Editing Qin Shi Huang (section)

==Legacy==
===Mausoleum and Terracotta Army===
{{Main|Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor}}
{{see also|Terracotta Army|Qin bronze chariot}}
[[File:Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum.png|thumb|upright=1.3|Plan of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=A. R. |title=Discoveries May Rewrite History of China's Terra-Cotta Warriors |journal=National Geographic |date=12 October 2016 |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/china-first-emperor-terra-cotta-warriors-tomb |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228210204/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/china-first-emperor-terra-cotta-warriors-tomb |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 February 2021}}</ref>]]
[[File:Army of Terracotta.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Statues from the [[Terracotta Army]] discovered near modern Xi'an, meant to guard the [[Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor]]]]

Sima Qian, writing a century after the First Emperor's death, wrote that it took 700,000 men to construct the [[Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor|emperor's mausoleum]]. British historian [[John Man (author)|John Man]] points out that this figure is larger than the population of any city in the world at that time and he calculates that the foundations could have been built by 16,000 men in two years.<ref>Man, John. ''The Terracotta Army'', Bantam 2007 p. 125. {{ISBN|978-0-593-05929-6}}.</ref> Sima Qian never mentioned the [[Terracotta Army]], but he did mention that the Qin Emperor built monumental bronze statues for his palace.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nickel |first1=Lukas |title=The First Emperor and sculpture in China |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |date=October 2013 |volume=76 |issue=3 |pages=436–450 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X13000487 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X13000487 |issn=0041-977X}}</ref> The terracotta statues were discovered by a group of farmers digging wells on 29 March 1974.<ref>Huang, Ray. (1997). ''China: A Macro History''. Edition: 2, revised, illustrated. M. E. Sharpe. {{ISBN|1-56324-731-3|978-1-56324-731-6}}. p. 37</ref> The soldiers were created with a series of mix-and-match clay molds and then further individualized by the artists' hand. [[Han purple and Han blue|Han Purple]] was also used on some of the warriors.<ref>Thieme, C. 2001. (translated by M. Will) ''Paint Layers and Pigments on the Terracotta Army: A Comparison with Other Cultures of Antiquity''. In: W. Yongqi, Z. Tinghao, M. Petzet, E. Emmerling and C. Blänsdorf (eds.) ''The Polychromy of Antique Sculptures and the Terracotta Army of the First Chinese Emperor: Studies on Materials, Painting Techniques and Conservation''. ''Monuments and Sites III''. Paris: ICOMOS, 52–57.</ref>
There are around 6,000 statues, whose purpose was to protect the Emperor in the afterlife from evil spirits.<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 March 2022 |title=The dark history behind the record-breaking Terracotta Army |url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2022/3/the-dark-history-behind-the-record-breaking-terracotta-army-694905 |access-date=24 November 2022 |website=Guinness World Records}}</ref> Also among the army are chariots and 40,000 real bronze weapons.{{sfn|Portal|2007|p={{page needed|date=January 2022}}}}

One of the first projects which the young king accomplished while he was alive was the construction of his own tomb. In 215 BC Qin Shi Huang ordered General [[Meng Tian]] to begin its construction with the assistance of 300,000 men.<ref name=wood/> Other sources suggest that he ordered 720,000 unpaid laborers to build his tomb according to his specifications.<ref name="Ancient" /> Again, given John Man's observation regarding populations at the time (see paragraph above), these historical estimates are debatable. The main tomb (located at {{Coord|34|22|53|N|109|15|13|E|type:landmark}}) containing the emperor has yet to be opened and evidence suggests that it remains relatively intact.{{sfn|Portal|2007|p=207}} Sima Qian's description of the tomb includes replicas of palaces and scenic towers, "rare utensils and wonderful objects", 100 rivers made with mercury, representations of "the heavenly bodies", and crossbows rigged to shoot anyone who tried to break in.<ref>Man, John. ''The Terracotta Army'', Bantam 2007 p. 170. {{ISBN|978-0-593-05929-6}}.</ref> The tomb was built at the foot of [[Mount Li]], 30 kilometers away from Xi'an. Modern archaeologists have located the tomb, and have inserted probes deep into it. The probes revealed abnormally high quantities of mercury, some 100 times the naturally occurring rate, suggesting that some parts of the legend are credible.<ref name="wright" /> Secrets were maintained, as most of the workmen who built the tomb were killed.<ref name="wright" /><ref>Leffman, David. Lewis, Simon. Atiyah, Jeremy. Meyer, Mike. Lunt, Susie. (2003). ''China''. Edition: 3, illustrated. Rough Guides publishing. {{ISBN|1-84353-019-8|978-1-84353-019-0}}. p. 290.</ref>

