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The Qin dynasty ( ) was the first imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty (256 BC). Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng engaged in a series of wars conquering each of the rival states that had previously pledged fealty to the Zhou. This culminated in 221 BC with the successful unification of China under Qin, which then assumed an imperial prerogativewith Ying Zheng declaring himself to be Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, and bringing an end to the Warring States period (221 BC). This state of affairs lasted until 206 BC, when the dynasty collapsed in the years following Qin Shi Huang's death. The Qin dynasty's 14-year existence was the shortest of any major dynasty in Chinese history, with only two emperors. However, the succeeding Han dynasty (202 BC220 AD) largely continued the military and administrative practices instituted by the Qin; as a result, the Qin have been credited as the originators of the Chinese imperial system that would endure in some form until the Xinhai Revolution in 1911.
Qin was a minor power for the first several centuries of its existence; its strength greatly increased in the 4th century BC, in large part owing to the administrative and military reforms of Shang Yang. They sought to create a strong, centralised state and a large army supported by a stable economy, which were developed in the Qin homeland and implemented across China following its unification. Reforms included the standardisation of currency, weights, measures, and the writing system, along with innovations in weaponry, transportation and military tactics.
The central government sought to undercut aristocrats and landowners and administer the peasantry directly, who comprised the vast majority of the population. This enabled numerous large-scale construction projects involving the labour of hundreds of thousands of peasants and convictswhich included the connection of walls along the northern border into what would eventually become the Great Wall of China, a large national road system, and the city-sized Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang guarded by the life-sized Terracotta Army. The state possessed an unprecedented capacity to transform the environment through the management of people and land; as a result, Qin's rise has been characterised as one of the most important events in East Asian environmental history.
When Qin Shi Huang died in 210 BC, two of his advisors placed an heir on the throne in an attempt to exert control over the dynasty and wield state power. 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 generals Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, the latter of whom founded the Han dynasty.
The state of Qin began military expeditions into central China in 672 BC. They initially refrained from making serious incursions due to the threat still posed by neighbouring tribes; by the 4th century BC, they had all either been subdued or conquered, setting the stage for Qin expansionism.
]] During the Warring States period (221 BC), the Qin statesman Shang Yang introduced a series of advantageous military reforms between 361 BC and his death in 338. He also helped to construct the Qin capital at Xianyang (near modern Xi'an, Shaanxi) on the Wei River near the former Zhou capital of Fenghaoa city which ultimately resembled the capitals of the other states. The Qin maintained a military that was superior in both doctrine and practice to that of the other Warring States. Its army was large, efficient, and staffed with capable generals. Unlike many of their enemies, the Qin utilised contemporary advancements in weapons technology and transportation, the latter of which enabled greater mobility across the different types of terrain throughout China.
The geography of Qin's core territorieslocated at the heart of a region known as the additional advantages, including fertile farmland, and a strategic position protected by mountains that made it a natural stronghold. The Guanzhong was in contrast with the flat, open Yangtze valley (also known as the "Guandong") to its south-eastduring this period, Xianyang was the only capital city in China that did not require walls to be built around it. The legacy of Qin society within the Guanzhong inspired a Han-era adage that "Guanzhong produces generals, while Guandong produces ministers." The Qin's agricultural output, expanded via projects like the Wei River canal built in 246 BC, helped sustain their large army.
Qin engaged in practical and ruthless warfare. From the preceding Spring and Autumn period (), the prevailing philosophy had dictated war as a gentleman's activity; military commanders were instructed to respect what they perceived to be Heaven's laws in battle. For example, during a war Duke Xiang of Song was waging against Chu, he declined an opportunity to attack Chu forces that were crossing a river. After allowing them to cross and marshal their forces, he was decisively defeated in the ensuing battle. When he was admonished by his advisors for excessive courtesy to the enemy, he retorted, "The sage does not crush the feeble, nor give the order for attack until the enemy have formed their ranks." The Qin disregarded this military tradition, taking advantage of their enemy's weaknesses. A nobleman in the state of Wei accused Qin of being "avaricious, perverse, eager for profit, and without sincerity. It knows nothing about etiquette, proper relationships, and virtuous conduct, and if there be an opportunity for material gain, it will disregard its relatives as if they were animals." This, combined with strong leadership from long-lived rulers, an openness to employ talented men from other states, and a lack of internal opposition, contributed to the Qin's strong political base.
