秦始皇QinShHuang.doc

Qin Shi Huang Many traditional Chinese historians, compelled by custom to either praise or condemn historical personages, have found themselves unable to exercise the option in the presence of a man of such giant proportions as the First Emperor of the Qin. How could his grotesque atrocities be condoned? Yet how could his contribution to the nations unity, conceived with such majestic vision and carried out with so much skill and courage, be passed over without a word of appreciation, if not admiration? A thoughtful reader may be troubled by the savage acts committed by the emperor and his followers, and yet, at another passage, be touched by the many personal risks the First Emperor took and the dauntless determination with which he sought to fulfill a purpose that was above and beyond the scope of an ordinary mans vision. The accounts in the recorded history portray the First Emperor as vain and, at times, even whimsical. Given the general level of understanding in his time, the accounts of his superstitious tendencies may well be true. Nevertheless, once he is said to have dispatched 3,000 prisoners to deforest a mountain after he was told that the goddess in control of the area had been responsible for the strong wind that had impeded his river crossing. At least on this occasion he was more defiant than fearful of supernatural power. His adaptation of black as the imperial color was epochal in his day. The inscriptions on the stone tablets he erected indicate that next to his concern for the eternal peace of the realm, he greatly valued sexual morality, which he regarded as essential to the well-being of the populace. He had more than twenty sons and at least ten daughters; but except for his promiscuous mother, the chronicles remain absolutely silent about the women in his life. The First Emperor traveled extensively, visiting not only the urban centers but also the great mountains and rivers, the lakes and the high seas. He toured the capital city incog