Qin Shi Huang's Legacy: Assessing the First Emperor's Impact on Chinese History (2024)

The Chairman and the Emperor: Historiography of Qin Shi Huang in the late Cultural Revolution Period: 1971-1976

The reign of Qin Shi Huang [259-210 BCE] is one of the most discussed in all of Chinese history. Tales of this emperor’s brutal first unification of China have been referenced by every major historian in Chinese history. Over time, appraisals of Qin Shi Huang became a way that Chinese intellectuals could discuss contemporary politics under the ever present eye of the censor. However, the Cultural Revolution of Mao Zedong [1893-1976 CE] sent that lively historiography into an unprecedented ideological frenzy. Every major figure, event, and system of the Qin era was politicized and analogized to their contemporaneous counterparts. Above all, the central analogy of Mao Zedong to Qin Shi Huang necessitated an unyielding defense of the Qin. The way the ideological historians of this period dealt with this long-passed era sheds dramatic light on the elite politics, the fractional infighting and the debates of the People’s Republic of China in 1973. Moreover, it also reflects the timeless and powerful relationship between China and its history.

2014: “The Messianic Emperor: A New Look at Qin’s Place in China’s History”

Yuri Pines, Lothar von Falkenhausen, Gideon Shelach and Robin D.S. Yates, eds., Birth of an Empire: The State of Qin revisited. Berkeley: University of California Press., 2014

Review of Yuri Pines, Lothar von Falkenhausen, Gideon Shelach, and Robin D.S. Yates, eds., Birth of an Empire: The State of Qin Revisited (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2014), 395 pp.

Overview: the relevance of China's history for Contemporary China

2023: Another Life of the First Emperor: A Story of Scholarly Biases. _Journal of the American Oriental Society_ 143.3

Journal of the American Oriental Society 143.3 , 2023

This is a review article that focuses on Antony Barbieri-Low's _The Many Lives of the First Emperor of China_ (2022). The book under review presents an engaging and well researched analysis of the changing image of the First Emperor of Qin throughout centuries. Yet the study suffers from insufficient attention to nuances of Chinese political culture, from outright dismission of looted manuscripts (some of which are essential for understanding the Qin), and, primarily, from the author's own biases. Do these biases suggest the author's desire to use the First Emperor as a foil in U .S. political debates?

Qin – the eternal emperor and his terracotta army

Terracotta warriors excavated from the tomb complex of the First Emperor of Qin have distinct facial features and a particular kind of fascination, offering a unique “ face-to face” encounter with ancient China. This is why the exhibition “ Qin — The Eternal Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors,” held at the Bernisches Historisches Museum in 2013, was centred on the terracotta figures. A second aim of the exhibition, however, was to extend this scope and give an insight into a period of more than 1,000 years of Chinese history and civilization. The first section showed the roots and rise of the Qin principality up until the development of the Chinese Empire. The second section was centred on the tomb complex of the First Emperor and his terracotta army. Finally, the third section dealt with Qin Shi Huangdi ’ s legacy for subsequent eras. Particular attention was also given to the archaeological challenges of the excavation and conservation of the terracotta army. This accompanying publication covers all of the topics dealt with in the exhibition and expands upon them. Similarly to the exhibition, the publication is also divided into three sections. The first section offers an outline of the political situation in the territory of presentday China during the first millennium BC ( Chapter 1 ), traces the rise of the Qin State from its origins until the foundation of the Empire in the year 221 BC ( Chapter 2 ), and gives an insight into the funerary culture of Qin society ( Chapter 3 ). The second section initially focuses on the First Emperor of Qin ( Chapter 4 ) and the organization of the Chinese Empire founded by him ( Chapter 5 ). It then describes in detail the tomb complex of the First Emperor ( Chapter 6 ) and the terracotta army ( Chapter 7 ). The third section of the book deals with the historical heritage of the Qin dynasty. It first examines the Han dynasty ( 202 BC–AD220 ) as the immediate successor of the Qin, and outlines a number of developments in the history of the Chinese Empire until its collapse in the year 1911 ( Chapter 8 ). Finally, it shows how the historical figure of the First Emperor and the terracotta army are perceived in contemporary China ( Chapter 9 ). The catalogue section is also divided into three parts and documents all objects on display in the exhibition. A chronological table, a reading aid for correct pronunciation of certain Chinese terms, and a list of the most important Chinese place and personal names and other terms mentioned in this book complete the publication.

2017 The Book of Lord Shang: Apologetics of State Power in Early China

The downloadable file is the introduction to my translation cum study of The Book of Lord Shang, one of the foundational texts in Chinese political thought. The book, attributed to a major reformer, Shang Yang (d. 338 BCE), proposes creation of a new type of political entity: a powerful centralized state that will penetrate the entire society and reshape the lives of its subjects. Through the means of sophisticated social engineering, the ruler will be able to turn every subject into a diligent tiller and a valiant soldier. This will bring about the desired goal of “a rich state and a strong army,” and, eventually, lead to unification of “All-under-Heaven” into a powerful empire. Ideas promulgated in the Book of Lord Shang played a crucial role in the empowerment of the state of Qin, which duly unified the Chinese world in 221 BCE creating the first imperial polity on Chinese soil. See more on https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-book-of-lord-shang/9780231179881 The introduction is excerpted from The Book of Lord Shang by Yang Shang, edited and translated by Yuri Pines. Copyright (c) 2017 Columbia University Press. Used by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved

Imperial expansion, public investment, and the long path of history: China’s initial political unification and its aftermath (Hui Fang, Gary M. Feinman, and Linda M. Nicholas, 2015)

The Neolithic (ca. 8000–1900 B.C.) underpinnings of early Chinese civilization had diverse geographic and cultural foundations in distinct traditions, ways of life, subsistence regimes, and modes of leadership. The subsequent Bronze Age (ca. 1900–221 B.C.) was characterized by increasing political consolidation, expansion, and heightened interaction, culminating in an era of a smaller number of warring states. During the third century B.C., the Qin Dynasty first politically unified this fractious landscape, across an area that covers much of what is now China, and rapidly instituted a series of infrastructural investments and other unifying measures, many of which were maintained and amplified during the subsequent Han Dynasty. Here, we examine this historical sequence at both the national and macroscale and more deeply for a small region on the coast of the Shandong Province, where we have conducted several decades of archaeological research. At both scales, we examine apparent shifts in the governance of local diversity and some of the implications both during Qin–Han times and for the longer durée.

2014 Birth of an Empire: The state of Qin revisited

2013

In 221 BCE the state of Qin vanquished its rivals and established the first empire on Chinese soil, starting a millennia-long imperial age in Chinese history. Hailed by some and maligned by many, Qin has long been an enigma. In a path-breaking study, the authors integrate textual sources with newly available archeological and paleographic materials, providing a boldly novel picture of Qin’s cultural and political trajectory, its evolving institutions and its religion, its place in China’s history and the reasons for its success and for its ultimate collapse.

Emperor Huizong and late Northern Song China : the politics of culture and the culture of politics

Harvard University Asia Center eBooks, 2006