A short dynasty with a long shadow
The Qin dynasty ruled a unified China for only about fifteen years, from 221 to 206 BCE. Yet the basic pattern of imperial government that lasted until 1912 traces back to what Qin began, and the name “China” in many languages is often, though not universally, linked to Qin. The dynasty is a case study in how quickly a state can change a society, and how much resentment fast change can create.
The Qin state had grown strong during the Warring States period in the west of China. Between 230 and 221 BCE it conquered the six remaining rival states. Its king, Ying Zheng, then took a new title, Shi Huangdi, meaning First Emperor. Almost everything we know about his reign comes from later Han-dynasty writers, above all Sima Qian, who disliked the Qin and wrote about 100 years after it ended. This means that harsh stories about the dynasty should be read with some caution, although archaeology, including bamboo legal texts from Qin tombs, supports the broad picture of a strict, highly organised state.
Legalism as a system of government
Qin government drew on a school of thought called Legalism. Its core idea was that a state should be governed by clear, public laws with fixed rewards and punishments, applied equally in principle, rather than by the personal virtue of rulers that Confucians stressed. The ground had been laid by reforms made in Qin in the 4th century BCE under the minister Shang Yang, and the First Emperor’s chief minister, Li Si, carried the approach into the new empire.
Several features stand out.
- Commanderies and counties. The empire was divided into administrative units run by officials appointed by the centre, replacing the earlier system of hereditary lords.
- Merit and records. Officials were expected to follow detailed regulations, and bamboo strips found in tombs show the kind of rules that governed farming, storage, labour and punishment.
- Harsh penalties. The law prescribed severe punishments, including forced labour and mutilation, and required people to report others’ crimes.
Legalist methods made the state effective at raising taxes, soldiers and labourers. They also made it feared.
Standardisation across a new empire
The Qin’s most lasting practical achievement was standardisation. Before unification each state had its own systems, and trade and administration across the new territory needed common rules. The principal measures were:
- Weights and measures. Standard units of length, volume and weight were imposed, and official standards were issued for use across the empire. Surviving weights and measures bear inscriptions of the imperial edict, and the Qin standardised measures are a good example of how unification worked in practice.
- Currency. A round bronze coin with a square hole replaced the many regional forms of money, and it remained the basic shape of Chinese coinage for a very long time.
- Script. A simplified, regular form of writing, usually called small seal script, was promoted for official use. Li Si is traditionally credited with the reform. This is a step in the longer calligraphy scripts evolution, and it made communication across regions with different spoken dialects easier.
- Axle widths. Cart wheel tracks were standardised, which helped on the road network.
Roads and canals were part of the same drive for integration. The Qin built wide imperial highways radiating from the capital, and a canal in the south, the Lingqu, linked river systems to support armies. The scale invites comparison with the Roman road travel network in the west, though the two empires were separate and the details are different.
Walls, mausoleum and labour
The First Emperor also ordered monumental projects. Some northern defensive walls were linked and extended, an effort against the steppe peoples to the north, as part of the early wall building that predated the later Great Wall. He began a massive tomb complex near modern Xi’an, whose guardians are the soldiers of the Terracotta Army discovery of 1974. Ancient accounts say hundreds of thousands of workers took part in these projects, and although the numbers are probably exaggerated, the demands on the population were certainly heavy.
Tradition also holds that in 213 BCE the emperor ordered many books burned and in 212 BCE buried scholars alive. The core of these accounts is that the court suppressed texts and critics that challenged Legalist orthodoxy. Historians debate how widespread the destruction was and how many scholars were killed, because the main sources were written by hostile later authors.
Why the dynasty collapsed
The First Emperor died in 210 BCE while on a tour of the empire. According to Sima Qian, the chief eunuch Zhao Gao and Li Si concealed the death and altered the succession, putting a younger son, Huhai, on the throne as the Second Emperor. Whether every detail is accurate is uncertain, but it is clear that succession was handled badly.
In 209 BCE a group of conscripts, led by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, were delayed by weather and faced execution under Qin law for lateness. They chose rebellion instead. The uprising spread rapidly, drawing in nobles from the old states and ordinary peasants alike. The Second Emperor was forced to suicide in 207 BCE, and the last Qin ruler, Ziying, surrendered to the rebel leader Liu Bang in 206 BCE. After a few years of war between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, Liu Bang founded the Han dynasty in 202 BCE.
Historians usually point to a combination of causes: very heavy demands on labour and soldiers, severe punishments, a succession crisis, and the fact that the old aristocracies of the conquered states had not accepted the new order. A strict system worked while a strong ruler held it together, but it lacked flexibility once the centre was weak.
What survived
The Han kept most of the Qin’s administrative machinery, softening its harshest laws and adding a Confucian outlook to the ideology of rule. The Han dynasty rise therefore built on Qin foundations while claiming to correct its faults. Standard measures, the commandery system, a single written script and the idea of one emperor ruling a unified land all outlasted the dynasty that created them. The Qin was brief, but the empire it imagined became the model for later ages.