The First Emperor
Professor Jeffrey Riegel of the University of California, Berkeley, on the emperor’s legacy
With the help of his chief minister Li Si, the first emperor Qin Shi Huang put in place an administration, a bureaucracy and a system of governance that would long outlast him. This was, in a very real sense, his legacy, handed down for generations of Chinese civilisation.
In many respects, this bureaucratic state is the hallmark of Chinese civilisation. It is what distinguishes it from many other ancient cultures and from that of many of China’s neighbours within Asia. And the emperor himself had a sense that what he was creating would last for ever.
Ten thousand generations
He called himself the first emperor, the one who had initiated the project, the one who had started this system of government. He specified that his son would be called the ‘second-generation emperor’ and then his grandson would be called the ‘third-generation emperor’ and so forth, even unto 10,000 generations.
He did this because, of course, he wanted the empire and the system he had created to last. But there was a more personal reason for this: only if the ruling family lasted, only if generation followed on generation, would there be successors to tend his tomb, to ensure that he was resting peacefully within his underground world, and getting to enjoy the longevity that he had prepared himself for.
Undoing the grand project
However, this part of the plan didn’t work. Perhaps, along with Li Si, he paid too much attention to putting the administration in place, and expected that everyone would more or less submit to it, including members of his family. It seems that he didn’t anticipate fully the kind of strife that would take place on his death, the family conflict, the differences between his various sons and their factions and advisers, which would lead to the undoing of his grand project.
The first emperor thought of the institutions that he had created almost as if they were a machine that would just continue to function as they always had. But his analysis of the situation wasn’t quite right. For the machine to work properly, for the bureaucracy to function, for the administration to be effective, what was required was a strong man at the top, the first emperor himself. When he died, all the gears and wheels slowed to a halt and the machine began to fall apart.
The human dimension
The dynasty barely outlived the first emperor himself. Within a short time after his death, conflict within the imperial family and among the factions that had formed around his various sons came to a head. At the same time, there was a great deal of resentment in the empire against the first emperor’s rule. The degree to which his dynasty was oppressive and harsh may be exaggerated in some of the historical texts, and yet I think some credence should be given to them – shortly after he died, there were several uprisings and armies did march into the Wei river valley. It was one of those armies that, according to the historical texts, virtually destroyed the tomb complex.
The fact that the empire disappeared so quickly says, I think, something about the nature of human society. You can create the perfect administration, the perfect bureaucracy, making sure that you have great symmetry in your offices, that everyone has a job description and the like, but you have to take into account the human dimension – human feeling, human emotion and the kind of animosity that was engendered by the first emperor’s personality and the harshness of his rule. If you don’t, even if the machine is perfect, no one is going to go along with it.
A leaderless state?
We also think that the first emperor’s plans came undone and the system unravelled because the various legalist advisers and philosophers who had surrounded him probably realised that he had been too powerful. A ruler of such great power didn’t quite fit into their idealistic view of what a leaderless state should be, what a bureaucracy running like a machine should be.
There were too many instances of his idiosyncratic behaviour, of his favouring one faction over another, of his making clear what his personal preferences were. This business with seeking immortality: all of that made him seem very strange – awe-inspiring, but still idiosyncratic and strange. I think that his advisers wanted someone who was a bit more predictable and controllable, and so on his death they formed factions, trying to put in place their ideal candidate.
In Chinese tradition, bureaucracy and governance are important, but so is lineage, family and the idea that the eldest son should succeed. So when the legalist advisers interfered with this by intruding on the succession and engaging in all this manoeuvring, this removed legitimacy from the succession. And with the first emperor gone and with the legitimacy of the succession in question, the door was opened for any number of problems.
