Era Information 

Time: 221 B.C.-207B.C.

Location of Capital: Xianyang City in Shanxi Province, not far from Xian 

Emperors: Ying Zheng, Fushu, Zi Ying 

Replaced by: Han Dynasty

Introduction

In 221 B.C.,Chinese were unified for the first time to construct a great country that ended the long era of disunity and warring. In that year the western frontier state of Qin, the most aggressive of the Warring States, subjugated the last of its rival state.

Centralization and autarchy were achieved by ruthless methods and focused on standardizing legal codes, bureaucratic procedures, the forms of writing and coinage, and the pattern of thought and scholarship.

To silence criticism of imperial rule, the kings banished or put to death many dissenting Confucian scholars and confiscated and burned their books. Qin expansionism was aided by frequent military expeditions pushing forward the frontiers in the north and south.

In order to fend off barbarian intrusion, the fortification walls built by the various warring states were connected to make a 5,000-kilometer-long 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, continuous wall. At its extremities, the Great Wall reaches from northeastern Heilongjiang Province to northwestern Gansu.

A number of public works projects were also undertaken to consolidate and strengthen imperial rule. These activities required enormous levies of manpower and resources, not to mention repressive measures.

Revolts broke out as soon as the first Qin emperor died in 210 B.C. His dynasty was extinguished less than twenty years after its triumph. The imperial system initiated during the Qin dynasty, however, set a pattern that was developed over the next two millennia.

Decline of Qin Dynasty

After Qin Shi Huang unified the six states, he believed that he had made a big contribution. He called himself Huang Di which in Chinese means glory, greatness and beauty. After Qin Shi Huang died, Zhao Gao colluded with Hu Hai and Li Shi to murder Qin Shi Huang’s eldest son. They made Hu Hai the third emperor of Qin. Hu Hai was an incompetent who had no the strength to prevent the rebellion from the his opposition.

Qin’s decline was caused mainly by the unhumanic regulations, the cruel laws and high taxation imposed on the peasants. Although Qin’s strong army and strict regulations and laws, it could not oppose the rebellion of peasants. They used the agriculture tool as the weapons and the broken cloth as their flag to fight against the Qin government.

Qin absorbed the other six states’ regulations and laws and made a unified set of laws and put them into practice. He took the former six states’ important officials to the inner China in order to control them well. He restricted the availability weapons. The weapons he seized from the people were melted to make 12 iron statues.

Through these regulations and laws, Qin Shi Huang had control the whole country, while the Qin people lead a depressed life and a sorrowful life.

209B.C. July, Cheng Sheng and Wu Guang lead a peasant rebellion but were defeated and sentenced to death. The war against Qin continued and was lead by Liu Bang and Xiang Yu. They broke into the center of Qin. At the same time, Zhao Gao killed Li Shi and Hu Hai and promoted Zhi Ying, the grandson of Qin Shi Huang to be the emperor.

207B.C. Xiang Yu destroyed the best of Qin’s army which crippled. 206B.C. Liu Bang seized the capital of Qin and captured the emperor. Qin disappeared the same year.

Qin Shi Huang

Qin Shinhuang, called Yingzheng, was the son of Zhuang Rangwang (some one has said he was the bastard of Li Buwei, a famous figure in China history) He was a great politics, military leader, and the first emperor of China. He enthroned when he was thirteen years old and become the emperor in his 39. In the end of War period, Qin has become the strongest state that can unify the other six small eastern states.

When Yingzheng was enthroned, Li Buwei held a very important position in the offical. In 238B.C., he controled the power to govenrn the whole countryand deposed Li’s position and promoted Li Shi and Wei Liao and so on.

From 230B.C. to 221B.C, Qin destroyed Han, Wei, Chu, Yan, Zhao and Qi six small states around China. And finally he established the first untied, multi-ethnic and feudal country in China’s history. 

After Qin Shihuang unified the six states, he thought himself made the biggest contribution. So he called him self Huang Di which in Chinese means glory, greatness and beauty.

