King Qin's resentment

Author: Gao Guang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: There are few historical novels in China that seriously portray characters. When it comes to Qin Shi Huang, everyone writes about his gains and losses, his cruelty, his ruthlessness as a king, and his pros and cons as an emperor. But no one notices that Qin Shi Huang, who lacked a father's love since childhood, was actually a person with a flawed personality, someone who deliberately sought a father in the world. Qin Shi Huang grew up in the thunder and rain of lacking a father's love and seeking one, unknowingly becoming dark, suspicious, and tyrannical. Everyone said the father he sought was right in front of him—Lü Buwei—but this threw him into even greater helplessness and awkwardness. He dreaded Lü Buwei becoming his father to the point of ordering him to be poisoned with a slow-acting poison, which was both a result of his unbearable psychological burden and an implicit acceptance of fatherhood. It wasn't until he declared himself emperor in Xianyang that he suddenly realized the father he sought was actually himself. He suppressed internal rebellions, conquered the six kingdoms; standardized script and axle widths; burned books and buried scholars; and grandly built the Arfang Palace—all in the name of being the father of all the people, making them eternally proud of him and forever looking to his (background) for guidance. China is a nation of farmers, and their dependence and identification with their father are almost innate. Reading Qin Wang Hen, you can sense the heavy background and sighs of a father, and then you may reflect on yourself: What kind of father should we truly be?