How Did Shi Huangdi Use Legalism During The Qin Dynasty

During the time period 221-206 BCE, the Qin dynasty had a strict rule over ancient China, the philosophy they used to keep a. Legalism was a very violent philosophy used in Ancient China, it was based upon the belief that all humans were evil and were more likely to do more wrong deeds, than right. Legalism was a system that was based upon discipline and harshness, it was meant to scare the citizens of China into doing whatever the ruler wanted without having a second thought. Legalism during the Qin Dynasty resulted in a huge loss of life and culture (Mark, Ancient.eu), and it also caused a widespread fear of free thought, and doing anything wrong. Since classical China, the government has changed so that the severity of punishments and law

The philosophy was then endorsed by the main emperor of Ancient China, Shi Huangdi. The main intention of Shi Huangdi (when he put Legalism into place) was to keep China under firm control of the rules, and to scare and pressure the citizens into behaving well all the time. All in all, the philosophy worked well in doing all that Shi Huangdi desired it to do, it scared people into following the rules, didn’t let them have thoughts of freedom, and caused the deaths of many evil people in society. At the same time, it destroyed many Chinese cultures and killed many innocent people, the excesses of the Qin Dynasty’s legalism made the regime very unpopular with the people of the time, eventually leading to a rebellion where Legalism was abandoned to be taken over by

Legalism has a minimal influence on China’s government today as the severity of Chinese punishments are reduced to where there is much death and blood involved with the punishments than there was in classical China. There has also been a decrease in the amount of law-breaking prevention in China, which resulted in a lot of more crime, and there is a larger amount of traffic in the streets of China due to the increased amount of accidents. Along with the neglection in the legal system, there has also been some good laws that were made that show Legalism in China dissipating, such as a Charity law that was made. This charity law stated that people had to donate to charity once and awhile, so this law really makes the people want to do more good by their own will, something that the Legalist philosophy never did, it made it so that people were forced to bring out the good inside their hearts, out of fear, that if they let some evil out, something would happen to them. Many people might think that there are still significant signs of Legalism in modern China, due to the 2-child law that places a restriction on how many children a couple can have. Although this law might seem like it shows signs of Legalism in China, the truth is that it actually shows the deterioration of Legalism in China. THe two child law was previously the one child law, and it was changed to the two