Succession Legitimacy Purge / 继位合法性清洗
Succession legitimacy purge / 继位合法性清洗 is the post-accession mechanism Qinji 128-1 draws from 胡亥 / 秦二世’s first year. A ruler whose accession feels unsafe turns potential witnesses, rival kin, senior ministers, and old regime servants into threats that must be eliminated before he can enjoy power.
The mechanism is distinct from 伪诏继位政变. A forged-edict coup explains how someone gets the throne; succession legitimacy purge explains why holding the throne immediately produces a campaign against those whose existence reminds the ruler that the succession was contested or irregular.
In the source case, 赵高 first flatters Hu Hai’s desire for pleasure, then says pleasure must wait because princes and ministers may suspect the 沙丘 transition. His recommended solution combines 法家君术, harsh punishment, mutual implication, and personnel replacement: destroy great ministers and royal kin, raise the low and poor, and make the court dependent on Hu Hai and Zhao Gao.
The source’s concrete victims show why this is more than abstract “consolidation.” 嬴将闾 cannot get a clear charge before being forced into suicide, while 嬴高 chooses a death petition to avoid implicating his family. The purge therefore uses law’s language while hollowing out law’s evidence and procedure.
Key Claims
- A weak or suspect succession can keep producing violence after the throne has been formally obtained.
- The ruler’s insecurity makes relatives dangerous simply because they embody alternate claims.
- A manipulative adviser can profit by making the ruler’s fear look like a state-security problem.
- Legal language can make a purge administratively legible without making it substantively lawful.
- Collateral punishment intensifies the purge because victims may choose death to protect households.
- Personnel replacement is part of the mechanism: killing old officials creates openings for dependent followers.
- Pleasure-seeking and violence are linked in the source because the ruler sees purge as the condition for carefree enjoyment.
Connections
- 胡亥 / 秦二世, 赵高, 秦始皇, 嬴将闾, and 嬴高 - source case and victims.
- 伪诏继位政变, 临终就近立储, Autocratic Succession, and 未定继承人风险 - succession mechanisms around the same Qin transition.
- 位阶焦虑式说服 - adjacent persuasion pattern Zhao Gao had already used on Li Si and now redirects toward Hu Hai’s fear.
- 法家君术, 连坐式牵连惩罚, and 君臣反馈失灵 - legal, punishment, and information-collapse infrastructure.
- 子婴, 蒙恬, and 蒙毅 - earlier post-accession warning and Meng-family purge branch.