Why did Li Si lose at the hands of Zhao Gao?Success is also the philosophy of the rat, and defeat is

Mondo History Updated on 2024-01-28

China has a long history of 5,000 years, after many dynasties, famous ministers abound, there is no lack of merit for generations, but most of the merit is not in the current dynasty, and the time has passed. However, there is one person who does almost every great thing that can have an effect that affects thousands of years and will affect future generations. This person is the famous Prime Minister of Qin - Li Si. Let's take a look at his achievements ......

Achievement 1: Abolish the feudal system and implement the county system. After the unification of the six kingdoms of Qin, Prime Minister Wang Juan pointed out that the whole country was too large to manage, and the sub-feudal system of the Zhou Dynasty should be restored, and the sons of Qin Shi Huang should be crowned kings.

Qin Shi Huang attached great importance to this issue and convened a meeting of his ministers to discuss it. The ministers overwhelmingly agreed with Wang Juan's suggestion, only Li Si opposed it, and put forward a diametrically opposite proposal - abolishing the feudal system and implementing the county system.

Li Si explained: Although there were many princes and kings of King Wen of Zhou and King Wu of Zhou, as time went by, they all became estranged, and finally evolved into hatred for each other, and there were often wars for territory, and Zhou Tianzi was powerless to prohibit it. Now that the world is unified, the county system should be implemented, so that the world can be peaceful.

What Li Si didn't say was that Zhou Tianzi was finally destroyed by the former vassal state of Qin. Qin Shi Huang immediately heard the implication of the words, which reminded him that if the sub-feudal system was adopted, he might repeat the mistakes of Zhou Tianzi. So, he did not hesitate to take Lis's suggestion and divide the country into thirty-six counties, with counties below them.

The implementation of the county system has realized the centralization of power, fundamentally eradicated the bane of the princely kingdoms, and played a positive role in consolidating national unity and promoting social development, so it has been used by later feudal dynasties for more than 2,000 years (to the Qing Dynasty).

Achievement 2: Unify documents and create a book style. In 221 B.C., Qin Shi Huang accepted Prime Minister Li Si's suggestion to "write the same script" and ordered the whole country to ban the ancient characters left by the vassal states, and all use the Qin seal as the unified script.

Prior to this, Chinese writing evolved from the germination of painted pottery inscriptions in the Neolithic Age, to the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty and the Jin inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and then to the blooming of flowers in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, undergoing a long process of evolution and development. However, the division of the Chinese characters has led to regional differences in the form of Chinese characters, and the writing methods of each country are different. Therefore, after reunification, China urgently needs a unified official script.

Li Si was first ordered by Qin Shi Huang to make a standard text - a small seal. Later, he adopted the book style created by a small official named Cheng Miao, breaking the shape structure of the seal script and forming a new book style——— Lishu. Since then, Lishu has been used as an official official book style, and it was not until the popularity of Kaishu in the Wei and Jin dynasties that it was gradually replaced. Seal script and official script are deeply loved by later generations because of their unique style, and are among the four major calligraphy styles of Chinese calligraphy. In this regard alone, Li Si's merit is a thousand years old.

Achievement 3: Unified weights and measures. Before Qin unified the Six Kingdoms, each vassal state developed different units of calculation and base systems according to their own preferences. In order not to let this problem affect the economic exchanges and development of the Qin Dynasty, Li Si played the emperor and proposed to abolish the old system of the Six Kingdoms and unify the standards of weights and measures, which was approved by Qin Shi Huang.

Under the personal command of Li Si, the degree system is based on inches, rulers, and zhangs, and the decimal system is used to countThe measurement system is based on the units of combined, literal, bucket, and barrel, and is also calculated in the decimal systemThe balance system is based on baht, taels, catties, jun, and stones, twenty-four baht is one tael, sixteen taels are one catty, thirty catties are one jun, and four jun is one stone. and enshrined in the form of a law to ensure effective enforcement.

This is another amazing work of Lees, and its influence continues to this day.

