李斯
Qin's Great Chancellor
The man who designed the imperial system that lasted two thousand years — and was executed by being cut in half with his family.
Li Si journeyed from the state of Chu to study law under Xun Kuang, then proceeded to Qin to serve Ying Zheng. He persuaded the King of Qin that he should not merely be a king but an emperor—and assisted him in conquering all six rival kingdoms. After unification, Li Si became Chancellor. He standardized the script, reformed weights and measures, and abolished feudal titles. He implemented Shang Yang's legal reforms across the unified empire. He also burned the books that opposed Legalist philosophy and, on the Emperor's orders, buried 460 scholars alive. Upon the death of Qin Shi Huang, Li Si conspired with the eunuch Zhao Gao to place the Second Emperor on the throne. The Second Emperor proved to be brutal and paranoid. Zhao Gao accused Li Si of treason. Li Si was executed by being cut in half at the marketplace—and his three generations of family were exterminated. His reforms outlived him by two millennia. The imperial system he designed was still in use in 1912.