During the century that preceded the wars of unification, the Qin suffered several setbacks. Shang Yang was executed in 338 BC by King Huiwen due to a personal grudge harboured from his youth. There was also internal strife over the Qin succession in 307 BC, which decentralised Qin authority somewhat. The Qin was defeated by an alliance of the other states in 295 BC; this was soon followed by another defeat inflicted by Zhao, made possible by a majority of the Qin army already being occupied with defending against attacks by Qi. However, the aggressive became prime minister in 266 BC; after issues with the succession were resolved, Fan pursued an expansionist policy that had its origins in Jin and Qi, in which they endeavoured to conquer the other states.
The Qin first attacked the Han directly to their east, and took their capital city of Xinzheng in 230 BC. They then struck the state of Zhao to their north, who surrendered in 228 BC, followed by the northernmost state of Yan in 226. Next, Qin launched assaults to the east and south; they took the Wei capital of Daliang (modern Kaifeng) in 225, and forced Chu to surrender in 223. They then deposed the Zhou dynasty's remnants at Luoyang; finally, they conquered Qi, taking their capital at Ancient Linzi in 221 BC.
With the completion of Qin's conquests in 221 BC, had acceded to the throne of Qin at age ninebecame the effective ruler of China. The subjugation of the six states was done by King Zheng who had used efficient persuasion and exemplary strategy. He solidified his position as sole ruler with the abdication of his prime minister, Lü Buwei. The states made by the emperor were assigned to officials dedicated to the task rather than place the burden on people from the royal family. He then combined the titles of the earlier Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors into the new name "Shi Huangdi", meaning 'First Emperor'. The newly declared emperor ordered all weapons not in the possession of the Qin to be confiscated and melted down. The resulting metal was sufficient to build twelve large ornamental statues at the Qin's newly declared capital at Xianyang.
During this time, Li Si and Zhao Gao came into conflict with one another, which culminated in Zhao persuading Qi Er Shi to put Li on trial, where he was ultimately executed. The worsening military situation then caused the emperor to blame Zhao for the rebellion; this pivot frightened Zhao, who engineered another conspiracy to deceive Qin Er Shi into believing hostile forces had arrived at the capital. The emperor's quarters were invaded, and Qin Er Shi was forced to commit suicide for his incompetence after being cornered by Zhao's co-conspirator and son-in-law . Ziying, a son of Fusu, ascended to the throne, and immediately executed Zhao Gao. Unrest continued to spread among the peoplecaused in large part by regional differences, which had persisted despite Qin's attempts to impose uniformityand many local officials had declared themselves kings. In this climate, Ziying attempted to cling to his throne by declaring himself as merely one king among all the others. He was undermined by his ineptitude, and popular revolt broke out in 209 BC. When Chu rebels under the lieutenant Liu Bang attacked, a state in such turmoil could not hold for long. Ziying surrendered to Liu Bang upon the latter's arrival in Xianyang in 207 BC; while initially spared by Liu, he was executed shortly thereafter by the Chu leader Xiang Yu. In 206 BC, Xianyang was destroyed, marking what historians consider to be the end of the imperial Qin dynasty. With the former Qin territories temporarily divided into the Eighteen Kingdoms, Liu Bang then betrayed Xiang Yu, beginning the Chu–Han Contention from which he ultimately emerged victorious atop a reunited realmon 28 February 202 BC, he declared himself emperor of the newly founded Han dynasty.
The Qin aristocracy were largely similar to the Zhou in culture and daily life, with regional variation generally considered a symbol of the lower classesand ultimately as contrary to the unification that the government strove to achieve.
Commoners and rural villagers, who comprised more than 90% of the population, rarely left the villages or farmsteads where they were born. While various other forms of employment existed depending on the region, as with other settled peoples in antiquity the overwhelming majority of people throughout Qin were engaged predominately in agriculture. Other professions were hereditary; a father's employment was passed to his eldest son after he died. The Lüshi Chunqiu ()a text named for Lü Buwei, the prime minister who sponsored itgave examples of how, when commoners are obsessed with material wealth, instead of the idealism of a man who "makes things serve him", they were "reduced to the service of things".
A ritual concept introduced under the Qin that would be continued by the Han was the official touring of ritual sites across the realm by the emperor, which served to reinforce notions of the emperor as a semi-divine figure.
The Qin also practised forms of divinationincluding that previously used by the Shang, where bones and turtle shells were heated in order to divine knowledge of the future from the cracks that formed. Observation of astronomical and weather phenomena were also common, with comets, eclipses, and droughts commonly considered omens.
