Chapter 30: Patriotism, Loyalty to the Crown, and Obedience to the Law
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At this, Ying Zheng glanced at Li Nian. He had indeed once entertained the thought: if all the kingdoms under Heaven were turned into Qin territory, would it then be possible to govern the realm through Confucianism?
But now, Li Nian had unwittingly refuted that idea of his. Unless Qin were the only country in the world, with no external enemies ever again, governing through Confucianism and Legalism would ultimately become a source of calamity.
Yet could Ying Zheng guarantee that there would never be any enemies from beyond Qin’s borders?
Ying Zheng felt that he could not. Even if he destroyed every other kingdom during his lifetime and unified the world, who could say what his descendants in later generations might do?
He could govern only the years in which he himself lived.
With that thought, Ying Zheng decided to ask Li Nian that question tonight.
Li Nian knew nothing of this and continued, “Since a state cannot be governed by keeping its people ignorant, nor can the people simply be left to their own devices, they must be guided.”
Recalling the disastrous influence of the so-called public intellectuals of later generations, Li Nian solemnly said to Ying Zheng, “Guiding the people is of the utmost importance. Your Majesty must never underestimate it. The direction in which the people’s hearts turn has an enormous influence on both the state and the nation. A great man once said, ‘If we do not seize the high ground of public opinion, the enemy will.’”
“Take Qin as an example. When the founding emperor of Han entered the Guanzhong region, the people of Qin did not resist but instead surrendered because their hearts no longer belonged to Qin. Of course, part of the reason was that Qin had disappointed its own people. But it was also because Qin had failed to guide them properly and make the old Qin people devoted to their homeland.”
“If the old Qin people had understood that they and Qin were one, that when one suffered both suffered, and when one prospered both prospered, would they still have offered so little resistance?”
“The old Qin people did not feel that they and Qin were one. They lived this way under Qin, and they would live this way after the Han king came—perhaps even more easily. So what would be wrong with surrendering to the Han king?”
Ying Zheng and Meng Yi thought it over and realized that this was indeed the truth. Whoever one sold one’s life to, one was still selling it. If one had to sell it, one might as well find the highest bidder. Spare me the nonsense about hanging oneself from a single crooked tree.
Li Nian said, “The most basic—and most important—point in guiding the people is to instill ‘love of country and loyalty to the ruler.’ Love of country means love of Qin; loyalty to the ruler means loyalty to Your Majesty.”
“It is not enough merely to emphasize love of country and loyalty to the ruler. The people must also understand why they should love their country and remain loyal to their ruler. They must know what a country is, how one should love it, and what the meaning of patriotism is. They must understand that without a country, there can be no home; without a country, their homes cannot enjoy peaceful lives and will be subjected to humiliation by outsiders. Therefore, they must serve the country and defend Qin!”
“The same applies to loyalty to the ruler. The people must know that only Your Majesty can lead Qin to strength and prosperity and give them good lives. Without Your Majesty, none of this would be possible.”
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Although countries exist in this age, there is no particularly strong conception of loyalty to one’s country and homeland. That is why talented people can move freely from one state to another. If they are unhappy in one country, they simply go to another.
Shang Yang was from Wei, Zhang Yi was from Wei, Li Si was from Chu, and Fan Ju was also from Wei.
Ying Zheng keenly perceived the advantages of the “love of country and loyalty to the ruler” that Li Nian described, but he also noticed the problem it posed.
If this method were implemented, how would Qin explain its former acceptance of men such as Zhang Yi? And how would Qin continue to attract talented people from other states?
Hearing Ying Zheng’s question, Li Nian reminded him with a smile, “Your Majesty, Qin, Wei, Yan, Zhao, Han, Chu, and Qi may have different names and different rulers, but they are all part of Huaxia.”
Ying Zheng understood at once and inwardly exclaimed, Brilliant! At that time, they would simply replace one concept with another. Substitute Huaxia for Qin, and everything would naturally make sense.
Zhang Yi, Fan Ju, and the others had not betrayed their native countries to join Qin. Rather, they were talented members of the Huaxia people moving normally within their own civilization. Unable to bear seeing the various Huaxia states wage war against one another, they had entered Qin in order to bring peace to a chaotic age.
