The First Emperor And His Terra-cotta Army
The First Emperor here refers to the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty. There had been emperors in China before him, but the governments headed by those earlier emperors were, for the most part, loosely organized unions of kingdoms. It was under the First Emperor of Qin that China was truly unified and centralized, which was a critical event in the development of the Chinese civilization.
The man who would become the First Emperor of Qin was Yingzheng, born in 260 B.C., during the period in Chinese history known as Warring States, when seven regional powers fought one another for supremacy in China. As a boy, Yingzheng, along with his father who was the king of Qin, were held as political hostages in an enemy state (coincidently, the father of Alexander the conqueror had a similar experience). Yingzheng assumed the Qin throne at the age of 13 and in the following years he engaged in constant struggle against the rival kingdoms. By 221 B.C. Qin had vanquished all the enemy states and took the whole of China under its control. Proudly Yingzheng declared himself the First Emperor of Qin Dynasty, assuming his descendants would carry on his imperial legacy forever.
While in power the First Emperor adopted many measures that helped him consolidate the political unification of China. During his reign, for instance, written Chinese was standardized, providing same scripts for Chinese from all parts of the country. Measurements of length, weight, as well as money were also unified and standardized, greatly helping trade and business in China. It was also under the First Emperor that some existing defense-systems of the Warring States were further expanded and turned into what came to be known as the Great Wall. All these and many other policies of the First Emperor contributed significantly to the survival of China as one unified country and civilization.
But of course the First Emperor took good care of himself too. Not only he lived a life of grandeur and luxury, he, like so many other powerful men in history, also aspired to continue it all in the other world. It was out of such desire that he ordered the construction of a massive tomb for himself, which, among other things, featured an underground army consisting of thousands of terra cotta soldiers, horses and chariots. The tomb, outside the modern-day city Xian, was discovered in the 1970s when some Chinese peasants were digging a well in the area, and has since become one of China¡¯s best-known archeological and tourist sites.
As for the First Emperor himself, his hope that his dynasty would rule forever proved to be illusional. It seemed that he pushed his people too hard to realize all his ambitious goals. Discontents built up against his government. When he died in 210 B.C., his young son could not hang on to power. The Qin dynasty collapsed and gave way to a new dynasty, founded by a peasant rebel, which would rule China for about 400 years.
The reign of the Qin dynasty was brief, but its influence on Chinese history was tremendous. In fact, it has been suggested that the English name China originally derived from the term Qin.
You may go here to view a pictures of the First Emperor.
Or go here to view pictures of the First Emperor and his mausoleum with the terra cotta army.
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