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221–207 BCE	Qin Dynasty.
390–338 BCE	Shang Yang: Legalist prime minister to the king of Qin before unification under Qin Shihuang
284–208 BCE	Li Si: Legalist prime minister under Qin Shihuang
259–210 BCE	Ying Zheng, who becomes Qin Shihuang in 221 BCE as he unifies China, constructs the Great Wall, and gives China its name from the name of the State of Qin
207 BCE–220 CE	Han Dynasty: embraces the Qin administrative system but tempers its tyrannical methods by adopting Confucian moral principles, creates the imperial examination system for bureaucratic civil service applicants, and gives the Chinese people their name, Han Ren, or Han people (i.e., Chinese people)
256–195 BCE	Commoner Liu Bang becomes Han Gaozu, the founding emperor of the Western or Former Han Dynasty at Chang’an/Xian
179–104 BCE	Thinker Dong Zhongshu revises classical Confucianism to enhance the status of the emperor; Confucianism becomes the official ideology of dynastic China
156–87 BCE	Liu Che (aka Han Wudi, or the Martial Emperor) launches successive wars against China’s neighboring nomadic tribes
145–86 BCE	Sima Qian, founder of China’s traditional historiography and author of Records of the Grand Historian
81 BCE	Salt and Iron Debates discuss the role of government in the economy
9–23 CE	Xi Dynasty under reformer Wang Mang briefly supplants Han Dynasty
25–220	Eastern or Later Han Dynasty rules from Luoyang
220–581	Period of Disunity begins after the fall of the Han Dynasty
220–265	Three Kingdoms period
265–317	Western Jin
265–420	Eastern Jin
317–581	Northern and Southern Dynasties
581–589	Reunification of China under the Sui Dynasty

As the supreme ruler of the country, he created a brand‐new title for himself—Qin Shi Huangdi, which means “The First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty.” The implication of the title was that his descendants would rule from generation to generation until eternity. He also created an unprecedented form of government: It centralized all power in the hands of one man—the emperor. Earlier, the Zhou “Son of Heaven” had direct control only of his own domain, while local lords enjoyed autonomy within their domains. But Qin Shihuang set up a centralized government bureaucracy that reached from the imperial court down to the county level, staffed it with officials he appointed and dismissed at his pleasure, and made laws that they enforced across the land. For the first time in its history, China had one ruler who exercised personal, direct, and total control over the entire population and territory. He had ended feudalism in its classical sense. The totalitarian bureaucratic state of empire was in; the semiautonomous feudal state was out.

Qin Shi Huangdi (259–210 BCE).

Source: Album / Alamy Stock Photo.

A wealthy and influential merchant class emerged from the agricultural and commercial revolutions of the Warring States period, and they began entering politics. Lu Buwei (?–235 BCE) was one of them, and he was deeply involved in Qin politics. When the Qin king died, Lu became regent to the 13‐year‐old boy king. The able and ambitious boy king grew up in Lu’s shadow, and felt disgraced. He banished Lu as soon as he was officially crowned at age 20. Lu, out of fear, committed suicide in exile.

The Qin Empire had started out as a mishmash of seven formerly independent states that each had its own set of standards. But the emperor needed uniformity to ensure the smooth operation of his state machine across the extent of the empire. So he made laws to establish nationwide standards for everything. His laws established standards for the measurement of length, weight, and volume. He imposed a single monetary system and a single style of character writing. He ordered the building of a network of roads that radiated outward from the capital to all corners of the empire, and conformed to one single standard of width. This enabled him to ride in his carriage on his numerous inspection tours to all parts of the country, to send his mounted messengers to deliver his orders to anyone anywhere, and to dispatch his troops to crush any rebellion.

Chinese history was plagued by perennial conflict between the Han Chinese and their non‐Han neighbors. The Han Chinese were an agricultural people. They had the propensity of expanding into neighboring territories, but as a sedentary people they were also vulnerable to sudden attack. Their non‐Han neighbors, on the other hand, were nomadic tribal people who were capable of launching lightning‐fast raids either to defend their territories or to loot and kill. The Xiongnu, who roamed the steppes of Mongolia and Russia to the north of China, were the most feared of the nomadic tribes. To put an end to this threat, Qin Shihuang dispatched a force of 300,000 troops to drive them farther north.

To keep the nomads out, he ordered the building of the Great Wall. It was a project of unprecedented scale. But his absolute power enabled him to muster the human and material resources of the entire nation to drive toward that single goal. The completed Great Wall ran across China’s northern frontier, providing vital protection for the Han farming populations against nomadic attack. It would be renovated and extended in future dynasties.