The empire was divided into 36 commanderies, which were further subdivided into more than 1000 districts. The states made by the emperor were assigned to officials dedicated to the task rather than placing the burden on people from the royal family. Zheng and his advisors also introduced new laws and practices that ended Fengjian in China, fully replacing it with a centralised, bureaucratic government. A supervisory system, the Censorate was introduced to monitor and check the powers of administrators and officials at each level of government. The Qin instituted a permanent system of ranks and rewards, consisting of twenty ranks based on the number of enemies killed in battle or commanding victorious units. Ranks were not hereditary unless a soldier died heroically in battle, whereby the soldier's rank will be inherited by his family. Each rank was assigned a specific allotment of dwellings, slaves and land, and ranks could be used to remit judicial punishments.
Instances of abuse were recorded. In one example from the Records of Officialdom, a commander named Hu ordered his men to attack peasants in an attempt to increase the number of "bandits" he had killed; his superiors, likely eager to inflate their records as well, allowed this.
During the 330s BC, the state of Qin began minting banliang coins, which were round, made mostly of bronze, and marked to indicate a nominal weight of around though the actual weight varied in reality. After unification, banliang were given official status across the empire, replacing previous regional currencies like spade money and knife money to become the first standardised currency used throughout all of China. Unlike the Han, who initially continued the use of banliang, the Qin did not allow additional coins to be minted by the private sector, and considered those that were to be counterfeit.
Shang Yang's code likely drew on Li Kui's Canon of Laws, which considered dealing with thieves and robbers the most urgent legal matter of its time. The Qin dynasty's penal code primarily focuses on theft, though there were certain statutes dealing specifically with infanticide and other unsanctioned harm against children. However, in the period prior to unification, Qin laws had already diverged significantly from ideas espoused in The Book of Lord Shang.
While retaining Shang Yang's reforms, the Qin abandoned his anti-Confucianism and strict, harsh penal policy, and ultimately his heavy emphasis on agriculture. After Shang Yang, the Lushi Chunqiu attests King Huiwen of Qin as having pardoned the death penalty in a case involving murder, based on Confucianistic ethics. Anti-Confucianistic statements in the Book of Lord Shang are isolated to the early chapters of 3,4 & 11. Though not completely eliminated, recovered Qin dynasty law does not emphasize group responsibility as was more common in Shang Yang's time. Mutilating group punishment was directed against more extreme cases of group robbery by policing officials themselves, while petty levels of theft committed by individual commoners was punished with a month labor service.
Sima Qian depicts Qin Shi Huang as emphasising law and order, praising himself as a "sage ruler of benevolence and righteousness ... who cares for and pities the common people". While generally considered harsh by modern standards, Qin punishments were "not extraordinarily severe for their time". Though including mutilating punishments, recovered Qin law only mentioned nose cutting or foot amputation is three of four times. Heavy punishment most frequently consisted of hard labour. Those sentenced to hard labour generally performed public works inside the country, mainly in road and canal construction.
Punishment often went unenforced. Criminals were sometimes given amnesties, only incurring punishment upon recidivism, and were often pardoned in exchange for fines, labour, or a demotion in aristocratic rank, even for capital offences. While The Book of Lord Shang recommended harsh punishments, it also "laments" insufficient population for its territories, and the Qin attempted to limit emigration out of the country. Rather than physically punish criminals, they were frequently resettled in frontier colonies. Those sentenced to hard labour were sometimes sent to join frontier defences if given amnesty. Men in the colonies sentenced to death were then recruited for expeditionary armies.
The Han-era writer Dong Zhongshu (179–104 BC) considered Qin officials and taxes severe, but did not characterise punishments as such; in fact, Dong criticised the Qin system for its inability to punish criminals; though exile as a heavy punishment in China dates to at least the Spring and Autumn period.
During the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, Han dynasty scholars began portraying the Qin as a monolithic, legalist tyranny, often invoked as an example of bad governance in contemporary debates about imperial policy. In particular, purges in 213 and 212 BC collectively known as the burning of books and burying of scholars are frequently cited to this end; however, the earliest account of these events is contained in the Shiji (), and its veracity is disputed by some modern scholars. The Qin were deliberately contrasted with what was characterised as the virtuous rule of the Han. However, the Han essentially inherited the administrative state built by the Qin, including the household registration system. Owing to this continuity, medieval and modern historians have often grouped the Qin and Han together, with the establishment of the Han treated "mainly as a change in ruling houses rather than a system or method of rule".
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