preview

Qin Shi Huang Dbq

Decent Essays

Qin Shi Huang was born in 259 BC and eventually ascended to the throne of the kingdom of Qin at the age of 21 creating a war and declaring himself China’s first emperor (Source 1). Although he did bring unification to China, Qin Shi Huang was a forbidding and brutal dictator who abused his power and dishonoured his people and country. This assignment will clearly highlight the negative aspects of Qin Shi Huang, including: the banning of Confucius, how he enforced of unnecessarily strict laws and how his arrogance and ignorance eventually took over.
“Qin Shi Huang was a fierce leader who was feared by his people.”(Source 1) Believing that knowledge about the past was dangerous, as were ideas that encouraged free and independent thinking, he banned the teaching of Confucius. He instead preferred what is known as legalism. Han Fei-tzu, a Legalist and the tutor of Shi Huangdi, wrote, "The ruler alone should possess the power, wielding it like lightning or like thunder." Qin Shi Huang ordered books and writing that did not support his ideas to be burned. Over 460 scholars were killed or enslaved for owning banned books. As religion played a big role in Ancient China the disrespecting of his subject’s beliefs, made him a forbidding …show more content…

(C2C, Source 7). The Qin Law Code consisted of so many possible offenses that ordinary people often did not realize that they had committed a crime until they had been arrested. The Qin Law Code set specified harsh punishments for particular crimes. For serious offences, lawbreakers faced bodily mutilation, however minor offences still faced severe punishments. The death penalty was reserved for the worst criminals, especially those who threatened the emperor or the state. These unnecessary, cruel punishments are the reason Qin Shi Huang is a cruel and heartless

Get Access