Achievement 4: Repair the road, the car is on the same track. A year after Qin unified the Six Kingdoms, logistics problems erupted intensively. Originally, in order to achieve the military goal of preventing the invasion of enemy forces, various countries adopted different tracks, which did play its due role in the period of secession of various countries, but now it restricts economic development. Li Si thought about what the emperor thought, and immediately suggested that the national track should be unified, and an expressway should be built across the country, Chidao, to speed up logistics. Qin Shi Huang applauded and immediately approved the implementation.

With Xianyang as the center, Li Si successively built two gallop roads, one leading eastward to the Yan and Qi regions in the past;The other goes south to the old land of Wu Chu. The roadbed is solid, 50 steps wide, and a green pine is planted every three zhang beside the road.

Later, the "straight road" was built, and the "new road" to climb over the five ridges was built. It has formed a transportation network with Xianyang as the center and radiating the whole country. In order to match the road, it is also stipulated that the uniform width of the track is six feet, so as to ensure that the vehicle can travel unimpeded.

Achievement 5: Unified Currency. Before Qin Shi Huang's last trip, Li Si made a final important note to Qin Shi Huang, suggesting that the currencies of the six countries that were in circulation outside Qin should be abolished and that the currencies should be unified throughout the country.

At that time, there were forms of money in circulation, including cloth coins, knife coins, shell coins, and yuan coins, which were very inconvenient to use. Under the auspices of Li Si, it was stipulated that the currency should be ** as the upper currency, with Eridium as the unit, each Eridium weighs 24 taels, and the copper half tael is the lower coin, and 10,000 copper coins are converted into one Eridium**. It was also strictly forbidden that jewels, turtles, shells, silver, and tin should be used as ornaments and treasures, and not to be circulated as currency. It is stipulated that the right to mint currency belongs to the state, and private individuals are not allowed to mint money, and violators are convicted.

This move by Li Si is considered by later generations to be a major innovation in economic history, and it has had an impact to this day.

As a result, Li Si was promoted to the prime minister of the Qin Empire by Yingzheng, holding the country's military and political power, becoming an important minister under one person and above ten thousand, reaching the peak of his life.

However, such a great politician and thinker, after the death of Qin Shi Huang, was quickly defeated by the eunuch Zhao Gao - the three clans were exterminated, and Li Si himself was beheaded.

So, why did Li Si, who was smart and wise and held great power, lose to Zhao's master, who was still unknown at the time?Is Lees too stupid?Or is Zhao Gao too smart?

To understand this question, we must first start with a palace coup d'état more than 2,200 years ago, the Dune Rebellion (also known as the Dune Scheme).

1. The Dune Palace has changed.

In the thirty-seventh year of the First Emperor (211 BC), Qin Shi Huang Yingzheng went on his fifth and last tour in his life. The entourage included the three core staff - Prime Minister Li Si, the upright and trustworthy Zhengqing Meng Yi, and Zhao Gao, who was in charge of the jade seal and the seal of the edict. In addition, Hu Hai, the youngest son who has been clamoring to go out to see the world, is also on the list of this patrol.

Halfway through, Qin Shi Huang suddenly fell ill, and he was not lightly ill, so he sent Meng Yi back to Huiji to pray for the mountains and rivers. As a result, only Li Si and Zhao Gao were left among the core staff members around Qin Shi Huang.

Because Qin Shi Huang had spent his life seeking the elixir of life, he was extremely disgusted with others mentioning the words "death", "old age" and "sickness" in front of him, so even if he was very sick, no one dared to discuss his condition in front of him, causing his condition to deteriorate rapidly.

Qin Shi Huang knew that the time limit had come, so he urgently ordered the CRRC government to order Zhao Gaodai to prepare an edict to his eldest son Fusu, ordering him to entrust the military to Meng Tian and rush back to Xianyang to preside over the funeral. Since Qin Shi Huang did not canonize the crown prince, this actually confirmed the identity of the heir to Fusu.

Qin Shi Huang watched Zhao Gao seal the edict and asked him to send an envoy quickly. At this time, facing the former king who was dying and about to die soon, Zhao Gao revealed the true face of a gambler!Gambling on his own political future and the death of Qin Shi Huang. Therefore, he disobeyed the yang and the yin, and pretended to promise on the surface, but secretly suppressed the edict, and he was brewing a big conspiracy - to abolish Fusu and support the succession of Qin Shi Huang's ignorant young son Hu Hai.

