Zhao Gao: The Fall Of Qin Dynasty

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Zhao Gao (趙高) Background The fall of Qin dynasty is synonymous with the person named Zhao Gao. Although he did not cause the fall of the dynasty by himself, but he took a major role on the downfall of qin dynasty. During his early life, he was born in zhao state during the warring state period. Unfortunately however, his parents are punished due to crime when he was still young. Also, him and his brothers are being castrated for what their parents have done ; therefore Zhao Gao is supposedly a eunuch. After the incident, Zhao Gao moved from the Zhao dynasty to Qin dynasty. He studied criminal law since he was at a young age, and the ruler of Qin dynasty at the time Qin Shi Huang wanted to use his knowledge in criminal law to control the people …show more content…

Consequently, it was definitely reasonable to assume that because of the hardships that he felt during his early life; that is what makes him the corrupted person he is. In fact, there is one chinese idiom that is taken from an action involving Zhao Gao to prove how good he is at manipulating people. The Idiom is called calling a deer a horse, which was taken from a story when Zhao Gao brought a deer to the first emperor of Qin. He presented the deer to the emperor while saying that he brought him a horse to pull the horse drawn carriages. The emperor obviously did not believe that the deer was in fact a horse, therefore Zhao Gao ask for all the officials opinion that were surrounding him and the emperor. Some officials said the truth, some agreed with Zhao Gao that it was a deer and some just stand quietly. After a while, the emperor was finally covinced that the deer was in fact a horse because he trust the officials surrounding him. That incident eventually lead to the execution of the officials that were telling the truth which makes Zhao Gao feared by other officials. In the end, he gained a control over people because of that incident and corrupt the government of Qin dynasty even more. According to the story of his life, no matter how strong a kingdom/dynasty is, if it was filled with a corrupted people and lead by even more corrupted people; the dynasty will eventually fall within a relatively short period of time. Qin was known as one of the strongest states at that period, when it was lead by Qin Shi Huang. They could conquer a lot of other states and expand their land into a larger area within 10 years of period. However, no matter how strong their army was, when Zhao Gao and his corrupted officials get their hands on the government of Qin dynasty, it fell into rebels within a short period of time. Perhaps, if Zhao Gao and Li

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