When guiding the people of the former Six States, Qin’s loyalty could likewise be changed into loyalty to Huaxia. They might feel some awkwardness or resistance toward loyalty to Qin, but loyalty to Huaxia would not trouble them nearly as much.
After all, only Qin remained in the world now. In a certain sense, Qin was Huaxia itself. Both sides would obtain a satisfactory result. A cause for celebration indeed—truly, a cause for celebration!
Ying Zheng even thought of using this method to strike at the aristocrats of the Six States who still refused to accept the new order. If those aristocrats incited rebellion, they could be charged with deliberately provoking civil war within Huaxia and attempting to plunge Huaxia into chaos once more.
“As for attracting talented people who are not of Huaxia, that is because our Huaxia is powerful, prosperous, and beautiful, standing far above the other states. Everyone possesses a natural yearning for what is good and beautiful, so why should this be impossible?”
The problem of Qin accepting talented people from outside the Huaxia people was solved as well. Qin was powerful, beautiful, and civilized. If talented outsiders came to seek refuge, it was simply because they yearned for things that were beautiful and strong—a perfectly natural human response. They ought to be understood.
Li Nian continued, “After ‘love of country and loyalty to the ruler,’ the people must be guided to ‘observe the laws and obey the rules.’ As the saying goes, ‘Without rules, nothing can be made square or round.’ The same is true of people. If there were no laws and everyone acted as they pleased—if I killed someone today and you set fire to something tomorrow—how chaotic would the world become?”
“Therefore, the law must be used to restrain people’s conduct. They cannot be permitted to act however they wish. They must understand what may be done, what may not be done, and what consequences await those who violate the law.”
“As for the consequences of violating the law, the Legalists handled that very well. But the ultimate purpose of laws is not to punish those who have already broken them.”
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Ying Zheng took up the point. “It is to deter those who might otherwise break them?”
Li Nian nodded. “Precisely. But the Legalist punishments are too severe, and at times they can produce the opposite effect. Suppose someone commits an offense that would not normally warrant a heavy punishment, yet under Qin law he is still sentenced to severe penalties. What does Your Majesty think he would do?”
After only a moment’s thought, Ying Zheng understood Li Nian’s meaning. “He would either accept the punishment or refuse it and commit an even graver crime. But in Qin, I believe he would choose to accept the punishment.”
“Your Majesty’s meaning is clear to me,” Li Nian said. “Qin law imposes collective punishment. If a criminal does not wish to bring disaster upon his relatives and friends, he will willingly submit to his sentence. But what if the crime he committed would implicate his relatives and friends even if he surrendered himself to punishment?”
“In most cases, as Your Majesty says, people would willingly accept their punishment. But what if, at some moment, someone refused to do so? Consider, for example, the people who had formerly lived under the rule of the Six States.”
Ying Zheng fell into deep thought. The situation Li Nian described could very well occur.
After centuries of Legalist rule, the old Qin people might already have grown accustomed to such laws. The people of the Six States, however, might not be able to accept them.
He did not know that, according to the Records of the Historian, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang had raised the standard of rebellion for precisely this reason. They feared the severe punishments of Qin law and thought that, since death awaited them either way, they might as well rebel.
Of course, the Qin legal texts discovered at Shuihudi in Yunmeng did not describe laws quite so harsh, and differed from the account in the Records of the Historian. But it was also possible that after Hu Hai seized the throne, Qin law became far more oppressive, or that something had gone wrong with the officials who enforced it.
Li Nian believed that the most likely possibility was that Qin law had become more oppressive after Hu Hai’s accession. That boy hardly seemed human to begin with, and with Zhao Gao—the other anthropomorphic beast—the two of them working together, no absurdity was beyond belief.
Yet there was no denying that Qin law was harsh and cruel. The Shuihudi texts merely showed that it possessed a little more warmth than later accounts suggested; they could not prove that Qin law had no problems. Otherwise, why would the Han dynasty have reformed it?
The Han inherited Qin’s institutions, borrowing many things from Qin while also absorbing many of its lessons. That was why the Han dynasty endured for more than four hundred years.
The Han crossed the river by feeling its way along Qin’s backside.
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