Qin Empire

How did the Warring States period start?

Before the Warring States period, ancient China was ruled by the Zhou Dynasty (pronounced JO). The Zhou king ruled over a large amount of territory. In order to govern such a large area, the king relied on lords.

After several hundred years, these lords became so powerful that they no longer wanted to serve the king. Lords began to claim land for themselves and fight with other lords for land and power. This started the period of fighting that is called the Warring States period.

In 361 BCE, a man named Duke Xiao (SEOW) became the ruler of the state of Qin (CHIN). In the passage below, the ancient Chinese historian Sima Qian (SUH-mah CH'YEN) describes the state of Qin as it existed in the fourth century BCE. Read the passage. Then answer the question below.

The Zhou royal house had become weak and the lords ruled by force, fighting with one another and annexing each other's lands. The Qin state was far away, near the old province of Yong. [Qin] did not participate in the alliances of the lords of the central states.

annexing: taking over

Yong: a province in ancient China

alliances: political partnerships

Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian

Where was the state of Qin?

Qin was on the western edge of the Warring States region. At the beginning of the Warring States period, Qin was a small state with little power.

At the time, few people would have predicted that Qin would eventually conquer every Warring State and establish the first empire in Chinese history.

How did Qin stay out of the fighting?

Several mountain passes protected Qin. These steep mountains separated Qin from the other Warring States.

When Shang Yang came to the state of Qin, he promoted a philosophy known as Legalism. Legalists were interested in standardization, or making things the same.

Why did Legalists want standardization?

During the Warring States period, each school of thought had different ideas about how to rule. Many Legalists believed that only a strong ruler could promote peace and end warfare. They also believed that most people were naturally greedy and lazy. So, Legalists thought that laws and standards would help a ruler control people's bad behavior.

Legalists wanted to standardize as many aspects of life as possible. In Qin, Shang Yang even wrote a law that required all roads to have the same width! This meant that if people bought a cart in one region, then they could easily travel across the entire state.

Sima Qian wrote this passage describing a conversation between the Legalist philosopher Shang Yang and Duke Xiao of Qin. Read the passage, which was written from the perspective of Shang Yang.

I [Shang Yang] explained to the ruler [Duke Xiao] about the ways of great rulers and kings, such as there were in the Three Dynasties of old. But he said, "That takes too much time. I can't wait that long. A worthy ruler is one who can make himself famous throughout the world in his own lifetime. Who can sit around worrying for 30 or 40 or 100 years in hopes of becoming an emperor or a king?" Therefore I explained to the ruler ways to strengthen the state, and the ruler was pleased.

Three Dynasties: three ancient dynasties in Chinese history

Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian

Why did Duke Xiao think the state of Qin was special?

Like many rulers of the Warring States period, Duke Xiao wanted his state to become powerful. But, Duke Xiao also believed that Qin should be powerful because it was different from the other Warring States.

He claimed that Qin was the descendant of a powerful ancient state. Because of that powerful past, he thought Qin should take the place of the failing Zhou Dynasty. Duke Xiao believed that by conquering the other Warring States, Qin could reclaim its former glory.

Duke Xiao believed that Shang Yang's ideas could make the state of Qin powerful. Shang Yang's most important idea was that nearly all Qin men should participate in either agriculture or war. Agriculture would provide food to feed the army, and food would help the army conquer more territory. Shang Yang also taught that the following things were parasites, meaning that he believed they had a negative effect on society:

• • fancy food

  • beauty

  • love

  • ambition

  • living a long life

Shang Yang: harsh but fair?

The philosopher Shang Yang had harsh ideas about how society should be run. Shang Yang wanted nearly all men in Qin to participate in agriculture or war, and he discouraged people from appreciating beauty or loving others. People didn't have much choice in how to live their lives.

However, some folk tales represent Shang Yang as fair. In one story, Shang Yang offered to pay someone ten gold pieces for carrying a log. People thought Shang Yang's offer was too good to be true and that it must be a trick. Then, Shang Yang increased the reward to 50 gold pieces—a fortune to people at the time! When someone finally carried the log, Shang Yang paid him 50 gold pieces just like he had promised.

This story was told to convince people that Shang Yang was an honest and trustworthy man.

Read the passage about Qin law.

Shang Yang wrote many new laws for the Qin state. Some of these laws organized people into groups of five or ten families. Laws required these groups to spy on one another's activities and to report their neighbors' crimes. If neighbors reported crimes to the government right away, they would usually not be punished for their neighbors' crimes. But if people failed to report their neighbor's crime, they would be punished harshly.

How do historians learn about Qin laws?

