This is a major theme of our study of Chinese Dynasties. How does the statement "internal decay preceeds external disaster" explain the failure of the Qin Dynasty to hold on to power for more than 16 years?

In the table below:

• Identify examples of internal decay within China during the Qin Dynasty.
• In the middle column, brainstorm possible causes of this decay.
• In the right column, explain how this decay weakened the Qin dynasty and hindered its ability to rule effectively.

Internal Decay in Qin Dynasty	Possible Causes	Impact on Qin's ability to rule
The Qin Emperor was not popular amongst the rich and wealthy nobles and was disliked	Due to Qin's paranoia to keep his power, he stripped the rich and wealthy of their power and property.	Caused rebellions that ultimately led to one of the biggest rebellions involving 楚霸王項羽（Chu Tyrant King Xiang Yu) and 漢王 (Han King)
People did not trust each other	Qin wanted loyalty and every single person to report to him if their was a person who did not support him. If a person did something wrong, failed to report or lied, the family is also responsible for his wrongdoing.	Made Qin able to differentiate supporters from rebellers. Made him an unpopular ruler amongst the common as well.
Scholars were killed and books were buried.	Attempt to destroy history and make people idle and stupid, so they will follow the government's decision and do whatever they were told. Wanted people to think the same way.	Made the society very uneducated and stupid. No educators and teachers. Records of everything were lost.
Lots of lives were lost in completing projects such as the King's tomb, the terra cotta warriors, and the Great Wall.	Qin was very paranoid and insecured about losing his power and dying. He wanted to be immortal.	Many resources were wasted in pointless projects. Qin's paranoia eventually led to his own death as well.
The amount of food to keep everyone wealthy was decreasing.	since Qin was a paranoid, he dragged all those people to build meaningless projects and most of them ended up dying so he wasted resources when people could actually be using their time farming.	since the food amount became less and adding the mistrust and selfishness that legalism had resulted, the society turned into chaos.
According to Confucious, "legalism leads people with no sense of honor and shame."	Legalism's harsh punishments and rewards made people selfish and ego.	Everyone only cares for themselves which leads to a bad society and noone trusted each other.

INTERPRETING THE INFORMATION

Laura- As you can see from the table above, Qin's government was imploding long before he killed himself. I think that part of the reason that his government failed is the same reason that all dynasties must come to an end eventually. This is that being born in the emperor's family does not make you fit to rule. The extreme concentration of power in a dynastic form of government means that one corrupt ruler can lead to the cycle of internal decay. This shows why some government has adapted and evolved into democracies,because (as confucius said) only with the confidence of the people can a government survive.
Lieke- "Dictatorships starts wars because they need external enemies to exert internal control over their own people."
~ Richard Perle~
umm I think that this quote is really interesting but i would like to know what you guys think it means. I think that it has something to do with what we are learning but I cant find EXACTLY what it means. So if you would like to know what it means aswell then just add what you know and we can figure it out...