Chapter 20: Bai Jia and the Great Qin Empire

  This rare spectacle of two stars shining together in March only lasted for a moment, and then the two twinkling stars disappeared from view again.

  、、、、、

  The hall was silent for a long time.

  The old man with a red nose turned his head and said solemnly: "Zou Zining has defied the heavens to show us the way. The Yin-Yang school hopes that you will all take care of each other. From today's events, such as the second emperor Hu Hai returning to Xianyang to execute Zhao Gao, it seems that the fate of Qin is still intact. My Confucian school has decided to temporarily suspend our actions. What do you think, everyone?"

  The green-robed elder who had asked the first question stood out and said: "My Mohist school is willing to advance and retreat with Confucius."

  The rest of the people in the hall also expressed their willingness to advance and retreat with Confucianism. This small grand hall was actually the leader of the hundred schools of thought, including Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, Agrarianism, Diplomacy, and Yin-yang.

  From the Spring and Autumn period to the end of the Warring States period when Qin unified China, it was an era of great ideological fusion on Chinese soil, with a hundred schools of thought contending and a hundred flowers blooming. The Confucian, Taoist, and Mohist schools need no further introduction.

  Yin-yang school was an important academic school in pre-Qin period.

  Named after the central idea of yin and yang, wu xing. Its representative figures are also called Yin Yang School, Wu Xing School. It is said to have evolved from ancient astronomers and astrologers. During the Warring States period, the theory of yin-yang-wuxing was extremely popular.

  The school of Yin and Yang survived in the early Han dynasty, but gradually declined with the times until Emperor Wu, and all the ancient books and writings that were preserved were lost, and only records are seen in the works of various philosophers.

  Many superstition professions such as Feng Shui masters and fortune tellers that have been popular since later generations mostly originated from the Yin Yang school of this time.

  The most obvious sign is the "Onmyodo" that still prevails in a certain island country, which is a branch of the Yin-Yang school at the end of the Warring States period in my great China. It was transmitted to a certain island country around the 6th or 7th century BC and evolved from there.

  The representative figure of the Yin-Yang school is Zou Yan, who, based on the five elements' mutual generation and conquest, interpreted the properties of the five elements as "five virtues", created the "Five Virtues Terminal Beginning Theory", and used it as a rule for the rise and fall of dynasties throughout history, providing theoretical basis for the establishment of new unified empires.

  An old man named Zouzi was actually a descendant of Zou Yan, named Hong. He was respected by the other families and called Zouzi.

  Today, the various philosophers gathered in this great hall, apparently with the idea of overthrowing the tyrannical Qin and returning to an era of contention among the hundred schools. After all, since the First Emperor's "burning of books and burying of scholars", and his sole reverence for the Legalist school, although he still established the doctoral system, allowing the various philosophers to participate in governance and comment on current events.

  But the decline of the Hundred Schools and the dominance of Legalism is an undisputed fact.

  It can be said that the rise and fall of the Bai family are closely linked with the prosperity and decline of the Qin Empire.

  The rise and fall of the Qin Empire over 500 years (from the establishment of the vassal states to the downfall of the Second Emperor) was the most free-spirited, vibrant golden age in Chinese history. In the words of that time, it was an era of "rites collapsed, music corrupted, high banks became valleys, and deep valleys became ridges" - a period of drastic change.

  In historical terms, it was an era of great destruction, great creation, great submergence and great rise and fall, thus undergoing a major transformation overall.

  The transformation from bronze civilization to iron civilization, the transformation from slave-owning aristocratic economy to free peasant landlord economy, and the transformation from federal state system to centralized governance state system, brought the Chinese nation to the peak of agricultural civilization in that era.

  This brilliant transformation process is the historical process of the rise and fall of the Qin Empire.

  The era spirit born in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period is strong competition, strong survival. In the words of that time, it was called "the age of great contention". What is meant by great contention is contending comprehensively, contending thoroughly, contending for a long time, contending ruthlessly and mercilessly.

  Around 300 years of Spring and Autumn disputes, just like the spring water thawed the river ice, shattered the suffocating closure of the classical federal kingdom era, iron tools appeared, commerce was active, the well-field system was shaken, the authority of the Son of Heaven was weakened, and new landlords and scholar-officials emerged, and the entire society's vitality became much more vibrant.

  Thus the old system collapsed, the old culture was destroyed, and the humble slaves of the common people rose up like thunder. The high mountains crumbled, and the deep canyons suddenly became towering mountains!

  Entering the Warring States period, this struggle finally evolved into a great contention, starting a thorough competition for survival of the fittest. The weak would perish, the lagging would be beaten, becoming an almost unbuffered iron-blooded reality.

  A thorough reform, a thorough renewal of oneself, has become the way to survive for every state. This has triggered a fierce competition for talent. The incompetent and mediocre are abandoned, the dull and foolish rulers are killed, the famous scholars and talents have become the treasures that everyone competes for, and the wise and heroic rulers have become the most supported heroes.

  Famous generals emerged in large numbers, great talents rose like clouds, and outstanding leaders succeeded one after another. All branches of civilization of the Chinese nation were involved in this all-round and thorough competition!

  Economy, politics, military affairs, culture, all areas of social life, have collided in this great struggle to produce the most brilliant splendor. The scale of war is the largest, economic reform is the most thorough, power struggles are the most cruel, cultural debates are the most intense, the connection between people's fate and national fate is the closest, the creation of various miracles is the most numerous, and the emergence of great men is the most frequent - all these are unmatched by later generations, and even unimaginable.

  The Qin Empire which grew up in such historical soil was the crystallization of the mighty forging of that great era.

  The Qin Empire rose in the forest of powerful states competing with each other through iron and blood, embracing the spirit of simplicity, innovation and pragmatism of that era.

  She upholds the rule of law, thorough reform, strives to build and unify political orders. After more than 160 years of efforts by six generations of leaders, a great imperial revolution was finally completed, establishing a strong and unified empire, opening a brand new iron civilization era, and making China's agricultural civilization complete its great historical transformation.

  As the gathering place of the spirit of the times, the Qin Empire most concentratedly embodied the strong survival spirit of the Chinese nation in that era.

  The entire civilization system of the Chinese nation has been able to continue like a great river, and the strong survival tradition established in the Qin Empire era can be said to have played a decisive role.

  Unfortunately, as a brief unified empire and later the intentional depreciation of Confucianism as the core of official ideology, the Qin Empire almost disappeared in the thick fog of history under the notorious name of "cruel tyranny".

  For two thousand years, in the depiction and evaluation of the Qin Empire, the old orthodox form and the old folk art have been working together, either intentionally devaluing or unintentionally smearing, and over the years, it has become a golden legend that the brilliant civilization of China has strangely transformed.

  This is a tragedy of Chinese history, and also a tragedy of Chinese civilization - a nation with a strong sense of justice and historical awareness, yet brutally struck down the great empire that laid the foundation for its own civilization!

  When many people are at a loss in the face of Western civilization, when our national civilization is diluted and messed up by various factors, we have forgotten the Great Qin Empire, forgotten that great era, and forgotten to seek the rebirth momentum of "Phoenix Nirvana" from the vast original civilization.

  Although we have not forgotten the Qin Empire, we have also become indifferent to the courage and creativity of that era.

  Some idle talk, taking history as a mirror. Come on and give it some energy!

  !

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