Ying Fusu

"Whether you believe it or not, it makes no difference to me."

"Even if you believe me, my lord—that I am truly 'loyal and virtuous'—I will still face certain death."

"Even if you, my lord, do not believe me and still regard me as a traitor, I will never, and cannot, become the mastermind behind the 'Sand Dune Incident'."

...

"It's all the same in the end, it's death."

"And ultimately, it will not be related to the Dune Coup."

"Therefore, I have no need to deceive you, my lord, or to glorify myself."

These words can be seen as Li Si's advance declaration that he said these things without any purpose or ulterior motive.

It's simply a self-statement.

Then, Li Si went straight to the point and frankly revealed his inner thoughts and feelings.

"In my opinion, the most important thing in this world is always the Great Qin."

"Secondly, it is the First Emperor."

"Secondly, there are my personal gains and losses."

...

"When Zhao Gao approached his ministers to plot against Heaven, the First Emperor had already passed away."

"This is due to the natural progression of life, and cannot be reversed by human effort."

"Therefore, all that I care about and value is the Great Qin and myself."

"The Qin Dynasty came first."

As he spoke, Li Si naturally lowered his eyes, briefly lost in reminiscence of the past.

His voice, which was originally full of energy, was inexplicably shrouded in a strange, dreamlike tone.

"The First Emperor has passed away, and the Second Emperor will soon ascend the throne."

"Among all the princes, whose ascension to the throne would be most beneficial to the Qin Dynasty?"

"It seems that the eldest son is the obvious first choice."

"However, in reality, compared to the other young masters, the only advantage of the eldest young master is that he is the eldest."

"In other respects, the eldest son might be the worst choice among all the sons."

"—This is not my opinion."

"It was a conclusion reached by the First Emperor after repeated discussions with me..."

Amidst Li Si's dreamlike, hollow words, Fusu was unknowingly drawn into a timeless scroll painting.

In the picture, the First Emperor has a furrowed brow and a haggard face.

Li Si hesitated, seemingly lost in thought.

The emperor and his ministers would talk late into the night by candlelight, sometimes even arguing repeatedly.

Ultimately, however, a difficult consensus was reached: Prince Fusu was the safest choice, but also possibly the worst.

—The Qin Empire, which gained strength through Shang Yang's reforms and unified China by building upon the achievements of six generations, with the concept of "centralized power" ingrained in its very being, was about to produce an emperor who was fond of Confucianism!

Everything that the First Emperor denied and abhorred could potentially become a reality on the land of China because of the academic and ideological leanings of this Second Emperor!

This possibility kept the First Emperor from sleeping or eating, and he felt as if he had a fishbone stuck in his throat.

On the other hand, this second emperor was the eldest and most stable of Qin Shi Huang's sons.

It might cause trouble;

But the trouble it causes certainly won't be too serious.

The lower limit is guaranteed.

The upper limit is extremely low—it might even be as low as the lower limit...

"Therefore, I believed at the time that allowing Prince Huhai to ascend the throne was not necessarily a worse choice for the Qin Dynasty."

"At least Prince Huhai was not fond of Confucianism."

"If I and the Second Emperor Huhai had a political disagreement, the court would not have been thrown into turmoil due to 'discord between the emperor and his ministers'."

"It could be more beneficial to the Qin Dynasty, and it would certainly be more beneficial to me—this is why I agreed to conspire with Zhao Gao at that time."

After a long and rambling speech, full of self-serving rhetoric, it ended with Li Si's final summary.

Li Si's mouth was dry and his voice was a little hoarse from talking.

Before Fusu could recover from Li Si's description and recollection, Li Si cleared his throat with two light coughs and said, "The same applies to today's events."

"If the prince refuses to obey the false edict, then I have already offended Heaven."

"Having no longer cared about their own gains or losses, they naturally wanted to do something more for the Great Qin."

"The prince's ascension to the throne is a foregone conclusion, and this is something that I cannot reverse or change."

"Will the Second Emperor, Fusu, be a wise ruler or a foolish one in the future...?"

"The distant future is beyond my control—and I probably won't even see it."

