Qin Unification of China (221 BC): The Birth of an Empire

The Qin unification of China was the conquest of the six rival Warring States by the kingdom of Qin between 230 and 221 BC, which created the first centralised empire in Chinese history. Its ruler, King Zheng, took the title of emperor and became known as Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor. Although his dynasty collapsed soon after his death, the system he built, with standard laws, script, coins and appointed officials, shaped Chinese government for more than two thousand years.

A divided world: the Warring States

For more than two centuries before 221 BC, the lands of northern and central China were divided among competing kingdoms, a time known as the Warring States period. The old Zhou royal house had lost all real power, and seven major states, Qin, Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan and Qi, fought for supremacy with ever larger armies.

Qin, in the Wei River valley of the far west, had once been seen as a semi-barbarian border state. In the 4th century BC the reforms of Shang Yang transformed it. Hereditary nobles lost privileges, farmers were registered in households, ranks and rewards were linked to service in war, and harsh, uniform laws were applied across the state. Qin also opened up new farmland and later built major irrigation works, giving it a strong economic base.

By the mid-3rd century BC Qin had seized much territory from its neighbours. Its crushing victory over Zhao at Changping in 260 BC removed the last rival able to face it on equal terms.

King Zheng and his court

Ying Zheng was born in 259 BC in Handan, the capital of Zhao, where his father was a Qin hostage. He became King of Qin in 246 BC at the age of 13. At first real power lay with the chancellor Lü Buwei, a wealthy merchant who had helped Zheng’s father to the throne.

In 238 BC, as the king came of age, he crushed a revolt led by Lao Ai, a favourite of the queen mother. Lü Buwei, implicated in the scandal, was dismissed in 237 BC and took his own life in 235 BC. From then on Zheng ruled directly, relying on a talented group of advisers and generals. The most important was Li Si, a former student of the philosopher Xunzi, who rose to become chancellor. Generals such as Wang Jian and his son Wang Ben led the decisive campaigns.

The conquest of the six states, 230–221 BC

Qin’s final wars combined military pressure with diplomacy and bribery. Sima Qian reports that Qin spent heavily to corrupt ministers in rival courts and to turn rulers against their best commanders.

Han (230 BC). The weakest state, Han, was the first to fall. Qin forces captured King An, and Han’s lands became a Qin commandery.

Zhao (228 BC). Zhao’s general Li Mu held off Qin until 229 BC, when the Zhao king, influenced by a minister said to have been bribed by Qin, had him removed and killed. Wang Jian then took Handan in 228 BC and captured the King of Zhao. A Zhao prince continued to rule a small state at Dai in the north until 222 BC.

Yan (226–222 BC). In 227 BC Prince Dan of Yan sent Jing Ke to assassinate King Zheng. The attempt failed, and Qin invaded, capturing the Yan capital, Ji, in 226 BC. The King of Yan fled to Liaodong, where he was captured in 222 BC.

Wei (225 BC). Wang Ben besieged the Wei capital, Daliang, and broke its defences by diverting water from the Yellow River and nearby canals to flood the city. The King of Wei surrendered.

Chu (223 BC). The large southern state of Chu was the toughest opponent. A first Qin army of around 200,000 men under Li Xin was defeated. The king then turned to the veteran Wang Jian, who demanded about 600,000 men. After a long, patient campaign, Wang Jian defeated the Chu general Xiang Yan, and in 223 BC Qin captured the King of Chu. Fighting in the far south continued into 222 BC.

Qi (221 BC). The last independent state, Qi, in the east, had long stayed out of the alliances against Qin. In 221 BC Wang Ben marched south from the conquered Yan lands, and the King of Qi surrendered without a major battle. All of the former Warring States were now under one ruler.

A new title and a new state

King Zheng declared that his achievements surpassed those of any earlier ruler. After discussion with his ministers, he adopted a new title, huangdi, combining words for the legendary sage-rulers of antiquity. Usually translated as “emperor”, it remained the title of Chinese rulers until 1912. He called himself Shi Huangdi, the First Emperor, and decreed that his successors would be numbered Second, Third and so on, for ten thousand generations.

The most important decision concerned how to govern the conquered lands. Some ministers proposed that the emperor’s sons should rule as kings over the distant regions, as in the old Zhou system. Li Si argued that such kingdoms would soon fight each other again. The emperor agreed with him. The empire was divided into 36 commanderies (jun), each subdivided into counties and run by officials appointed and paid by the central government, who could be moved or dismissed. This system of centrally appointed administration became the foundation of the later Chinese state.

