The first emperor of Qin Shihuang

As the founder of the first feudal unified dynasty in China’s history, the achievements of Qin Shihuang are of epoch-making significance. Because of his great achievements, which are unprecedented and have influenced future generations for thousands of years, Qin Shihuang was called “one emperor for thousands of years”.

Unify China

From 230 B.C. to 221 B.C., Qin Shihuang spent 10 years attacking and destroying Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan and Qi, ending China’s more than 500 years of feudal separatism since the spring and Autumn period, and establishing the first great unified dynasty in Chinese history.

Qin Shihuang swept through the six countries and unified the world. This feat is one of the few in China’s history of thousands of years.

Some people may wonder that the emperors who unified China are not uncommon in history. Why would I elevate the first emperor of Qin alone? Because Qin Shihuang was the first and only one who unified all the known civilizations in the world at that time!
It is not only the unity of regional concept, but also the unity of national politics, economic system, ideology and culture.

Why say that? Before the Qin Dynasty, there were still three dynasties in China, namely, the Xia Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty. However, the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties only realized regional unity and were still in a split state in the country’s political system.

After the unification of Qin Shihuang, the system of “three officials and nine ministers” was established at the central level, which can efficiently handle and manage state affairs.

At the local level, the enfeoffment system was abolished and replaced by the county system. Qin Shihuang realized the unification of the country’s political system with the system of “three officials and nine ministers” and the system of prefectures and counties, which was imitated by successive dynasties until the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1912.

Expand territory

During the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, China’s territory was not large.
The territory of the Xia Dynasty was about today’s Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei, Hubei and other places.
The territory of the Shang Dynasty was roughly the same.
The territory of the Zhou Dynasty was the largest, reaching Liaodong Peninsula in the northeast, southern Shaanxi in the northwest, and the Yangtze River Basin in the south.

After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, he did not stop expanding the territory.
The territory of the Qin Dynasty reached its maximum in 214 BC. Its territory extends from Gansu in the west, Liaoning in the northeast, the Great Wall in the north, Sichuan in the southwest, Guangdong, Guangxi and northern Vietnam in the south, and the East China Sea and Taiwan Strait in the East. This is the traditional territory of ancient China.

In order to prevent the invasion of foreign Xiongnu, the Great Wall was built.

Unify word, carriage track and weight and measure

If Qin Shihuang used the system of “three officials and nine ministers” and the system of prefectures and counties to achieve the unity of the country’s political system, then he also used books and texts, vehicles and tracks, and unified weights and measures to achieve the unity of economic system and ideology and culture.

Unify word

In the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, each vassal state ran its own affairs and used different writing.
If the Qin Dynasty let this phenomenon go, it would bring great inconvenience to economic and trade exchanges and cultural exchanges.
For this reason, Qin Shihuang ordered to sort out the text. Finally, based on the characters of the state of Qin and combining the advantages of the characters of the six countries, a unified font was created as the official standard character;

Unify carriage track

In the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the roads between various feudal states were different in width and the size of carriages was also different.
After the reunification of the country, this phenomenon seriously affected the traffic and restricted the economic development.
Qin Shihuang ordered that the width of the road and the distance between the wheels of the carriage be unified. In this way, it is conducive to long-distance carriage.

Unify weight and measure

During the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the weights and measures of various countries were different in size, which easily caused confusion.
Qin Shihuang implemented unified weights and measures. In addition to unify word, carriage track, he also implemented unified coins, length units, volume units and weight units.