The Qin dynasty (221–207 BCE) was the first unified, centralized imperial dynasty in Chinese history. It grew out of the state of Qin of the Warring States period, and its capital was at Xianyang. Between 230 and 221 BCE, Ying Zheng, the king of Qin, conquered the six rival states of Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan and Qi. This ended more than five centuries of division among competing feudal lords that had begun in the Spring and Autumn period. He then took the title "First Emperor" (Shi Huangdi) and is known to history as Qin Shi Huang. The dynasty lasted only about fifteen years and collapsed under its second ruler. Yet most of its institutions were taken over by the succeeding Han Dynasty: the office of emperor, the system of the Three Excellencies and Nine Ministers, and the system of commanderies and counties. So were its standardization of writing, weights and measures, and law. For this reason the Qin is often regarded as the beginning of imperial China, a system that endured in various forms until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911.
Origins and rise
The people of Qin descended from a clan surnamed Ying. In early times they bred horses for the Zhou royal house on the western frontier and were granted land in return. At the end of the Western Zhou, the Quanrong sacked the capital Haojing. Duke Xiang of Qin distinguished himself in protecting the Zhou court and was formally made a feudal lord. For several centuries afterward, Qin remained a peripheral state of middling strength. In 361 BCE Duke Xiao came to the throne and employed Shang Yang, who carried out two rounds of reform. The main measures were:
- rewarding agriculture and warfare, with ranks and land granted for military merit;
- curtailing the privileges of the hereditary aristocracy;
- registering households in groups of five and ten bound by collective liability;
- introducing the county system;
- standardizing weights and measures;
- moving the capital to Xianyang.
Guided by Legalist thought, the reforms reorganized society around farming and war. They gave Qin a military and administrative edge over all the other states. After Duke Xiao died in 338 BCE, the old nobility falsely accused Shang Yang of rebellion, and he was executed by being torn apart by chariots. His new laws, however, remained in force. Under several later rulers, including King Huiwen and King Zhaoxiang, Qin became the most powerful state of the late Warring States period.
Unification of the six states
King Zheng ascended the throne in 246 BCE. After taking personal control of government, he relied on advisers such as Li Si and Wei Liao, and in 230 BCE he launched the wars of unification:
- 230 BCE: Han was destroyed.
- 228 BCE: Zhao was crushed.
- 225 BCE: Wei fell.
- 223 BCE: Chu fell.
- 222 BCE: Wang Ben took Liaodong and captured King Xi of Yan.
- 221 BCE: King Jian of Qi surrendered without a fight.
After unification, Qin linked up the northern frontier walls built to repel the Xiongnu, forming the prototype of the later Great Wall. To the south it conquered the Lingnan region and set up the commanderies of Guilin, Nanhai and Xiang. It also dug the Lingqu Canal, which connected the Xiang and Li rivers, to carry military supplies.
Political institutions
King Zheng believed his achievements surpassed those of the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. He therefore combined their titles into the new title huangdi, "emperor." He also abolished posthumous names, intending his line to be numbered "Second Emperor," "Third Emperor," and so on indefinitely. At the center stood the Chancellor, the Grand Commandant and the Imperial Counsellor, who oversaw administration, military affairs and surveillance respectively. Together they were known as the Three Excellencies. Below them were ministers such as the Commandant of Justice, the Clerk of the Capital for Grain and the Director of Guests, each responsible for a specific area of government.
On local administration, the Chancellor Wang Wan proposed enfeoffing the imperial sons as kings. The Commandant of Justice, Li Si, argued forcefully for abolishing enfeoffment altogether. The First Emperor sided with Li Si and divided the empire into thirty-six commanderies, with more added later. Commanderies were subdivided into counties. Their governors and magistrates were appointed and dismissed by the court and could not pass their posts to heirs. This was the commandery–county system. To break the power of the old aristocracies of the six conquered states, the Qin also resettled wealthy and powerful families in Xianyang. It confiscated weapons across the realm and melted them down into twelve bronze statues.
Building on Qin's own statutes and drawing on the laws of the six states, the dynasty promulgated a legal code that applied throughout the empire (see Law). In 1975 a cache of Qin-era documents was excavated at Shuihudi in Yunmeng, Hubei, now known as the Shuihudi Qin slips (see Bamboo and Wooden Slips). These preserve many Qin statutes, legal interpretations and judicial documents. They are a key primary source for the study of Qin law and local administration.
Standardization of writing and measures
The scripts of the Warring States differed considerably from state to state. After unification, the Qin pursued a policy of "the same script for all writing." Li Si and others simplified and systematized Qin's existing great seal script to create the small seal script as the standard form, "abolishing whatever did not conform to the Qin script." At the same time, the simpler and faster Qin clerical script came into wide use for everyday official documents. This shift had a profound influence on the development of the Chinese script and of brushwork (see Chinese Characters and Chinese Calligraphy).
The Qin also standardized weights and measures. It issued official measuring rods, grain measures and weights, which were inscribed or inlaid with the imperial edict. In currency, gold served as the higher denomination and the round banliang coin with a square hole as the lower one, and both circulated empire-wide. The round coin with a square hole remained the standard form of Chinese coinage for more than two thousand years (see Money). The policy of "the same gauge for all carts" standardized axle widths. Together with the imperial highways and the Straight Road radiating from Xianyang, it created a transport network spanning the empire.