Qin Shi Huang in English means the beginning emperor who declared his sons and grandson will be called the second generation and the third generation even the ten thousand generation. He had fancied that his position would pass from one generation to thousands of generation. He established a systematic official from the regional to the central government and he has the great right to control the whole country by himself.

Based on the law of ancient, Qin absorbed other six states’ regulation and laws and made the unified law and put them into practice. He removed the former six states’ important officials to the inner China in order to control them well. He announced the folk can not collect weapons. The weapons he seized from the people to be melted to 12 iron man.

Through these regulations and laws, Qin Shi Huang had control the whole country mightily, while the Qin people lead a depressed life and a sorrow life.

Shang Yang Reform

Shang Yang (ca. 390-338 BC) was a Chinese statesman and political philosopher. He was one of the founders of Chinese Legalism and organized the rise to power of the Ch'in dynasty. The real name of Shang Yang was Kung-sun Yang; he was also known as Wei Yang. He was born in Wei, a state in north-central China. His mother was a concubine of a member of the Wei royal family. In his youth he specialized in criminal law and served as tutor to the Wei princes. He was a favorite of the Wei prime minister, who recommended to the Wei ruler that Shang Yang succeed to the ministry upon his death. This request was denied, and Shang Yang, feeling that he was not appreciated in Wei, journeyed to the western state of Ch'in, which had been seeking men who could offer practical advice on state affairs.

Becoming the confidant of Duke Hsiao, who was just then embarking on a program of military expansion and revitalization of the state, Shang Yang presented him with a comprehensive plan for the accomplishment of these ends. He proposed a complete reform of the political, social, and economic structure of the state. He advocated strengthening the judicial system and the imposition of severe punishments for crimes of all kinds.

There was to be a group sharing of guilt and punishment, and people were required to inform on lawbreakers. Those who failed to denounce a criminal were cut in two. Rank and position would be given only to those who distinguished themselves in military affairs. Membership in the Ch'in royal clan was denied to nobles who achieved no military success.

Central to Shang Yang's economic theory was an over-whelming emphasis on agriculture and a rejection of "nonessential" activities such as commerce and manufacturing. He proposed that anyone engaging in secondary professions be sold as slaves. His most famous economic reform was the abolition of the idealized system of landholding known as the "well-field system," in which a section of land was divided into nine portions, tilled by eight families in common, with the produce from the ninth portion reserved for the overlord.

Shang Yang reportedly substituted for this system individual ownership of property and had new land brought under cultivation. He also introduced a poll tax and a produce tax. Actually, the well-field system may well have been abolished already, and Shang Yang may not have had anything to do with originating this reform. Given a high military post, Shang Yang led an expedition against his home state of Wei, which he conquered in 350 B.C. He supervised the building of a new capital at Hsien-Yang. He applied his laws so strictly and impartially that even the crown prince was punished on several occasions, even having his nose sliced off. In 341 Shang Yang led another expedition against Wei and forced it to cede to Ch'in all of the land west of the Yellow River. For his services, Shang Yang was rewarded with a fief of 15 cities in Shang (modern Shensi), from which his names Lord Shang and Shang Yang are derived.

Duke Hsiao died in 338, and his successor was the crown prince whom Shang Yang had punished earlier. Shang Yang was then charged with plotting rebellion and forced to flee. One account states that he tried to take refuge in an inn but was refused entrance because the law of Lord Shang prohibited the lodging of fugitives! He tried to return to Wei, but he was sent back to Ch'in. Shang Yang was finally killed making a stand at his fief in Shang. His body was pulled apart by chariots and his whole family executed. Shang Yang is credited with the authorship of the Book of Lord Shang (Shang-Chün shu), a collection of economic, legal, and political treatises, many of which are elaborations of the program he developed in Ch'in. It is doubtful that this book actually comes from his hand, nor is it the work of a single author. Because of its emphasis on law, this work is considered one of the major ancient Chinese works on Legalist philosophy.

