legalist I basically believe that people are bad. I am very harsh when it comes
to my people. I keep a very strict structure on and control my people's lives to
keep them in line. When people break my rules or do something wrong, they
get punished. When any one of my people does something good they were rewarded.
This gets my people to behave and listen to me because they know I will punish
them if they do not. My control over their lives has made them work harder in
battle and in the fields. If anyone talks about having a problem with the way I
rule or says my ruling can be improved, they are sentenced to a death penalty.
I run my empire the way I do and it works for me, so no one should have a
problem with it.
Me: Did you make any changes to your empire and if so what were some?
Qin: I did make some changes. I made changes in the law code,
censorship, land, standardization, and peasants. For the law code I made a new
one that applied to everyone. I also picked people for a huge law enforcement
group that enforced the laws on the rest of the people. I do not believe in
education. People should be farming instead of reading so many books. That is
why I burned all books except for ones involving medicine, agriculture, or
medicine. Anyone who does not
burn their books is sentenced to death or is sent to go work on the wall. I
took land away from the nobles so that they would not become more powerful than
me. If they argue with me then they get killed or get sent to work on
the Great Wall. To make the empire one I had only one system of measures,
weights, laws, money, and written language. Every peasant was assigned the job as either a farmer or silk maker. If they refuse or are too slow then I send them to
work on the wall. If anyone has a problem with my changes, they will be
punished.
For your consideration.
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