The Greatest Emperor: Qin Shi Huang.

Ya know, from what I hear, this guy is comparable to Stalin. Uniting the nation, great archetectual feats, improvements in general upon his nation all at the cost of milions of lives. He also had a bit of a mental defect like Stalin (Qin's obsession with immortality in comparison to Stalin's clinical paranoia. Of course, you cant compare the two conditions but both are mental defects.)

The first emperor tried to do too much within hie reign, he totally disregarded the socail strains placed on his people enorder to complete his magnifiscant projects. Qin Shi Huang was tooooo efficient with his rule and he demanded the same from his subjects.

sumdud said:

Well, I have not learn of his mercury intake, but if he did, I hope his terror was caused by the mercury.

He could've been quite great.........

But he went around slaughtering instead...

He may have united China, but he did not have to kill civilians. He wiped the Zhou off the world!

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In his defence, what he did was not that uncommon for people in of his time. During his reign, Rome destroyed Carthage, killed all of its male citizens, sold women to slavery, and salted its fields so nothing would grow.
Don't get me started on what Rome did to the Gauls.

Yes, standards were pretty low at that time. But QSHD must have brought cruelty to a whole new level even for the people at that time to be really pissed off at him. Ironically, the same 'loyal' generals and soldiers whose faces he iconized into the terra cotta army to bring with him to heaven, would later slaughter his family and end his wretched bloodline forever.

It is for that reason why Chinese are proud to call themselves "Han" as for the Han Dynasty, but not "Qin".

It's ashame Qin shi Huang's son is so useless. I think the problem with the qin dynasty was it was to cruel, not too many people liked them, corruption and Rebellion.

MIGleader said:

I kinda got the impression he was insane...wanting to prolong life. Btw, his name is just Qin Shi. The last two parts, Huang di denote "king".

You must realise this guy killed more people than Caesar and hussein combined, in both wars and the building of the wall.

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you should be shamed of yourself to be a chinese.
Qin Shi huang's name isn't Qin Shi, his name is Ying Zheng, Qin Shi, Qin is the country's name, "Qin", Shi means "the beginning". he was also called, "Shi Huang Di", in english, "the starting emporer".
and no, he was not poisoned by mecury.......he died just like every single man would. and about his cruelness, well....back to Rome times, it's the same isn't it? That's how human was like at that stage of era...........

so i just left the forum for about a couple month..........

T-U-P said:

it doesn't matter what you guys think, to me, he is not the greatest emperor. the only real achievement he made is to unite china... for a very brief period of time. sure he started the great wall, but it costed both many many lives and his empire. it is one of the most important reason why Qin dynasty collapsed, too many slave labour and inhuman rules. if he was born any other time, he would not have been as well recieved. the fact that he is so popular now is because he was the first emperor to unite china, but he is in no way the only one. china was divided once again immediately after the fall of Qin and that's where the Chu and Han conflict came from.

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you are a historian.
china was to unify the country once again immediately .
it's my faith.................................:china:

MIGleader said:

You must realise this guy killed more people than Caesar and hussein combined, in both wars and the building of the wall.

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well obviously since caesar only killed in battle...

T-U-P said:

it doesn't matter what you guys think, to me, he is not the greatest emperor. the only real achievement he made is to unite china... for a very brief period of time. sure he started the great wall, but it costed both many many lives and his empire. it is one of the most important reason why Qin dynasty collapsed, too many slave labour and inhuman rules. if he was born any other time, he would not have been as well recieved. the fact that he is so popular now is because he was the first emperor to unite china, but he is in no way the only one. china was divided once again immediately after the fall of Qin and that's where the Chu and Han conflict came from.

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Though the QIN dynasty lasted only for a short time...the First emperor's reforms and the beaurcratic institutions he placed lasted until the 20th century. Yes there were wars and periods of disunity after the fall of a dynasty (such as the 3 kingdoms period, etc) but China always managed to reform itself. There was never a repeat of the Warring states era, where multiple states exist for hundreds of years.

To put this into context, Han China and Rome exist at the same period in history. Both emerged and fell at the same time. The only difference is that Han China was reformed, keeping the same beaucracy, language, and institutions, within a hundred years in the Tang dynasty. Western Rome was never reconstituted, its language forgotten (save for the catholic priesthood), its emperial institutions regressed back into fuedalism.

Why did China keeps reforming itself? It was thanks to the reforms of the First Emperor.

I would say Qin Shi Huang is one of the greatest emperor of china, because he had united China, builded the great wall and united china under single language. He is great for his achievement and the profound effect on China, but he is also one of most cruel emperor. Qin shi Huang ruled Qin dynasty with iron fist, and he took cruelty with whole new level. Many people was killed, and more dead as slave labor for Great wall. I doubt any people are fond of him at that time, but he probably save china many times from nomads invaded. He also probably made china more united, so people did not busy fighting themselves because of different ideology. So it really had to with your perspection when you judge him.