China’s First Emperor

1. China’s First Emperor

2. Achievements • One of the things he did during his lifetime was unify China., He and his chief adviser Li Si passed a series of major reforms meant to preserve unification. Together, they undertook gigantic projects, including the first version of the current Great wall of China, the now famous city-sized mauslom guarded by a life-sized Terracotta army, and a massive national road system, all at the expense of many lives.

3. Facts • He was known now as Qin Shi Huang Chinese: 秦始皇; pinyin: QínShǐHuáng. • He was the son of King Zhuangxiang, the ruler of the State of Qin. He was born in Handan, the capital of the state of Zhao. His name was Ying Zheng. When Qin Shi Huang was 13 years old, King Zhuangxiang was dead and he succeded to the throne. Lu Buwei, originally a merchant, became the new prime minister of Qin.

4. How he changed China • Qin Shi Huang changed china in many ways some of these ways was the building of the Terra Cotta soldiers and the Great Wall of China. Emperor Qin Shi Huang was a man of remarkable talents and achievements. His military conquests were in part the result of a superb mastery of the newest arts of war. He abolished the system of feudal enfoeffment and created a form of centralized, autocratic government, which was maintained in essence to the fall of the last (Qing) Dynasty in the early 20th century. He changed the written language and the axle length of wagons and chariots. He built a vast network of tree-lined roads so paces wide, radiating from the Qin capital, Xianyang, 20 kilometers northwest of Xi’an. He joined into a single 3,000 kilometer “Great Wall” (extended to 6,000 kilometers during later dynasties) the separate walls erected by the earlier northern states to deter the raiding nomadic tribes

5. The Terracotta soldiers • The Terracotta figures, dating from 210 bc, were discovered in 1974 by several local farmers near Xi’an, Shaanxi province, China near the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. The figures vary in height (183–195cm - 6ft–6ft 5in), according to their role, the tallest being the Generals. The figures include warriors, chariots, horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits.

6. The Great Wall of China The Great Wall stretches over approximately 6,400 km (4,000 miles)from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia, but stretches to over 6,700 km (4,160 miles) in total. At its peak, the Ming Wall was guarded by more than one million men.It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall.

7. The Qin Dynasty • The Qin came to power in 221 B.C. They were one of the western states that existed during the Warring States Period. They conquered the other Warring states, unifying China for the first time. Their leader named himself the First Emperor, or Shi huangdi, thus beginning the tradition of having emperors for rulers. The Qin, while not the most culturally advanced of the Warring States was militarily the strongest. They utilized many new technologies in warfare, especially cavalry. The Qin are sometimes called the Ch'in, which is probably where the name China originated

8. The death of Qin Shi Huang • In July of 210 BC a grand procession started out from Pingxiang (in today`s Hebei province) and began moving slowly toward Xianyang. the capital city north of today`s Xi`an. It was a royal entourage. accompanied by eunuchs and guarded by many soldiers.The centre of all this pomp was an elaborate closed chariot. Court retainers periodically took food to it and brought back orders. But the chariot`s sole occupant would never eat or issue orders again - it was the body of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. who had been ill and had died. The ruse was part of a plot by high officials to delay discovery of his death so that they could take power.

9. The tomb of emperor Qin Shi Huang • Located at the foot of the Lishan (Mount Li) lies the tomb of China's first Emperor—Qin Shihuang—whom the Terracotta soldiers were built to protect in the afterlife. legend has it that the tomb was originally decorated with vast amounts of gold, silver and pearls, and that ornate maps of the empire were carved into the floors complete with rivers of flowing mercury. The history is clouded by the apparent fact that all the artisans who built the tomb were buried alive upon its completion; however, recent digs have found walls and watchtowers of a large underground complex that corresponds roughly to the apocryphal record, and spot test on local soil have turned up unusually high levels of mercury. Given the extravagance of the Terracotta Warriors, only discovered in 1974, it's not hard to believe that more wonders from Qin's reign and obsession with his own death and imagined afterlife await.

10. Bibliography • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang • http://simple.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chinese_History/History_of_Qin_Dynasty/The_First_Emperor_of_China • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army • http://www.chinatravel.net/attractions/Emperor-Qin-Shihuang-s-Tomb-Xi-an/125.html