===Reputation and assessment===
[[File:Qinshihuang.jpg|thumb|An imaginary depiction of Qin Shi Huang, painted during the late [[Qing dynasty]]]]
Traditional Chinese [[historiography]] almost always portrayed the Emperor as a brutal tyrant who had an obsessive fear of assassination. Ideological antipathy towards the [[Legalism (Chinese philosophy)|Legalist]] State of Qin was established as early as 266 BC, when Confucian philosopher [[Xun Kuang|Xunzi]] disparaged it.{{Citation needed|date=July 2011}} Later Confucian historians condemned the emperor, alleging that he [[Burning of books and burying of scholars|burned the classics and buried Confucian scholars alive]].<ref>{{citation|last = Neininger |first = Ulrich |chapter= Burying the Scholars Alive: On the Origin of a Confucian Martyrs' Legend", Nation and Mythology| title = East Asian Civilizations. New Attempts at Understanding Traditions vol. 2|year=1983 |editor-first= Wolfram |editor-last=  Eberhard| pages= 121–136}} [http://ulrichneininger.de/?p=461 Online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220310223442/http://ulrichneininger.de/?p=461 |date=10 March 2022 }}</ref> They eventually compiled a list of the ''[[Ten Crimes of Qin]]'' to highlight his tyrannical actions.<ref>Ærenlund Sørensen, "How the First Emperor Unified the Minds Of Contemporary Historians: The Inadequate Source Criticism in Modern Historical Works About The Chinese Bronze Age." ''Monumenta Serica'', vol. 58, 2010, pp. 1–30. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41417876 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109161003/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41417876 |date=9 January 2021 }}</ref>

The famous Han poet and statesman [[Jia Yi]] concluded his essay ''The Faults of Qin'' (過秦論, ''Guò Qín Lùn'') with what was to become the standard Confucian judgment of the reasons for Qin's collapse. Jia Yi's essay, admired as a masterpiece of rhetoric and reasoning, was copied into two great Han histories and has had a far-reaching influence on Chinese political thought as a classic illustration of Confucian theory.<ref>Loewe, Michael. Twitchett, Denis. (1986). ''The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220''. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-24327-0}}.</ref> He attributed Qin's disintegration to its internal failures.<ref>[[Julia Lovell]], (2006). ''The Great Wall: China Against the World, 1000 BC–AD 2000''. Grove Press. {{ISBN|0-8021-1814-3|978-0-8021-1814-1}}. p. 65.</ref> Jia Yi wrote that:

{{quote|Qin, from a tiny base, had become a great power, ruling the land and receiving homage from all quarters for a hundred odd years. Yet after they unified the land and secured themselves within the pass, a single common rustic could nevertheless challenge this empire... Why? Because the ruler lacked humaneness and rightness; because preserving power differs fundamentally from seizing power.<ref>{{cite book|title= Sources of Chinese Tradition: Volume 1, From Earliest Times to 1600|others= Compiled by Wing-tsit Chan and Joseph Adler|year= 2000|publisher= Columbia University Press|isbn= 978-0-231-51798-0|page= 230}}</ref>}}

In the modern period, assessments began to emerge that differed from those of traditional historiography. The reassessment was spurred on by the weakness of China in the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century. At that time, some began to regard Confucian traditions as an impediment to China's entry into the modern world, opening the way for changing perspectives.

