In 475 BC, beginning with the Warring States period, after more than 250 years of conquest, the princely states were finally broken by the Qin Kingdom, ending the long-term situation of the division of the princes and achieving unification.
Before the Qin Dynasty, the highest title of ruler in history was "King". During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the monarchs were called kings, and later the Zhou royal family gradually declined, and the kings of various princely states also became kings. Later, after about 10 years of conquest and annexation, the other six countries were defeated one after another and became prisoners. In the face of his great achievements, the King of Qin deeply felt that the title of "King" could not show his prominent position. Therefore, he ordered Wang Xie, Feng Hao, Li Si and others to consult with the doctors who were proficient in astronomical geography and the ancient and modern worlds, and discussed the emperor's name and passed it on to future generations.
After deliberation, the ministers decided to honor Yingzheng as "Emperor Qin", the emperor called himself Emperor Yuan, and the emperor's order was "Zhao". However, Yingzheng believed that the ancient emperor's title should be adopted, called "Emperor", and immediately controlled the world, in the system of fate, Yingzheng decided to call himself "First Emperor", and the successors to the throne in later generations were counted, that is, the second and third... Until all the ages, the transmission is endless. At this point, "Qin Shi Huang" became the title of Qin Wang Yingzheng, and the emperor also became the exclusive title of the supreme ruler of China's feudal society. Later, in order to deify the imperial power, Qin Shi Huang also stipulated the jade seal system. Written by him personally, written by Li Si, and then made by craftsmen, the jade seal is outlined with five dragons, four inches square, and engraved with the eight words "ordained by heaven, both Shou Yongchang", the jade seal, became a symbol of imperial power.
Subsequently, in order to strengthen the centralization of power, Qin Shi Huang reformed the original central and local management system, established three dukes and nine secretaries in the central government, and implemented the county system at the local level, and all officials were appointed by the emperor. The central administrative organ, headed by the Three Dukes and Nine Secretaries, was the core of the qin dynasty's feudal absolutist system and the supreme organ that absolutely obeyed the emperor's orders. All officials restrained each other and strengthened supervision, which played an auxiliary role in the rule of the Qin Dynasty, but the handling and decision of various political affairs depended entirely on the emperor, and even the chancellor had no right to decide.
In order to strengthen the imperial power, Qin Shi Huang strengthened his thought control. One of the most important measures is "book burning pit Confucianism";
In 213 BC, at a grand banquet held in the Xianyang Palace of Qin Shi Huang, a doctorAl Confucian raised the issue of the sub-feudal system used by the previous rulers to Qin Shi Huang and suggested that Qin Shi Huang follow the old system; but li Si, the minister at that time, believed that different eras should have different methods of ruling, and ridiculed these doctors and Confucian students for borrowing ancient metaphors to the present, which made the people's thinking confused and really pedantic. Therefore, Li Si proposed to Qin Shi Huang that all books outside the Qin Dynasty be burned. It also clearly stipulates that people under the world cannot hide "poems", "books", etc., and people in the world must not talk about "poems", "books", etc. According to Li Si's proposal, Qin Shi Huang ordered "book burning" throughout the country.
As early as 219 BC, when Qin Shi Huang was touring the east, he was seduced by Xu Fu, an alchemist of the State of Qi, who threw himself into his favor and told Qin Shi Huang that there was a Penglai Immortal Mountain in the East China Sea, and declared that as long as thousands of virgin boys and girls were selected, they could go into the sea to seek immortals and seek the art of immortality. The First Emperor believed it to be true and immediately did what Xu Fu said, but Xu Fu led the ship to cross and never returned.
With the completion of the great cause of unifying the world, Qin Shi Huang's desire to pray for eternal life became stronger and stronger.
Later, in 215 BC, Qin Shi Huang sent the alchemist Lu Sheng to look for immortals and immortal elixirs, but Lu Sheng also returned empty-handed and kept delaying under various pretexts. Later, Lu Sheng and others knew that they could not be deceived forever, so they began to spread rumors in four pieces, saying that the immortal medicine could not be sought because Qin Shi Huang was arbitrary and arrogant, and his personality was irritable. Qin Shi Huang waited for the immortal medicine for a long time, and his heart was suspicious, but he searched around for Lu Sheng and other people. However, the search for the elixir was already known to the whole world, and Lu Sheng's escape made the people all talk about it. After Qin Shi Huang found out, he expressed deep pain and anger at Lu Sheng's behavior, and vowed to pursue it to the end. So he ordered the interrogation of Confucians, and the men denounced each other, and a total of 460 people were found, all of whom were buried alive in Wengu, Lishan, outside Xianyang City. Therefore, in later generations, lishan Wengu was also called "Kengru Valley", and it is said that until now, all the soil in this place is still red.
Although Qin Shi Huang's "book burning pit Confucianism" strengthened ideological control, it was a serious destruction for Chinese culture, marking the arrival of feudal cultural absolutism.
The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were a period of rapid development of China's commodity economy, and the Qin State was to eliminate the other six countries to unify the world, but because the seven Warring States at that time were standing side by side for too long, there were great differences in writing, currency, weights and measures between countries. Therefore, after the Unification of the Six Kingdoms by the Qin Dynasty, in order to strengthen its rule and maintain its unity, it implemented measures to unify the writing, currency, and weights and measures; and the unification of writing, currency, and weights and measures has an important position in China's history and has become an important foundation for maintaining the unity of China's feudal state.
