The Emperor’s inscription
These are extracts from the monument built on Mount Langya for a visit by Qin Shi Huang’s. The text was written by his officials:
A new age is (started) by the Emperor;
Rules and measures are rectified,
The (many) things set in order,
Human affairs are made clear…
Great are the Emperor's achievements,
Men attend diligently to basic tasks,
Farming is encouraged, secondary pursuit discouraged,
All the common people prosper…
Caring for the common people,
He works day and night without rest…
Great is the virtue of our Emperor
Who pacifies all four corners of the earth…
Men delight in his rule,
All understanding the law and discipline…
His achievements surpass those of the Five Emperors,
His kindness reaches even the beasts of the field;
All creatures benefit from his virtue,
All live in peace at home.
The Emperor’s stone inscription, Mount Langya found at this site
Free speech in Qin’s China
This evidence comes from Li Si, Qin Shi Huang’s loyal Prime Minister:
Now the (impressive) Emperor has unified all under heaven, distinguishing black from white and establishing a single source of authority. Yet the (supporters) of private theories band together to criticize the laws… I therefore request that all records of the historians other than those of the state of Qin be burned.
Anyone who ventures to discuss the (teachings of Confucius) shall be executed in the marketplace. Anyone who uses (the past) to criticize the present shall be executed along with his family. Any official who observes or knows of violations and fails to report them shall be equally guilty.
Li Si’s advice in Sima Qian, Biography of the First Emperor found at this site
The Emperor and his advisors
This commentary is from Li Jian, a statesman who lived a century after Qin Shi Huang:
At that time the world was not without men of deep insight and an understanding of change. The reason they did not dare exert their loyalty and correct the errors of the ruler was that Qin's customs forbade the mentioning of inauspicious matters. Before their words of loyal advice were even out of their mouths, they would have been condemned to execution. This insured that the men of the empire would incline their ears to listen, stand in an attitude of solemn attention, but clamp their mouths shut and never speak out.
Li Jian’s commentary in Sima Qian, Biography of the First Emperor found at this site
Two scholars’ evidence
The First Emperor is by nature obstinate, cruel, and self-willed … He rose up from among the feudal rulers to unite the entire empire, and now that he has achieved his ends and fulfilled his desires, he believes that there has never been anyone like him since remote antiquity (ancient times).
He entrusts everything to the law officials, and the law officials alone are allowed into his presence. Although seventy men have been appointed as academicians, they are mere figureheads and are never consulted … The emperor never learns of his mistakes and hence grows daily more arrogant, while his underlings, prostrate with fear, flatter and deceive him in order to curry favour.
Master Hou and Master Lu in Sima Qian, Biography of the First Emperor