A Short Description of Ch'in Shih Huang's Violence

Abstract

Ch'in Shih Huang lived in a period of sharp changes in Chinese history marked by the supersession of the system of slavery by the feudal system. In conformity with the trend of historical development, he brought an end to the phase of the partitioning of the country by feudal princes and became the first one to unify China. He represented the interests of the newly emerging landlord class, boldly reformed the old political system, and set up the earliest autocratic feudal state based on the centralization of authority in Chinese history. He applied the authority of law to affirming the legitimization of the feudal system of landownership throughout the country, thus furthering the development of the feudal economic base. He worshipped Legalism and opposed Confucianism. He advocated reforms and opposed the restoration of the old order. He firmly hit at the restoration activities of the slave-owning class in the ideological sphere and was an expert in laying more stress on the present than on the past.