Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang conquered the warring states, founded the first unified Chinese empire in 221 BC, and gave the country the administrative shape it has broadly kept ever since. Born Ying Zheng in 259 BC, a prince of Qin raised partly as a hostage in Zhao, he took the throne of Qin at thirteen under a regency and assumed personal rule at about twenty-two, suppressing a coup. Between 230 and 221 BC his armies destroyed the six rival states. He then declared himself First Emperor, coining a new title that combined the words for the mythical sovereigns and divine rulers. The reforms were radical and immediate. He abolished the hereditary fiefs and divided the empire into thirty-six commanderies run by appointed officials who could be dismissed — the beginning of the Chinese bureaucratic state. He standardised the script, weights, measures, currency and even axle widths, so that carts fit the same ruts across the empire. He built a road network and a canal linking the Yangtze and Pearl river systems. He connected and extended the northern walls against the Xiongnu, using conscripted labour that died in large numbers, producing the ancestor of the Great Wall. His rule was harsh in the Legalist manner, holding that people are governed by reward and punishment alone. Tradition records the burning of books and the burial alive of scholars in 213-212 BC, though the scale is disputed. He sought immortality, sending expeditions for an elixir, and may have died of mercury poisoning from the preparations taken for it, in 210 BC. His tomb near Xi'an is guarded by the terracotta army, some 8,000 figures found in 1974. The dynasty fell within four years.
- Lived: 259 BCE – 210 BCE
- Nationality: Chinese
- Roles: emperor
