Secrets of the First Emperor
In the early years of anno domini, China experienced one of its most formidable and brilliant rulers in the personage of Qin Shi Huang, or ‘The First Emperor of Qin.’
By all accounts a visionary, Huang is now credited with laying the groundwork for the Chinese empire, setting forth the plans for the Great Wall (the first ruler to do so) and establishing the largest burial site on Earth – a site guarded by an “army” of 7,000 terracotta soldiers.
This program explores Qin Shi Huang’s life and impact on successive generations, with a wealth of CGI animation and dramatic reenactments.
It also depicts the ways in which a man whom many regarded as a walking terror could paradoxically qualify as one of China’s greatest benefactors.
Watch the full documentary now
I liked the documentary, well done with good dramatizations, but why do we as a culture/species glorify history’s mass murderers and despots? Why do we continually tell and re-tell their stories? Their contributions to “Civilisation” are dubious at best, downright evil at worst. Centralisation of power and descision making, the standardization of weights and measures, the standardization of writing systems, the codification of ever increasing laws are always held up as “benefits” gained. All of these things have served to further enslave the common man, not empower him.
Can anyone tell me just how the concept of Emperor apparently spontaneouly arose in two very different parts of the globe, amongst two very different peoples, who supposedly had no official contact? mmmmm? Rome and China?
Enough waffle…..
Infinity,
I like that you can respect something, such as the presentation/documentary on the Chinese Emperor, although you do not believe in the morals or justification. Not many can do this. So I thank you for being a flexible person, even just a bit. :)
In an attempt to answer your question, I would like to point out that – although it seems as unnecessary – the brutality of the ancient world was justified. Unlike in today’s world, where order reigns in chaos from past experiences and modern restrain, the ancient world was still developing and trying to figure things out. Thinking in terms such as this, it is understandable that war, brutality, violence, and bloodshed was a natural – almost everyday – occurrence.
As for why we, as the modern day humans, keep retelling the ancient stories such as the Chinese Emperor, it is for many reasons. One being that we wish to remember where we, as humans, came from; where the human race has been, what they’ve done, how far they’ve come (from chaos to restrained). But the biggest reason is because, in most cases, it is these kind of men/women/people that we have to thank for either our freedom, the saving of our lives, the chaos being controlled, the path to where we are now in life, and etc. I know it can be hard to imagine sometimes, but brutality and violence can create peace and order.
And lastly, you asked about how two nations, who had no contact, could use the same term such as Emperor. Let me say that these two nations, Rome and China, had trading contact; so to think that they had absolutely no contact is a misunderstanding. But the real answer to your question is that the Roman Empire never, ever, used the term Emperor. It wasn’t until later, when Latin was translated to English that the title of ‘Emperor’ was used for the Romans. The title was translated from the word Imperator, which means authority (more specific, authority over the army, not the State). The title for the Emperors of Rome, in which they themselves used for their positions, was princeps (first person) and more officially, Augustus (revered one). As I am more informed about Rome, I am not an expert on Chinese matters. However, ‘if’ the Chinese actually had a word that meant Emperor in the ancient days, I would say that it would not be like Rome at all; if they didn’t have the word for Emperor back in those days, then it could simply be a translation issue, such as that in Rome. Either way, your answer is that they aren’t the same and the title is merely a facet of present-day terminology.
Hope this helped!
In respect,
Bre
Bre and Infinnity
I personally think the continued celebration of historic figures like Qin Shi Huang can be attributed to there being little historical record of individual, everyday people. The only stories/records/monuments that survive were made for the elite classes because they were the only ones who had the power and influence to bring them into being. This is not saying that we don’t know what a peasant’s life in China was like 2000 years ago but just that we wouldn’t know much about individual stories. We can only make up a generic picture to put them all in but people like the emperor would have had all the important moments of their life chronicled. Makes for an easier documentary to produce I would imagine.
Either way it was a great documentary thanks so much for this site!
Terrible. Full or mistakes and inaccuracies. The dramatization was also cheezy.
I also see when looking at the so called great accomplishments of certain dictators or emperors and such,,, not the greatness of such feats but the incredible pain and suffering of those forced to do these things,,, and as incredible as say the great pyramid is look at the horrible suffering of thousands of untold people suffering for one man that had a selfish dream