"Hero" and the Qin Emperor
May. 18th, 2005 12:16 amOkay, I'll try to keep this brief since I also need to get some sleep...
The Qin Emperor is one of the most fascinating and ambiguous figures in Chinese history. (And there are quite a few to choose from. Of course, this probably has more to do with cultural tropes wrt interpreting history than a greater frequency of ambiguous figures.) He united China. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is somewhat open to interpretation (well, by me, more on that later) but it's certainly impressive. But he was ruthless and brutal, terrified everyone, paranoid as heck (though possibly wth good reason) and didn't last long.
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The Qin Emperor is one of the most fascinating and ambiguous figures in Chinese history. (And there are quite a few to choose from. Of course, this probably has more to do with cultural tropes wrt interpreting history than a greater frequency of ambiguous figures.) He united China. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is somewhat open to interpretation (well, by me, more on that later) but it's certainly impressive. But he was ruthless and brutal, terrified everyone, paranoid as heck (though possibly wth good reason) and didn't last long.
( Read more... )