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QIN SHI HUANG DI. ANCIENT CHINA Mrs. Walter WORLD HISTORY. AS A CHILD…. Qin ’ s given name was Ying Jien. He became the King of the Qin Dynasty at the age of 13, when his father died. The Warring States.
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QIN SHI HUANG DI ANCIENT CHINA Mrs. Walter WORLD HISTORY
AS A CHILD… • Qin’s given name was Ying Jien. • He became the King of the Qin Dynasty at the age of 13, when his father died.
The Warring States • Qin took over during the period of warring states. At the time, 7 different states were competing for power throughout china. • The seven states: Qi, Yan, Zhao, Wei, Qin, Chu & Han. • As time passed, The state of Qin grew in power. It began by attacking the state of Zhao. Shortly after the attack, the entire Zhao Army surrendered. Ying had all 400,000 Zhao soldiers buried alive!!! • By 223 BCE, YIng had unified all of the warring states, using tactics of fear and torture.
China’s first emperor • At the age of 34, in the year 223 bce, ying had unified all of china. • At that time, he declared himself china’s first emperor and changed his name to qin shi huang di, which means “ the first divine god of the qin.”
LEGALISM • As Qin Shi huang di was taking over the other chinese states he implemented a political philosophy of legalism. • This philosophy was extremely strict. • According to the ancient chinese historian, sima qian, legalism caused an “attack on ethical and old-fashioned cultural values, where the relentless rule of law is meant to prevail over confucian thought and family values.”
accomplishments • Unification of china • Builder of the great wall • Standardized money, weights & measures • Military genius • Census of lands • Established official method of writing • Built roads and demolished walls.
Unification & standardization • Under qin’s rule, forty provinces were organized under a central unified government. • Coins, weights & measures conformed to a single standard, making trade much easier.
Highways & the great wall • Wide highways were constructed, all leading to the capital. The highways promoted trade within china. • The great wall was constructed to keep out invading tribes from the north.
A common written language • Under his rule, 100’s of extra characters were eliminated, making the language much easier to read and learn. • He also established an official method of writing.
tyranny • Despite his many accomplishments, his dynasty was destroyed because of his tyranny. • Hundreds of thousands of convict-labourers were forced to work on the great wall, many of which died while working and were buried within the wall. • Thousands of scholars and philosophers were executed under his rule.
Book burning • In 213 bce, Qin ordered that all history and philosophy books be burnt. Only legal, medical and agricultural texts remained. • According to sima qian, the books were burnt to make sure that “in all under heaven there should be no rejection of the present by using the past.” • Anyone who was thought to save, read or discuss the forbidden texts would be executed.
Plots to kill qin shi huang di • Sima qian writes of a possible plot to kill Shi by his own mother. When he heard about this, he had her banished, executed her lover, and murdered her two children. • Shi believed that the young boys would be a threat to the throne, so he had them murdered.
An assassination attempt • Before shi had unified all of china, two men from the state of yan attempted to assassinate him. They tried to trick shi by bringing him the head of an enemy, but when they arrived, they charged at him with knives. Shi was nearly assassinated because no one in his court could protect him. According to shi’s law “ all of the officials who served at the top hall could not carry weapons. Shi, on the other hand, did have a weapon and was barely able to defend himself. The assassins were executed.
A quest for immortality • The assassination attempts made shi more and more paranoid. • At that point, he began searching for the secret to immortality. • He sent thousands of young boys and girls out to sea to search for the drug of immortality. • Unfortunately, for shi, the elixir was never discovered.
Mercury • Around 215 bce, shi began taking lethal doses of mercury. • He believed the mercury would help him live longer, but in reality it only poisoned his body and mind, leaving him more paranoid than before. • At the age of 50, in 210 BCE, shi died, most likely of kidney failure, caused by the mercury.
The royal tomb • Shi was buried in a tomb that measured 20,000 square metres. (That is more than 200 football fields!!!) • The Tomb took 700,000 convict-labourers, 38 years to build.
Discovery of the tomb • Qin shi Huang Di’s tomb was discovered in 1974, by workers digging a well. • Although archaeologists have unearthed 180 tombs, they are still not done discovering everything within. • Shi’s main tomb, where his body has been placed has not yet been opened.
Terracotta army • 3 of the discovered pits contain a terracotta army of over 8000 soldiers. • Each soldier was modeled as an individual and was hand-crafted. No molds were used. • Each soldier stood about 61/2 feet tall.
Inside of the tomb • Also found inside of the tomb: Imperial chariots, terracotta acrobats, stone armor pits and hundreds of human remains. • Shi’s son ordered that all of the emperors concubines be placed in the tomb, along with the workers, engineers and craftsmen who had constructed the mechanical devises and would know about the buried treasures.
The legacy of qin • Shi Huang di believed his dynasty would last for 10,000 years. • But the chinese people quickly rebelled after his death. • By 206 bce, after 15 years, the qin dynasty fell and the han dynasty took power. • People who live in china today are unwilling to call themselves qin because qin is synonymous with tyranny. Instead, they call themselves the men of han.
