ABSTRACT
The cliche-ridden scenario is repeated with variations throughout Chinese history. Yuan Shih-k'ai, the first "president" of republican China to assume the mantle of the Manchu Dynasty in 1912, committed the fatal error of privately planning to supplant one imperial tyranny with another, and more than two thousand years before him, Ch'en She made the same mistake. Chao Kao then bullied this twenty-one-year-old weakling into delegating all authority to him, whereupon he sacked the closest advisers of the First Emperor, had Li Ssu tortured to death, tightened the already painfully constricting laws, imposed exorbitant taxes, and seemingly set about ruining the country in the shortest possible time. As the empire collapsed, the six other states rose against the tyranny of Ch'in, and Nemesis approached in the shape of the burly Liu Pang, the chief eunuch Chao Kao compelled the Second Emperor to commit suicide in order to save his own skin.