Why didn't Zhao Gao want Fusu to succeed him?It turned out that once Zhao Gao committed a serious crime, and Qin Shi Huang asked Meng Yi to deal with it impartially. Meng Yi did not dare to bend the law, and sentenced Zhao Gao to death according to the law, and cut off his official position, almost ending Zhao Gao's political life. Fortunately, Qin Shi Huang pardoned him and reinstated him, but Zhao Gao and Meng Yi's Liangzi was settled.

Meng Yi's elder brother is Meng Tian, and Meng Tian is the favorite general of Gongzi Fusu. Zhao Gao thought that if Fusu ascended the throne, the Meng Yi brothers would definitely be reused, and at that time, he would have no place in the court!

If the successor is Hu Hai, the result will be different. Zhao Gao is Hu Hai's teacher, he knows his roots, knows that he is long in the deep palace, mediocre and incompetent, soft-eared, obedient to his own words, he has absolute certainty to play Hu Hai in the palm of his hand. Moreover, Hu Hai is in the Western Patrol team, but Fusu is thousands of miles away, which undoubtedly reduces the difficulty of black-box operations.

Zhao Gao really made the right bet!Qin Shi Huang did not survive after all. With infinite nostalgia and unwillingness to the world, he died in the Dune Palace. Zhao Gao immediately began to carry out his conspiracy to tamper with the edict, proclaim the second emperor of Qin Hu Hai to the throne, and kill Fusu and the Meng Tian brothers. However, for this conspiracy to succeed, it must have the support of Prime Minister Lis.

After the death of Qin Shi Huang, Li Si became the supreme commander of the Western Tour, and without his nod and consent, Zhao Gao's conspiracy would be stillborn. However, Li Si also has another identity - the father-in-law of Gongzi Fusu. If Fusu succeeds to the throne, he will be able to become the ruler of the country, and continuing to be the prime minister is almost, no, it must be a sure thing. Can Zhao Gao convince him to give up his son-in-law and support Hu Hai instead?

The answer is yes, because the answer is already given in the history books.

Before Zhao Gao went to find Li Si, he had already thought of his words. He is good at observing faces and colors, figuring out people's hearts, and has already seen through Li Si - strong on the outside, extremely inferior on the inside, and selfish, and can do anything to chase fame and fortune. Therefore, after easily getting Hu Hai, Zhao Gao found Li Si and threw out the question straight to the point, "Before the emperor died, the edict ordered Fusu to return to Xianyang to preside over the funeral, and the edict was sealed, but the emperor died before he could send it out." The letter is in my possession right now, and no fourth person knows of its existence. Now, it is up to the Prime Minister and me to decide who will succeed to the throne, what do you think?”

Lees was taken aback. He has been in the officialdom for 30 years, from a small official to a prime minister, and has experienced countless ups and downs, how can he not hear Zhao Gao's intention to usurp the edict?However, he didn't believe in a small CRRC government order, and dared to threaten himself, because if he turned over, his life would not be guaranteed. Li Si thought that Zhao Gao must have been ordered to test himself, and it was likely that he came on the orders of Gongzi Fusu.

Therefore, Li Si changed his face in seconds and refuted sternly: "Such a big rebellious remark is not something that a person who is a courtier should say. The emperor trusts us so much, how can we let him down?”

What Zhao Gao said was indeed a great rebellion, Li Si, as the prime minister, could and had the obligation to punish him to eliminate hidden dangers. As a legal expert and the policymaker of the Qin State, Li Si must have known what to do in such a situation. However, he didn't dare to show his sword at the moment, but retorted painlessly, which was no different from raising a white flag.

Zhao Gao, who is also proficient in law, was overjoyed. I saw him smile slightly, and continued confidently:

The prince expected that in the five aspects of ability, military exploits, strategy, love by the people of the world and trust of the eldest prince, which is better or worse than General Meng Tian?Li Si was silent for a long time, and said gloomily: "I can't do it." ”

Zhao Gao smiled and had a direct showdown, "Prime Minister ** far-sighted, he should know better than me, if the eldest prince ascends the throne, he will definitely appoint Meng Tian as prime minister." As far as I know, all the prime ministers who were deposed by the King of Qin ended up being killed, can the prince expect to die well?”

