Chapter 50: This Nation Must Be Judged as Beastly

Ying Zheng said, "Rise. Whatever you ask of Me, I grant it!"

Without asking what the request was, he promised it straight away.

This deeply touched Li Nian. Although the First Emperor had received many negative evaluations in history, he was unwavering toward the ministers he trusted.

He trusted Meng Yi, keeping him close by his side; he trusted Zhao Gao, frequently employing him near his person; he trusted Li Si to the extent that all of Li Si's sons married Qin princesses, and all his daughters were wedded to Qin princes.

Yet Li Nian did not rise. Instead, remaining on his knees, he said, "I thank Your Majesty for your trust! My request is that, should the opportunity ever arise, I beg Your Majesty to destroy that country, annihilate its race, and exterminate its seed!"

The archipelago nation in this era had not yet committed those deeds, and to punish them based on the crimes of later ages was quite unreasonable.

But did Li Nian need to be reasonable? Did the First Emperor need to be reasonable? When the archipelago invaded China, did they ever bother to reason?

Just as he thought, what manner of disaster had that nation inflicted upon future generations of China that could drive a descendant of future China to wish for its immediate destruction at this very moment, ensuring it could never rise again?

Ying Zheng made his vow once more: "Your request is granted by Me. Should the opportunity arise, I shall surely destroy that country, sever its lineage, cut off its seed, and ensure it is no longer a menace to China!"

"I thank Your Majesty!"

Li Nian kowtowed several times before Ying Zheng, then finally stood up and sat back down, not forgetting to add, "Your Majesty, the people of that country cannot be regarded as human; they must be treated as beasts. The crimes they have committed against China are too numerous to record, and their actions surpass even Prince Huhai's execution of ten princesses by dismemberment."

If he wanted to give an example, why must he use Huhai? Was he afraid His Majesty might not know that Huhai, upon ascending the throne, brutally slaughtered His Majesty's other children?

Ying Zheng glanced at Li Nian without a word. Li Nian's earlier kowtows and prostrations had only made him appreciate the man all the more.

Now that was a spirited, hot-blooded man!

Having finished explaining the specific reasons for the fall of Great Qin, Li Nian proceeded to outline the solutions, first donning a layer of armor for self-protection.

"The remedies I speak of are derived from future knowledge combined with my own reflections. They may not necessarily suit Great Qin and are offered merely for Your Majesty's reference."

"As for the Qin legal code being overly harsh, it is nothing more than a matter of revising it according to actual needs and the wishes of the people, so that the laws become suitable for the state and the people."

"Your Majesty may dispatch officials to investigate various parts of the realm to understand the populace's appraisal of the Qin code. However, one must not overly heed the words of the masses; sometimes they cannot distinguish between good and harm, and revising entirely according to their whims would prove detrimental."

"Moreover, a revised legal code may not be entirely sound. Your Majesty need not enforce it nationwide immediately; instead, select only a few commanderies and counties to pilot the new laws and observe their merits and flaws. In this way, even if the new code harbors severe defects, the impact will remain contained, and further modifications can be made. Once implemented nationwide, however, alteration becomes far from simple."

This spoke directly to the methodology of practical execution, though what Li Nian did not know was that Ying Zheng was already conducting pilot experiments for the reform of the Qin laws.

"Even if, after the trial period, the new laws reveal no major flaws and are applied across the realm, it does not mean they require no further revision. As I have previously stated to Your Majesty, all things in the world are in a state of flux. Since everything changes, the law naturally must change with it. Today's new law becomes tomorrow's old law, and the day after, even older."

"Day by day, the new turns into the old; how can it not change? Yet neither should it change too frequently, with orders issued in the morning and revoked by evening. A set period must be established to summarize the successes and failures of the law in execution—such as revising it every three or five years—so that the law adapts to its era."

"I believe we may permanently establish officials for supervising and investigating the enforcement of the law, allowing them to gather memorials and grievances from across the realm within the stipulated duration of the laws' implementation."

Li Nian did not speak of princes committing crimes on the same terms as commoners, nor of equality before the law.

The First Emperor might have listened to such talk, but he certainly would not have put it into practice.

Shang Yang had failed to punish Ying Si (the King Huiwen of Qin) when he broke the law, managing only to punish Ying Si's tutor; Li Nian did not suppose he could achieve any better.

Such was the era. The maxim that princes should be punished just like commoners was never merely an empty phrase, yet in most historical epochs, it was precisely that!

Li Nian continued, "Once the six states are eliminated and the four seas unified, the realm will afford no further warfare to generate military merits, rendering Great Qin's system of military ranks naturally obsolete. The origin and function of this military meritocracy, which I have also explained to Your Majesty, was to provide a path of advancement for the old Qin people, granting them the opportunity to become marquises and chancellors."

"With the obsolescence of the military merit system, there are two ways to proceed. The first is to restore the efficacy of the military merit system by launching more wars to provide military achievements. Should Your Majesty so desire, the world is not short of wars: the Xiongnu to the north, the Dayuezhi to the west, the archipelago to the east, and the Baiyue to the south can all serve as targets for conquest."

"The second method is to forge paths of advancement outside the military merit system, which can be tied to Great Qin's current shortage of officials. In later ages, there were the methods of the imperial examinations and standardized testing to provide advancement for people."

"During the Song Dynasty, there was a saying: 'Only those whose names are chanted outside the East Flowery Gate are truly good men,' which demonstrates the flourishing state of the imperial exams. The imperial examination is a method for selecting talent—first using education to enable many to read and write, and then utilizing examinations to select the most outstanding among these scholars."

"Examinations are checks of merit and achievement, where questions are posed for individuals to answer, and those who answer correctly are deemed superior. The subjects tested in the imperial exams of later ages were entirely derived from Confucian classics."

Ying Zheng remarked, "No wonder Confucianism could flourish so greatly in later ages!"

How could it not flourish?

Want to be an official and rise above others? You had to study Confucian texts. If you didn't want to study yet still wished to tower above others, you had to rely on your family background. Since most people lacked a good background, they had no choice but to enter the fold of Confucianism and study Confucius and Mencius.

"I believe the method of imperial examinations can also be implemented in Great Qin. Not only will it grant the brilliant talents of the world a path of advancement, but it will also select useful talents for Great Qin, bringing greater peace to the realm. When all the brilliant minds of the world enter Your Majesty's service, it will diminish their inclination to harbor heterodox thoughts and plunge the realm into chaos."

Ying Zheng understood Li Nian's meaning: if all the clever minds in the world devoted their whole hearts and minds to the imperial examinations, they would not spend their days harboring wild fantasies and plotting rebellion.

"Great Qin may implement the system of imperial examinations, yet there is no need to follow later dynasties in making Confucian classics the mandatory content to be studied and tested, for I can provide Your Majesty with something far superior."

Li Nian spoke these words with considerable confidence; he had to declare to the First Emperor with absolute certainty that he possessed things better than Confucianism, making it unnecessary to use that particular system.

As a component of Chinese culture, though Confucianism had its historical merits, its contributions were indelible. Without Li Nian, it would have mattered little if Great Qin adopted Confucianism. But now that Li Nian had transmigrated to Great Qin and carried an engine capable of searching future information within his mind, why on earth would he still use Confucianism?

Ying Zheng understood Li Nian's intent as well, and said, "I trust you,卿 [Minister]!"

Li Nian said, "The imperial examinations are inseparable from education. For the examinations to be implemented, more people must be enabled to receive an education, and education cannot be left without boundaries."

"The *Analects* contains the saying: 'Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.' I believe we must add another phrase: 'Learning without proper guidance leads astray.' If students are not properly guided, they will tread the path of evil. The more extensive their learning and knowledge, the greater the harm they will inflict upon the state and society."

Just like certain public intellectuals of later eras—did they lack learning?

No, the educational attainment of many among them surpassed that of ordinary people, yet the words they uttered were like malignant tumors.

Take, for instance, a certain fat, short intellectual who publicly proclaimed that the Ming Dynasty had no enlightened monarchs, no famous generals, and no renowned scholars, dismissing it as a "three-no" dynasty.

Was Yu Qian not a renowned minister? Was Qi Jiguang not a famous general? Was Yang Shen—who penned the lines "The endless Yangtze River rolls eastward, washing away the heroes with its waves"—not a renowned scholar?