Zhao Gao

Zhao Gao is the only eunuch in the history of China to have been appointed prime minister. He hail from the state of Zhao, and was said to be forced into castration and entered into the service of Qin after the demise of his state. Furthermore , it was said that the Qin general Meng Tian rape his wife during the invasion of Zhao. These humiliations couple with the demise of his country has led to the burning vengeance in Zhao Gao's heart. He secretly vow for revenge against the Qin dynasty.

After he entered into the service of Qin, he served as tutor to the emperor's second son Huhai and was also in the emperor's good graces. After the death of Qin Shi Huang, Zhao Gao and Li Si forged the edict proclaming the heir to be Huhai while schemingly got rid of Fusu and the hated general Meng Tian through trickery. At long last Zhao Gao was able to destroy Meng Tian his hated enemy.

Later, Zhao Gao even got rid of Li Si and got what his heart desire the post of prime minister. With absolute power, he begin even to sidelined the second QIn Emperor and lead the empire governance to decline greatly. His mismanagement of the state led to widespread rebellion and ruin the very foundations that former Qin Rulers had taken hundred of years to build.

He even later murdered Huhai and intend to continue to rule by installing Fusu'son Ziyin on the throne, but the latter did not desire to be his pawn and kill him instead. After the death of Zhao Gao, Ziying knowing that the game is as good as lost surrendered to Liu Bang and the Qin dynasty vanguished forever. Well, can we say Zhao Gao finally had his revenge on the Qin Rulers for destroying his state of Zhao, and for taking everything away from hi - his masculinity, his pride, his family. The eunuch who singlehandedly destroy an empire that has took centuries for Qin rulers build.

Li Si

Li Si (Chinese: 李斯; pinyin: Lǐ Sī; Wade-Giles: Li Ssu) (ca. 280 BC - September or October 208 BC) was the influential Prime Minister (or Chancellor) of the feudal state and later of the dynasty of Qin, between 246 BC and 208 BC. A famous Legalist, he was also a notable calligrapher. Li Si served under two rulers: Qin Shi Huang, king of Qin and later First Emperor of China -- and his son, Qin Er Shi. A powerful minister, he was central to the state's policies, including those on military conquest, draconian centralization of state control, standardization of weights, measures and the written script, and persecution of Confucianism and opponents of Legalism. His methods of administration of China is seen by some as being an early form of totalitarianism.

Li Si was originally from Shang Cai (上蔡) in the kingdom of Chu. When he was young, he was a minor official in Chu. According to the Records of the Great Historian, one day Li Si observed that rats in the restroom were dirty and hungry but the rats in the barnhouse were well fed. He suddenly realized that "the values of people are determined by their social status." He made up his mind to take up politics as his career, which was a common choice for scholars not from noble family during the Warring States Period. After having finished his education with the famous Confucian thinker Xun Zi, he moved to the most powerful state at that time - Qin and tried to advance his political career there.

During his stay in the state of Qin, Li Si became a guest of the prime minister Lu Buwei (呂不韋) and got the chance to talk to the ruler of Qin - Qin Shi Huang. Qin Shi Huang was impressed by Li Si's view of how to unify China. Having adopted Li Si's proposal, the ruler of Qin spent generously to lure intellects to the state of Qin and sent out assassins to kill important scholars in other states. According to the Records of the Grand Historian (史記), Li Si was responsible for the death of Han Fei. A minor prince in the state of Han, Han Fei was an excellent writer whose essays reached the attention of the king of Qin. When Qin made war on Han, Han Fei was dispatched as a diplomatic envoy to Qin. Li Si, who envied Han Fei's intellect, persuaded the Qin king that he could neither send Han Fei back (as his superior ability would be a threat to Qin) nor employ him (as his loyalty would not be to Qin). As a result, Han Fei was imprisoned, and Li Si convinced him to commit suicide by poisoning. According to Sima Qian, Li Si persuaded Qin Shi Huang to suppress intellectual dissent, and when Confucian scholars protested, 460 of them were buried alive. Li Si himself penned the edict in 214 BC which ordered widespread destruction of historical records and literature in 213 BC, including key Confucian texts, which he thought detrimental to the welfare of the state.

