Du Mu's Epang Palace Fu
The world-famous Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Dynasty
□ Shang Ziyong
In contemporary China, praising Qin Shihuang seems to be a fashion. There was a great man with indomitable spirit who once called himself "Qin Shihuang plus Marx"; Another famous director, who devoted himself to shooting a large number of heroes, is a monument to Qin Shihuang ... of course, there are also different views. For example, a scholar I know and respect asserts: "History has never ruled a country since Qin Dynasty." However, such a voice does not seem to be the mainstream. However, Qin Shihuang himself in history, even though he unified China, made indelible contributions such as "writing is the same as language, cars are the same as tracks, systems are the same as systems, ethics is the same as morality", and he also wore the crown of "tyrant" on his head. In addition, the saying that "the world is suffering in Ku Jin" seems to come from Sima Qian, the imperial masterpiece of Hancheng Township, Shaanxi Province. ...
Some people explain that this is because the history of the Qin Dynasty is too short. Is it fair to let the people who overthrew the Qin Dynasty write the history of the Qin Dynasty? Today, we praise Qin Shihuang to set things right. It may be true, but there is still some doubt: why did the Qin Dynasty, now regarded by some people as the "Great Qin Empire", "die in the second place" (in fact, it seems that it should be "die in the third place". Because after Qin Ershi and Hu Hai were forced to commit suicide, there was another Zi Ying who surrendered to Liu Bang after only being the king of Qin for 46 days. However, because this Zi Ying didn't dare to call himself Qin Sanshi, but condescended to pretend to be the king of Qin, so he was later ignored), and his birthday was pitifully short!
Since Qin Ershi's death, the reason for his rapid demise is a big problem that China people have been thinking and discussing (even arguing) for thousands of years. People still have different opinions. In this case, I would like to express my humble opinion today.
Let's first look at what the ancients said.
Hanshu? Gu Yongchuan said: "Qin died in the sixteenth year of the second year, and his life was too extravagant and his service was too thick." Reflection? Shu Wei? "Biography of yangfu" said: "Qin Shihuang set up a room and hurt his son. The world revolts and is destroyed. " After careful consideration of these two sentences, it is obvious that the important reason of Qin Ershi's death is related to the word "luxury". In the relevant entries of Modern Chinese Dictionary, there are seven words related to the word "luxury": luxury, luxury, luxury, luxury talk, luxury hope and luxury dream; I think it is very appropriate to use the word extravagance to describe Qin Shihuang's unrestrained pursuit of power and material enjoyment.
The first is the luxury of power.
In 22 1 year BC, after realizing the dream of reunifying China, Ying Zheng, the omnipotent king of Qin, thought that he was virtuous and Huang San, and made contributions to the five emperors, so he changed his country name to "Emperor". Moreover, this guy told the world with such a set of rhetoric: "After death, a son judges his father according to his behavior, and his deputies judge his majesty according to his behavior, which is very inappropriate." From now on, I order the funeral ceremony to be abolished. I am the first emperor, and later generations count in turn, from the second generation to the third generation to eternity, so endlessly passed down. "In Qin Shihuang's mind, the world will always be their family, not only for life, but also for future generations. Lifetime system and hereditary system, two bad systems that greatly hindered social development, existed in the past, but Qin Shihuang further clarified and strengthened them, so that emperors of all previous dynasties followed suit step by step. It was not until 19 1 1 years later that China swept such a reactionary power transfer mode from Laozi to his son into the garbage dump of history.
The second is the luxury of immortality.
Power is monopolized, high above and not subject to any supervision. Therefore, Qin Shihuang, who enjoyed this "delicious food", was particularly greedy for death and extravagant for longevity. He first sent a local scholar Xu (that is, Xu Fu) to the sea to look for fairy mountain with boys and girls, seeking the elixir of life, and ended in vain; Later, Lu Sheng, a scholar of Yan State, was sent to visit the immortals in the sea to look for the fairy medicine, but there was no result. It is by no means the above two that Qin Shihuang did such absurd things. The master of the highest power in a country wants to live forever and seek the medicine of immortality. So he spent a lot of energy all day dealing with alchemists like Xu Shi and Lu Sheng, who made a living by seeking immortality and refining medicine-can the country under his rule be good if he does this?
