Qin Dynasty BCE This dynasty only lasted about 15 years, but a great deal happened during time…

Quick Review  What continent is China located on?  Name the two major rivers.  What isolated China from the rest of the world?  What was the social order of the Shang?  Name 3 of the Shang’s advances.  Describe oracle bones.  What philosophy believed in going with the flow of nature, yin and yang, and the 3 jewels?  What philosophy believed in the law (fa), legitimacy (shi), and arts of the ruler (shu), and had harsh punishments?  What philosphy believed in the return to ethics by fathers and leaders acting as good role models?

Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi  Took the throne at the age of 13  Conquered 6 rival warring states to unify China in 221 B.C.E.  Formed a centralized government, built a nationwide network of roads and canals,standardized weights, measures and currency and formalized the written language.

Qin  Qin clearly was a tyrant.  Historians say hundreds of thousands of conscripts died under his direction completing the Great Wall, while 700,000 slaved to build his palace and pyramid-like tomb.  His name, pronounced "Chin," evolved into the Western word for China.  Among his own people, he inspired both pride and fear.

Terra Cotta Soldiers  A believer in evil spirits, Qin employed master craftsmen to mass-produce a terra- cotta army as a protection in the afterlife.  His mausoleum was rigged with crossbows to ambush intruders.

Terra Cotta Soldiers  Those who knew the tomb's secrets were buried alive with their Emperor.  Qin's dynasty was overthrown, however, just a few years after his death. The site of the pottery army was burned and lost to history for more than 2,000 years.

Standardization  Prior to Qin, each kingdom minted its own currency (money) in various shapes, sizes and weights.  Each kingdom also had its own system of weights and measurements  Qin made all kingdoms use the same money and system of weights and measurements

The Great Wall of China  The Great Wall of China was originally a project of the Qin dynasty designed to keep out the nomadic invaders from the north.

The Great Wall  Was mainly built from earth, stones and wood  The wall had defensive fighting stations, to which wall defenders may retreat if overwhelmed.  More than 10,000 watch towers (which were used to store weapons, house troops, and send smoke signals), each tower had unique and restricted stairways and entries to confuse attackers.

The Great Wall  Is the world's largest man-made structure, stretching over 3,948 miles  Can be seen from the space!

The Great Wall  Communication between the army units along the length of the Great Wall, including the ability to call reinforcements and warn garrisons of enemy movements, was of high importance. Signal towers were built upon hill tops or other high points along the wall for their visibility.

Great Wall  The emperor thought the wall would bring peace to the nation but the nation was weakened by the heavy cost of the construction  Ditches along the wall were filled with corpses of men who died building the wall  Deaths of wall workers are estimated to exceed one million

The Great Wall’s Great Cost  Taxation became heavier and heavier.  Some 3,500,000 people were involved in the building of the Great Wall. That was 70% of the total population of China at that time.  For each worker working on the wall, six were required to feed and support them.  Construction of the Qin wall became the most hated imperial project in Chinese history.

Fall of Qin  In 209 BCE, only a year after the death of the Qin Emperor, millions of peasants rose up and ended the tyranny and bloodshed of wall building.  The Qin Dynasty had fallen, brought down by the building of the great wall. Within ten years much of the wall was a neglected ruin. Once again the northern border was at the mercy of the northern invaders.