Li Si
Li Si (Chinese: 李斯; pinyin: Lǐ Sī; Wade–Giles: Li Ssu) (ca. 280 BC - September or October 208 BC) was the influential Prime Minister (or Chancellor) of the feudal state and later of the dynasty of Qin, between 246 BC and 208 BC. A famous Legalist, he was also a notable calligrapher. Li Si served under two rulers: Qin Shi Huang, king of Qin and later First Emperor of China -- and his son, Qin Er Shi. A powerful minister, he was central to the state's policies, including those on military conquest, draconian centralization of state control, standardization of weights, measures and the written script, and persecution of Confucianism.
Li Si was originally from the kingdom of Chu. When he was young, he was a minor official in that country.
Li Si, like Han Fei (韓非), was a disciple of Xunzi (荀子). One of Li Si's most famous prose works, In Advice Against the Driving Away of Guest Immigrants (諫逐客書, Jian Zhu Ke Shu), was written in reaction to a vehement Qin edict to drive away all foreign immigrants from Qin territory.
A staunch believer in a highly bureacratic system, Li Si is considered to have been central to the efficiency of the Qin state and the success of its military conquest. He was also instrumental in systemizing standard measures and currency in post-unified China. He further helped systemize the written Chinese language by promulgating as the imperial standard the small seal script which had been in use in the state of Qin all along. In this process, variant graphs within the Qin script were proscribed, as were variant scripts from the different regions which had been conquered. Contrary to popular belief, though, Li Si did not "invent" small seal script.
According to the Shi Ji, Li Si was responsible for the death of Han Fei. A minor prince in the state of Han, Han Fei was an excellent writer whose essays reached the attention of the king of Qin. When Qin made war on Han, Han Fei was dispatched as a diplomatic envoy to Qin. Li Si, who envied Han Fei's intellect, persuaded the Qin king that he could neither send Han Fei back (as his superior ability would be a threat to Qin) nor employ him (as his loyalty would not be to Qin). As a result, Han Fei was imprisoned, and Li Si convinced him to commit suicide by poisoning.
According to Sima Qian, Li Si persuaded Qin Shi Huang to suppress intellectual dissent, and when Confucian scholars protested, 460 of them were buried alive. Li Si himself penned the edict in 214 BC which ordered widespread destruction of historical records and literature in 213 BC, including key Confucian texts, which he thought detrimental to the welfare of the state.
When Qin Shi Huang died while away from the capital, Li Si and the chief eunuch Zhao Gao suppressed the late emperor's choice of successor, caused the crown prince to commit suicide, and installed another prince, Qin Er Shi in his place. During the tumultuous aftermath, Zhao Gao convinced the new emperor to install his followers in official positions. When his power base was secure enough, Zhao Gao then had Lǐ Sī killed in 208 BC in a grisly manner -- being cut in half in public. Qin Er Shi then turned against Zhao Gao, who in turn killed the emperor in 207. The next emperor Ziying then killed Zhao Gao, and then was killed himself as the dynasty collapsed.
Li Si are mentioned in Elias Canetti's novel: Auto-da-fe (1935).
See also
References
- Levi, Jean (1993). Han fei tzu (韓非子). In Loewe, Michael (ed., 1993). Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, pp.115-116. (Early China Special Monograph Series No. 2), Society for the Study of Early China, and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, ISBN 1-55729-043-1.
- Michael, Franz (1986) China through the Ages: History of a Civilization. pp.53-67. Westview Press; SMC Publishing, Inc. Taipei. ISBN 0-86531-725-9; 957-638-190-8 (ppbk).
- Nivison, David S. (1999). The Classical Philosophical Writings, pp. 745-812. In Loewe, Michael & Shaughnessy, Edward L.. The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C.. Cambridge University Press.