The First Emperor Of China: Qin

Aayushi, Anahita, Grant, Hummad

Prince Zheng (A.K.A. Emperor Qin Shihuangdi)

Prince Zheng was born in the royal family of the state Qin, in 259 B.C.E. When he

was 13, in the year 221 B.C.E, he became king in the state of Zhou. He was very

motivated, yet at the same time violent and aggressive. With these characteristics,

he gained power of all of China.

Standardizing Qin

Standardizing means to make the same. Emperor Qin wanted all of China to live by the

same rules, laws, and have the same heritage. He changed rules, such as “widows (women whose spouse died) cannot remarry.” If any of these rules were broken, there were

harsh consequences such as forced labor, whippings and beheadings. Emperor Qin also changed the money to metal coins with holes in them so you could carry around many. He even classified the Chinese writing to 9,000

characters.

The Great WallThe Great Wall was built as an order by Emperor

Qin. It was first called the “10,000 Li Long Wall”. A “li” is approximately three tenths of a mile. It was built along the Northern borders to protect Qin from Northern Invaders. 300,000 men worked on the Great Wall for 10 years in

very demanding situations, because of China’s climate and physical features the wall had to

cross. The Great Wall succeeded very well because the nomads with horses could not

cross over. Later it was found that thousands of people died while working on the wall and were buried there. Most parts of the Great Wall were

built later, way after the Qin dynasty.

Confucians

The Confucians were a group of people in China who considered proper behavior, manners very unlike what Emperor Qin

had in mind which severe and unfair laws. As you can tell they don’t get along so well

which is probably why Emperor Qin executed 460 Confucians because they

protested against him. It all began in the year 213 B.C.E.

The ConflictJust a criticism would mean a lot to Emperor

Qin. He took it very seriously once when a Confucian told Li Su (the emperor’s

advisor) about how if his laws were this harsh, his dynasty would not last. The trustworthy Li told the emperor and of

course, the Emperor got irate and demanded all of the Confucian books to be burned at the Capital City. The Confucians

who violated the order would get their faces tattooed and be forced into labor. Some were beheaded or buried alive.

China was stunned at the emperor and his atrocious new laws.

Qin’s DeathEven with the emperor’s numerous

accomplishments, he just wasn’t pleased. He didn’t want to die either, so he asked magicians how he could be immortal, and they sent him to East China to get a potion but he never found it. Sadly, in 210 B.C.E. he unexpectedly died, after ruling for 10 years. People are guessing he was

poisoned. He was buried under a ginormous tomb that just about 700,000 worked built. His treasures weren’t found until 1974 C.E. There were things like tools, jewels and a terra cotta which was a clay object which had 6,000 life-sized archers, foot soldiers, chariot drivers,

horses, etc. Astonishingly, not two people are the same.

The End of Qin

Instead of lasting 10,000 years like the Emperor thought it would, it only lasted a

couple years after he died. He still impacted a lot of China, mostly because of

the wars he created. Lots of wars happened after he died, but finally, in 206 B.C.E., Liu Bang created the Han Dynasty.

K E E P W A T C H I N G

Bibliography

• History Alive! The Ancient World• Clip Art Images www.clipartof.com

• Google Images www.google.com/images

• Translator www.igoogle.com/ig

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