Qin Dynasty China

Chinese history is split into dynasties, each of which has a single ruling family. Dynasties were believed to be given a “mandate of heaven” which allowed them to rule. Once the dynasty was no longer wanted by the gods, the mandate was removed, and a new dynasty came to power.

The Zhou dynasty ended with much war and conflict between warring city-states. In the Qin province of China, at age 14, King Zheng became king in 247 BC. Between 230 BC and 221 BC, King Zheng had seized power over all of the warring states, and, in 221 BC, declared himself to be Shi Huangdi, meaning “first August emperor.” Qin Shi Huangdi, sometimes called Qin Shi Huang, was the first emperor of China, opposed to all of the people before him in the Zhou and Shang Dynasties, who had been called kings. Qin Shi Huangdi is often called the Tiger of China. King Zhen, later to become known as Qin Shi Huangdi, was born in 259 BC. Although he spent a long part of his time conquering, he only ruled for 11 years – from 221 BC – 210 BC. As the son of the king of the Qin province, Prince Zheng was educated well. Although, at first, he was helped by a regent to rule the Qin province – being only 14 when he became king – he took full control at age 22.

There was 7 states in China. First, King Zheng set out to conquer the Han state. After this, he conquered the Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan and Qi – listed in chronological order of being captured. Qin Shi Huangdi lead a very organised government. He split out the land of these 7 states into 36 commanderies (provinces). In turn, these were divided into counties. Qin Shi Huangdi set up a centralised government system, in which the civilian and military governors of each commandery answered to him. To prevent civilian governors from building up power, Qin Shi Huangdi made sure that they did not serve in their home areas. Qin Shi Huangdi forced males to serve in the army and work on public projects. These included building walls to defend China. The largest of these walls makes up part of what is now called the Great Wall of China, built to keep Mongols out of Chinese territory. Although the Great Wall was built partly by the Qin dynasty, it was further improved by the Ming Dynasty and further dynasties. The total length of the wall counting all of the work by all dynasties was around 13171 miles long. During the Qin dynasty, compacted dirt enclosed by stone was used to build the wall.

However, not only did the emperor have people build large building projects. He also unified many things across the empire, including the introduction of a standardised system of weights and measurements, and a standard currency. Punishments were made the same, meaning that they applied to everyone, regardless of rank. Communication was also improved by Qin Shi Huangdi, through the use of a connected system of roads. To control the flow of rivers, thick embankments reinforced with metal poles were built, as well as pine trees which were planted to as to check for erosion.

The Qin dynasty also standardised writing to a system called the “small seal script.” This form of writing strongly resembled what had been used to communicate and ask questions to the gods in Shang Dynasty China. In 213 BC, Qin Shi Huangdi gave the order that all books must be burnt, excluding those which were about practical things – such as cooking or farming. This included books about Confucian teachings. One of the reason why these books were burnt was so that scholars couldn’t use them to criticize the Qin Dynasty as going against the Confucian values.

As the population was rapidly growing, a lot of growable land was required. This is many people were forced to build irrigation systems, so as to water the fields. The Qin Dynasty required on farmers to do this labour and used their sons in the army. During the Qin Dynasty, as the food providers, farmers were very highly respected. They also had to pay little taxes. However, many poor peasants had to use land of others, meaning that they had to give half of their crop to wealthy landowners. When Qin Shi Huangdi died, the Qin Dynasty was falling apart. He was followed by another Qin emperor, who committed suicide in 207 BC. The final Qin emperor after this surrendered to the forces of the new Han Dynasty, which had collected many supporters including local military leaders, nobles from the Warring States, as well as merchants and workers.

Qin Shi Huangdi died on a trip through Eastern China in 210 BC. His second son (named Huhai) wanted to be the next emperor, and therefore he hid the death of his father. He then wrote a fake letter to his older brother, in which he pretended to be his father, telling his older brother to commit suicide. After his older brother committed suicide, Huhai became the next emperor of China, only to commit suicide a few years later himself (in 207 BC).

However, Qin Shi Huangdi wanted to be immortal. This is why he spent a lot of his life searching for his goal and also the “elixir of life.” However, to protect him after his death, he also had a massive tomb built for himself, with a terracotta army of 8000 life size statues. Each one is unique, but most are around 5 feet 11 inches tall. Although they have now lost their colour, the soldiers were painted 2000 years ago, to look realistic. It is thought that over 700,000 craftsmen worked on the warriors for several years. The soldiers were made by combining different body parts made in moulds. For example, there are 10 different head shapes, each representing a personality/ a certain head shape relating to a certain area in China. Then, each soldier was customized.

Although very short – only a total of 14 years long – the Qin Dynasty is not a dynasty to be ignored. With the achievements of Qin Shi Huangdi, although he may have been brutal, China was united and its territory expanded: setting the stage for the Han Dynasty. Qin Shi Huangdi also built monuments – the two monuments which almost everyone who knows about China knows about – The Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Warriors.

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