Qin Dynasty

Rise

At the end of the period of Warring States , Qin, a kingdom located in the western periphery of the cradle of Chinese culture had undertaken significant reforms following the doctrine of the School of Forensic augure by Shang Yang , allowing optimum resources and men. This organization provides support for the war machine of the kingdom at a time when the struggles were constants, bore fruit in the ^third century BC. AD. In 260 BC. BC , the Battle of Changping allowed the Qin army to crush the kingdom of Zhao. Twenty years later, Qin managed to conquer a league of several States. Therefore, he had taken an advantage over all other independent kingdoms, whose attachment to the past and tradition did not permit such profound reforms and effective than Qin.

King Ying Zheng of Qin child ascended to power in 247 BC. AD. Surrounding himself with advisers from its most pragmatic and competent general, he began a long campaign of unification, using all means possible: through military invasion primarily, but also by corruption and intimidation of Ministers enemies. He managed to conquer one by one all the other independent kingdoms. The small border state of Han fell from 230 BC. AD , followed by Zhao in 228 BC. AD. The capital of the kingdom of Wei was flooded and its king capitulated in 225 BC. AD. The war against the great southern kingdom of Chu was more challenging, but it finally gave way in 223 BC. AD. North-east, the kingdom of Yan , a large part of the territory had been annexed, was destroyed in 222 BC. AD. Finally, the kingdom of Qi , which was taken during these campaigns the party not to oppose Qin, surrendered without a fight in 221 BC. AD.

The King of Qin unified China and a centralized empire, replacing the feudal system of the Zhou dynasty and putting an end to the Warring States period. Ying Zheng became known as the reign of Qin Shi Huangdi, First Emperor of Qin Auguste, beginning immediately and disseminating the many reforms, some of which had already made the success of Qin.

Achievements

After his accession, the First Emperor made many grandiose building projects, with hundreds of palaces, sumptuous tomb, many canals and bridges, an extensive road network connecting Xianyang , became imperial capital, to all command posts, and Great Wall to protect and conserve land reclaimed from the Xiongnu to the north. Expeditionary forces were also sent to the south, allowing the creation of new command posts in the region called the Nan-Yue ^{Decline and fall}

According to the sources , the sudden death of the First Emperor allowed two senior officials, Minister Li Si and the eunuch Zhao Gao , forging an order of suicide for the Prince Fu Su, however, appointed by the sovereign as heir to the throne can be placed on the youngest son of the emperor, Ying Hu Hai, as puppet rulers under the name of Qin Ershi Huangdi , the Second Emperor Augustus. The government gradually passed into the hands of his tutor Zhao Gao.

Less than three months after the death of Qin Shi Huangdi Shaqiu to a general revolt of peasants, soldiers, prisoners of nobles and descendants of the ancient Warring spread throughout China. Chen Sheng and Wu Guan, two soldiers from a group assigned to defend against the Xiongnu , took the lead in the first rebellion. It would be an example to many others in the three-year reign of the Second Emperor.

Er Shi was eventually killed at the instigation of his favorite eunuch, after less than three years of rule and replaced by puppet Ying Ziying . It will be sovereign, to name just a few months as King of Qin. The empire is already so fragmented, having shared the main insurgent territory in south and east. Finally, a key rebel leaders, Liu Bang works on the land of Qin and its capital Xianyang. Ziying submits. Shortly after, Xiang Yu is run Ziying, Xianyang was looted and burned. The Qin dynasty dies in fire and blood, just three years after the death of its founder.

Although his reign was short, the forensic doctrine of the Qin dynasty has left lasting traces in China: administrative centralization addition, he is the standardization of weights and measures, characters and currency. Censorship and the systematic destruction of books may have been the cause of permanent loss of some of the fruits of the "period of the Hundred Schools," but given the short duration of this regime, much of them have been found in caches or reconstructed from memory.

To have attempted to eliminate, sometimes physically, the class of literati, Qin Shi Huangdi was submitted to the general loathing for the remainder of the long history of imperial China. This has not prevented Mao Zedong to look into some of his speeches to Qin Shi Huangdi.

Kings and emperors of the Qin Dynasty

• Ying Dang, ruling under the name of Wu, King of Qin (-311/-307)
• Ying Ji (or Ze), in power as the Zhaoxiang ("King Zhao), king of Qin (-306/-251)
• Ying Zhu, power Xiaowen as the king of Qin (-250)
• Chu Ying Zi (Yi Ren), in power as the Zhuangxiang king of Qin (-249/-247)
• Ying Zheng, king of Qin (-246/-221) and Qin Shi Huangdi "First August Emperor of Qin" (-221/-210)
• Ying Hu Hai, son of the previous reign as the Qin Huangdi Ershi , "Second August Emperor of Qin" (-209/-207)
• Ying Zi Ying , nephew of the king of Qin (-207)

Of -207 to -202, there is no Emperor of China

See also

• Terracotta army of Emperor Qin
• Chronology of China
• History of China
• Chu-Han War

References

• Asian Civilisations portal
• Chinese portal in the world

Qin Dynasty zh
221 BC. BC - 207 BC. AD
Maximum extension of the territories of the Qin Dynasty in 210 BC. J.-C, on the death of the First Emperor
General Information

History of China
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