Racquel Fox History 2 March 21, 2013 Qin Shi Huang Di Paragraphs Qin Shi Huang Di: Brilliant

Leader or Brutal Tyrant Qin Shi Huang Di was a brilliant leader, but he was also a brutal tyrant. He did many great things while he was in power, but at too great a cost. He was a legalist so he believed everyone was bad, and he enforced very strict laws. His birth name was Zhou Zheng, but he changed it when he became emperor. He became king of the Qin state when he was 13 years old. Before Qin Shi Huang Di was emperor, the Zhou dynasty had started feudalism, where they gave the nobles a piece of land that they owned themselves and would report back to the king. However, the nobles were greedy and wanted to take the land from each other, which started the warring states period. Qin Shi Huang Di conquered all of the warring states and unified them into one empire, which is now present-day China. He became the emperor of the Qin Dynasty. Some things that Qin Shi Huang Di did that was brilliant was standardizing the writing system, the measurements, and coins. Standardizing the writing system was great because people from different places could still understand each other. He also built railroads and irrigation systems. Some people might say that building the Great Wall of China was a good thing, but I say its a bad thing. He forced so many men to build it and so many of them died working on it. It was a beautiful finishing product, but it took so many lives that they call it the Worlds Largest Graveyard. Even though Qin Shi Huang Di did some good things, he was still very cruel. He was a legalist, so he thought that nobody was a good person and that you couldnt trust anybody. He had very strict laws and executed many people for breaking them. If somebody got out of jail, he would tattoo their forehead saying what crime they did, so they would always be shamed. He burned books that werent about things he thought were important. He executed about 405 Confucianists who wouldnt give him their books. He was definitely a brutal tyrant.

Before he died, he searched around Asia for an immortality potion because he wanted to rule his empire for 10,000 years. While he was searching for a potion, he died. His empire only lasted about 15 years. Qin Shi Huang Di will always be a remembered emperor. He did some good things, along with terrible things. In my opinion, he was both a brilliant leader and a brutal tyrant.