As Sima Qian records, his advisers counseled him that the herbs of immortality would not work until he could move about unobserved. Perhaps in response, Shi Huangdi became obsessed with the idea of immortality. Not surprisingly, the autocratic emperor was the target of several assassination attempts. ( Did the Great Wall of China work?) Quest for immortality ” That project, during which countless workers died, marked the beginning of the Great Wall. The whole line of defenses stretched over 10,000 li. According to Han historian Sima Qian, they also built “border defenses along the river, constructing 44 walled district cities overlooking the river and manning them with convict laborers. Hundreds of thousands more toiled to build palaces, canals, and roads. Hundreds of thousands of men served in Qin armies, mobilized to defend against Xiongnu nomads in the north and other tribes in the south. ( Learn more about Confucius, a Chinese philosopher, politician, and teacher.) Citizens of all ranks were encouraged to inform on one another those convicted of crimes were executed, mutilated, or put to hard labor. Some accounts say that 460 scholars were rounded up and executed, and the texts they had used to criticize the government were confiscated or burned. The emperor ordered Chinese writing made uniform, such that all words with the same meaning in the country’s varied languages would be represented by the same characters.Ĭhina’s Great Wall is one of the world’s great feats of engineering and an enduring monument to the strength of an ancient civilization. Even wagon axles were built according to a certain measure, so they could fit within the ruts in China’s roads. Weapons were confiscated and melted down. He relocated hundreds of thousands of influential families from their home provinces to the capital, Xianyang, where he could keep a close eye on them. He divided the lands into 36 command areas, each supervised by a governor, a military commander, and an imperial inspector, all of whom reported to him. With ferocious force of character, Shi Huangdi began to mold his diverse territories into a single Chinese empire obedient to his will. The victorious monarch gave himself the title Qin Shi Huangdi (259–210 B.C.), First Qin Emperor. under the leadership of the ruthless King Zheng. The state of Qin, based in the Sichuan plains, eventually won out in 221 B.C. Between the fifth and third centuries B.C., a time known as the Warring States period, at least seven kingdoms battled for supremacy in east-central China. Settlements in the Yellow and Yangtze River Valleys had grown into an agricultural civilization. China already had a long history by the time its states were unified under its first emperor.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |