Bibliography

 Works Cited

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News Article

Emperor Qin Dead

Shen Bang

Xianyang Times

September 11, 210 B.C.

SHAQIU-   Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor died yesterday because of ingesting mercury pills. The pills Qin ingested were meant to make him immortal. The mercury as we see now must have been too poisonous for Qin’s heart to handle. Qin died on September 10, 210 B.C. Immortality was not granted to Qin.

            As we all know the construction of Emperor Qin’s tomb has been going on for quite a long time now. The construction of Emperor Qin’s tomb started because of his obsession with immortality. Immortality also caused his death. Emperor Qin has always been obsessed with finding the elixir of life. This elixir of life was, in theory, supposed to give immortality. He was so obsessed with finding this elixir he would give anything to people who claimed they had it. Emperor Qin went to Zhifu island three times to achieve immortality. One time Emperor Qin sent Xu Fu, a Zhifu islander, with ships which carried hundreds of men and women in search of mystical Penglai mountain. They were sent to Penglai mountain in search of Anqi Sheng. Anqi Sheng is a 1,000 year old women who invited Emperor Qin to search for at Penglai mountain. Xu Fu and his ships never returned. Emperor Qin was also so scared of the evil spirits that would get him if he wasn’t immortal, he built tunnels to each one of his palaces (that would mean over 200 tunnels). Those tunnels by theory would let him travel safely without being hurt by the evil spirits since he was traveling unseen.

With Emperor Qin being quite a legalist people are very happy he has “finally died”. Kong Bai remembers the days he would be ordered to do the craziest things and then punished. “This man should have been tortured! Why he was aloud to die of natural causes, I do not know. I was once ordered by him to walk a mile to the nearest market to fetch 10 gallons of water. It took me around three and a half hours to do this job. The Emperor didn’t like how long it took me so he ordered the guards to whip me 1,000 times! He always punished me in the harshest way possible. I wasn’t the only one to be punished like this. At least 1 million other people like me were punished this way. This man must have had so much greed giving harsh punishments and not listening to people. This man was the walking devil. ”

On the other hand some people are very sad that such a great man has died. Lu Nuan remembers the great accomplishments of Emperor Qin. “Emperor Qin was a great man. He put China into the best state it has been in, in years. He unified China, letting people meet new people without being criticized. He gave us the same currency, letting us buy what ever we pleased instead of walking around with 20 different types of coins. He simplified our language giving us new trade opportunities because we can talk to each other. Emperor Qin, in my opinion is the best man to have ever walked the face of the Earth.”

Editorial

We Are Free At Last

Shen Bang

Xianyang Times

We are free at last. Emperor Qin, the man who has controlled our country the only way he can, by greed, torture, and harsh punishments, has died. Emperor Qin can no more punish us for thinking differently than him. Emperor Qin was a legalist. Legalism was a philosophy which taught rulers that the only way to rule was with strict laws and harsh punishments. We no longer have to look after every single thing we do, thank god.

Emperor Qin made very strict laws. Also he had very harsh punishments for people who disobeyed him. If you looked at Emperor Qin the wrong way you would be sentenced to a brutal beating. You couldn’t have a good life with him watching every move you did. You always felt like you were under pressure. Emperor Qin had built the great wall. To build the Great Wall he had to force hundreds of thousands of people to do labor. Thousands of people died making the Great Wall because of the brutal conditions during the winter. Qin burned the teachings of Confucius to ruble. Our most precious writings were burned to ashes because he didn’t like that they opposed Legalism. Qin also killed the thousands of philosophers that taught the teachings of Confucius because he thought that they would rebel against him. Qin’s strict laws didn’t let you have freedom of speech. His strict laws didn’t even let you have freedom of speech in your own house. You felt like you didn’t even have freedom of speech in your own house because you knew if someone heard you say anything about Qin you would be in big trouble. In a way you were scared to death of being caught and punished. People should be happy that such a terrible man has died.

            Even though Emperor Qin had done many things in his life time like build the Great Wall and unify China he still was a harsh leader because he did many bad things. If Qin wasn’t emperor we wouldn’t have had the great wall and the unification of China would have never happened. We would also not have had millions of people die just because he didn’t like them. We also wouldn’t have had the extreme stress that he caused us. If Emperor Qin was still alive we would still be watching every step we took and we wouldn’t be able to talk without being punished. Also we would still have the stress of the harsh everyday life he has made. With Emperor Qin dead we have freedom of speech, no more harsh laws, and now will can follow other philosophies not only Legalism.

