Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Qin dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC)

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Qin dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC)

    With Qin's victories over its rivals, China for the first time had become a unified empire.

    Qin had its beginnings as a state for raising horses and defending the borders keeping out barbarians for the royals of the Zhou. With the fleeing of the Western Zhou (being neighbours of the Qin) to luoyang, gave Qin the room and freedom to expand and grow more powerful.

    The people of Qin were considered no better than the barbarians they were keeping out and were thought of as a rough and crude people. Circumstances changed when the Qin began to strengthen their state by recruiting advisors, strategists and diplomats from their rival states. Lord Shang arrived in Qin in 361 BC and launched a series of legalist measures ( a system of reward and punishment) to help strengthen the ruler of Qin at the time. With all these changes in place Qin became formidable conquering all in its path.

    The first ruler Ying Zeng after finally ruling 'all under heaven' declared himself the first emperor or Shi Huang Di, of a unified China. This meant that he alone made all rules and regulations for the people of the whole of China, and not as before where vassals states could, as long as they remained in alliance with the capital, independently rule as they saw fit.

    Many changes happened in China in this very short period and the Emperor's main agenda was to standardise and unify the whole of China, some of these reforms included having one written and spoken language, one form of coin (Ban Lian coin, round with a square hole), one system of weight and measurement (example, the width of cart axles were standardised so they would fit into the groves on the cobble road ways).

    China was divided into 36 commanderies, each in turn divided into counties. The goverment dispatched officals to these states and he controlled them by mass of regulations, reports and penalties for inadequate perfomances. Private possesion of arms were banned and all the previous prominent and wealthy families were brought close to the Emperor in the capital (Xianyang) as to not encourage a rebellion.

    The Emperor heavly taxed and worked his people taking on grand and huge projects such as the Great wall ( as mentioned before, earlier states had sections built to sperate their own states, parts were knocked others kept) a grand palace was built taking labour forces up to 700,000 people, and a tomb built for his immortaliy housing the famous Terracotta Army was also constructed.

    To prevent his people from thinking in any other way than was to be taught by the empire, he burnt many books ( a wealth of knowledge was lost with this as the era before was a golden age of philosophy and ideas) which he feared would affect people's thinking. Worse, in his second year, after he learnt some scholars' discussions about his arrogance, he buried 460 of them alive. In history, these two events are called 'To Burn the Books and Bury the Scholars Alive'.

    The Emperor died without warning in 210 BC leaving his son in power to an over worked and unhappy society, this ruling only lasted a short time due to the prompt murder of him by his younger brother, leading to a revolt and ending the Qin dynasty in 206 BC.

    This lead to the next dynasty, the Han Dynasty.

  • #2
    The First Emperors Tomb

    In the spring of 1974 three young farmers working in the fields drilling a water well, all of a sudden dissapeared into a cloud of dust, only to find themselves, as the dust settled surrounded by an army of life size terracotta soldiers in full battle dress gazing steadly out at them, the three farmers had stumbled onto what we now know as the first Emperors Shi Huang Di's mausoleum or Tomb.

    Construction of the tomb was taught to have began around when the First Emperor was a child of thirteen, a year after he ascended the Qin throne as king in 259 BC.

    It took an estimated 700,000 work force to build the mausoleum with the cost of many lives, the grand tomb or mausoleum houses the now famous Terracotta Warriors. Archaeologists estimate that there are over 7,000 soldiers (infantry to generals), 130 chariots with horses, and 110 cavalry horses, contained in three seperate chambers.

    Generals were heavily armoured while the infantry much less.


    Weapons found in the tomb range from bronze swords, spears, arrow heads, halberds and crossbows.


    Siama Qian the grand historian of the Han gives an account of the Emperors burial chamber itself, this is the only account as the Emperor's chamber has still not been unearthed.

    Below is some of the historians account and details about the chamber taken from site below.

    .[56] Sima Qian's description of the tomb includes replicas of palaces and scenic towers, 'rare utensils and wonderful objects', 100 rivers made with mercury, representations of 'the heavenly bodies', and crossbows rigged to shoot anyone who tried to break in.[57] The tomb was built on Li Mountain which is only 30 kilometers away from Xi'an. Modern archaeologists have located the tomb, and have inserted probes deep into it. The probes revealed abnormally high quantities of mercury, some 100 times the naturally occurring rate, suggesting that some parts of the legend are credible.[50] Secrets were maintained, as most of the workmen who built the tomb were killed.[50][58]

    Comment


    • #3


      life size terracotta soldier, height can be up to 6.5 feet and weighing 300 kilos.




      The bronze chariot and horses are scaled down to half size with intricate detail.





      Source: Google Images.

      A recreation of what the warriors may have originally looked like in full colour.

      Comment


      • #4
        The Great Wall

        First sections of the Great Wall were constructed to keep out invading northern nomadic tribes. The first to build a defense wall were the state of Chu then followed by Qi, Yan, Wei, Zhao, and Qin.

        When the First Emperor conquered the Six States and unified China, he ordered his general to connect the existing walls forming one continous wall starting in Lintao Province and winding through mountains and valleys until finishing in the east in Liaoning Province.


        The Chinese name for the Great Wall is Wan-Li Qang-Qeng, which means The 10,000-Li Long Wall (10,000 LI is roughly 5,000 km)

        It took an enormous work force to build the wall in the short time taken for construction and a great cost to life. People who built the wall were from 3 groups: soldiers, common people and criminals.

        It is constructed mainly from masonry, rock and packed earth.

        The wall was built as a protective measure to keep out the nomadic Huns or any other threat from the north.


        The wall was further extended in the following Han dyansty to 8,850 km, and in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 AD) watch towers and cannon were added. It is from this Ming period of the Great Wall that tourists most visit and is most recognisible.

        Comment


        • #5
          [IMG][/IMG]

          The Great wall from Ming period



          Map of Wall from different periods up to the Ming period.

          Comment

          Working...
          X