Analysis of the Rise and Fall of the Qin Dynasty in Relation to Legalism

Ziqi Liu; Donghui Song

doi:10.54254/2753-7064/4/20220579

Research Article

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Published on 17 May 2023

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Liu,Z.;Song,D. (2023). Analysis of the Rise and Fall of the Qin Dynasty in Relation to Legalism. Communications in Humanities Research,4,359-366.

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Analysis of the Rise and Fall of the Qin Dynasty in Relation to Legalism

Ziqi Liu ¹, Donghui Song *^,2,

¹ Affiliated High School of South China Normal University, Zhongshan Avenue, Guangzhou, China
² Dexter Southfield School, Newton St, Brookline, United States

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-7064/4/20220579

Abstract

This study mainly focuses on how the ancient Chinese philosophy, Legalism, affected the Qin in its warring state and empire periods. This essay will proceed chronologically from how the idea of Legalism emerged in Qin-Shang Yang’s law reformation, how it brought Qin to become a glorious state in the warring state period, how it affected Qin to become a centralized empire with the system of prefectures and counties, and finally, how it caused the fall of Qin. Legalism was one of the core reasons why Qin could evolve into the first empire and others could not, but due to its cruelty, it was abandoned by the empire afterward eventually. Legalism was a practical philosophy under some specific circumstances but not always. The core of Legalism is how everyone will be doing things due to their best interest, so there is a need for strict and precise laws is correct. However, the way of processing Legalism in an extreme way was not acceptable under a peace period, and Qin fell to establish cultural recognition of the new empire.

Keywords

legalism, Chinese history, Qin

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References

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Cite this article

Liu,Z.;Song,D. (2023). Analysis of the Rise and Fall of the Qin Dynasty in Relation to Legalism. Communications in Humanities Research,4,359-366.

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About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies (ICIHCS 2022), Part 2

Conference website: https://www.icihcs.org/

ISBN：978-1-915371-31-7(Print) / 978-1-915371-32-4(Online)

Conference date: 18 December 2022

Editor：Faraz Ali Bughio, David T. Mitchell

Series: Communications in Humanities Research

Volume number: Vol.4

ISSN：2753-7064(Print) / 2753-7072(Online)

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