This can be said to be to the point, when Li Si heard it, his face suddenly turned like ashes, and the whole person was not good!

Hu Hai, the emperor's twenty-son son, was merciful and benevolent, honest and kind, despised money, respected scholars, was wise in heart but not good at words, and did his best to respect the Magi. Among the many sons of the emperor, no one can catch up with him, and he is the best candidate for the heir, and I hope that the prime minister will think carefully and make a decision!”

Zhao Gao, this is a blatant threat to Li Si!He first hinted that he had reached an agreement with Hu Hai, and then forced Li Si to express his position domineeringly in a tone that those who follow me will live and those who oppose me will die.

Li Si knows that he has pursued strict laws and rule of law over the years, and has offended too many people, once he is removed from office and loses the power in his hands, not only will everything in front of him come to naught, but the end will be very miserableAfter weighing the pros and cons, he decided to take a gamble and chose to side with Hu Hai.

Zhao Gao was naturally overjoyed, and immediately conspired with Li Si to pretend to be the first emperor and set Hu Hai as the new emperor. At the same time, he tampered with the edict given to Fusu by Qin Shi Huang, and gave Fusu and Meng Tian self-judgment on the charge of "disloyalty and filial piety".

This is the historical so-called "Dune Palace Change".

After Hu Hai succeeded to the throne, under Zhao Gao's rhetoric, he soon handed over the affairs of the government and the opposition to Zhao Gao**, and he no longer went to the court, blindly seeking pleasure in the harem, and willingly became a puppet. From then on, the court decided that the power fell into the hands of Zhao Gao.

However, Lis's situation has become extremely awkward. Nominally, Li Si's boss is Hu Hai, but under Zhao Gao's obstruction, Li Si can't see Hu Hai, and communication can only rely on Zhao Gao to send back and forth, which means that Zhao Gao is Li Si's actual boss. Lees's power was curtailed!

With the expansion of power in his hands, Zhao Gao's ambition continued to expand, and he became more and more bold, and began to covet the position of prime minister under one person and above ten thousand people. He was waiting for an opportunity, an opportunity that would kill Lees.

The opportunity has finally arrived. In order to repair the Afang Palace, Hu Hai of Qin II requisitioned and sent forced labor to push the people into the abyss of suffering. At that time, anti-Qin uprisings were raging all over the country, and the Qin Empire was already in turmoil. For the common interests of the ruling class, Li Si and the right prime minister went to the disease, and the general Feng Zaimian persuaded Qin Huhai to stop building the Afang Palace. At that time, Qin II was feasting and drinking with the palace maids, and was very angry when he saw Li Si and others writing a book, and ordered them to be arrested and imprisoned. Li Si went to the book many times in prison, but was detained by Zhao Gao.

Zhao Gao took the opportunity to frame Li Si and his son Li You for rebellion, and set up a private court to torture Li Si and torture him to extract a confession. Li Si was forced to confess his rebellion and was killed in July of the second year of Qin II (208 BC). A generation of famous ministers died tragically in the hands of villains.

To sum up, the Dune Palace change was a turning point in Li Si's fate. Before the palace change, he was a very popular minister, and he was the prime minister of Great Qin under one person and above ten thousand people, and Zhao Gao, who was the commander of the CRRC government (middle-level official), could only look up to him;After the palace change, the fate of Zhao Gao and Li Si reversed - Zhao Gao coerced the Son of Heaven to order the ministers, and Li Si, who played a good deck of cards, could only rely on Zhao Gao's snort and tremble to live, and finally fell from the peak of power.

All of this stems from a wrong decision by Li Si - against his conscience to join Zhao Gao and launch the Dune Palace Rebellion. And the internal motivation that prompted Liss to make the wrong decision was the "rat philosophy" that he believed in.

Second, the success is also the philosophy of the rat, and the defeat is also the philosophy of the rat.

Li Si's family is poor, and the children of the poor are in charge of the family early, and he knows that if he wants to get ahead, he must put in more effort than others. He thinks so and does so, and he has worked hard to learn Xi since he was a child, and he has worked tirelessly.

The hard work paid off, and when he grew up, Li Si was recommended as a small official in the county to take care of the granary, and achieved the small goal of entering the official career. But for the ambitious Li Si, being a small official is only the starting point, far from the end, he wants to become a trendsetter of the times!

