Chapter 59 Qin Shihuang: The First Emperor in History

An unprecedented ruler naturally has an unprecedented title. According to "Historical Records", after Yingzheng unified the world, he called a group of officials for a meeting, reviewed his glorious history of "raising troops and punishing riots", and then asked everyone: "A small person like the widow, relying on the blessing of his ancestors, It is actually able to make the six countries admit defeat and plead guilty, and pacify the world. If we do not change our name, it will not be enough to reflect our meritorious deeds, and we will not be able to let future generations know our achievements. You all think about it carefully, what kind of name should I adopt?"

At that time, the prime minister Wang Wan, the censor Feng Jie, and the Ting Wei Li Si all said: "The legendary five emperors ruled only a thousand miles in radius. The areas thousands of miles away are barren lands, and you can't control them at all. Now you It is unprecedented to promote righteous soldiers, fight against traitors, and order the world. It is incomparable even to the five emperors. We discussed with some doctors. We boldly suggest that you should be called 'Tai Huang', your orders should be called 'Zhi' and 'Zhao', and you should stop calling yourself a widow, but call yourself 'Zhen'."

In ancient China, there was a theory of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors. The Three Emperors were the Emperor of Heaven, the Emperor of Earth, and the Emperor of Thailand, who were above the Five Emperors.Among them, the Emperor of Thailand is the Emperor of Ren.Whether the emperor of Thailand is the most noble remains to be verified, but what is certain is that the "emperor" is more noble and divine than the "emperor", and more confident than the "son of heaven". As for "Zhen", it originally means "I", and no matter how high or low you are, you can call yourself "Zhen".After being framed by Li Si and others in this way, it has since become the exclusive self-proclaimed title of the monarch, and it has been passed down for two thousand years until the end of the Qing Dynasty.

Ying Zheng is an unconventional person, and he always feels a little inappropriate for the title of Emperor Tai.After thinking over and over again, he decided to adopt the strengths of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, and gave himself the title of "Emperor", and he adopted Li Si's opinions on the rest. Ying Zheng is a dutiful son. He became the emperor himself, and he also gave his father, King Qin Zhuangxiang, the title of Supreme Emperor. Perhaps Ying Zheng did not expect that just as he was solemnly honoring his father as China's first Supreme Emperor in the ancestral temple, China's second Supreme Emperor was sweating profusely in the fields in Sishui County.This farmer surnamed Liu has given birth to four sons, named Liu Bo, Liu Zhong, Liu Ji and Liu Jiao.Because Liu Bo died early, Liu Zhong was selfish, Liu Ji was not doing his job properly, and Liu Jiao had to go to school again, he had to get up early and stay late, hoping to collect a few more grains so that Liu Jiao could pay his tuition.

The third Liu Ji was later renamed Liu Bang. Pulling away, back to the topic. Yingzheng issued another edict and said: "I heard that in ancient times, emperors only had titles of emperors, but no posthumous titles. I don't know when the emperors had posthumous titles after death. Doing this is like letting sons talk about their fathers, and courtiers comment on them. My lord, this is unreasonable, I don't like it. From then on, I will be called the first emperor, and the future generations will add up the numbers, from the second, the third, to the ten thousand generations, forever."

The so-called posthumous title is the evaluation given by the descendants to the predecessors, commonly known as the conclusion of the coffin.In the Zhou Dynasty, the emperor had a posthumous title, the feudal lords had a posthumous title, and so did the royal class.Posthumous titles are not given randomly, there is a set of strict national standards, for example: "Correcting disasters and chaos is called martial arts" - Duke Wu of Zheng and King Wu of Chu are such people; "Bude Zhiyi is called Mu" - the life of Duke Mu of Qin can indeed be called Bude Zhiyi; "Repeatedly levied and killed Yuezhuang"——Zheng Zhuanggong and Qi Zhuanggong were both militants.

Of course, in many cases, in order to respect the predecessors, the later generations will give a higher evaluation than the actual one.For example, Duke Hui of Jin may not be filial, and Duke Xiao of Qi may not be filial, but based on the principle of being kind to the predecessors, he turned a blind eye and gave them a good review. In addition, there is the so-called bad posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous posthumous titles.For example: "Chaos does not damage the spirit of the sun." King Ling of Chu received such a bad review.

It is conceivable that future generations have a lot of discretion whether to give a good review or a bad review, and the predecessors cannot appeal.Of course, there are exceptions - in the Spring and Autumn Period, King Cheng of Chu was a hero, but died in a coup. His son originally wanted to give him the word "spirit", but his old man's eyes were wide open, and he died unwillingly.It was not until later that the word "cheng" was changed, that he closed his eyes and expressed his satisfaction. Yingzheng was taught by Lu Buwei since he was a child, and later accepted the legalist thought of Li Si and Han Fei. In his ruling philosophy, the monarch must be unpredictable.The monarch is like the sky. When the sky is sunny and when it is raining, he does not need to look at the eyes of the common people, let alone allow the subjects to discuss and evaluate.If the weather is good, you don't need to praise it; if the weather is bad, it's not your turn to make irresponsible remarks.For Yingzheng, the posthumous title is like a handle deliberately left by the ruler to the world. It is extremely stupid and boring, and must be eradicated.

Since then, Yingzheng has been called the First Emperor, and in history books, the word Qin is usually added to him, and he is called Qin Shihuang. So, how did the first emperor, who is the only one in heaven and earth, manage his huge empire?Obviously, you can't do without two brushes.