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.