Читать книгу World History For Dummies - Peter Haugen - Страница 97

Divided into seven warring states, China was in turmoil from 485–221 BC. Then the king of one of those states, a place known as Qin, emerged as the dominant leader. He united China for the first time by beating his rivals and consolidating their territories into greater Qin, calling himself Qin Shi Huang (sometimes written Shi Huangdi), meaning the First Emperor of Qin, which suggests that he thought there would be more emperors after him. He was right. From Qin (which you also can spell Chi’in) came the name China.

Qin Shihuangdi got things done. He may have been inspired by the great Persian road-builder Darius I, because just as Darius built a 1,500-mile highway, Qin Shihuangdi linked the various defensive walls on China’s northern border into one Great Wall. His successors continued to work on the wall until it was more than 2,500 miles long; you can see it in Figure 5-2. Darius also inspired the Parthian empire-builder Mithradates, whom you can read about earlier in this chapter. (For more on Darius, see Chapter 4.)

Tonefotografia / Adobe Stock

FIGURE 5-2: Qin Shihuangdi started linking defense works that became the Great Wall.

Qin Shihuangdi also built roads and canals with a fury, and from his northern power base, he conquered southern China. He got rid of feudalism and disarmed nobles, dividing the country into 36 military districts, each with an administrator who reported to the emperor. He was a firm believer in big government, using his clout to reform weights and measures and to standardize everything from Chinese script to the length of cart axles.

The emperor looked after himself and his entourage, building a palace complex that doubled as a massive barracks, sleeping many thousands. He also linked hundreds of lesser palaces via a covered road network. You may conclude from these facts that he didn’t like to be alone, and perhaps this trait accounts for what researchers found when they opened his tomb in 1974: 7,000 warriors, each a distinct individual, sculpted of terra cotta and standing in battle formation as if to protect their king. With painted faces and uniforms, the sculptures still hold real weapons. Terra-cotta drivers man real chariots hitched to terra-cotta horses.

There’s nary a hint of historical authenticity in the 2008 action-horror-comedy film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Warrior. Still, the filmmakers seem to have been inspired by Qin Shihuangdi’s sculpted army. The film features Brendan Fraser battling 10,000 terra-cotta soldiers who answer to an evil, immortal ancient Chinese king.

The first Chinese emperor died in 210 BC, and his dynasty didn’t last long, yet the family that emerged as rulers only four years later, in 206 BC, was smart enough not to undo the Qin work. Building on Qin Shihuangdi’s reforms, the rulers of the Han Dynasty reigned until 220 AD.

Relatively late in the Han Dynasty, during a time called the Eastern Han, the Chinese invented both paper and porcelain, among other important technological advances that flourished under later dynasties such as the short-lived Sui and the succeeding Tang.