When Qin Shi Huang died while away from the capital, Li Si and the chief eunuch Zhao Gao suppressed the late emperor's choice of successor, caused the crown prince to commit suicide, and installed another prince, Qin Er Shi (229B.C-207B.C) in his place. During the tumultuous aftermath, Zhao Gao convinced the new emperor to install his followers in official positions. When his power base was secure enough, Zhao Gao then had Li Si killed in 208 BC in a grisly manner -- being cut in half in public. Li Si is mentioned in Elias Canetti's novel: Auto-da-fe (1935).

Meng Tian

Meng Tian (蒙恬) ( ?-210 BC) was a general of the Qin Dynasty who distinguished himself against the Xiongnu and in the construction of the Great Wall of China.He descended from a great line of military generals and architects. By the time the Qin Dynasty conquered the other six states and began its reign over a unified China in 221 B.C., the nomadic ethnic Xiongnu had grown into a powerful invading force in the north and started expanding both east and west.

Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, sent a 300,000-strong army headed by General Meng Tian to drive the Xiongnu northward for 350 km and built the Great Wall to guard against its invasion. Meng Tian's ingenuity can be seen in the efficient (though inhumane) building policy, the consideration of topography, and the utilisation of natural barriers.

Meng Tian supervised the construction of a road system linking the former Yan, Qi, Wu and Chu areas, as well as number of roads especially for imperial use. The system eventually formed played an extremely important role in ancient transportation and economic exchanges.

He is also regarded as the inventor of "Ink brush" and is memorized at "Huzhou Pen Festival". When the emperor Qin Shi Huang died, Meng's death was brought about through the plotting of Zhao Gao. He was forced to commit suicide, and his family was killed. Three years after his death, the Qin Dynasty collapsed.

Bai Qi- Gereral of Chin

Bai Qi (simplified Chinese: 白起; pinyin: Bái Qǐ) (?-257 BC) was an outstanding military leader in the state of Qin in the Warring States Period. Born in Mei (now the Mei County in Shaanxi Province, China). As a commander of Qin for more than 30 years, Bai Qi slew a total of one million six hundred and fifty thousand soldiers, seized 70 cities of the other 6 States in the Warring States Period. No record has been found to show that he was defeated even once all through his military career.

He was promoted from Zuo Shu Zhang to Da Liang Zao by King Zhaoxiang of Qin. He had commanded wars against the states of Han, Wei, Zhao and Chu, seizing large areas from these states. In 278 BC, he led the army from Qin to capture Ying, capital of the state of Chu.

In reward of this, he was titled as Sir Wu An (lit. Martial Peace), since he brought peace to Qin by conquering its enemies. During the Battle of Changping in 260 BC, he succeeded Wang He as the commander of Qin army, and soon defeated Zhao army commanded by Zhao Kuo.

Zhao army was split into two parts and its supply lines were cut off by Bai Qi. More than 400,000 Zhao soldiers, who surrendered after Zhao Kuo was shot down by Qin archers, was decided to be buried alive by Bai Qi. In 257 BC, Qin had a defeat in Handan, capital of Zhao, the King of Qin ordered him to take over the army as a commander.

Bai Qi, however, believed that it was not the correct time to attack Zhao, so he refused the command of the king with an excuse of his sickness. The Prime Minister of Qin, Fan Ju tried to persuade Bai Qi, but he failed. The king, therefore, had to use Wang Ling (王陵), another prominent military general of Qin, instead of Bai Qi, as the commander.

Nevertheless, this decision did not help Qin army in the battle at all. After more than 5 months continuous defeat in Handan, the king asked Bai Qi to be the commander again. Bai Qi, who believed Qin cannot gain a victory in this battle, refused the request with the excuse of his sickness, once more.

Having been refused several times, the King, who had become angry, removed all titles from Bai Qi and forced him to leave Xianyang, the capital of Qin. In addition, the prime minister of Qin, Fan Ju, feeling he had lost face by Bai Qi's refusals, made the King of Qin believe that Bai Qi would join another state as a general and become a threat to the State of Qin. Convinced by Fan Ju, the King of Qin then forced Bai Qi to commit suicide in Duyou (杜邮).