My Interview With Li Si, The Chancellor of Qin

Kelly McCusker-Brown          Interview              2-5-12

My Interview With Li Si, The Chancellor of Qin

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Q. When did you realize, “The values of people are determined by their social status?”

A. Well, one day I observed that rats in the restroom were dirty and hungry. I also noticed that the rats in the barn house were well feed.

Q. How did you decide you wanted to take up politics as your career?

A. During the Warring States Period it was the most common choice for scholars not from a noble family. Because of that decision after finishing my education with the famous Confucian thinker, Xun Zi, I moved to Qin and tried to advance my political career there.

Q. Li Si, how were you responsible for the death of a minor prince, Han Fei?

A. Well, once the Emperor and I met he was impressed with my ideas. I envied Han Fei’s intelligence so I persuaded Qin that he could neither send him back nor employ him. So Han Fei was imprisoned and I convinced him to commit suicide by poisoning.

Q. Why did you persuade Qin to “suppress intellectual dissent”?

A. I believed that books about medicine, agriculture, and prophecy could be ignored but political books were dangerous in public hands. As a result only the state could keep political books.

Q. What contributions did you give to the Qin dynasty?

A. There were many contributions I gave to Qin. One was I believed in a highly bureaucratic system so I was considered to have success of Qin’s military conquest. I also helped systemize the written Chinese language and the standard measure and currency in past unified China.