Alice MacLean :)

WRITING PEEL PARAGRAPH 2:

To what extent did Qin Shi Huang Di’s changes impact society, groups,
and individuals?

Throughout Qin Shi Huang Di’s rule, the changes he made greatly impacted groups,
individuals, and society. An example of how these changes affected a group were when
many of his slaves died in the building of his huge construction projects, such as the Great
Wall of China and The Great Canal. The hard labour and cruel conditions that they were
subjected to meant that countless died and suffered horribly. (Source 11). This is made clear
in Source 11, when it states that “countless people died under harsh conditions while
building ambitious projects”. Additionally, Qin Shi Huang also murdered groups of scholars as
their beliefs went against his own. While the scholars’ Confucian beliefs encouraged the
kindness of humans and of caring leaders, Qin Shi Huang’s legalist views highlighted strict
control and harsh punishments (Source 8). These beliefs clearly opposed each other. Thus,
the Emperor banned their teachings, and decided to bury the scholars alive (Source 8).
Source 8 clarifies this idea when it says “[Qin Shi Huang] not only forbade Confucian
teaching…but also persecuted Confucius scholars by burying many alive”. Furthermore, Qin
Shi Huang’s changes affected the society in general which caused people to dislike him. One
example of this is when he divided his Empire into 36 divisions, each closely controlled by
imperial soldiers (Source 7). This meant that his people were always being watched and had
very little freedom. Source 7 plainly shows this when it states that “The empire was split into
36 units…controlled by imperial officers”. Another reason that caused society to resent Qin
Shi Huang was when he forced 120,000 noble families to live in the capital, to stop them
from retaliating. (Source 5). Therefore, it is clear that these changes that Qin Shi Huang
made considerably impacted society, individuals, and groups.