The Qin Dynasty
5 min readThe Qin Dynasty（221-206BC）
Qin Shi Huang founded the first Totalitarian Empire-the Qin Dynasty in the year 221 BC.It was ended in 206 BC，lasting for only 15 years.But it had a tremendous impact upon the Chinese history.
Roughly speaking，Qin was located in Today’s Shaanxi province which uses the word for short while Chu occupied Hubei which adopted the name for the province.Qi plus Lu，another former state in which Confucius was born，forms Shandong，so Qilu is used to mean the province.The other four states were in the central area of China，i.e.，Hebei and Henan.Qin was in the very west.
Emperor Qin Shi Huang，born as Ying Zheng in 259 BC，was the son of the king of the Qin State.At the age of thirteen，he succeeded his father’s regality.
Ying Zheng was very aggressive and ambitious at an early age.
He resumed full power at 22 by ridding himself of his premier，Lv Buwei，who acted as the regent while he was a child and a minor.He wanted to unify and subjugate all the states like Han，Zhao，Wei，Chu，Yan and Qi based on the powerful political，economic and military strength of the Qin State.
Through a series of reforms in politics，economy and way of life，the Qin State got the upper hand over the other states.
Ying Zheng was not only the most ruthless and but also the most cunning man at that time.Finally，in 221 BC he subjugated the last of its rival states by tactics as well as by force.
Once the king consolidated his power，he took the title Shi Huangdi（First Emperor），a formulation previously reserved for deities and the mythological sage-emperors，i.e.（the“Three Augusts”and“Five Emperors”）.
People began to call his Qin Shi Huang and，later on，the word became the synonym of tyrant in Chinese.
Qin Shi Huang imposed the original Qin’s centralized，nonhereditary bureaucratic system on his new empire.Thereafter，it was such a man who molded the pattern of the Chinese government which was copied by later rulers and accepted by their people for about two thousand years.Ordinary Chinesetake totalitarianism for granted.This concept can be traced back all the way to Mencius whose famous sayings is“Since there are no two suns in the sky，there shall never be two kings on the earth.”.
The Biggest Terrorist in Ancient China In subjugating the six other major states of Eastern Zhou，all of the Qin kings had relied heavily on Legalist scholar-ad-visers.This，in turn，dissatisfied the former aristocrats of the other states and the jealous Confucians who often quotedwords from Confucius books and used the sayings of great sages to oppose Qin’s extreme measures.To silence criticism of his imperial rule，the First Emperor confiscated and burned the Confucian books and put to death many dissenting Confucian scholars.They were buried alive.This deed is known in the history as“Burning Books and Burying Confucians”.
Achievements and Influence The Qin made many changes that were meant to unify China and aid in administrative tasks.Firstly，the Qin implemented a legalist form of government，which was how the former Qin territory had been governed.The area was divided into 36 provinces which were in turn subdivided into counties.
These provinces each had a civil governor，a military com-mander，and an imperial inspector.The leaders of the provinces had to report to the Emperor in writing.The legalist form of government involved rewards and punishments to keep or-der.Also，the state had absolute control over the people，as well as the former nobility lost all of their power.The nobility were also transplanted from their homes to the capital.Groupswere formed of units of five to ten families，which then had a group responsibility for the wrongdoings of any individual within the group.
In order to consolidate the nascent empire，Qin Shi Huang also adopted some regulations of other rival states to form a workable law of the Qin Dynasty.In economy，he claimed that both the agriculture and commerce were important.Peopleshould have them developed together.He encouraged manu-facturing and business as well.He also ended the feudal manorial system and adopted land privatization.
Besides，tax system began to function and coinage and metrology were all standardized.In culture，the emperor unified the Chinese characters in writing，which promoted the development of Chinese culture.
Qin’s aggrandizement was aided by frequent military expeditions pushing forward the frontiers in the north and south.To fend off barbarian intrusions，the fortification walls built by the various warring states were connected to make a 5，000-kilometer-long great wall（10，000 Li in Chinese unit for length）.People call it the10，000 Li Great Wall.What is commonly referred to as the Great Wall is actually four great walls rebuilt or extended during the Western Han，Sui，Jin，and Ming periods，rather than a single and continuous wall.At its extremities，the Great Wall reaches from northeastern Heilongjiang Province to northwestern Gansu Province.
A number of public work projects were also undertaken to consolidate and strengthen the imperial rule.Long，wide and straight roads were built which are used as base of infrastructures even nowadays，as things were done by the Roman Empire.Grand palaces were built，the biggest of which was the palace“A Fang Gong”.It is said to have covered 300 Li in length（2 Li is equal to 1 kilometer）.The pity is that it was burned during the war which ended the Qin’s rule.
It is said to have been ruined by Xiang Yu，a rebellion general.（Some scholars have different opinions）.The event is rather a story than a historical fact.There are numeral things like this in Chinese culture and these are important elements to form the Chinese language and literature.They can never be neglected for studying the Chinese culture.The only thing one should pay attention to is to separate them from serious history.
The first emperor had a pair of lron Hands”.On the one hand he firmly grasped the power，while on the other hand he built luxury for himself to enjoy his life.The later strong rulers all followed him.These activities required enormous levies of manpower and resources.Many people died in construction as well as in wars.The empire was strong and its master was satisfied but his people lived a miserable life.
The Qin empire was vast.The first emperor pushed China’s borders South to today’s Vietnam，and today’s Korea.But the central kingdom was still in the Yellow RiverValley，which was true for later dynasties.So the Chinese rulers all thought of their country as the center of the earth and looked down upon the surrounding nations as Manyi meaning uncivilized peoples.
Among all of the accomplishments of the Qin，the best known is the Great Wall which is considered one of the Seven Wonders in the world.Being the symbol of the Chinese ancient civilization，the Great Wall bears witness to Qin Shi-huang’s centralism.He ordered to conscript laborers to link together the defensive works against marauding nomads already built by the former states.That was the forerunner of the modern Great Wall.Another world-famous achievement is the Terracotta Warriors and Horses in Xi’an，which was discovered nearby the mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.
