Qin 秦  | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 221 BC–206 BC | |||||||||||||||
 Territory controlled by the Qin dynasty c. 210 BC | |||||||||||||||
| Capital | Xianyang | ||||||||||||||
| Common languages | Old Chinese | ||||||||||||||
| Government | Absolute monarchy | ||||||||||||||
| Emperor | |||||||||||||||
• 221–210 BC | Qin Shi Huang | ||||||||||||||
• 210–207 BC | Qin Er Shi | ||||||||||||||
| Chancellor | |||||||||||||||
• 221–208 BC | Li Si | ||||||||||||||
• 208–207 BC | Zhao Gao | ||||||||||||||
| Historical era | Imperial | ||||||||||||||
• Accession of Qin Shi Huang | 221 BC | ||||||||||||||
• Death of Qin Shi Huang | 210 BC | ||||||||||||||
• Surrender to Liu Bang | 206 BC | ||||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||||
| 220 BC[1] | 2,300,000 km2 (890,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
| Currency | Ban Liang | ||||||||||||||
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| Qin dynasty | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.svg) "Qin" in seal script (top) and regular (bottom) Chinese characters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 秦 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Qín | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Part of a series on the |
| History of China |
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The Qin dynasty (/tʃɪn/[3][4]) was the first dynasty of Imperial China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, which was a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty that had endured for over five centuries. In 221 BC, following the completion of Qin's wars of unification conquering each of its rival states, Qin assumed an imperial prerogative under King Ying Zheng, who declared himself to be Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. This state of affairs lasted until the dynasty's collapse in 206 BC.[5]
Qin was a minor power for the early centuries of its existence. The strength of the Qin state was greatly increased by the reforms of Shang Yang in the 4th century BC, during the Warring States period. In the mid- and late 3rd century BC, the Qin state carried out a series of swift conquests, destroying the powerless Zhou dynasty and eventually conquering the other six of the Seven Warring States. Its 15-year existence was the shortest major dynasty in Chinese history, with only two emperors. Despite its short existence, the legacy of Qin strategies in military and administrative affairs shaped the consummate Han dynasty that followed, ultimately becoming seen as the originator of an imperial system that ultimately lasted in various forms until the Xinhai Revolution in 1911.
The Qin sought to create a state unified by structured centralized political power and a large military supported by a stable economy.[6] The central government moved to undercut aristocrats and landowners to gain direct administrative control over the peasantry, who comprised the overwhelming majority of the population and labour force. This allowed ambitious projects involving three hundred thousand peasants and convicts: projects such as connecting walls along the northern border, eventually developing into the Great Wall of China, and a massive new national road system, as well as the city-sized Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor guarded by the life-sized Terracotta Army.[7]
The Qin introduced a range of reforms such as standardized currency, weights, measures and a uniform system of writing, which aimed to unify the state and promote commerce. Additionally, its military used the most recent weaponry, transportation and tactics, though the government was heavy-handed and bureaucratic. Qin created a system of administering people and land that greatly increased the power of the government to transform environment, and it has been argued that the subsequent impact of this system on East Asia's environments makes the rise of Qin an important event in China's environmental history.
When Qin Shi Huang died in 210 BC, two of his advisors placed an heir on the throne in an attempt to influence and control the administration of the dynasty. These advisors squabbled among themselves, resulting in both of their deaths and that of the second Qin Emperor. Popular revolt broke out and the weakened empire soon fell to Chu general Xiang Yu, who was proclaimed Hegemon-King of Western Chu, and Liu Bang, who founded the Han dynasty. Han Confucians portrayed the Qin as a monolithic, legalist tyranny, notably citing a purge known as the burning of books and burying of scholars; however, the earliest account of this event is in Sima Qian's Shiji (c. 91 BC), and some modern scholars dispute its veracity.[8]
- ^ Taagepera, Rein (1979). "Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D". Social Science History. 3 (3/4): 121. JSTOR 1170959.
- ^ "Qin dynasty". EecyclopædiaBritannica. 3 September 2019.
- ^ "Qin". Collins English Dictionary (13th ed.). HarperCollins. 2018. ISBN 978-0-008-28437-4.
- ^ "Qin". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins.
- ^ "Early China A Social and Cultural History, Cambridge University Press, 2013, p. 6.
- ^ Tanner 2010, pp. 85–89
- ^ Beck, R. B.; Black, L.; Krager, L. S.; et al. (2003). Ancient World History-Patterns of Interaction. Evanston, IL: McDougal Little. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-618-18393-7.
- ^ Lander, Brian (2021). The King's Harvest: A Political Ecology of China from the First Farmers to the First Empire. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300255089.