政治文化视角下的秦始皇求仙

The Study of Qin Shihuang's Seeking Elixir of Life from the Perspective of Political-Culture

秦统一之后各地的分裂势力一直存在,先后制造了一系列危及大一统政治的特殊事件,这让秦始皇意识到帝国的统治并不稳固,需要采取各种方式震慑分裂势力,维持帝国的统一局面,而通过求取仙药以实现长生不死正是其中的一种特殊手段。所以秦始皇求仙并非只是为了自己的福佑,还应从政治文化角度进行考察。另外,秦始皇对方术士的尊崇除了寄希望他们取得仙药之外,其实还有着实际政治层面的考虑,他想要通过抬高方术士的地位打压具有分裂倾向的原六国巫祝势力,并试图放弃使用传统的巫鬼之说进行统治,而让六国人民接受一直在秦地实行的法律令。可以发现,秦始皇的求仙行为其实也是试图对当时人们的信仰进行控制,实际着眼点是帝国的统一稳定与长治久安。

After the unification of Qin Dynasty, separatist forces still existed and they successively created a series of special events endangering political unification, which made Qin Shihuang realize that his empire was unstable and he needed to take va- rious ways to deter separatist forces. One special of them is seeking the elixir of life to achieve immortality. So it has political sig- nificance and not just for his own bliss. Qin Shihuang honored warlocks hoping that they could get elixir. In addition, he wanted to suppress the separatist forces from the former six countries and let people from those six countries accept laws on the Qin land. In other words, in order to pursue the long - term stability and unity of his empire Qin Shihuang was trying to control people＇ s beliefs by his seeking.