However, the ideal is very full, but the reality is very helpless. In the absence of connections and resources, how can we break through the career ceiling and become an insurmountable barrier in front of Li Si.

By chance, he saw rats in the toilet, skinny, dirty and smelly, sniffing around the dung heap all day long, using feces as food, and immediately fleeing in terror when he saw a person or dog approaching. On the contrary, the rats who chose to live in the granaries lived in large huts, surrounded by mountains of corn that they could not eat, and they were all fat, big-eared, and strong as cats, and there were no people or dogs to disturb them.

Li Si's heart lit up, and he woke up like a dream in an instant, and realized a truth - life is like a mouse, with different positions and worlds of different fates!Whether a person is successful or not depends on whether he can find a good platform;Whether a person is virtuous or not depends on whether the environment in which he is located is superior. For example, if a rat wants to live a good life, it must stay in the warehouse, and if it stays in the toilet, not only will it not even have to eat sometimes!and be afraid all day long.

This is the famous "rat philosophy", the core idea of which is to choose the platform, and the second is to climb to the high position by unscrupulous means, and the goal is to reach the high position of "no fear" and no one dares to "disturb". During the Warring States Period, the highest position for non-members of the royal family was prime minister, so Li Si, who was still working as a small official, made up his mind to break through his career ceiling and reach the top of the officialdom pyramid - as prime minister.

If you want to climb to a high position, you must first have the knowledge of the six aspects of the knocking brick - fine channel, technique, law, shape, potential, and power, that is, the art of the emperor. For the sake of his personal future, Li Si did not hesitate to resign from his hard-won position as a minor official and went to Qi to worship the great Confucian Xunzi as a teacher.

Why Xunzi and not others?Because although Xunzi was a Confucian, he did not stick to the rules like Mencius, but linked theory with practice, and improved Confucius's Confucianism to make it closer to the ideas of Legalism and meet the needs of the ruling class. To put it simply, Xunzi studied the knowledge of how to govern the country - the art of the emperor, which coincided with Li Si's needs.

Li Si absorbed Xunzi's Legalist thought that "people's hearts are inherently evil" and that "ritual and law need to be applied simultaneously", and combined with his own understanding, he formed a more utilitarian and extreme Legalist thought, which is a school of its own.

After learning something, Li Si analyzed the situation in the world to choose a platform suitable for his own development. He believed that the state of Chu had been declining, and the other five countries in the east were also going downhill, and the monarchs of the six countries, including the king of Chu, were all kings who lacked ambition and were not enough to make a plan, and only the state of Qin had the strength to unify the world. So he decided to go west into Qin.

Xunzi asked Li Si why he entered Qin, and Li Si said: "Humility is the greatest shame in life, and poverty is the greatest sorrow in life." If a person is always in a lowly and poor position, he will be ridiculed. I don't want to do this, so I want to go to the Qin State to make a contribution!”

Opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared. Soon, Li Si was appreciated by Lü Buwei, a powerful minister of Qin, and was recommended to King Yingzheng of Qin. Li Si's accurate analysis of the situation in the world and the strategy of eliminating the Six Kingdoms deeply moved the eloquent Yingzheng, who believed that Li Si was the talent he had been pursuing, so he appointed Li Si as the chief historian and secretly sent strategists to lobby the Six Nations with gold, silver and jewelry.

Under Li Si's plan, the famous ministers and generals of various countries, those who are not strong-willed are directly bought by the Qin State, and those who cannot be bought are secretly assassinated. In this way, the anti-Qin forces of the Six Nations were eliminated little by little.

Since then, Li Si's official fortune has prospered and risen step by step. After Qin unified the world, he formulated a ceremonial system for Qin Shi Huang, was appointed prime minister, and reached the peak of his life.

In this process, in addition to showing his super personal ability, assisting the King of Qin to unify the six foreign countries and governing the country, in order to consolidate his personal status, he also inevitably played with power, eliminated dissent, and brought the "rat philosophy" to the extreme. For example, jealousy and killing fellow brother Han Fei is a typical example.