Ideology and cultural policy
The Qin governed according to Legalist doctrine. In 213 BCE, Li Si proposed burning the privately held copies of the Book of Odes and the Book of Documents, the writings of the Hundred Schools, and the histories of all states other than Qin. Books on medicine, divination and agriculture were exempted. The following year, a number of court magicians and Confucian scholars were reportedly buried alive. Later generations referred to these events together as the burning of books and burying of scholars. They are recorded chiefly in the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. The episodes damaged the transmission of pre-Qin texts and the development of Confucianism, though scholars disagree about their scale and nature.
Monumental projects and the First Emperor's mausoleum
The Qin could conscript vast numbers of peasants and convicts directly. This enabled it to undertake many large-scale projects, including the Great Wall, the imperial highways, the Straight Road, the Epang Palace and the tomb complex at Mount Li. Work on the mausoleum began when King Zheng first came to the throne. In 210 BCE the First Emperor died at Shaqiu during his fifth imperial tour and was then interred there.
In 1974, farmers in Lintong digging a well came upon fragments of pottery figures. Excavations then uncovered Pits 1, 2 and 3 to the east of the tomb complex, home to what is now known as the Terracotta Army. The three pits have yielded more than seven thousand pottery soldiers and horses, roughly life-sized, along with large quantities of bronze weapons. Each figure has distinct facial features. The army is a landmark of realistic sculpture in ancient China (see Sculpture) and offers a vivid picture of the organization and equipment of the Qin army. In 1987 the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor and its terracotta pits were inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
Fall
After the First Emperor's death, Zhao Gao, Director of the Office for Imperial Carriages, conspired with Li Si to forge the emperor's will. They forced the eldest son, Fusu, to commit suicide and placed the younger son Huhai on the throne as the Second Emperor. Under his rule, labor levies and punishments grew even harsher. Zhao Gao monopolized power, and Li Si himself was eventually executed by being cut in two at the waist.
In the seventh month of 209 BCE, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were leading a band of conscripts to garrison duty at Yuyang. Heavy rain held them up at Dazexiang, and under Qin law late arrival was punishable by death. They rose in revolt against the Qin, an event known as the Dazexiang Uprising. It was the first large-scale peasant rebellion in Chinese history. Members of the old aristocracies of the six states soon took up arms as well to restore their former states. The Qin general Zhang Han managed for a time to crush Chen Sheng's forces, but Xiang Yu defeated the main Qin army at the Battle of Julu.
In 207 BCE Zhao Gao forced the Second Emperor to kill himself and installed Ziying in his place. Ziying dropped the imperial title and styled himself merely King of Qin. After taking the throne, he had Zhao Gao put to death. In the tenth month of the same year, Liu Bang and his army reached Bashang, and Ziying came out of the city to surrender, bringing the Qin dynasty to an end. The Qin calendar began its year in the tenth month, so this date is usually given as late 207 BCE or as 206 BCE in the Western calendar. A struggle between Chu and Han followed, and Liu Bang ultimately founded the Han dynasty.
Assessment and legacy
In his Disquisition on the Faults of Qin, the early Han scholar Jia Yi attributed the dynasty's swift collapse to its "failure to practice benevolence and righteousness." This view long shaped later perceptions of the Qin. Modern historians focus more on the Qin's pioneering role in the institutions of the State. The office of emperor, the bureaucracy, the commandery–county system and the unified script were inherited and adapted by every dynasty from the Han onward, as captured in the line "for a hundred generations, all have followed the Qin system." The Qin experience is also frequently invoked in debate. A centralized state can mobilize enormous resources, but overtaxing the people's labor can badly erode the foundations of its rule. Documents excavated in recent decades, including the Shuihudi, Liye and Yuelu Qin slips, have supplemented and even corrected the picture of Qin society and administration given in the received texts.
References
- 秦朝baike.baidu.com
- 秦朝 - 知乎zhuanlan.zhihu.com
- 时间线上中国史②【秦朝】 - 知乎zhuanlan.zhihu.com
- 小篆_百度百科baike.baidu.com
- 2020m.ccdi.gov.cn
- Qin dynastyen.wikipedia.org
- Shang Yangen.wikipedia.org
- Qin Dynasty: Achievements, Facts & Time Periodhistory.com
- Xianyangen.wikipedia.org
- 秦末民变 - 维基百科，自由的百科全书zh.wikipedia.org
- 大泽乡起义 - 维基百科，自由的百科全书zh.wikipedia.org
- 秦末农民起义_百度百科baike.baidu.com
- 项羽刘邦灭秦之战_百度百科baike.baidu.com
- 秦朝大事年表（前221年-前207年）|嬴政|刘邦|子婴|赵高|项羽|赵佗|历史故事_网易订阅163.com
- 秦始皇陵及兵马俑坑whc.unesco.org
- 发掘45周年 一起来听兵马俑考古的故事-中国社会科学网cssn.cn
- 秦始皇兵马俑 - 维基百科，自由的百科全书zh.wikipedia.org
- 兵马俑被发现：挖井惊动了秦始皇m2.allhistory.com