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.