At a time when foreign nations encroached upon Chinese territory, leading [[Kuomintang]] historian [[Xiao Yishan]] emphasized the role of Qin Shi Huang in repulsing the northern barbarians, particularly in the construction of the Great Wall.

Another historian, Ma Feibai ({{lang|zh|馬非百}}), published in 1941 a full-length revisionist biography of the First Emperor entitled ''Qín Shǐ Huángdì Zhuàn'' ({{lang|zh|秦始皇帝傳}}), calling him "one of the great heroes of Chinese history". Ma compared him with the contemporary leader [[Chiang Kai-shek]] and saw many parallels in the careers and policies of the two men, both of whom he admired. Chiang's [[Northern Expedition (1926–1927)|Northern Expedition]] of the late 1920s, which directly preceded the new Nationalist government at [[Nanjing]] was compared to the unification brought about by Qin Shi Huang.

With the advent of the [[Chinese Communist Revolution]] and the establishment of a new, revolutionary regime in 1949, another re-evaluation of the First Emperor emerged as a Marxist critique. This new interpretation of Qin Shi Huang was generally a combination of traditional and modern views, but essentially critical. This is exemplified in the ''Complete History of China'', which was compiled in September 1955 as an official survey of Chinese history. The work described the First Emperor's major steps toward unification and standardisation as corresponding to the interests of the ruling group and the merchant class, not of the nation or the people, and the subsequent fall of his dynasty as a manifestation of the [[class struggle]]. The perennial debate about the fall of the Qin dynasty was also explained in Marxist terms, the peasant rebellions being a revolt against oppression—a revolt which undermined the dynasty, but which was bound to fail because of a compromise with "landlord class elements".

On hearing he'd been compared to the First Emperor for his persecution of intellectuals,<ref>{{Cite news |date=12 October 2012 |title=Qin Shi Huang: The ruthless emperor who burned books |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19922863 |access-date=24 November 2022 |work=BBC}}</ref> [[Mao Zedong]] reportedly boasted in 1958:{{quote|He buried 460 scholars alive; we have buried forty-six thousand scholars alive... You [intellectuals] revile us for being Qin Shi Huangs. You are wrong. We have surpassed Qin Shi Huang a hundredfold. When you berate us for imitating his despotism, we are happy to agree! Your mistake was that you did not say so enough.<ref>''Mao Zedong sixiang wan sui!'' (1969), p. 195. Referenced in ''Governing China'' (2nd ed.) by Kenneth Lieberthal (2004).
</ref>}}

[[File:Qin Shi Huang statue.jpg|thumb|Statue of Qin Shi Huang in [[Handan]]]]
Since 1972, however, a radically different official view of Qin Shi Huang in accordance with [[Maoist]] thought has been given prominence throughout China. Hong Shidi's biography ''Qin Shi Huang'' initiated the re-evaluation. The work was published by the state press as a mass popular history, and it sold 1.85 million copies within two years. In the new era, Qin Shi Huang was seen as a far-sighted ruler who destroyed the forces of division and established the first unified, centralized state in Chinese history by rejecting the past. Personal attributes, such as his quest for immortality, so emphasized in traditional historiography, were scarcely mentioned. The new evaluations described approvingly how, in his time (an era of great political and social change), he had no compunctions against using violent methods to crush [[counter-revolutionaries]], such as the "industrial and commercial slave owner" chancellor Lü Buwei. However, he was criticized for not being as thorough as he should have been, and as a result, after his death, hidden subversives under the leadership of the chief eunuch [[Zhao Gao]] were able to seize power and use it to restore the old feudal order.

To round out this re-evaluation, Luo Siding put forward a new interpretation of the precipitous collapse of the Qin dynasty in an article entitled "On the Class Struggle During the Period Between Qin and Han" in a 1974 issue of ''Red Flag'', to replace the old explanation. The new theory claimed that the cause of the fall of Qin lay in the lack of thoroughness of Qin Shi Huang's "dictatorship over the reactionaries, even to the extent of permitting them to worm their way into organs of political authority and usurp important posts."

=== Depictions in popular media ===
<!-- Not sure this worth including, but it was removed without notice, restored if you like * In [[The Nature of Despotism: From Caligula to Mugabe, the Making of Tyrants]], [[Tom Ambrose]] characterises Qin Shi Huang as the founder of "the first police state in history".<ref>{{cite book
 |last1        = Ambrose
 |first1       = Tom
 |title        = The Nature of Despotism: From Caligula to Mugabe, the Making of Tyrants
 |url          = https://books.google.com/books?id=OGDuAAAAMAAJ
 |publisher    = New Holland
 |date         = 2010
 |page         = 20
 |isbn         = 978-1-84773-070-1
 |access-date  = 20 August 2016
|quote        = Qin Shi Huang [...] who unified China between 221 and 210 BC [...] established the first police state in history [...].
 |archive-date = 19 December 2019
|archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20191219035714/https://books.google.com/books?id=OGDuAAAAMAAJ
 |url-status   = live
}}</ref>-->
* "The Wall and the Books" ("{{lang|es|La muralla y los libros}}"), an acclaimed essay on Qin Shi Huang published by Argentine writer [[Jorge Luis Borges]] (1899–1986) in the 1952 collection ''Other Inquisitions'' (''{{lang|es|Otras Inquisiciones}}'').<ref>Southerncrossreview.org. "[http://www.southerncrossreview.org/54/borges-muralla.htm Southerncrossreview.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090319011106/http://www.southerncrossreview.org/54/borges-muralla.htm |date=19 March 2009 }}." "The Wall and the Books". Retrieved on 2 February 2009.</ref>
* ''[[The Emperor's Shadow]]'' (1996) – The film focuses on Qin Shi Huang's relationship with the musician [[Gao Jianli]], a friend of the assassin [[Jing Ke]].<ref>NYTimes.com. "[https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A0DE1DF113DF93BA25751C1A96E958260 NYtimes.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110822104523/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A0DE1DF113DF93BA25751C1A96E958260 |date=22 August 2011 }}." ''Film review.'' Retrieved on 2 February 2009.</ref>
* ''[[The Emperor and the Assassin]]'' (1999) – The film covers much of Ying Zheng's career, recalling his early experiences as a hostage and foreshadowing his dominance over China.<ref>"[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162866/ IMDb-162866] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731062622/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162866/ |date=31 July 2018 }}." ''Emperor and the Assassin.'' Retrieved on 2 February 2009.</ref><ref name="BBC">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/entertainment/345742.stm|title=The battle for the Palm d'Or|work=BBC News|date=17 May 1999|access-date=8 November 2016|archive-date=31 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220731043505/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/345742.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''[[Hero (2002 film)|Hero]]'' (2002) – The film stars [[Jet Li]], a nameless assassin who plans an assassination attempt on the King of Qin ([[Chen Daoming]]). The film is a fictional re-imagining of the assassination attempt by Jing Ke on Qin Shi Huang.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.filmsufi.com/2009/10/hero-zhang-yimou-2002.html |title="Hero" – Zhang Yimou (2002) |work=The Film Sufi |access-date=5 September 2013 |archive-date=31 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220731043505/http://www.filmsufi.com/2009/10/hero-zhang-yimou-2002.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
* ''[[Rise of the Great Wall]]'' (1986) – a 63-episode Hong Kong TV series chronicling the events from the emperor's birth until his death.<ref>Sina.com. "[http://ent.sina.com.cn/r/m/2003-11-10/0821230366.html Sina.com.cn] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080116054301/http://ent.sina.com.cn/r/m/2003-11-10/0821230366.html |date=16 January 2008 }}." ''历史剧:正史侠说.'' Retrieved on 2 February 2009.</ref> [[Tony Liu]] played Qin Shi Huang.