China is a multi-ethnic country, and there were many nationalities in the pre-Qin period. After the unification of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang attacked the Yue ethnic group in the south, attacked the Xiongnu in the north, and penetrated the southwest Yi, constantly expanding the territory and creating a unified multi-ethnic state. In order to consolidate the victory of the unification of the world, Qin Shi Huang sent Yu Shilu in 214 BC to dig the Ling Canal (located in Xing'an County, in present-day Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, so it is also known as the Xing'an Canal). The opening of the Spirit Canal has communicated the Yangtze River system and the Pearl River system, and solved the problems of grain and grass transportation. In 214 BC, in order to defend against the Xiongnu, Qin Shi Huang decided to continue to build the huge Great Wall, and Qin Shi Huang ordered that he had just recaptured "Henan" and Mengtian in Yuzhong and began to build the Great Wall along the Yellow River in the north. After hundreds of thousands of people working day and night, which lasted for several years, the Great Wall was finally built. The Great Wall of Qin is mainly composed of three sections. The northwestern section, in present-day Min County, Gansu, stretched east to Jiuyuan, which is the northwest of modern Baotou City. The northern section, which is now Wei County, Hebei. The northeast section, from Dai County to Liaodong Jieshi, has a total length of more than 5,000 kilometers.
The powerful Qin Dynasty was only a few decades from its establishment to its demise, and the fundamental reason for the demise of the Qin Dynasty was the tyranny of Qin Shi Huang, which was mainly reflected in both enlistment and punishment. The taxes of the Qin Dynasty can be divided into two types: field tax and mouth tax, according to the Han Dynasty Dong Zhongshu recorded, the Qin Dynasty taxation is "twenty times that of ancient times". In addition, during the Qin Dynasty, the general population began to serve from the age of 15 to the age of 60. In a lifetime, it must be positive for one year, tun shu for one year, and one more month per year. After Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, the nobles and people of the Six Kingdoms, especially the old nobles of the original Six Kingdoms, were particularly rebellious. In order to consolidate his rule, Qin Shi Huang adopted harsh methods of repression and began to impose severe punishments. There are many of them, with the death penalty, corporal punishment, imprisonment, and sitting together being the most violent. Moreover, the various punishments of the Qin Dynasty were mainly against peasants and slaves, and they were often punished with misdemeanors and heavy crimes. Its harshness is outrageous.
During the Qin Dynasty, the construction of palaces was continuously carried out, and the historical Afang Palace was the best of the Qin Dynasty. The scale of Afang Palace is huge, 500 steps from east to west, 50 zhang from north to south, the palace can accommodate tens of thousands of people, and its palace is so high that it can stand on a flagpole of 5 zhang. As a place for Qin Shi Huang to hold court meetings, celebrations, and discuss major state events, Afang Palace's design reflects the dignity of being an emperor. Qin Shi Huang not only enjoyed the glory and wealth of the world when he was alive, but also had to be poor and extravagant after his death, and built a large-scale mausoleum for himself in Lishan. When he first took the throne, he began to build a tomb for himself, after realizing the hegemony of unifying the world, he made hundreds of thousands of people continue to build, his mausoleum was more than 120 meters high, the circumference was 2167 meters, the mausoleum "wore three springs", the copper was under the coffin, all kinds of rare and rare utensils were hidden, and the craftsmen skillfully set up various organs, with mercury as a hundred rivers and seas, machine phase instilling, astronomy, geography, and mermaid paste as a candle, long-lasting. And in addition to the main body of the mausoleum, the burial project is huge, there are terracotta warriors and copper red horses, to this day, archaeologists have excavated 3 Qin terracotta pits, the unearthed terracotta warriors and horses are no different from life-size, vivid and vivid shape, by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a world cultural heritage.
In 210 BC, Qin Shi Huang fell ill and died in the Dune Palace during his last tour. According to historical records, during the period when Qin Shi Huang was critically ill, he left a testament to be given to Fusu, but the testament fell into the hands of Zhao Gao and Li Si, who decided not to mourn, and the only people who knew the news of Qin Shi Huang's death were Hu Hai, Zhao Gao, Li Si, and a few eunuchs around Qin Shi Huang. After several deliberations, several people decided to transport Qin Shi Huang's body back to Xianyang in a rutted car. It was July, the weather was hot, and in order to cover up the smell of corpses, a stone of abalone was loaded with the subsequent car, so. On the other hand, Li Si, Zhao Gao, and Hu Hai secretly colluded to tamper with the edict, made Hu Hai the crown prince, and killed Gongzi Fusu on trumped-up charges. Later, Hu Hai presided over the funeral of Qin Shi Huang in Xianyang as crown prince and inherited the throne, the "Qin II".
Qin Shi Huang lived for only 50 years, but his life was a legendary life, that is, the first emperor in the ages, who created China's first unified feudal absolutist multi-ethnic state, and unified writing, currency, weights and measures, etc., which had a far-reaching impact on future generations. On the other hand, it was another generation of tyrants, whose harsh tyranny in the later period led to the demise of Qin II.