Qin Dynasty Quotes

Archaeologists do something impressive, reflecting disciplinary humility. When archaeologists excavate a site, they recognize that future archaeologists will be horrified at their primitive techniques, at the destructiveness of their excavating. Thus they often leave most of a site untouched to await their more skillful disciplinary descendants. For example, astonishingly, more than forty years after excavations began, less than 1 percent of the famed Qin dynasty terra-cotta army in China has been uncovered.

During the Qin Dynasty, all books not relating to practical concerns such as agriculture or construction were ordered burned by the emperor to guard against "dangerous thought." Whether accounts of zombie attacks perished in the flames will never be known. This obscure section of a medical manuscript, preserved in the wall of an executed Chinese scholar, might be proof of such attacks.

Zhao Gao was contemplating treason but was afraid the other officials would not heed his commands, so he decided to test them first. He brought a deer and presented it to the Second Emperor but called it a horse. The Second Emperor laughed and said, "Is the chancellor perhaps mistaken, calling a deer a horse?" Then the emperor questioned those around him. Some remained silent, while some, hoping to ingratiate with Zhao Gao, said it was a horse, and others said it was a deer. Zhao Gao secretly arranged for all those who said it was a deer to be brought before the law. Thereafter the officials were all terrified of Zhao Gao.

In the third century BC, General Xiang Yu sent his army across the Yangtze River to take on the Qin dynasty. While his troops slept, he ordered all the ships to be set alight. The next day he told them: “You now have a choice: Either you fight to win or you die.” By removing the option of retreat, he switched their focus to the only thing that mattered: the battle.

In the chaotic decades following the overthrow of the Qin dynasty in 202 BC, the emperors of the newly installed Han dynasty pursued a loose fiscal and monetary policy, spending beyond their means and financing their deficit by issuing new money.

Unity succeeds division and division follows unity. One is bound to be replaced by the other after a long span of time. This is the way with things in the world. At the end of the Zhou Dynasty* the empire was divided into seven competing principalities, warring against one another till finally they were united by Qin.† When Qin had fulfilled its destiny, there arose Chu‡ and Han§ to contend for the reign, and ultimately it was Han that united the country.

Zhao Gao was contemplating treason but was afraid the other officials would not heed his commands, so he decided to test them first. He brought a deer an presented it to the Second Emperor but called it a horse. The Second Emperor laughed and said, "Is the chancellor perhaps mistaken, calling a deer a horse?" Then the emperor questioned those around him. Some remained silent, while some, hoping to ingratiate with Zhao Gao, said it was a horse, and others said it was a deer. Zhao Gao secretly arranged for all those who said it was a deer to be brought before the law. Thereafter the officials were all terrified of Zhao Gao.

Quand Ts'in (Qin n.n.) eut dispersé les royaumes combattants et qu’il régna sur l’empire, sa conduite ne changea pas, son gouvernement ne se modifia pas ; c’est pourquoi il obtint des résultats différents lorsqu’il fit des conquêtes et lorsqu’il les conserva ; il était isolé en possession (de l'empire), et c’est pourquoi on pouvait attendre sa perte imminente. Supposez que le roi de Ts’in eût administré les affaires suivant les principes des générations anciennes et qu’il eût suivi les traces des Yn (Shang n.n.) et des Tcheou (Zhou n.n.) dans la direction qu’il donna à son gouvernement ; quand bien même dans la suite il y aurait eu un souverain dissolu et arrogant, la calamité de la ruine et du péril ne se serait point produite. C’est pourquoi quand les trois dynasties fondèrent leur empire, leur renommée fut éclatante et leur œuvre dura longtemps. Maintenant, lorsque Eul-che (Qin Er Shi n.n.) (de la dynastie) Ts'in prit le pouvoir, dans l'empire il n'y eut personne qui ne tendit le cou pour observer comment il gouvernerait; en effet, celui qui a froid apprécie fort des vêtements grossiers, celui qui a faim trouve agréable au goût la lie du vin et l'enveloppe du grain; l'empire retentissait de plaintes, c'était une ressource pour le nouveau souverain: cela signifie qu'auprès d'un peuple accablé il est aisé de passer pour bon.

The alchemist served Qin Shi Huang, the founder and first emperor of the Qin dynasty,

the Qin dynasty collapsed about five years after his death, and his lands were, indeed, divided.