Li Si () (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 and opponents of Legalism. His methods of administration of China is seen by some as being an early form of
totalitarianism.
Early life
Li Si was originally from Shang Cai (上蔡) in the kingdom of
Chu. When he was young, he was a minor official in
Chu. According to the
Records of the Great Historian, one day Li Si observed that rats in the outhouse were dirty and hungry but the rats in the barnhouse were well fed. He suddenly realized that "there is no set standard for honor since everyone's life is different. The values of people are determined by their social status. And like rats, people's social status often depends purely on the random life events around them. And so instead of always being restricted by moral codes, people should do what they deemed best at the moment. " He made up his mind to take up politics as his career, which was a common choice for scholars not from noble family during the
Warring States Period.
Li Si was unable to advance his career in Chu. He believed that achieving nothing in life while being so intelligent and educated will bring shame to not just himself but all scholars. After having finished his education with the famous
Confucian thinker
Xun Zi, he moved to the most powerful state at that time -
Qin and tried to advance his political career there.
Career in Qin
During his stay in the state of
Qin, Li Si became a guest of the prime minister
Lu Buwei (呂不韋) and got the chance to talk to the ruler of
Qin -
Qin Shi Huang. Li Si expressed that the Qin state was extremely powerful, but uniting China was still impossible if all of the other 6 states unite to fight against Qin.
Qin Shi Huang was impressed by Li Si's view of how to unify
China. Having adopted Li Si's proposal, the ruler of
Qin spent generously to lure intellects to the state of
Qin and sent out assassins to kill important scholars in other states.
According to the
Records of the Grand Historian (史記), 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. Li Si believed that books regarding things such as
medicine,
agriculture and
prophecy can be ignored. But political books were dangerous in public hands. It was hard to make progress and change the country with the opposition of so many "
old school" thinking scholars. As a result only the state should keep political books, and only the state run schools should be allowed to educate political scholars. When
Confucian scholars protested, 460 of them were buried alive. Li Si himself penned the edict in 215 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.
Death
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, which was
Fusu. At that time Fusu was close friends with
Meng Tian. If Fusu became the next emperor there is a high chance Meng Tian will replace Li Si as the prime minister. Fearing a loss of power Li Si decided to betray the dead Qin Shi Huang. Li Si and Zhao Gao tricked Fusu to commit suicide, and installed another prince,
Qin Er Shi (229B.C-207B.C) 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 charged Li Si of treason. Qin Er Shi, who viewed Zhao Gao as his teacher, did not question his decision. Without any evidence, Zhao Gao had Li Si tortured until he admitted the crime. Zhao Gao then had Li Si killed in 208 BC in a grisly manner -- being
cut in half in public. Zhao Gao in turn was killed by
Ziying in revenge for Gao's killing of Ziying's uncle Emperor
Qin Er Shi.
Li Si is mentioned in
Elias Canetti's novel:
Auto-da-fe (1935).
Contributions
A staunch believer in a highly bureacratic system, Li Si is considered to have been central to the efficiency of the state of
Qin 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.
See also
Footnotes