The emperor also took steps to prevent revolt. Weapons from across the empire were collected at Xianyang and melted down, and Sima Qian says they were cast into bells and twelve colossal bronze statues. Some 120,000 powerful families from the conquered states were moved to the capital, where they could be watched.

Standardising an empire

The best-known reforms of the Qin aimed to make the empire uniform. Sima Qian sums them up in a famous line: the emperor unified laws and standards, weights and measures, the axle width of carts, and the written script.

Script. Each state had developed its own variants of Chinese characters. Under Li Si’s direction, a standard form known as small seal script was promoted for official use, while a simpler clerical script was spreading for everyday administration. Variant forms used in other states were discarded. This unified writing became one of the strongest bonds holding China together, since people who spoke very different dialects could read the same texts.

Weights and measures. Standard units of length, capacity and weight, based on Qin’s own system, were imposed everywhere. Official bronze and iron weights and measures were inscribed with the emperor’s edict of 221 BC announcing the standards; many survive in museums today.

Coins. The varied coinages of the former states, which included knife- and spade-shaped money, were replaced by the round bronze Qin coin with a square hole, the banliang, with gold used for larger payments. The round coin with a square hole remained the basic shape of Chinese coins until the early 20th century.

Roads and carts. A standard axle width allowed carts to travel in the same ruts across the empire. From 220 BC the government built a network of imperial highways radiating from the capital, later including the military Straight Road to the northern frontier.

Law and ideology. Qin’s detailed legal code, shaped by Legalist ideas, was extended to the whole empire. The emperor also adopted the theory of the Five Phases, declaring that Qin ruled by the power of water, with black as its colour and six as its number.

Building and controlling the empire

Unification was followed by huge state projects. The emperor made several inspection tours of his new realm, setting up stone inscriptions praising his achievements. In 215 BC the general Meng Tian led a large army against the Xiongnu nomads in the north and linked earlier defensive walls into a long frontier line, a forerunner of the later Great Wall. In the south, Qin armies pushed into the region of modern Guangdong and Guangxi, supported by the Lingqu Canal, and new commanderies were added.

The cost in labour was immense. Hundreds of thousands of conscripts worked on walls, roads, palaces and the emperor’s tomb with its Terracotta Army. The government also sought to control ideas. In 213 BC, on Li Si’s advice, it ordered the burning of books such as historical records of other states and works of philosophy held privately, with exceptions for practical subjects like medicine, divination and farming.

Collapse and legacy

Qin Shi Huang died in 210 BC while on tour in the east. A succession plot placed his younger son on the throne as the Second Emperor. Within a year, in 209 BC, a revolt led by the conscripts Chen Sheng and Wu Guang set off widespread rebellion. In 207 BC the last Qin ruler, Ziying, surrendered to the rebel leader Liu Bang, who in 202 BC became the first emperor of the Han dynasty.

The Qin dynasty lasted only about fifteen years as an empire, and later historians remembered it as harsh and oppressive. Yet the Han and later dynasties kept its essential achievements: a single ruler with the title of emperor, a bureaucracy of appointed officials, commanderies and counties, a standard script and a common currency. The idea that China should be one unified state, and that division was a temporary misfortune, also dates from this moment. Many scholars believe that the Western name “China” itself derives, through Sanskrit and Persian, from the name Qin, although this remains debated.

Timeline

• 259 BC: Ying Zheng is born in Handan, capital of Zhao.
• 246 BC: Ying Zheng becomes King of Qin at the age of 13.
• 238–237 BC: Zheng crushes Lao Ai’s revolt and dismisses the chancellor Lü Buwei.
• 230 BC: Qin conquers Han.
• 228 BC: Qin captures Handan and the King of Zhao.
• 227 BC: Jing Ke’s assassination attempt fails.
• 225 BC: Qin floods Daliang and conquers Wei.
• 223 BC: Wang Jian defeats Chu and captures its king.
• 222 BC: Qin takes the last Yan and Zhao territories.
• 221 BC: Qi surrenders; King Zheng proclaims himself First Emperor and divides the empire into 36 commanderies.

Why it matters

The Qin unification created China as a single empire for the first time. Its centralised government, standard writing, money and measures provided a framework that later dynasties adapted and kept, making 221 BC one of the most important dates in the history of East Asia.