At this time, Li Si was already a "big rat" who lived at the top of the pyramid, and it was impossible to return to the "granary" or "toilet". Everything he did was to strengthen and preserve his position and what he had so far.

The near-** obsession with power not only blurred Lees's vision, but also affected his judgment. He ignored the fact that Zhao Gao was Hu Hai's teacher and that Hu Hai was obedient to Zhao Gao's words, and at the same time underestimated Zhao Gao's true strength, and finally made the wrong decision - agreed to participate in the Dune Palace Rebellion, and fell into the hands of Zhao Hao, who pretended to be a pig and ate a tiger.

3. Toilet rat Zhao Gao: A conspirator who pretends to be a pig and eats a tiger.

According to historical records, Zhao Gao's father was punished by the palace for committing a crime, and his mother was also tortured to cause physical disability. In other words, Zhao Gao was born a slut. If he is an unbearable toilet rat, I'm afraid no one will object!

However, Zhao Gao did not complain, let alone give up on himself. He refused to succumb to the arrangement of fate, confident that "my fate is up to me"!Determined to change your life through your own efforts and take your destiny firmly in your own hands. To this end, he studied hard since he was a child, and made all-round efforts in the fields of Xi, literature, and law, and eventually became a first-class calligrapher, literary scholar, and expert in law. Qin Shi Huang chose one in a hundred and asked him to be the teacher of the young son Hu Hai, precisely because he was superb in writing, calligraphy and law. Of course, that's another story.

Hard work pays off, and hard work pays off. Zhao Gao entered school as a history student at the age of seventeen, and stood out at the age of twenty and passed the examination to become a junior official. At the age of twenty-three, he was able to enter the Qin Imperial Palace as an official because he was proficient in legal provisions, and he had the opportunity to get close contact with Ying Zheng.

In order to increase his chances of success, Zhao Gao took precautions and began to practice Xi martial arts and driving skills hard. There is nothing difficult in the world, as long as you are willing to learn Xi!Soon, Zhao Gao, who was tall and strong, became a master of driving, and practiced good martial arts, becoming a rare talent in the court.

After Qin Shi Huang heard about Zhao Gao's deeds, he promoted him to the rank of the commander of the CRRC and was in charge of the emperor's chariot. Later, he asked him to teach the young son Hu Hai the ability to judge the case and break out of prison. Zhao Gao himself has real skills, and is good at observing words and colors, and flattering him, so he soon became a close confidant of Qin Shi Huang, and also won the appreciation and trust of his son Hu Hai.

Zhao Gao has a strong psychological quality, has the demeanor of a general, and can not be chaotic in the face of danger. When Jing Ke assassinated Qin Shi Huang, Qin Shi Huang's personal eunuchs around him were panicked and fled in all directions, only he remained calm, observed the development of the situation, and took the opportunity to remind Qin Shi Huang to draw his sword and assassinate Jing Ke, making great contributions. This is not something that ordinary people can do, only people with extremely strong hearts can do it in the face of danger!

Zhao Gaocheng's mansion was very deep, and during Qin Shi Huang's lifetime, he put away his edge and served Qin Shi Huang honestly for twenty years. Because he was very deeply hidden, let alone Li Si, even Qin Shi Huang did not perceive his ambitions, let alone expect that the powerful Qin Dynasty would be buried in his hands, and did not take countermeasures in advance.

Judging from the life trajectories of Li Si and Zhao Gao, the following problems can be found.

Although Li Si also plays with power, he is generally a conspiracy. He never shied away from the purpose of his entry, which was to pursue the best Houlu, in order to get rid of the predicament of humility and poverty, and live the life of a superior person. The philosophy of the rat is his art of dealing with the world - seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages, everyone is for me, and I am not for everyone.

Zhao Gao looks harmless to humans and animals on the surface, and even a little amiable, but he is a conspirator who pretends to be a pig and eats a tiger. What is going on in his heart is known only to him, and no one else knows. And he is ruthless, decisive, never drags mud and water, and if he doesn't make a move, he will put people to death as soon as he starts.

To sum up, it is not surprising that Li Si, a yang strategist who lacks strategic vision, was defeated by the ruthless conspirator Zhao who pretends to be a pig and eats a tiger, but it is a pity that the Great Qin Empire ......

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