-Prince Zheng was part of the royal family of the state of Qin, who later changed his name to First Emperor Qin. -Zheng was an extremely ambitious man. He used military might, spies, bribery and alliances to conquer the remaining rival states. -Emperor Qin divided China into 36 districts, with 3 officials to govern each.
22.3 Standardizing The Culture
-Emperor Qin wanted to unify China, one step was to create a unified system of laws. -The Emperor's laws were based off legalist beliefs which meant everyone was born bad and deserved to be punished but if you did good you would be rewarded. Emperor Qin got rid of many characters in the writing system.
22.4 Protecting The Northern Border
-Emperor Qin ordered that a long wall will be built connecting smaller walls which previous rulers built along the northern border - The construction of the wall took 10 years. A workforce of 300,000 men was assembled to build it -The workers who built the wall labored under difficult conditions. The wall crossed high mountains, desert, swampland, and quicksand.
22.5 Ending Opposition
-A Confucian scholar criticized the emperor. He warned that the Qin dynasty would not last unless the emperor followed the ways of the past. -The Emperor's advisor suggested to burn all the books about Confucianism and Emperor Qin agreed to the idea. -Some Confucianist scholars chose to die other than giving up there books.
BURN IT ALL
22.6 The Emperor's Death and the Qin's Dynasty
-The emperor was afraid to die. He called magicians to his court, asking them how he could become immortal. Some magicians said that he must find a magic potion. -He never found a potion after searching all over China. He was searching for it when he died. -The Emperor of Qin's body was taken back to the capital and buried in a gigantic tomb in a man-made mound. The tomb complex, or group of structures, covered many square miles. Ancient Chinese writings say that more than 700,000 workers helped build it. Some of them were buried with the emperor to prevent grave robbers from learning about the tomb's fabulous treasures.