The First Imperial Period
Background
for Tu Zhiwei's mural, "Heads, Books, Pit"
China was unified for the
first time in 221 B.C. when the western
frontier state of Qin
defeated the the last of its six rival states.
Once the king of Qin consolidated his power he took
the title Shi Huangdi ( First
Emperor). Previously, this had been a title reserved for deities
and the mythological sage-emperors.
Qin established a centralized, nonhereditary bureaucratic
system to run the far-flung empire, relying heavily on what was known
as Legalism, a system of centralizing laws, coinage, administrative
procedures, the writing system, and even acceptable modes of thought
and scholarship.
This stamdardization was achieved by ruthless methods,
however, and.it generated significant and widespread opposition.
To silence the criticism,
the king banished or put to death many dissenting Confucian
scholars and confiscated and burned their books ().
Qin
also undertook significant public works projects, including a legendary
effort to fortify and connect external fortress walls built in earlier
times by the various
Warring States. That Great Wall () later
was rebuilt and extended during the Western
Han, Sui, Jin, and Ming periods.
Revolts broke out as soon as the
first Qin emperor died
in 210 B.C. His dynasty was extinguished
less than twenty years later. The imperial system
initiated during the Qin dynasty, however, set a pattern that was
developed over the next two millennia.