ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the rulers and ministers of the kingdom, and later empire, of Qin came to use various written forms as a means of providing a centralized standard of behavior for all levels of society. More specifically, this chapter seeks to question how excavated epigraphic and manuscript documents can aid us in understanding how the Qin conceptualized the function of written law. To answer this, a variety of received and excavated textual sources dating from the mid- to late Warring States Period and after the Qin unification (c.400–207 bce) are utilized. The first section briefly considers the historical representations of Qin political and legal theories as recorded in standard histories and in the philosophical works of those individuals who purportedly influenced the development of Qin imperial thought. These records depict a state of affairs quite similar to that of other Eastern Zhou kingdoms in which the Qin rulers and those advising them attempted to curb ministerial authority and preserve centralized rule. Received texts such as these provide an important window into how such curbs on authority were thought about and theorized. However, in light of the limitations of working with received philosophical materials and the heavily biased materials of the Han historiographical tradition, this chapter also offers analysis of excavated manuscripts to provide contemporary evidence of specific Qin perspectives on law, control, and writing. The second section therefore analyzes excavated textual materials dated to the era of Qin’s rise and its eventual consolidation (or unification) of the disparate warring kingdoms.
