Elements of Minben(people are the foundation of a nation)in the Ruling Thought in the Qin Dynasty from a Perspective of General Social Consciousness

Many scholars argue that there is not any room for Minben(people are the foundation of a nation)thought in the First Emperor(Qinshihuang)'s haling concept because there is typicalabsolute monarchyordespotismin Qin' s system,emperor and politics.This assumption is simplistic.This article argues that the basic idea of Minben thought was a consensus among various schools of thought based on the historical phenomenon of the Legalistic clear-cut stand forYi Ren Wei Ben(human-oriented),Confucian strong influence on the Qin's ruling thought,the Zajia(Eclectic)ele- ments and standardized thinking in Qin's ruling thought.So,in the Qin Dynasty,Minben thought had widespread impact on political consciousness of all social strata and became a category of general political consciousness of the whole soci- ety.It is certainly safe to conclude that there are certain elements of Minben thought in the Qin's ruling thought.It is thus clear that many essences in Chinese imperial system and ruling thought do deserve further study and holistic assess- ment.