24 China in World History
synthesizing rather than destroying many of the trends and traditions
of the Zhou era.
New tomb fi nds from the Qin period suggest that the laws were
enforced conscientiously with relative equality, fairness and with some
fl exibility. It is also clear that the First Qin Emperor, for all his paranoia
and egomania, was a very capable and tireless monarch who worked
extremely hard in reading hundreds of memorials daily from every part
of the empire. Moreover, from today’s perspective we can see that the
Qin dynasty, for all its excesses, accomplished something truly monu-
mental in creating the centralized bureaucratic empire that became the
institutional model for all subsequent Chinese dynasties up until the
early twentieth century. If the Qin didn’t last as long as the popular
slogan of longevity that was chanted to the emperor (“10,000 years!”),
it did establish a workable pattern of government that has been one of
the longest lived in human history.
The Qin state was built for warfare, but once it defeated all rival
states, its harsh conscription methods no longer served a useful pur-
pose. After Qin Shi Huangdi died in 211 bce, Qin rule rapidly disin-
tegrated, beginning with mutinies by conscripted laborers who were
treated so harshly that they had little to lose by openly rebelling. Their
rebellion quickly spread to the Qin military. As civil war erupted, many
former noble families hoped that some kind of decentralized feudal rule
could be reestablished to allow them to return to their home areas and
reassert the privileged positions they had enjoyed before the Qin con-
quest. The two major contenders to succeed the Qin were Xiang Yu, a
brilliant aristocratic general, and Liu Bang, an equally brilliant but low-
born general of peasant background. Xiang Yu seemed a more likely
emperor, and he promised to do just what the former noble families
hoped, to restore the former kingdoms in a feudal-style federation of
semi-independent states. But Xiang Yu was overconfi dent and stub-
born enough to underestimate the strategic advantages that Liu Bang
enjoyed, having occupied the strongholds of the fallen Qin dynasty. Liu
was also a shrewd judge of character, and he rallied a group of loyal
generals who led their troops to fi ght courageously and effectively in his
cause. Thus, in 202 bce, Liu Bang’s army decisively defeated Xiang Yu’s
forces. Xiang Yu narrowly avoided capture and, with only twenty-eight
of his loyal troops remaining at his side, committed suicide to prevent
the disgrace of surrender to his enemy.
Liu Bang had proclaimed himself king of the Han state already in
206 bce, and in 202 bce he took the title of emperor. He proceeded to
call on the same religious rituals Qin Shi Huangdi had invoked to assure