Aayushi, Anahita, Grant, Hummad

Prince Zheng (A.K.A. Emperor Qin Shihuangdi) Prince Zheng was born in the royal family of the state Qin, in 259 B.C.E. When he was 13, in the year 221 B.C.E, he became king in the state of Zhou. He was very motivated, yet at the same time violent and aggressive. With these characteristics, he gained power of all of China.

Standardizing Qin Standardizing means to make the same. Emperor Qin wanted all of China to live by the same rules, laws, and have the same heritage. He changed rules, such as “widows (women whose spouse died) cannot remarry.” If any of these rules were broken, there were harsh consequences such as forced labor, whippings and beheadings. Emperor Qin also changed the money to metal coins with holes in them so you could carry around many. He even classified the Chinese writing to 9,000 characters.

The Great Wall The Great Wall was built as an order by Emperor Qin. It was first called the “10,000 Li Long Wall”. A “li” is approximately three tenths of a mile. It was built along the Northern borders to protect Qin from Northern Invaders. 300,000 men worked on the Great Wall for 10 years in very demanding situations, because of China’s climate and physical features the wall had to cross. The Great Wall succeeded very well because the nomads with horses could not cross over. Later it was found that thousands of people died while working on the wall and were buried there. Most parts of the Great Wall were built later, way after the Qin dynasty.

Confucians The Confucians were a group of people in China who considered proper behavior, manners very unlike what Emperor Qin had in mind which severe and unfair laws. As you can tell they don’t get along so well which is probably why Emperor Qin executed 460 Confucians because they protested against him. It all began in the year 213 B.C.E.

The Conflict Just a criticism would mean a lot to Emperor Qin. He took it very seriously once when a Confucian told Li Su (the emperor’s advisor) about how if his laws were this harsh, his dynasty would not last. The trustworthy Li told the emperor and of course, the Emperor got irate and demanded all of the Confucian books to be burned at the Capital City. The Confucians who violated the order would get their faces tattooed and be forced into labor. Some were beheaded or buried alive. China was stunned at the emperor and his atrocious new laws.

Qin’s Death Even with the emperor’s numerous accomplishments, he just wasn’t pleased. He didn’t want to die either, so he asked magicians how he could be immortal, and they sent him to East China to get a potion but he never found it. Sadly, in 210 B.C.E. he unexpectedly died, after ruling for 10 years. People are guessing he was poisoned. He was buried under a ginormous tomb that just about 700,000 worked built. His treasures weren’t found until 1974 C.E. There were things like tools, jewels and a terra cotta which was a clay object which had 6,000 life- sized archers, foot soldiers, chariot drivers, horses, etc. Astonishingly, not two people are the same.

The End of Qin Instead of lasting 10,000 years like the Emperor thought it would, it only lasted a couple years after he died. He still impacted a lot of China, mostly because of the wars he created. Lots of wars happened after he died, but finally, in 206 B.C.E., Liu Bang created the Han Dynasty.

K E E P W A T C H I N G

Bibliography History Alive! The Ancient World Clip Art Images Google Images Translator