Another Life of the First Emperor: A Story of Scholarly Biases.

• Author: Pines, Yuri
• Position: Qin Shi Huang

The First Emperor of Qin [phrase omitted] (r. 247-210, emp. 221-210 BCE) is a pivotal figure in China's history. Having conquered the rival "hero-states" in a series of brief yet bloody campaigns of 230-221 BCE, he put an end to the era of fragmentation and internecine warfare that had plagued the Zhou [??] realm for more than five centuries. This in itself was a monumental achievement, but more was to follow. During his short tenure as an emperor, he reshaped China's terrain, destroying internal fortifications and ordering the creation of new lines of communication; established a uniform administrative system; unified weights, measures, laws, coins, script, and the official lexicon; engaged in aggressive social engineering projects; and the like. Not all of these steps were equally successful, but overall, they shaped the contours of the Chinese empire for millennia to come. (1) Not a single person before Mao Zedong [phrase omitted] (1893-1976) would rival the First Emperor in terms of his impact on the realm's social, political, and even cultural trajectory.

Yet these achievements were marred by no less monumental failures. The emperor's military campaigns (which violated his solemn promise that "warfare will never rise again" [phrase omitted]), (2) his fervent construction activities (of which a megalomaniacal mausoleum complex and the Great Wall are the most notable), his harsh penal regime that turned dozens if not hundreds of thousands of people into involuntary laborers, and his brutal assault on independent scholars, which culminated in the infamous biblioclasm of 213 BCE--all weakened his regime. Just a few years after his death, the Qin dynasty, which was projected to rule for "a myriad generations," was swept away by a popular uprising of unprecedented scope and ferocity. This fiasco contributed to the highly negative image of the Qin and the First Emperor in the eyes of imperial literati and their modern heirs in world academy. Despite periodic reevaluations of the First Emperor, most notably in the waning years of Mao's rule, his image remains overwhelmingly negative. The controversies around this figure are fascinating, especially viewed through the prism of the discussants' overt or covert political and intellectual agendas.

The changing views of the First Emperor stand at the core of Anthony Barbieri-Low's new monograph. This lucidly written and lavishly illustrated book (with no fewer than ten color plates) will surely be welcomed by teachers and students. The book comprises ten chapters divided into four sections. The first section introduces historical narratives and evaluations of the Frist Emperor starting with Sima Qian [phrase omitted] (ca. 145-ca. 90 BCE) and ending with modem scholars. The second explores paleographic evidence about Qin's administration and social life. The third focuses on conflicting views of picturesque aspects of First Emperor's reign, such as a failed attempt on his life by Jing Ke [phrase omitted] (d. 227 BCE) and the book burning of 213 BCE. The final section, "The First Emperor in the Cultural Imagination," explores literary and cinematic presentations of the Qin ruler and of his mausoleum, famous for its terracotta warriors. In his ten chapters, Barbieri-Low excels at combining an extraordinary broad range of evidence--from letters written by Qin conscripts to a novel by Elias Canetti (1905-1994) and a short story by Franz Kafka (1883-1924); from essays by Liu Zongyuan [phrase omitted] (773-819) and Zhang Binglin (otherwise known as Zhang Taiyan [phrase omitted], 1869-1936) to Anti-Confucian Campaign-era (1972-1975) pamphlets, from Han stone reliefs to current movies, TV series, and even video games. (3) The result is a rich and highly readable book. Both the author's erudition and the effort invested in collecting relevant evidence are awe-inspiring.

The author's primary goal is to offer "a meta-analysis, a longue duree examination of the historical interpretation and cultural reception of the First Emperor" (p. 8). The book, which is hoped to become "a kind of sourcebook for students and scholars interested in Qin studies" (p. 8) primarily targets undergraduate students, as is clear from the very limited use of Chinese characters (most of which are relegated to the glossary). Nonetheless, parts of the book will be of great interest for a professional audience as well. Some of the chapters (most notably chapter 5, "Voices of the People," which explores the human costs of Qin campaigns, as well as chapter 7, "Burning the Books and Killing the Scholars," which focuses on the perceptions of Qin's most infamous atrocities) are truly excellent, and I shall incorporate them in my classes. And yet, with all due respect to Barbieri-Low's efforts, erudition, and eloquence, I think that the book as a whole does not deserve to become a sourcebook; actually, in the eyes of the present reviewer, it suffers from severe flaws that invalidate much of its undeniable strengths. In what follows, I shall enumerate these flaws in increasing order of severity.

1. QIN AND CHINA'S POLITICAL CULTURE

   I shall start with a mild point. At times the author seems to have been overwhelmed by the magnitude of his collected evidence, which results in a less nuanced discussion than could have been hoped for. This is particularly notable when the discussion touches upon sensitive issues of imperial Chinese political culture. Recall that the First Emperor was regarded--for good or for bad--as the creator of the empire's political system and political culture, in particular its intrusive and activist political apparatus and the imperial institution itself. Since major aspects of the imperial system could not be openly debated, it was easier for the discussants to express their views through denigrating (or, conversely, endorsing) the figure of the First Emperor. Many of the arguments about the First Emperor should be understood through the prism of the debaters' ideological viewpoints.

   Take, for instance, chapter 2, "The Confucians' Villain and His Rehabilitation." Barbieri-Low begins by pointing out, correctly, that Confucians detested the First Emperor because of his failure either to "select upright ministers (like themselves) or listen to the remonstrance of scholar-officials (like themselves)" (p. 30). He is also right that supporters of the First Emperor were those who sought "a forceful figure of a unified and powerful China" (p. 44). What is lost, however, is that sometimes a single person could both dislike the First Emperor's sidelining of righteous ministers and yet admire his centralizing policies. Take Zhang Juzheng [phrase omitted] (1525-1582), discussed on pp. 40-43. Barbieri-Low is right in pointing out that Zhang's Emperor's Mirror: Illustrated and Explained (Dijian tushuo [phrase omitted]) could be read as a "simplified... Confucian indictment of the First Emperor." What he fails to note, however, is a variety of other references to Qin in Zhang's essays and memorials, in which he displayed greater sympathy to the First Emperor's enterprise. (4) The reasons for this divergence in judgment are not difficult to find. In his...