 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 ] Next Last |
The Qin Dynasty, or Ch'in Dynasty ( Wade-Giles) (秦朝 221 BC - 207/ 206 BC) preceded by the Zhou Dynasty and followed by the Han Dynasty in China. Qin is sometimes spelt as Chin, and is a possible origin of the word "China". (See also: China in world languages)..
Much of what came to constitute China Proper wasz unified for the first time in 221 B.C. In that year the western frontier state of Qin, the most aggressive of the Warring States, subjugated the last of its rival states, putting an end to the Warring States Period.
The King of Qin, Zheng, named himself Shi Huangdi (First Emperor), a formulation of titles previously reserved for deities and the mythological sage-emperors. He is known by historians as Qin Shi Huang. He wanted his successors to rule China forever with the title "Emperor of China II", "Emperor of China III", etc.
In consolidating power, Qin Shi Huang imposed the State of Qin's centralized, nonhereditary bureaucratic system on his new empire in place of the Zhou's feudalistic one. The Qin Empire relied on the philosophy of legalismIn Chinese History, Legalism (; pinyin Fji was one of the four main philosophic schools at the end of the Zhou Dynasty. Legalists believed that a ruler should govern his subjects by the following three ideas: 1. f , the law. The law code must be clearly w (with skilful advisors like Han Fei and Li SiLi Si (, ca. 280-208) was the Prime Minister of the state (and later the dynasty) of Qin, between 246 BC and 209 BC. A famous Legalist, he was also a notable calligrapher. Li Si served under two kings and emperors: Qin Shi Huang, king of Qin and later Fir). Centralization, achieved by ruthless methods, was focused on standardizing legal codes and bureaucratic procedures, the forms of writing and coinage, and the pattern of thought and scholarship. CharacterTraditional Chinese and other languages. Simplified Chinese Chinese characters or Han characters (/) are used in the written forms of the Chinese language, and to varying degrees in the Japanese and Korean languages (though the latter only in South Korea)s from the former state of Qin became the standard for the entire empire. To silence criticism of imperial rule, the emperor banished or put to death many dissenting Confucian scholars and confiscated and burned their books.
Qin aggrandizement was aided by frequent military expeditions pushing forward the frontiers in the north and south. To fend off barbarian intrusion (mainly against the XiongnuXiongnu (; meaning Xiong's slaves Xiong being a Chinese transliteration of a national name but also meaning 'savage/raucous/ferocious', however some argued that the two words are both transliteration, in this case the sense of "slaves" does not exist) was in the north), the fortification walls built by the various warring states were connected to make a 5,000- kilometer-long Great Wall of ChinaThe Great Wall of China ( TC: ; SC: , Pinyin: Changcheng), also known in China as the Great Wall of 10,000 Li ¹ ( SC: , Pinyin: Wanli Changcheng), is an ancient Chinese fortification built from the end of the 14th century until the beginning of the 16th c. A number of public works, including canals and bridges, projects were also undertaken to consolidate and strengthen imperial rule. A lavish tomb for the emperor, complete with a Terracotta ArmyThe Terracotta Army (; pinyin: bing1 ma3 yong1, literal meaning: "Soldier and Horse Figures"), inside the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (; pinyin: qin2 shi3 huang2 ling2), was discovered in March 1974 during the sinking of wells for farmland irrigati was built near the capital Xianyang , a city half an hour from modern Xi'anXi'an (; Hanyu Pinyin: Xi'n, Wade-Giles: Hsi-An literal meaning: "Western Peace") is the capital of Shaanxi province, in China and a sub-provincial city. It was one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China because it has been the capital of 12 dynastie. These activities required enormous levies of manpower and resources, not to mention repressive measures.
Endless labor in the later years of Qin Shi Huang's reign started to provoke widespread discontent. However, the emperor was still able to maintain stability by his tight grip on every aspect of lives of the Chinese.
During a trip with his second son Huhai in 210 BC, Qin Shi Huang died suddenly at Shaqiu prefecture. Huhai, under the advice of two high officials - the Imperial Secretariat Li Si and the chief eunuch Zhao Gao - forged the altered Emperor's will. The faked decree ordered Qin Shi Huang's first son, the heir Fusu, to commit suicide, and renamed Huhai as the next emperor, and stripped the command of troops from Marshal Meng Tian - a faithful supporter of Fusu - and killed Meng's family also. Zhao Gao step by step seized the power of Huhai, effectively made him a puppet emperor.
Within the first 3 months after Qin Shi Huang's death, widespread revolts by peasants, prisoners, soldiers and descendants of the nobles of the Six Warring States sprang up all over China. Chen Sheng and Wu Guang , two in a group of about 900 soldiers assigned to defend against the Xiongnu, were the leaders of the first rebellion.
In 207 BC, Zhao Gao forced Huhai to commit suicide and replaced him by Fusu's son, Ziying. Note that the title of Ziying was "king of Qin" to reflect the fact that Qin no longer controlled the whole of China. The Chu-Han contention ensued. Ziying soon killed Zhao Gao and surrendered to Liu Bang in 206 BC. But Liu Bang was forced to hand over Xianyang and Ziying to Xiang Yu. Xiang Yu then killed Ziying and burned down the palace. Thus the Qin dynasty come to an end, three years after the death of Qin Shi Huang, and less than twenty years after it was founded.
Although the Qin Dynasty was short-lived, its legalist rule had a deep impact on later dynasties in China. The imperial system initiated during the Qin dynasty set a pattern that was developed over the next two millennia.
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |
|