And the luxury of material enjoyment.
In the history of China, Epang Palace seems to have always been a political symbol that marks the country's death due to luxury. There was an ancient book in the Qin Dynasty that recorded the following ballad: "One room is one room, and the emperor will die." One of the most famous poems is "A Fang Gong Fu" written by Du Mu, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, in which there is a saying: "Six kings are finished, the four seas are one, Shushan is right, and A Fang goes through customs." Boy, in order to build the Epang Palace, all the trees on the mountain in Shudi were cut down. It can be seen that Qin Shihuang's pursuit of luxury is really hard to see. However, according to contemporary archaeologists, the legendary Epang Palace was basically completed at that time, and the Qin Dynasty collapsed before the main building was built. However, even this unfinished Epang Palace was built by hundreds of thousands of people and cost a lot of money. For the Epang Palace, Qin Shihuang's original idea was: "First, make the Epang Palace, the front hall, 500 steps from east to west, 50 feet from north to south, with a seating capacity of 10,000 people on the top and a flag of 50 feet on the bottom. Zhou Chi is Tinglu, from your highness to Nanshan. The peak of Nanshan is considered to be missing. For the loop, I crossed the Weihe River from Afang, which belongs to Xianyang, and went to the same camp as Tianjige Road. " Please think about it, if Qin Shihuang's birthday were longer, I wonder how this magnificent and luxurious palace built for him would poison the people and harm the country! No wonder Sima Qian severely reprimanded the tyrant for "ignoring the people's power."
The mausoleum behind him is also a luxury.
Located at the foot of Lishan Mountain in Lintong District, Xi, the Mausoleum of the First Qin Dynasty is now a world-famous tourist attraction, attracting Chinese and foreign guests. I have seen such words that the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is "the crystallization of the hard work and wisdom of our working people". At first glance, this seems to be a compliment to the working people in our country. But then I thought: Why did the working people of the Qin Dynasty "diligently" crystallize their "wisdom" into the tomb of Qin Shihuang? Are they willing to do this? According to historical records, the cemetery was built in the second year after Ying Zheng ascended the throne. It was completed in 208 BC and lasted for 39 years. At that time, Prime Minister Reese was the designer of the mausoleum and General Zhang Han was the supervisor. * * * collected 720,000 manpower, which is what the poet Li Bai wrote, "700,000 prisoners, rose from the soil and climbed up the mountain"-that is to say, the mausoleum was built under strict martial law, and more than 700,000 prisoners did not work voluntarily. It is said that the number of people who built the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang is almost eight times that of pyramid of khufu. Faced with such a "first in the world", as descendants of more than 700,000 criminals who "diligently" repair tombs, we really don't know whether to laugh or cry.
This Qin Shihuang, who exhausted the country's manpower, material resources and financial resources to build luxurious palaces and cemeteries for himself, is naturally unacceptable to the world. A nursery rhyme selected from Liu's "Art Garden" and Liang's "Novel" in the Southern Song Dynasty is well said: "Qin Shihuang, He. Open my house, sleep in my bed, drink my wine and spit my pulp. Feed me food, thinking it was food. Zhang Wu bows and shoots arrows at the East Wall. Before the dunes, they will perish. "
Of course, the Qin dynasty also had the opportunity to avoid the death of II. Jia Yi once said in "On Qin": "Today, when Qin Ershi is established, the world will lead and observe its administration." In a sense, the mess left by the old emperor is actually the political resources of the new emperor. If we can implement the policy change in time, correct the "mistakes of the first emperor" with appropriate ruling behavior and win the hearts of the people, we can reverse the political crisis. But it's a pity that Qin Ershi Hu Hai is nothing compared with his father, just as Han Shu said: "As for the second one, the tyranny is getting worse." As a result, the once famous Daqin Empire was irreversibly destroyed!
There is a saying that "with copper as a mirror, you can dress properly;" Take people as a mirror, you can know the gains and losses; Taking history as a mirror, you can know the rise and fall. " Facing the history of Qin Ershi's death, future generations (especially those officials who hold great or small power) must learn a profound lesson from it: political fate is luxury, and power is luxury!