Qin Shihuang was a bold and ruthless reformer and innovator. Confucianism required its followers to advise a ruler on the principles of benevolence and status quo, even if speaking out put their lives at stake. Qin Shihuang was certainly guilty of violating those principles, so the Confucian scholars bravely criticized him, thereby incurring his wrath and getting themselves executed. The emperor was adamant on having uniformity in thinking, just as he required uniformity in everything else. So he outlawed Confucianism, and confiscated their texts and burned them. He also rounded up over 460 Confucian scholars who stubbornly clung to their principles, and buried them alive. Henceforth, students of the land would be permitted to study only such practical subjects as farming, medicine, divination, and the official history of Qin, and to do so only under the tutorage of government officials.

Qin Shihuang had created precedents for two strains in China’s political tradition. One, educated people imbued with Confucianism would see it as their inescapable duty to speak out on issues concerning the well‐being of their country and people, even at the risk of their lives and fortunes. And, two, the rulers would resort to banning and burning books and persecuting dissidents in an attempt to control people’s thinking. This dual tradition repeatedly asserted itself down to modern times.

Li Bing and the Dujiang Dikes. Li Bing and his son were put in charge of building an irrigation network to water the farmlands of the Chengdu Plain in 256 BCE. The project included drilling a tunnel through a mountain range to channel water from the Min River on its western slope to the farmlands on its eastern plains. How could they manage such a gigantic project without modern machinery?

Li Bing’s peasant workers began by digging a cave into the side of the mountain with hand tools, piling firewood in it, and starting a fire to produce an intense heat. When the temperature of the surrounding rock reached its peak, they would throw cold water on the burning hot rock. The sudden drop in surface temperature would cause the rock to crack and collapse. Again with hand tools, they would smash and remove the cracked rocks. By repeating the process, they eventually reached the other side of the mountain range, leaving behind them a long tunnel.

The Dujiang irrigation system has been watering the Chengdu Plain for the past 2000 years, and it continues to do so.

Legalism was not all about war and persecution. Its goal was “rich country, strong army.” But Qin Shihuang’s numerous wars, huge construction projects, and extravagant lifestyle consumed enormous amounts of human and material resources. To furnish his coffers, his government mercilessly pushed for increased production as well as increased tax and labor service.

The burden fell especially heavily on the backs of the peasantry. When the burden became unbearable, the peasants rose in armed rebellion. The outbreak of peasant revolt in the declining stages of a dynasty would become a recurring event throughout Chinese history. It is a sure sign of the pending downfall of a dynasty. Qin Shihuang died in 210 BCE on one of his many inspection tours of his empire. Court intrigues and assassinations followed in a power struggle. His second son became emperor but was killed by one of his courtiers only two years into his reign. That was the end of the Qin Dynasty. Qin Shihuang had created the title Shihuang for himself, implying that his descendants would reign till eternity. In fact, his dynasty lasted for only 13 years. But the government structure of a centralized bureaucratic empire he invented served as a model for dynastic China for the next 20 centuries.

Qin Shihuang had two additional gargantuan civil engineering projects: the construction of the Eh Fang Palace and his massive mausoleum (the site of the terra‐cotta army). He intended his mausoleum to be a place where he would dwell and continue his rule after death. But it was burned, ransacked, and forgotten by history soon after his death. Then in 1974, a peasant digging in the fields discovered signs of it by accident. It is still only partially excavated, but the portion that is unearthed is enough to inspire awe with its thousands of lifelike terra‐cotta warriors and horses, numerous weapons, many bronze war chariots, and finely crafted luxury goods. The excavation has touched only a small portion of the massive mausoleum, leaving the rest for a later date when funding and technology can ensure better preservation.

The Chinese are deeply ambivalent about Qin Shihuang: They admire him for the unparalleled ability he showed in unifying the country and making it rich and strong, but they abhor the brutal means he used to achieve his ends.

Scholars have struggled with the question of why China was able to create such a sophisticated, powerful, and stable government so very early in its history. One tentative answer is that it was simply a matter of necessity. For China faced two existential challenges throughout its history: (1) an unruly Yellow River, and (2) perennial conflicts with its nomadic neighbors. Both challenges called for a centralized government capable of bringing together all human and material resources to deal with those life‐and‐death challenges. They argue that, had China not had such a form of government, it would not have survived.