In 1975, archaeologists excavated, or carefully dug up, a tomb in present-day Hubei province in China. In the tomb, they discovered a collection of Qin laws from the third century BCE. These were the first actual Qin laws ever found! Before this discovery, modern scholars knew about Qin law only from descriptions in ancient books. These books were often biased and incomplete.

From this discovery, scholars learned that Qin laws did not always recommend harsh punishments. For example, many laws recommended a lighter punishment if someone committed a crime by accident.

The Qin state grew stronger under Shang Yang's policies, and Qin began to conquer many neighboring states.

Some people from other states criticized the state of Qin. Read this passage from the Huainanzi (HUAY-nahn-zuh), an ancient Chinese text.

The customs of Qin were made up of a wolf-like greed and violence. The people lacked a sense of duty and pursued profit. . . . Surrounded by steep mountain passes and belted by the Yellow River, they were cut off on all sides and thus secure. The land was profitable and the topography beneficial, so they accumulated great wealth. Duke Xiao wanted to use his tiger-like or wolf-like power to swallow up the [other] lords. The laws of Shang Yang were produced from this situation.

pursued profit: tried to make money

topography: natural and physical features of an area

accumulated: built up

ritics of Qin's expansion

Followers of other schools of thought were often horrified at Qin's policies.

Followers of Confucius's teachings, known as Confucians, taught that all people should strive to have good morals. Confucians worried that if people focused only on agriculture and war, then they would not have time to perform the proper rituals that made society moral and peaceful. They also believed that different groups of people should have distinct roles in society.

A group of thinkers known as Daoists wanted people to live in harmony with nature. Daoists believed that people experienced things in different ways, and they did not think that all people should live by universal rules. So, they did not support Legalists' attempts to develop strict systems of standardization.

Conquering diverse states

After King Zheng finally conquered the last Warring State in 221 BCE, the Qin empire included many diverse regions. The size and diversity of this empire brought challenges and benefits.

The state of Shu was located in present-day Sichuan province. Many parts of the region were mountainous and covered with lush forests. It also had glaciers!

The state of Han was located in present-day Shanxi and Henan provinces. This region was also hilly but drier than most of Sichuan.

Qin's final conquest was of the state of Qi. Qi was located in present-day Shandong province. This region was located on the Pacific Ocean.

Loyal men of service

Many historians represent Qin Shi Huangdi as a harsh military leader. He continued Shang Yang's Legalist policies and forced most people to participate in agriculture and war.

But Qin Shi Huangdi also gave many talented people the opportunity to serve in his government. During the Warring States period, regular people had few opportunities to change their place in society. But in the Qin Empire, if a person was talented and loyal, he could try to gain a better position in the government.

The ruler Qin Shi Huangdi faced several challenges with his new empire. During the Warring States period, most states had different kinds of money, units of measurement, and ways of writing. Qin Shi Huangdi wanted to standardize these systems, or make them the same across the empire.

What kind of money did Qin use?

Qin Shi Huangdi promoted round coins called banliang. The name banliang referred to its weight: "ban" means half, and "liang" was a unit of measurement that weighed about 1.4 grams.

Each banliang coin had a square hole. Because these coins were relatively flat and were all the same size, they could easily be strung together on a rope.

What else did Qin Shi Huangdi standardize?

Qin Shi Huangdi also standardized units of measurement and weight, the width of roads, and Chinese characters.

These standardized Chinese characters helped people across the empire communicate with one another.

Who tried to assassinate the emperor?

Ancient historians described Qin Shi Huang's enormous tomb and his paranoia, or unreasonable worry, about his own death. The discovery of Qin Shi Huangdi's tomb seemed to confirm what ancient Chinese historians had written.

Ancient Chinese historians described several people who had attempted to assassinate Qin Shi Huangdi. The carving below shows a scene from the attempt by the assassin Jing Ke.

When the first Qin emperor began to build his tomb, he forced craftsmen to carve more than 8,000 soldiers. Scholars today often call these statues the Terracotta Soldiers. Historians disagree about whether each statue was modeled on an actual person or not.

Do these statues actually show real people?

Historians have carefully studied the details of these statues. They have found ten basic face shapes and several different types of beards, mustaches, and eyebrows. These elements were arranged in different combinations to make the faces look like individuals. So, historians aren't sure whether the statues were modeled on actual people.

But even if the statues don't show the faces of actual soldiers, they can help remind us of the tens of thousands of men who fought for the Qin empire.

More than 100 years after Qin Shi Huangdi died, the Chinese historian Sima Qian described several features of his tomb. Based on Sima Qian's description, some historians think that Qin Shi Huangdi wanted his tomb to be a place where his spirit could live forever.

Read this passage from Sima Qian's account.

