Qin Shihuangdi (259–210 BC), an important figure in the history of ancient China, was the emperor who united the country for the first time and began building the Great Wall. He was also a legendary tyrant who buried his enemies alive—all in the name of bringing order and stability to China after centuries of civil war.
At the time of the emperor’s birth, China was emerging from an era called the warring states period, when regional warlords had battled for control. Qin Shihuangdi was the heir to one of the seven kingdoms, the Qin state. He became king of Qin in 246 BC, at age thirteen.
By 221 BC, the king had defeated the last independent rival state and proclaimed himself the first emperor of China. He moved aggressively to centralize control over the empire by abolishing all vestiges of the old feudal states, confiscating weapons from nobles, and dismantling fortifications within his lands. He also standardized the currency and legal systems across China.
To prevent any possible opponents from emerging, Qin Shihuangdi banned Confucianism, which he saw as a troublesome source of dissent, and ordered scholars to be buried alive. He also embarked on a massive campaign to burn classic books, an act of cultural destruction that has long defined his reign.
Thousands of laborers are thought to have died while building the Great Wall because of the poor working conditions, and many others perished while constructing Qin Shihuangdi’s other ambitious projects. The emperor himself survived at least three assassination attempts organized by allies of one of the defeated rival states.
After Qin Shihuangdi’s death, many of his laws, including the prohibition of Confucianism, were repealed. But while the Qin dynasty itself was short-lived, the emperorship Qin Shihuangdi established would last for more than 2,000 years after his death.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- In 1974, farmers in central China accidentally unearthed a field full of thousands of statues of soldiers, horses, chariots, and musicians. Archaeologists believe that the so-called Terra-Cotta Army was part of the burial site of Qin Shihuangdi and that the statues were intended to accompany the emperor into the afterlife. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization declared the statues’ location a World Heritage site in 1987.
- The Great Wall was renovated and expanded by later emperors, and few of the original fortifications built by Qin Shihuangdi remain. Chinese armies continued to use the wall for military purposes into the seventeenth century.
- The tale of one of the assassination attempts against the emperor was made into a 2002 movie, Hero, starring Jet Li (1963–), which was released in the United States in 2004.
