🐉Qin Shi Huang
Original nameYing Zheng
The First Emperor in Chinese History, Founder of the Qin Dynasty That Unified the Six States
Those Who First Drew the Borders on the Map · Founders of Civilizations
The Qin DynastyOne Script, One TrackThe Great Wall
Who they are
Qin Shi Huang (reigned 259–210 BC) was originally Ying Zheng, ruler of the state of Qin in the Warring States period, who through a series of military conquests destroyed the six states of Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan, and Qi in turn, achieving in 221 BC the first true grand unification in Chinese history, styling himself "Emperor" and founding the tradition of Chinese imperial rule that would endure for over two thousand years. He carried out the standardizing policy of "the same script, the same cart-track, the same weights and measures," and linked and integrated the walls the various Warring States had built separately into the "Great Wall" defensive system, while governing by Legalist thought with harsh methods; the "burning of books and burying of scholars" long saddled him in the traditional Confucian view of history with the reputation of a tyrant. The Terracotta Army pits of his mausoleum, discovered in 1974, astonished the world of archaeology with an army array of thousands of life-sized clay figures of differing facial features, hailed as "the eighth wonder of the world."
Primary sourcesSima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian, "Basic Annals of Qin Shi Huang"The archaeological discovery of the Terracotta ArmyThe Shuihudi Qin bamboo slips
Key stories
Unifying the Six States, One Script and One Track
Qin Shi Huang, adopting the schemes of Li Si and others, destroyed the six states one by one over ten years, achieving an unprecedented grand unification. He then carried out a series of standardizing measures — unifying the script, the currency, weights and measures, and the width of cart-tracks — greatly advancing administrative efficiency and economic and cultural exchange across the vast territory; this integrating policy of "the same script, the same cart-track" is an important institutional basis for China maintaining a unified structure for over two thousand years after.
The Terracotta Army
In 1974 farmers digging a well at Lintong in Shaanxi accidentally discovered the Terracotta Army pits near Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum, and archaeological excavation thereafter unearthed thousands of clay figures, each life-sized and each different in facial expression and armor detail, arrayed in orderly military formation guarding the imperial tomb; the fineness of their craft and the grandeur of their scale astonished the world, and they were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1987.
Version differences
On the exact scale and nature of Qin Shi Huang’s "burning of books and burying of scholars," there is some divergence between the traditional histories and modern archaeology and the reexamination of some scholars; some scholars hold that the target of the "burying of scholars" may have been mainly the magicians rather than the Confucians, the details still under scholarly discussion.
Echoes today
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
The Terracotta ArmyThe army array of thousands of life-sized clay figures buried with Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum, excavated in 1974, is one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century, and now the most internationally recognizable symbol of Chinese cultural heritage.