Qin Unifies China

In 221 BCE, the state of Qin completed its conquest of the rival kingdoms of the Warring States period, and its king, Ying Zheng, took the new title Qin Shi Huang, meaning "First Emperor of Qin." The event created the first centralized imperial state in Chinese history. Although the Qin dynasty itself was short-lived, the political model it established shaped Chinese government for some two thousand years.

For roughly two and a half centuries before this, the Zhou world had fragmented into competing states, among them Qin, Zhao, Wei, Han, Chu, Yan, and Qi. Constant warfare pushed each state to strengthen itself through bureaucracy, taxation, and large conscript armies. Qin was especially effective at this. Reforms associated with the statesman Shang Yang, in the fourth century BCE, rewarded military service, standardized laws, and weakened hereditary aristocratic privilege. Qin's position in the western Wei River valley, with fertile land and defensible terrain, also gave it a strong base.

Ying Zheng became king of Qin as a boy in 247 BCE and began taking personal control of the government in his early twenties. Aided by advisers such as Li Si, he launched a series of campaigns that, according to traditional accounts, eliminated Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, and Yan in turn, ending with the fall of Qi in 221 BCE. Our main narrative source, the Han-era historian Sima Qian, wrote long after these events and with the Qin's reputation already tarnished, so historians treat some of his details with caution.

Having won, the ruler adopted a grander title and set about binding the territory together. Rather than granting lands to relatives as the Zhou had, Qin divided the empire into commanderies and counties run by appointed officials. Weights, measures, currency, and axle widths were standardized, and a unified script was promoted, which eased administration and later helped link people who spoke different languages. Large projects followed, including roads, canals, and the linking of earlier northern walls, forerunners of the later Great Wall. The regime also relied on harsh punishments and heavy labor demands. Accounts of the burning of books and the burying of scholars are famous, though their scale is debated.

The dynasty did not last. Qin Shi Huang died in 210 BCE, and a succession struggle, together with widespread rebellion, brought the dynasty down by 206 BCE. The Han dynasty that emerged kept much of Qin's administrative structure while softening its harshness and promoting Confucian ideas. The word "China" is often traced, though not conclusively, to the name Qin. The idea of a single unified empire, rather than a collection of rival states, became the enduring political ideal of the region.