Palaces and towers for a hundred officials were constructed, and the tomb was filled with rare objects and wonderful treasure. Craftsmen were ordered to make crossbows and arrows that would shoot at anyone who enters the tomb. Mercury was used to imitate the hundred rivers, the Yangtze and Yellow River, and the great sea, and set to flow mechanically. Above were representations of the heavenly constellations, below, the features of the land. Candles were made from the fat of man-fish so that they might burn forever without going out.

mercury: a liquid metal that some people believed would let them live forever

man-fish: whale

Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian

Searching for eternal life

Scholars have other evidence that suggests that Qin Shi Huangdi wanted to live forever. Qin Shi Huangdi sent a man named Xu Fu (SHOO foo) on two missions to search for an elixir, or magical potion, that caused people to live forever. Many people believed that a group of immortal beings kept this elixir on a mythical island called Penglai (PUHNG-lai) in the Pacific Ocean.

When Xu Fu returned from his first journey without the elixir in 219 BCE, he claimed that a giant sea creature had blocked his path! In 210 BCE, Xu Fu set out on his second journey but never returned.

The Xiongnu and other groups who lived in the Gobi Desert and Ordos region were pastoralists, or people who raised animals and moved with the seasons. The environment of the Gobi Desert and Ordos region was very dry. Pastoralists developed ways to adapt to this dry environment.

What else did pastoralists make?

Pastoralists relied upon animals in order to live. From their animals, pastoralists made products, such as cheese and wool, that they could trade with neighboring groups. Many pastoralists were also skilled craftspeople and produced jewelry, well-crafted clothing, and works of art for themselves and others.

Some groups of pastoralists crafted jewelry from gold, like the necklace shown here. This necklace from the eighth century BCE was found in the Tuva region of present-day Russia.

Many pastoralists fashioned sturdy leather and felt boots. This photograph shows boots in a market in present-day Mongolia.

Some pastoralists were also metalsmiths. This small metal deer found in the Inner Mongolian region of China was made between the fourth and fifth centuries BCE.

Read the passage about the Ordos region.

In 215 BCE, a Qin general named Meng Tian (muhng TEEAN) raised a large army against the Xiongnu, a group of pastoralists in the Ordos region to the northwest of the Qin Empire. After Meng Tian's troops defeated the Xiongnu, the Xiongnu retreated north into the Gobi Desert.

Meng Tian then forced at least 300,000 Qin men to come to the Ordos region and work on projects, such as the ones listed below:

• • • building roads from Qin territory to Ordos

    • building walled towns and forts

    • connecting pieces of defensive walls

    • digging wells

What happened to the Xiongnu?

Meng Tian's troops pushed most Xiongnu people out of the Ordos region. But the Xiongnu still controlled a large amount of territory in present-day Mongolia and Siberia. In 209 BCE, a chieftain named Modun established a large Xiongnu Confederacy. Under his leadership, the Xiongnu took back much of the Ordos region and became a powerful, well-organized state.

Historians have disagreed about why the Qin Empire built the Great Wall. For many years, most historians wrote that the Great Wall was built to protect Qin farmers from Xiongnu attacks.

More recently, many historians have claimed that the Qin built the wall to guard land that it had taken from the Xiongnu. These historians claim the wall was built to expand Qin territory.

The Great Wall as a symbol

Over time, the Great Wall has been a symbol of many things. What kind of symbol often depends on why people believe it was built. For example, some people have seen the Great Wall as a symbol of protection, but others have seen it as a symbol of aggression.

In the past, Chinese writers and poets often described the Great Wall as a symbol of the differences between Chinese culture and that of its neighbors. Areas beyond the Great Wall were known as places "beyond the pass." The eighth-century poem below describes a mountain pass along the Great Wall.

Moon over the Mountain Pass

A bright moon rises above the mountain pass,

so bright that it's lost in a vast ocean of clouds.

The long wind blows past the Jade Gate Pass,

across many thousands of miles. . . .

Men at the guardpost look out at the border,

and home thoughts deepen their faces' sorrow.

Li Bai (701—762 CE), "Moon over the Mountain Pass"

The first Qin emperor died in 210 BCE. Four years later, the Qin Empire was conquered by the Han Dynasty. Although the Qin Empire lasted only 15 years, scholars consider the Qin Empire to be an especially important period in Chinese history.

The legacy of the Qin empire

In the past, many historians believed that Qin rule was violent and cruel. For example, one famous legend stated that Qin Shi Huangdi ordered all Confucian books to be burned and Confucian scholars to be killed. But this story was written during the following dynasty, and many historians today think that the story is an exaggeration of the facts.

Instead of relying only on ancient sources, historians now look to new evidence, such as the Qin laws found in 1974, to make their interpretations. Historians also emphasize the many accomplishments of the Qin Empire.

What do you think? How should people today remember Qin Shi Huangdi and his empire?