Imperial China:
The Qin Dynasty
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By the 200s B.C., the Chinese people
had endured 500 years of warfare and
instability. Centuries of fierce fighting among
local warlords resulted in the rise of one noble
family, the Qin, to rule over all others. The Qin
(pronounced “chin”) Dynasty began a pattern of
strong centralized government that influenced
China for centuries afterward. The complex
bureaucracy put in place during the Qin
Dynasty allowed a remarkable degree of
continuity in Chinese civilization despite the
rise and fall of later dynasties.
The Qin Dynasty
By the early 300s B.C., the Qin state, on
China’s western border, had become one of
China’s dominant powers. Adopting Legalist
ideas, the rulers of Qin created a strong state
with a centralized bureaucracy financed by a
direct tax on the peasantry. One by one the Qin
defeated other Chinese kingdoms, and by 221
B.C. they had unified the country under their
rule. According to the Chinese historian Sima
Qian, the Qin swallowed up other kingdoms “as
a silkworm devours a mulberry leaf.”
Shi Huangdi: The First
Emperor
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The ruler of the new, unified China took
the name Shi Huangdi, which means “first
emperor”. From his capital at Changan (also
called Xianyang) in western China, Shi
Huangdi ruled a larger area than either of the
preceding dynasties and controlled it more
firmly. Although the Qin Empire lasted only 15
years, it produced many lasting changes in
Chinese life. The Qin Dynasty, from which the
Western name for China comes, standardized
weights, measures, and coinage. In addition, the
Qin established a uniform system of writing.
Shi Huangdi applied Legalist concepts
to government. To control his nobles, he
abolished all feudal landholdings and forced the
aristocratic families to move to the capital. He
divided China into military districts ruled by
governors who exercised stern authority. The
Code of Qin, which created a uniform legal
system, replaced conflicting local laws. Shi
Huangdi also enacted a single tax system
throughout the country, ending chaos in tax
collection.
Expanding the Empire
Not content with ruling northwestern
China, Shi Huangdi sent his armies far to the
south. His armies conquered large parts of
southern China, penetrating as far as the Xi Jian
River Delta on the South China Sea. The armies
also pushed back the less-civilized peoples
living on the northwestern borders.
To strengthen the empire, Shi Huangdi
undertook massive public works. He built
roads, bridges, and canals to move troops and
supplied more easily. To guard against nomadic
invasions from the north and west, Shi Huangdi
built a long defensive wall in 214 B.C. to
separate Chinese civilization from other
peoples. Later rulers would extend this wall,
until by the 1500s A.D. it stretched nearly 2,000
mile and became known as the Great Wall of
China.
The Great Wall of China was built in stages and
took centuries to complete. Its purpose was to
keep out foreign invasions.
Qin Autocracy
The Qin maintained order in the empire
by establishing an autocracy in which the
emperor held total power. Believing that is was
dangerous to allow scholars to investigate and
discuss problems freely, Shi Huangdi decided
to eliminate all opposition to his ideas. He
burned books, including Confucian classics of
Chinese literature, that deviated from official
Legalist doctrine. This policy was supported by
Shi Huangdi’s grand counselor, Li Si:
“There are those who unofficially propagate
(spread) teachings directed against imperial
decrees and orders…All persons possessing
works of literature and discussions of the
philosophers should destroy them. Those who
have not destroyed them…are to be branded
and work as convicts.”
When some scholars did not heed this warning,
Shi Huangdi had 460 of them executed.
Fall of Qin
The Qin believed in harshly punishing
groups of people for an individual’s
wrongdoing. When a person broke the law, his
or her entire family and several other families
were held accountable for that individual’s
misdeeds. To avoid punishment, people had to
inform on all wrongdoers immediately. Because
citizens were required to inform on their
relatives and neighbors, many people grew to
resent the Qin dynasty.
Discontent spread quickly under the
harsh rule of the Qin dynasty. The Aristocrats
had lost their land and power, and the peasantry
had suffered heavy taxation and excessive
burdens of forced labor. Many people found the
Qin rule intolerable. Shortly after the death of
Shi Huangdi in 210 B.C., many communities
exploded in open rebellion against the Qin,
bringing the short-lived, but highly influential,
Qin dynasty to an end.
Shi Huangdi Legacies
Believe it or not, Shi Huangdi left quite an
impression on China, and the world, even after
his death. In ancient China, it was customary to
sacrifice those whom the leaders wanted with
them in the afterlife. This could include wives,
pets, and even large numbers of military
personnel in order to offer protection in the
afterlife. But Shi Huangdi decided that instead
of sacrificing his army, he would create lifesize replicas of his soldiers to protect him from
his many enemies in the underworld. The
figures vary in height, according to their roles,
with the tallest being the generals. Each one has
a unique face, representing the actual members
of Shi Huangdi’s military at the time. The
figures include warriors, chariots and horses.
Current estimates are that in the three pits
containing the Terracotta Army there were over
8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and
150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are
still buried in the pits. Other terracotta nonmilitary figures were also found in other pits
and they include officials, acrobats, strongmen
and musicians. Until the figures were
discovered by a group of peasants digging for a
well in 1974, the army was considered a myth.
Now, many people are wondering what other
Chinese “myths” may be true.
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Shi Huangdi is buried in a pyramidshaped mound just west of his terra cotta army.
Legend says that his tomb has rivers of
mercury, and ceilings covered in diamonds to
imitate the night sky. It is also said that his
tomb is riddled with traps to detour any grave
robbers. His tomb has never been excavated, in
part because of cultural tradition to respect the
dead, but also for fear of these rumored traps.