Shi Huang Di

Shi Huang Di
In 221 BC, King Zheng of Qin successfully defeated all the other warring states and 11 years, but historians disagree as to whether he was a hero for China or a villainous
Hero
As a supreme leader, Shi Huang Di accomplished many things to shape China.
In 65 years, Qin, Shi Huang Di’s state, defeated 7 other states—(in chronological order) Song, Hann, Zhao, Wei, Chu. Yan, and finally Qi. As his first acts as emperor, he invited the richest and most powerful citizens to live with him in Xianyang, his capital. This way, he could keep an eye on them. He built new palaces to keep them content. Each of the new palaces were an exact copy of the ones they had to leave behind. He also divided the conquered land into 36 commanderies (areas), and commanded 3 officials to run each commandery. They received orders from the emperor, and might be sacked if they did not obey. He also ordered citizens to give up all weapons to prevent rebellion. He then melted down these weapons and crafted them into giant statues to “scare away twelve giants”, which were set up outside his palace. In addition to all these changes, he also ordered the walls around towns and cities to be knocked down.
Before Shi Huang Di unified China, each of the states used different kinds of measurements, language etc. So, to make things simpler, he set common standards. Everybody now had to use Qin weights and measures. They also had to use round one-ounce gold coins and half-ounce copper coins with holes in the middle, which were standard Qin money. However, these changes paled in comparison to the changes made to the written language. The prime minister at the time, Li Si, was given the role to standardize all the characters of the language, as Chinese is written with characters that represent pictures and ideas, instead of the alphabet. Once the job was completed, the language was modernised and simplified into 3000 characters. He also set rules for handwriting, so everybody that needed to write, such as scholars and government officials could communicate easily with each other.
During the period of warring states, there weren’t many roads. Even those roads were hard to go across since heavier carts created uneven ground on the soft earth. Many carts were damaged and got stuck in the roads. Shi Huang Di created a law so that all wheels and carts must be the same distance apart. He also built 5 major roads, which he named “speedways”. These speedways connected the capital with the northern, eastern and southern parts of the empire. During his 11 years of reign, Shi Huang Di built 6800 km of road. Meanwhile, in the eastern empire, the Romans only built 5984 km of road.
When Shi Huang Di became the emperor of China (in 221 BC), all the rules of Qin became the rules of the entire empire. According to Qin law, everybody was responsible for each other’s good behaviour. And so, Shi Huang Di organized everybody into groups of 10, and if anybody committed a crime in that family, they had to report it to the authorities, or they would get punished along with the wrongdoer. Not only that, but their father, mother, families, wife/husband and their family would also receive the same punishment. Therefore, lots of people would be punished just because one person committed a crime.
Many Mongolians, named Xiongnu, lived to the north of the empire. They often attacked parts of the empire, so Shi Huang Di ordered many slaves to build the Great Wall. Although this original structure has not been kept in condition until today, a renovated version now stands in Beijing. This version follows much of the same route as Shi Huang Di’s. Shi Huang Di’s Great Wall was made of tightly packed earth, which was reinforced by bamboo matting. Behind the wall stood watch towers—3 every kilometre. An artist’s impression of Shi Huang Di. None of the paintings of him at the time have survived, so this painting is based on written descriptions.

—Hero or Villain? gave himself the new title of Shi Huang Di—supreme ruler of China. He only ruled for dictator. I, Georgina Leung, will discuss both sides of the story.
Villain

On the other hand, many people believe that Shi Huang Di was cruel and merciless. For one, he forced many citizens to become slaves to work on his major projects such as the Great Wall. Thousands died from hunger, exposure or ill-treatment. If they tried to rebel against him, or not follow his orders, he would kill captives publicly without a second thought.
Shi Huang Di also increased taxes to pay for materials that were used in his many projects (for example, his grave, or the Great Wall). These taxes were 20 times of their previous taxes. If the taxes were not paid, the family would all have to endure slave labour. He also took half of all the food that farmers grew as tax. This resulted in extreme poverty and hunger. As a result, many citizens turned to cannibalism, and millions died.
Shi Huang Di also set many draconian laws. If these strict laws were not followed, depending on the severity of the crime, wrongdoers were set harsh punishments such as hard labour, mutilation of a person’s body, being boiled alive, cut into two at the waist, torn apart by 4 horses, strangled or beheaded.
In 213 BC, at a banquet hosted by Shi Huang Di, a scholar openly criticized Shi Huang Di. Shi Huang Di immediately ordered that all scholars could not criticize anything in the present or praise anything in the past. He also ordered all the scholars to hand their books to government officials. These were burned in a huge bonfire. However, some scholars still continued their ways. These scholars were found by the emperor and were executed. 460 scholars were presumably buried alive.
According to an extract from Sima Qian’s “Records of the Historian”, Shi Huang Di discouraged jobs such as scholars, thinkers and philosophers, because many of these people were against the king, and they could easily influence others to go against the king.

In conclusion, Shi Huang Di could be considered a hero because he was the first man to have ever united China. However, his road to success can be perceived as a cruel and violent one, which is why some people think he is a villain.