4.1: The Fall of Qin

With the Iron Age, the common people burst onto the stage of history. The Qin had built its power on the sheer number of soldiers its farmers could feed, as well as on its willingness to kill the soldiers of opposing armies. It named, armed, and granted land and rank to the common people, creating a new social force to support the emperor. It contributed to the world the Legalist idea that the state was a public possession, and a bureaucratically-organized government to realize that idea.

After the death of the First Qin Emperor, laborers in Chu rebelled. Prime Minister Li Si (c. 280-208 BC), a long-time advisor, warned the Second Emperor:

The reason for all this rebellion is the bitter burden of garrison duty, building and transport service, and heavy taxation. We propose calling a halt to the work on the Apang Palace, and reducing transport duties and garrison service.”

The Second Emperor replied:

According to Han Feizi, “[Sage-kings] Yao and Shun neither polished their oak rafters nor trimmed their thatched hut, and they ate and drank from earthen bowls, so that no gatekeeper could have lived more frugally. When [sage-king] Yu cut a channel... to let the Yellow River flow to the ocean, he carried his tools himself, and worked till he rubbed all the hair off his legs. No slave could have toiled harder.”

But what is splendid about possessing an empire is being able to do as you please and satisfy your desires. [As I learned from Han Feizi] By stressing and clarifying the laws, a ruler can stop his subjects from doing evil and so control the land within the seas. If rulers like Shun and Yu, exalted as the Son of Heaven, have to lead poor, arduous lives to set an example to the people, what use are laws?

The Second Emperor has misinterpreted Legalism to mean he can do whatever he wants. Even the old lords of the Warring States had had to make allowances for the popular temper and grant grain and money to desperate producers. They were called “loans,” but no repayment was expected. Qin, too lent grain, draft animals, tools, money, and slaves to farmers. But driven by a new reality created by its obsessive accounting, its tracking of everything, Qin demanded repayment. Even convicts were punished if they broke state tools. Poor families suffered, and turned against the state. Former aristocrats, still bitter, joined in rebellion.

It was a commoner who finally won the civil war. Liu Bang (256 – 195 BC) had held office under Qin, passing a test to become a police chief. He was a rough, tough brawler, and his wife and partner Lü Zhi (241-180 BC) was no more genteel. Still, Liu Bang was more honorable than Xiang Yu, the aristocratic leader of a coalition of rebels. They had all agreed that whoever captured the Qin capital would become the next king of that desirable region – no-one was planning to continue the unified empire, which had only lasted for 15 years, after all. Liu Bang and his troops captured the area, but rather than immediately claiming his prize he honorably sealed up the Qin treasuries until Xiang Yu arrived. When Xiang Yu did arrive, instead of honoring the agreement, assigned Liu to a rule an area a bit further south, on the Han river. Liu Bang turned against Xiang Yu, defeated him, and went on to win control of rest of Qin territory. He named his empire after the river: “Han.” As well as its territory, the Han dynasty (202 BC –AD 220) inherited Qin’s Legalist state system. Han political theory recognized the support of commoners as the sound basis of the state; in the Western or Former Han (202 BC – AD 9) in practice, in the Eastern or Latter Han (AD 23-220) only in theory.