            Now that Emperor Qin is dead we are free, we no longer have to follow strict laws and have harsh punishments for the smallest mistakes. We now know that we can never have an Emperor who is a legalist. We are free at last from the harshest man in the world, Emperor Qin.

Map Paragraph

            The Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206 BC) was much larger than the Warring States. The Qin dynasty’s border started at the Huang He river. The border then goes eastward to the middle of modern day China. The border then goes south to Vietnam, and north all the way up the east coast. The Warring States were much smaller than the Qin dynasty. In fact the Warring states were around half the size of the Qin dynasty. The Qin dynasty covered more land eastward. The land that was covered eastward was now a solid form not spotty like in the Warring States.  Also the Qin dynasty went much more south then the Warring States. The Warring States were around half the length of the Qin dynasty. The capital of the Qin dynasty was Xianyang. Unlike the warring states the Qin dynasty had a capital because it was united. In all the Qin dynasty is much greater then the Warring States. But the Qin dynasty is very small compared to modern China. The Qin dynasty is around a third of the size of modern China.

Religion and Belief Systems

Legalism was the main belief system in the Qin dynasty. Legalism was founded by Han Fei. Han was born in the Zhou dynasty. The Zhou dynasty was always under war by other groups. Han questioned if a ruler following Confucian philosophy could rule an empire correctly. He then decided to make his own philosophy because he did not think Confucianism could be followed to rule well. Han made legalism.

Legalism philosophy is explained in the book “Basic Writings”. It says that the only way to rule is with strict laws and harsh punishments. Also it explains how everybody is naturally evil. This book also says that a ruler has to grasp complete authority from his people. Legalism states that the ruler has to have very detailed laws to teach people to accept their authority. If a person was caught disrespecting the ruler he was supposed to be punished very harshly. Legalism also states that the most effective way to be a good ruler was to never show feelings of affection or kindness. Han Fei said rulers should trust no one including their families.

Legalism affected the daily life of the Qin dynasty dramatically. People in the Qin dynasty had very harsh laws. Since Emperor Qin was a legalist he put many very strict laws into play. Those strict laws didn’t give people much freedom. In a way you were stalked. I say this because guards were every where listening to every single word you say. You felt like you didn’t even have freedom in your own house because you knew if someone heard you say anything about Qin you would be in big trouble. If legalism wasn’t the empire’s main philosophy then I would think life would have been more calm and peaceful then it was. People would be able to go outside without feeling like they were stalked. Also people would be able to have freedom of speech.

Interview with Emperor Qin

Question: Is it hard or easy to run such great empire?

Answer: It is very hard to rule such a great empire. I have to always be thinking of new punishments and laws to make life for my people better. People are always disobeying my rules, making life harder for me because I have to yell and yell giving me more stress. Also it's hard for me because people are always saying that I'm too harsh. Calling me harsh, angry, crazy, etc will only cause you more pain because all the stress that you cause me will be rebounded on you.

Question: Why did you tell your son to commit suicide?

Answer: Well my son has disapproved of me since he was 10. I allowed him to join me in my rule. While he was ruling with me he made laws that I did not approve of. One of those laws were allowing Confucianism to be practiced. Well first of all allowing somebody to help me in my rule was against me belief. Second, allowing Confucianism was something that I completely went against. So I told my son if you don’t want to disgrace me and your family name anymore just go commit suicide. A couple days later he did.

Question: How did it feel being the first to unify China?

Answer: I was born into this country when it was fighting with itself. Everybody was against everybody. There was an endless war happening. Everybody was miserable back then. The goal that I had my whole life was have China never be like it was when I was a child. That meant unifying China. I spent my whole life thinking of ideas about how to unify China. I’m very happy that I unified China because it showed my life's work paid off and being the first was even better because it made me more famous.

Question: Why did you want to make one main currency instead of multiple different ones?

Answer: People couldn't go to the market in the south and use money from the north. This problem caused big conflicts. One conflict was that people in the south couldn't eat things from the north and vice versa. This meant the culture of China wasn't being spread through out the country. I wanted to standardize the currency so that the culture of China could be the same through out China.

Question: Why do you want to be immortal?

Answer: When I was little I saw many people die. The wars that were happening would kill thousands of people at a time. The pain and helplessness people feel when they die was something I did not want to feel. Helplessness was something I especially didn’t want to feel because I was a fighter which meant helplessness was something I would never want to experience. I want to become immortal so I would never have to feel that way.