Qin Shi Huang (260 - 210 BCE) was the first emperor of China. He was born in the state of Qin as a prince called Ying Zheng, also known as King Zheng of Qin during the Warring States Period. After Qin conquered all the warring states, he unified China in 221 BCE. To show how great he is, he didn’t want to use the title “King” which has been used previously by the ruler of Shang dynasty and Zhou dynasty, therefore, he ruled as the first emperor of Qin for 11 years(221 - 210 BCE). Furthermore, he self-invented the title “ emperor” which would continue to be used by Chinese rulers for the next 2,000 years. Qin Shi Huang was important because he unified China from the warring states, create a strong government, standardized the Chinese system of …show more content…
He used his strong army to conquer the separate kingdoms one by one. The unification took 9 years. After the last state, Qi was conquered, China was unified under a powerful leader for the fist time. Since Qin Shi Huang wanted to build a strong empire, he created a central government and controlled all the power. The government of Qin was highly bureaucratic and was handled by a hierarchy of officials, all serving the Emperor.
Qin Shi Huang wanted to avoid the political chaos of the Warring States Period occur again, he and his prime minister Li Si completely abolished Feudalism. Then they designed a whole new system of administration. By using this system, the empire was divided four administrative units which are commanderies, districts, counties, and hundred-family. There are 36 commanderies at that time. This whole new system was completely different from the system
that has been used by the previous dynasties and caused the civil wars. Qin Shi Huang unified China economically by standardizing Chinese units of measurement, writing, and currency. The standardization deeply affected Chinese economy and culture. The trading in China became much easier because of the same measurement and currency. The standardization was Qin Shi Huang’s most important
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The Hundreds Schools of Thoughts which contains Confucianism and other schools were ended after Qin Shi Huang’s unification. After the unification of China, with all schools of thought excepted Legalism were forbade, Legalism became the official ideas of the Qin dynasty. In the idea of Legalism, people must follow the rule which made by rulers or be punished by the harsh punishments. Qin Shi Huang could pass any law that he wanted by using the thought of Legalism. He passed many laws that favor the rich. Qin Shi Huang started the “burning of books and burying of scholars” which lived in infamy. To avoid scholars to compare his reign with the reign in the past, he ordered most of the existing books to be burned except books that are on medicine, agriculture, science, archeology, and mathematics. This would also help the further purpose of writing system reformation by destroying the previous samples. Owning the books of classic articles, songs, and poems are forbidden. Once government found that some one keep one of those books secretly, they will punish the owner harshly. According to the record, the following year Qin Shi Huang had live buried 460 scholars who owned the forbidden books and this is the notorious event of “burning of books and burying of
The founder of the Qin dynasty was Qin Shi Huangdi, a title meaning “First Emperor.” He was a brutal ruler, but he brought about many changes. However, in addition to all the new, some old ideas were continued from the Zhou, such as the emphasis on the wheat and rice staple foods, and the philosophies, Confucianism and Daoism. The old continuities tended to have been deeply embraced by China, and, just as the Zhou did, the Qin would create some ideas that lasted, and some that did not. Qin Shi Huangdi enforced a tough autocratic rule and, as a result, opposed formal culture that could make people counter his rule. This meant that he burned many books and attacked Confucian ideas in order to keep the people from generating rebellious ideas. When the Qin dynasty fell, so too did the opposition towards education, because it took away from the civilization culturally. Despite the fact that the Qin dynasty was very short and had little time to fully develop its systems and ideas, it did pump out a vast quantity of new and lasting concepts, such as the Great Wall and a central government. One of the biggest contenders for the most well-known feature of the Qin dynasty is the Great Wall. This architectural masterpiece extends over 3,000 miles, and was mainly a
There may been times when people have been treated unfairly, just because of their appearance or their social life.
Shi Huangdi, now able to unite the warring states, explored ways to establish a stable, and long lasting dynasty. The improvements he made to a now unified China, changed the way the world looked at the country. During 221 BC, China went through a time called the Warring States Period. Emperor Shi Huangdi rose to power during this time and defeated his enemies and consolidated rule in China. Emperor Shi Huangdi was the first person to unify China in all of history.
Shi Huangdi was the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty who united China while it was experiencing civil war, also known as the Period of the Warring States. Through his Legalist ideas and integrity, Shi Huangdi was able to maintain political and social order by means of a centralized government. In under eleven years, he constructed the famous
After starting the Chinese Empire, Shihuangdi based the empire on a harsh law system called legalism and was also influenced by Confucianism. Since Shihuangdi was the only ruler of the empire, the government was considered a strong central monarchy. When the Chinese empire had a good start, they expanded their territories to northern Vietnam, Korea, and the northwest steppes. Shihuangdi believed the harsher the empire the more respected, so he invested heavily into a strong military army a...
Qin conquered Yan in 226, Wei in 225, Chu in 223, Qu in 221. Now, in 221, it ruled the entire Chinese world and was ready to make that world over in the image of Qin" (Wills 41). Many of the Legalist ideas were quite thought provoking and praiseworthy; they believed in equality for all and government according to merit. However, the system gained a rotten reputation according to the ruthless rule of the First Emperor. Confucianism thus became the official philosophy, gaining wide acceptance in China.
Li Si The "Historical Records," written by Sima Qian, is a historical account which showcases how the corrupted legalist system of the Qin Dynasty led to the loss of the Mandate of Heaven and the fall of the Empire. Qian, who lived during the Han Dynasty, used the example of Li Si, the Chief Minister of the Emperors of the Qin Dynasty, to emphasis the newly accepted Confucian values. It was the shortcomings of Li Si which led to the fall of the Qin Dynasty as well as his own death. However, Qian is careful to note that prior to his downfall, Li Si followed many Confucian values which allowed him to rise up from a commoner to his eventual position as Chief Minister.
One of the major lasting effects was the Han Dynasty’s changes to the economy. The Han Dynasty expanded their influence throughout the land and made improvements in many products made in China, including silk, iron, and textiles, as well as inventing paper. As stated in the article, “Great Journeys of China… The Silk Road”, “at the order of Emperor Wudi, courtier General Zhang Qian travelled to the “regions western ...
The most infamous one should be the “burning of books”, it is also called “burning of books and burying of scholars”. Because of the outstanding role that Legalist played during the unification wars. Ying Zheng decided to keep utilize Legalist as the Qin’s guiding ideology. Along with the Legalist’s expansion. Emperor Ying Zheng started to burn the books, many ancient books and records were burnt for good except The History of Qin Dynasty and books on medicine, divination and tree planting, etc. All other schools were considered as “heterodox” at that time. The history event was proposed by Li Si, prime minister of the Qin and he is also a Legist. He stated that all works by scholars of different schools should be burnt; also that those who dare to satiric the rulers will get a death sentence along with their families; and that those who had not burned the listed books within one month will be banished to finish the community service. Because of this event, Ying Zheng and Li Si became the symbol of evil and brutal in people’s mind, which can be a lead of Qin’
The Han Dynasty, the amazing Chinese era to have said to unified China for over 400 years old. This era in China’s history began in 206 B.C when a rebel armies rose up against the Qin army. One rebellion, led by Chen Sheng and Wu Kuang was later joined by Xiang Liang, Xiang Yu, Ying Bu, and Peng Yue joined forces with Liu Bang. The people of the Qin Dynasty were unhappy under the rule of Qin Shihuang who was ran his empire with an iron fist. His rule was absolute and disagreeing was punishable by death, though Emperor Qin was the one who to end the Warring States as well as complete the conquering of China in 221 B.C, thus expanding the Chinese state. After the takeover, Liu Bang took the name as Emperor of China and changed his given name to Emperor Gaozu and the Qin laws were abolished.
From 1700 to roughly 220 BCE (before the Common Era), the region currently known as China was divided into six states: Qin, Wei, Zhao, Qi, Yan and Zhongshan, each ruled by different kings. These inter-warring states were already familiar with wall building techniques, each having constructed extensive fortifications to defend their own borders. When Shih Huangdi, the young king of the ancient Chinese state of Qin (also spelled Ch’in, from which the word China derives), conquered each of the remaining five states in 221 BCE, the continuous warring finally came to an end. By conquering these states, Shih Huangdi established the Qin Dynasty, thus creating the first unification of China, and the first Chinese central government. In his efforts to make this new concept of centralized rule “stick”, as well as prevent the reemergence of feudal lords, Shih Huangdi ordered the destruction of the wall sections that divided his empire along the forme...
The conversion to Christianity, he said was a vision or a dream in which Christ directed him to fight under Christian standards. He created the capital, Constantinople for the new Christian empire. Christianity increased gradually over the next two centuries. Some hundred years after the conversion, Christianity seemed to be the established religion of Rome. China also faced some changes in its religion. The new government form, Legalism rejected Confucianism, the previous religion adopted. Shi Huangdi, the ruler, did not allow Confucianism, he ordered all of the religious books and artifacts relating to Confucianism to be burned or destroyed. Although he was harsh and changed a lot during that time to unite China, he was accomplished, The Great Wall Of China was built during his rule. After the last emperor of the Qin dynasty’s death, there were a lot of resentment and anger, the Qin dynasty quickly crumbled. Liu Bang, the next ruler, founded the Han Dynasty. The greatest Dynasty in Chinese history. Confucianism was restored and now allowed by the legalist government still intact. Over the next series of rulers, Confucianism became the prime
...f this object. The qin was a very important element in Chinese society during the Han dynasty as it was one of the many aspects in the creation of the two opposing social identities within the same culture. Unlike the effect music had on diaspora communities, it was a factor in the divergence of people in a community.
government, he felt that “Principle was the diffusion of the imperial government.”(www.travelchinaguide.com). So in order to correct the situation of the government, he tried to strengthen rule into absolute rule by emperor. One of the single most important innovations that Hongwu made to the Chinese government was the abolishment of the Chief Minister. By eliminating the Chief Minister, Hongwu essentially took over the administration. In a way he was proclaiming absolute...