"The only thing we can still do for Great Qin is to cooperate with the prince to eliminate the 'Sand Dune Incident' from the world and allow the prince to ascend the throne steadily."

"Suppressing the rebellion and stabilizing the court, I can say that even on my deathbed, I have not failed the First Emperor's kindness in recognizing my talent, nor the responsibilities of the position of 'Left Chancellor'..."

……

With those words spoken, Li Si's confession finally came to an end.

However, Fusu, sitting in the main seat, was momentarily lost in thought as he listened.

If Li Si used the excuse of "I am doing this for the good of the ancestral temple and the state" to seek a way out for himself, or to gain posthumous honors and clan protection, then Fusu could still remain skeptical.

However, when all distracting factors were removed and Li Si made such a statement in a state of "no desires or wants," Fusu had no reason to question it.

As Li Si himself said: In any case, Li Si is doomed to die.

In any case, Li Si could not have died because of the "Sand Dune Incident".

On some ordinary day in the future, Li Si will die an ordinary death.

Fusu would bestow upon Li Si a mediocre posthumous honor, allowing Li Si's clan to decline in an unremarkable manner.

No one would consider Li Si a loyal subject.

No one would regard Li Si as a rebel who plotted the "Sand Dune Coup".

What Li Si said has no effect whatsoever.

However, from an angle that Li Si himself was unaware of, it influenced Fusu, a soul from later generations, to re-understand this period of history.

The Sand Dune Coup was not solely orchestrated by Li Si for his own benefit or to install a Qin Er Shi who was not a Confucian scholar.

It also reflects considerations of what is good for Qin and what will make Qin better.

While the validity of this consideration is debatable, at least there is such a motivation.

This discovery left Fusu in a daze, unable to recover from his thoughts for a long time.

After a long period of deliberation, Fusu finally gave his response to Li Si's confession.

"Minister Li told me a good story."

"I also have a good story."

"Prime Minister Li, you must want to hear this, right?"

His gentle words eventually earned a smile and a nod from Li Si.

It was as if a friend was accommodatingly gesturing to Fusu: "Speak freely."

"On the day the late emperor passed away, I had a dream."

"In the dream, I was not in Shangjun—not in the Fushi camp."

"Instead, they are like gods, looking down upon all things in heaven and earth from high above."

...

"At the sand dunes, I saw my father, on his deathbed, repeatedly entrusting Zhao Gao with the task: 'You must summon Fusu here as soon as possible.'"

"I also saw Zhao Gao and Li Xiang plotting in front of the Emperor's bedside: they might forge an imperial edict to kill Fusu and install Huhai as emperor."

...

"Then, I saw myself in the Fushi camp in Shangjun."

"I saw Prince Fusu."

"Upon receiving the imperial edict, Prince Fusu was overcome with grief and resolutely committed suicide."

"General Meng Tian tried to persuade him repeatedly, but in the end he could not stop Prince Fusu from letting out that resolute and sorrowful cry."

"If a father commands his son to die, how can he possibly plead for mercy..."①

As Fusu recounted his story in a leisurely manner, Li Si seemed to be lost in thought.

Each time Fusu described a line from the dream, Li Si's face would show a growing sense of understanding.

The dream continues.

Fusu's retelling continues.

"Prince Fusu is dead."

"Suicide."

...

"Meng Tian is also dead."

He committed suicide in Yangzhou Prison.

Before he died, he said: "I had the ability to raise an army and start a rebellion, but I did not want to do so."

...

"Meng Yi is dead too."

He was executed by Zhao Gao in Dai County.

...

"Does Prime Minister Li know what happened to my Great Qin in that dream?"

"So what about Li Xiang and Zhao Gao?"

"Do you know what became of my Great Qin Dynasty under the rule of the Second Emperor, Huhai?"

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1.

Excerpt from the Biography of Li Si in the Records of the Grand Historian:

—The messenger urged him repeatedly. Fusu, a kind and benevolent man, said to Meng Tian, ​​"What is there to ask for permission when a father commands his son to die?" He immediately committed suicide.

Meng Tian refused to commit suicide, so the messenger immediately handed him over to the legal officials and imprisoned him in Yangzhou.