10 CultureShock! Chinapunishments for breaking them.
From 221to 206 BC, these laws
were used to maintain order
against a constant backdrop of
battles with the barbarians on
the Qin’s borders.
Supreme among the ruling
class was King Ying Zheng, who
upon unification took the name ‘Qin Shi Huang’, meaning
First Emperor of the Qin, thereby establishing China’s
imperial system of rule. During his time on the throne,
standardisation was his main focus—weights and measures,
currency and a common script were among the things that
became consistent across and among the various states.
Finally, Qin Shi Huang also advanced the Shang practice
of burying slaves with their dead ruler, choosing to have his
tomb filled with the life-size terracotta army that now attracts
swarms of visitors to present-day Xi’an each year.
As was to be expected, Qin Shi Huang’s mandate eventually
ended, this time with a peasant leader named Liu Bang and
his general friend Xiang Yu, delivering the news of Heaven’s
displeasure. Liu Bang then turned on Xiang Yu, and, in AD
206 proclaimed the great empire of the Han.Han (206 BC–AD 220)
Much like the Zhou before it, the Han is divided into Western
(or Earlier Han) and Eastern (or Later Han) periods, with
a brief interlude between the two called the ‘Wang Mang’
period, during which a member of the Han court (named, of
course, Wang Mang), ruled rather than the imperial family.
The Han is described by many as 400 years of glory
days. Pride in this time gave the dominant ethnic group
of early China its name—Han Chinese, a moniker used
even today. These days of glory saw respect for scholars
restored to pre-Qin levels, and the ideas put forward by
Confucius during the Qin at last became a full-fledged school
of thought. Confucianism eventually rose to the level of
official state doctrine, governing the imperial court and
through it, society.Qin Shi Huang unified the states
by linking together the city walls
of the individual principalities that
comprised his empire. Though
made of packed earth rather than
masonry, this early ‘great wall’
was the precursor to the Ming
dynasty’s construction of the
Great Wall we still see today.