Qin Dynasty

Although lasting for only fifteen years, the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE) brought centralized administration to China and introduced a model of government that Chinese emperors followed until the abdication of the emperor of China's final dynasty, the Qing, in 1912. The very name of China was probably derived from the name "Qin" (pronounced "chin"). Unfortunately, the accomplishments of the Qin rulers were achieved by harsh, ruthless, totalitarian acts that hastened the dynasty's untimely demise.

Living in the present-day province of Shaanxi among various nomadic tribes in the far west of ancient China, the people of the Qin dynasty had long proved to be fierce warriors. Their weapons industry was aided by a wealth of iron ore found in their region. After the collapse of the Western Zhou dynasty (1045–771 BCE), the state of Qin emerged as one of many small states that sprang up in the absence of a strong ruling house. The Qin began to rise to prominence during the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), when Shang Yang (d. 338 BCE), a scholar and politician, set about reforming the Qin state. He moved the Qin capital to Xianyang (located near the modern city of Xian), abolished feudalism, gave land to the peasants, taxed them, and introduced a law code that favored no one class. To replace the feudal aristocracy that he had abolished, he set up a central government to administer the country. In the bureaucracy, official positions were designated according to a reward system, rather than being inherited as earlier. Fajia (Legalism), a philosophy that emphasized that rulers should have absolute power and that they should govern with the help of a strict law code, pervaded Shang Yang's ideas about government.

Although because they had absorbed various Central Asian invaders into their state the Qin were viewed as too barbaric to pose a serious threat to the other states, from 230 to 221 BCE, the Qin successively conquered these states of the Eastern Zhou (770–221 BCE) confederacy. By 221 BCE, with a final military victory over the Zhou, the Qin had unified all the states of the feudal Zhou rule. Zheng, the Qin king (c. 259–210 BCE) proclaimed himself Shi Huangdi ("first sovereign emperor") and assumed control over the empire.

Upon his death in 210 BCE, court intrigues, primarily involving a eunuch, Zhao Gao, and an adviser, Li Si, tricked the heir apparent into committing suicide, and the title of emperor was conferred on a younger son, then known as the Second Emperor (reigned 210–207 BCE), who ended his own turbulent reign by also taking his life. Rule then passed to a young boy, known only as the child-emperor. Although the boy surrendered to the usurping Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) leaders at Xianyang, he was killed and his capital destroyed, bringing the rule of the Qin to an end in 206 BCE, fifteen years after its inception.

Once in power, Zheng initiated sweeping changes, following the philosophical tenets of Legalism as modeled by Shang Yang, to consolidate and support Qin authority. (Some aspects of Confucianism, such as the importance of filial duty and ancestor worship, were still emphasized during the Qin dynasty.) Zheng divided the land into units administered by a highly centralized bureaucracy, applied a rigorous penal code, and relocated the Zhou aristocratic families to the capital of Xianyang, where they could be closely watched in grand mansions built for the purpose.

Zheng also standardized weights, currency, and measures; set cart-wheel measurements, had a national system of highways and a canal system built; constructed monumental palaces; and reformed the writing system, which had gradually become more regional, by creating a new script called xiao zhuan ti ("small seal script") to be used throughout his empire. To form a defense against troublesome nomads from Central Asia such as the Xiongnu, vast numbers of peasant laborers were conscripted to construct a walled fortification; subsequent emperors added to this construction, which eventually become known the Great Wall.

To ensure his life after death, Zheng provided himself with a huge tomb complex; that complex has not yet been explored. In 1974, however, archaeologists did unearth a remarkable army of thousands of lifesize terra-cotta figures, the army who would protect him in the next life. Each figure was represented wearing the costume and carrying the weapons that were appropriate for his branch of service, be it infantry, cavalry, or chariot driver, and each figure's face was individually modeled as if copying a real person. Armed crossbows were set within the chambers to guard against invaders.

The reign of Zheng lasted for eleven of the fifteen years of this dynasty, and most of the achievements, and crimes, of the Qin refer to acts perpetuated by the First Emperor. The massive undertakings credited to him were achieved in only a few years' time, at the cost of harsh, repressive laws regulating his subjects. Overworked peasants not only served as agricultural workers, but also doubled as soldiers and as builders of the immense projects undertaken by the Qin ruler. Prison sentences and maiming punishments were commonly handed out to dissenters or to those unlucky enough to gain the emperor's disapproval. Zheng reportedly executed officials who were late to their assigned tasks, even if their tardiness resulted from weather conditions that made traveling impossible. He also created enemies among the aristocrats who in the new meritocracy were no longer entitled to inherited court office.

Fearing the power of intellectual debate, in 213 BCE Zheng ordered that all texts, except for those on the subjects of divination, medicine, forestry, and agriculture, be burned, aside from a single copy of each, which was held in the imperial library (itself burned to the ground by the invading Han forces in 206 BCE). To end dissension in his court, he ordered the execution of 460 scholars (Han writers claimed he had them buried alive, but this is supported by no other extant evidence). Fearing a popular uprising because the people were well armed, having fought for centuries against neighboring states and nomadic invaders, the First Emperor confiscated weapons, melting them down to supply bronze for ritual vessels and musical bells.

Obsessed with attaining eternal life, Zheng sent thousands of youths to search for the islands of immortality, called Peng Lai, rumored to exist in the mythical Eastern Sea. Some believe that this expedition resulted in the settling of Japan by the youths, who never returned to their homeland. He claimed as one of his ancestors Huang Di ("Yellow Emperor"), the semimythic founder of the ancient Chinese people, who reputedly never died but instead rose to tian (heaven) in a chariot drawn by dragons.

Within his palace, the emperor employed alchemists to seek the secret to eternal life. An extensive network of tunnels connecting his palaces was constructed on the advice of one of these shamans, and the emperor was said to have moved throughout the network, sleeping in different places each evening as a further deterrent to harm; his occupancy was kept secret, with death as the punishment for anyone who revealed his whereabouts. He undertook long journeys to the mountains, where he practiced sacrificial rituals for the same purpose of gaining immortality. Traveling to Mount Tai, he staged the sacrifices known as feng and shan also in hopes of warding off death. Ironically, Zheng died when returning from one of these immortality-seeking expeditions. Not surprisingly, after he died, civil unrest led to an uprising that the ineffectual Second Emperor and subsequent Child-Emperor were helpless to abate.

Nevertheless, the Qin rulers created the nation of central authority that the Han dynasty inherited. While adjusting its boundaries according to everchanging political and social factors, this nation has continued until today as the land and population now called China, giving its centrally unified regions the claim of being the longest-lasting nation on Earth.

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Li Xueqin. (1985) Eastern Zhou and Qin Civilizations. Trans. by Chang Kwangshih. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Sima, Qian. (1994) Shiji: The Grand Scribe's Records, edited by William H. Nienhauser Jr.; translated by Caifa Cheng and Chan Chiuming. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

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