Qin+Legalism

By: Isabel In the year of 221 BC a new dynasty began. Its name was the Qin (chin). After the Zhou dynasty came to an end the seven warring states became three groups the Qi, the Chu, and the Qin. The two stronger dynasties, Qin and Chu created huge armies of more than million men. As you know the Qin won this battle and took over China naming their ruler, “The First Emperor” or Shi Huangdi. No sooner had they started their dynasty they created Legalism, a philosophy of using fear, and strictness to inflict power over all of China. They believed that if you used fear then your citizens would only then obey you. This, later in the dynasty would result in the downfall of the Qin. Three major ways to promote Legalism were burning books, hard labor, and execution and punishment. With these three ways to promote Legalism they were able to strike fear into the workers, peasants, citizens, and even government officials. Legalism was to the rulers was what mattered most. Confucianism, the philosophy of Confucius’s teachings seems the opposite of Legalism in which they believed in love, and treating each other with respect. Also, Confucius believed in the five relationships: friend-to-friend, sibling-to-sibling, wife to husband, parent to child, and ruler to subject. Now, the legalists they were completely against Confucianism. Some rulers even chopped the heads off of anyone who did not believe in the same things as themselves. This lead to the rulers of the Qin burning books. They would burn books in order to rid the teachings of Laozi (Lao-zu) and Confucius. Shi Huangdi, even ordered that every important book be burned. Also, the Qin dynasty used hard labor to build many of ancient China’s greatest structures. For example, the long wall which took over a million men to build. It has been estimated that about 400,000 people died making it. There were no breaks, little to eat, no shelter, and the leaders themselves killed many workers. So many bodies were buried in the wall it is called the “largest graveyard” in the world. Execution was there main way of frightening their workers and citizens. The Qin rulers thought that the only way to get something done was by threatening them. For manor crimes it would vary from shaving your facial hair off to cutting off your left foot. But for more serious crimes you were sometimes executed in very gruesome ways. Two ways were being sliced in two at the waist with a hatchet or being ripped apart by ropes attached to horse-drawn chariots driven in opposite directions! As may be expected, the Qin dynasty only lasted about 15 years and then a group called the Han rebelled and took over. As the Qin learned fear and punishment do not always get the job done. The next dynasty, the Han were cleverer enough to come up with a mix of Legalism and Confucianism. This unlike the Qin was a perfect balance of harsh and too sweet.
 * Qin: Legalism**



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1: Who ordered that every important book be burned?

2: Do you feel that Legalism was a better philosophy or that Confucianism was better?

3: What are some of the punishments for small crimes?