Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...

historians condemned the emperor

Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang (, ; February 25912 July 210 BC), born Ying Zheng () or Zhao Zheng (), was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China. He is widely regarded as the first ever supreme leader of a unitary state, unitary d ...

in the ''Ten Crimes of Qin'', a list that was compiled to highlight his tyrannical actions. The famous Han poet and statesman Jia Yi concluded his essay ''The Faults of Qin'' ( :zh:过秦论) with what was to become the standard Confucian judgment of the reasons for Qin's collapse. Jia Yi's essay, admired as a masterpiece of

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

and

reasoning Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...

, was copied into two great Han histories and has had a far-reaching influence on Chinese political thought as a classic illustration of Confucian theory. He explained the ultimate weakness of Qin as a result of its ruler's ruthless pursuit of power, the precise factor which had made it so powerful; for as

Confucius Confucius (; pinyin: ; ; ), born Kong Qiu (), was a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Much of the shared cultural heritage of the Sinosphere originates in the phil ...

had taught, the strength of a government ultimately is based on the support of the people and virtuous conduct of the ruler.William Thedore de Bary, ed. ''Sources of Chinese Tradition'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1st ed. 1960) pp
228-231
/ref> Enumerating the crimes as a distinct list of exactly ten items is a later summary. Jia Yi's disquisition does not number the crimes or exactly name them, focusing instead on historical narrative and moral lessons to be learned from the downfall of the Qin. However, the following list is generally accepted. * Abolition of feudalism * Building the Great Wall * Melting down the people's weapons * Building too many palaces * Burning books * Killing scholars * Building the emperor's tomb * Seeking immortality drugs * Banishing the crown prince * Inflicting cruel punishments

References

Confucian texts Historiography of China Qin dynasty Qin Shi Huang {{Confucianism-stub