* ''[[A Step into the Past]]'' (2001) – a Hong Kong [[TVB]] production based on a science fiction novel by [[Huang Yi (author)|Huang Yi]].<ref>TVB. "[http://tvcity.tvb.com/drama/steppast/story/index.html TVB] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207032642/http://tvcity.tvb.com/drama/steppast/story/index.html |date=2009-02-07 }}." ''A Step to the Past TVB.'' Retrieved on 2 February 2009.</ref>
* ''[[Qin Shi Huang (2001 TV series)|Qin Shi Huang]]'' (2002) – a mainland Chinese TV semi-fictionalized series with [[Zhang Fengyi]].<ref>CCTV. "[https://archive.today/20120701160335/http://big5.cctv.com/news/ttxw/20011225/100002.html CCTV] ." ''List the 30 episode series.'' Retrieved on 2 February 2009.</ref>
* ''[[Kingdom (manga)|Kingdom]]'' (2006) – a Japanese manga that provides a fictionalized account of the unification of China by Ying Zheng with [[Li Xin (Qin)|Li Xin]] and all the people that contributed to the conquest of the six [[Warring States]].
* ''[[Fate/Grand Order]]'' (2015), an online, free-to-play role-playing mobile game of the [[Fate/Stay Night|Fate]] franchise developed by Delightworks and published by [[Aniplex]] features Qin Shi Huang as a Ruler class servant.<ref>{{cite web|title=Fate/Grand Order 4th Anniversary Event "Fate/Grand Order Fes 2019 ~Chaldea Park~" [Event Report Vol. 1]|url=https://otakumode.com/news/5d7726c682bf0c7854139d73/Fate-Grand-Order-4th-Anniversary-Event-%E2%80%9CFate-Grand-Order-Fes-2019-~Chaldea-Park~%E2%80%9D-Event-Report-Vol-1)#References|website=Tokyo Otaku Mode News|date=29 September 2019 |access-date=8 October 2019|archive-date=31 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220731043506/https://otakumode.com/news/5d7726c682bf0c7854139d73/Fate-Grand-Order-4th-Anniversary-Event-%E2%80%9CFate-Grand-Order-Fes-2019-~Chaldea-Park~%E2%80%9D-Event-Report-Vol-1#References|url-status=live}} Retrieved 30 September 2019.</ref>
* [[Civilization VI]] (2016), a [[turn-based strategy]] [[4X]] video game developed by [[Firaxis Games]] and published by [[2K (company)|2K]] features Qin Shi Huang as a playable leader.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-01-12 |title=Civilization 6 DLC Rulers of China gets release date on Steam and Epic |url=https://www.pcgamesn.com/civilization-vi/dlc-rulers-of-china |access-date=2024-06-04 |website=PCGamesN}}</ref>
* ''First Emperor: The Man Who Made China'' (2006) – a drama-documentary special about Qin Shi Huang. [[James Pax]] played the emperor. It was shown on [[Channel 4]] in the [[United Kingdom]] in 2006.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://documentarystorm.com/history-archaeology/the-first-emperor-the-man-who-made-china/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100810231033/http://documentarystorm.com/history-archaeology/the-first-emperor-the-man-who-made-china/|url-status=dead|title=DocumentaryStorm|archive-date=10 August 2010}}</ref>
* ''China's First Emperor'' (2008) – a special three-hour documentary by [[History (U.S. TV channel)|The History Channel]]. Xu Pengkai played Qin Shi Huang.<ref>Historychannel.com. "[http://www.historychannelasia.com/china/ Historychannel.com] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20080618144441/http://www.historychannelasia.com/china/ |date=2008-06-18 }}." ''China's First emperor.'' Retrieved on 2 February 2009.</ref>
* ''[[The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor]]'' (2008) – the third of [[The Mummy (franchise)|''The Mummy'' trilogy]]. It happened that after General Ming Guo was killed for touching Zi Yuan, she put a curse on the Emperor and his army.
* Qin Shi Huang is depicted in seventh volume of the manga ''[[Record of Ragnarok]]'', fighting [[Hades]]. In the manga, he is depicted as a tall slender young man with a cloth covering his eye. He is also shown to be wearing traditional Chinese clothing.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Record of Ragnarok Manga Volume 16 Releasing First On Mangamo |url=https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63841557 |access-date=10 March 2023 |website=IMDb}}</ref>