Compare And Contrast Shi Huangdi And King Hammurabi

What comes to mind when someone hear the words “born leader”? Certainly, one thinks of a person with the qualities of passion, integrity, confidence, and intelligence. Since the beginning of civilization, born leaders, through their actions, have been able to greatly impact their environment. Shi Huangdi, Siddhartha Gautama, and King Hammurabi are just a few examples of specific leaders in early civilizations that left legacies that have lasted for centuries. Overall, individuals in the past had such amazing leadership skills that they were able to shape the times in which they lived.

Shi Huangdi was the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty who united China while it was experiencing civil war, also known as the Period of the Warring States. Through his Legalist ideas and integrity, Shi Huangdi was able to maintain political and social order by means of a centralized government. In under eleven years, he constructed the famous

3,000-foot-long Great Wall of China, standardized coinage, assembled an extremely powerful army, and sponsored new irrigation products. Also, he was able to successfully extend China’s territory southward, conduct the first census, and promote manufacturing of silk. Some may argue that Shi Huangdi was born in the right time to take over a fractured nation, but to do so meant he had to possess a great number of leadership qualities. Despite being notoriously known for ruling harshly and imposing very high taxes, Shi Huangdi did the job of laying the foundation that the next dynasty, the Han, would build upon.
Siddhartha Gautama, later known as the Buddha, was one of the many formative influences of the sixth century BC who founded a major world religion. Siddhartha Gautama left his life of luxury and ease to seek out the cause of suffering. As a young child, his family kept him safe in the palace and forbid him from leaving it so he would not experience human hardship. However, when Gautama escaped the palace and encountered sickness and death, he sought to find out why. After finding enlightenment beneath the Bodhi tree by meditating and fasting, he began to spread his teachings of the Four Noble Truths. His teachings and doctrines later became known as the religion of Buddhism. He believed in nirvana, or release from the cycle of rebirth, karma, dharma, reincarnation, and the importance of meditating. Unlike the major religion of Hinduism at the time, Buddhism rejected the caste system. Following the Buddha’s death, his followers wrote down his teachings in the Tripitaka and the religion spread throughout the world by means of missionaries. A person may argue that without the Buddha experiencing suffering, he would have not been able to change the times, therefore making the times change him. However, it does not change the fact that everyone else who experienced suffering in that time didn’t try to find the meaning of it. The Buddha is perceived as one of the most influential figures of history due to his teachings affecting everything from literature to other faiths from India to the Western world.
King Hammurabi, who reigned from 1782 BC to 1750 BC, was one of the few rulers from Mesopotamian times that used his leadership qualities to change the way society functioned.

Hammurabi is best known for his succession in writing down the first complete set of laws, titled Hammurabi’s Code. He strived as a king to bring protection, fairness, and justice to the weak of society using laws from the God of justice, Shamash. Hammurabi’s Code was written on a large stone pillar called a stele. In addition to writing a set of 282 laws, he expanded the territory of Babylon northward and westward, encouraged agriculture, and oversaw the erection of many buildings and temples. One may argue that since Hammurabi changed and eliminated some of the laws before he published the complete set, he was changed by the times. However, revising some of the laws was necessary to ensure the best protection and fairness for the people. Overall, King Hammurabi laid the foundation for the laws that we have today and his legacy continues on in our justice

system.
Despite the individuals mentioned, there are some leaders that were shaped by the times. For example, Confucius’s way of thinking was greatly due to the time period he was living in, the Era of the Warring States. However, the majority of early civilization leaders possessed exemplary qualities that enabled them to be known to many people today . Shi Huangdi unified China and built the Great Wall, the Buddha founded a religion that still exists today, and Hammurabi formed the foundation of the laws we have currently. Looking back, how would life be like today without the actions of these people? It could be entirely different and alien to the modern life we live right now. Early civilizations required strong individuals to maintain unity, and it is these individuals that left legacies that will last for centuries forward.