The Qin Dynasty

The Qin Dynasty

The Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC) was the first unified dynasty in Chinese history developed from the Qin State in the Warring States period. Dafei, the ancestor of the Qin people, was a descendant of SHAOHAO, the son of the Yellow Emperor. Shun gave him the surname Ying. During the reign of Duke mu of Qin Dynasty, he was able to use his talents, accept admonition with an open mind, destroy the country for 12 years, open the land for thousands of miles, and make the country prosperous day by day. In 361 B.C., Qin Xiaogong succeeded to the throne and made two reforms by Shang Yang, which led to the economic development of Qin state, the continuous strengthening of military combat effectiveness, and the development of Qin state into the most prosperous and powerful vassal state in the late Warring States period.

Ying Zheng, the king of Qin, successively destroyed Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan and Qi, and completed the great cause of unification. In 221 B.C., Ying Zheng became emperor and was known as "Qin Shihuang" in history. In the Qin Dynasty, three governors and nine ministers were set up in the central government to manage state affairs; in the local government, the system of enfeoffment was abolished and the system of prefectures and counties was replaced; and the system of unified weights and measures was carried out. They attacked Xiongnu in the north, conquered Baiyue in the south, built the Great Wall to repel foreign enemies, and dug Lingqu to connect the water system.

The establishment of the centralized system laid the foundation for the basic pattern of China's political system for more than 2000 years, and laid the foundation for the rule of China's unified dynasty. Therefore, it is called "the political and legal system of the Qin Dynasty for all generations". The Qin Dynasty ended the separatist situation of the princes in the past 500 years since the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, and became the first centralized country in Chinese history. It has a profound influence on Chinese history.

In 210 years ago, the first emperor of Qin died of disease in the sand dunes (now Guangzong County, Hebei Province) during his tour. His son Hu Hai ascended the throne as the second emperor of Qin Dynasty. Although the Qin Dynasty had great influence in history, it abused the people's power and unified for only 15 years. In 209 B.C., Chen Sheng and Wu Guang cut wood to fight against the Qin Dynasty. In 207 BC, the Qin Dynasty perished.

National name

The national name of Qin Dynasty comes from the place name. According to the records of the historian, the ancestors of Qin Dynasty were gaotao and Boyi (Boyi), who were descendants of SHAOHAO, the ancient tribal leader. They were surnamed Ying.

As for King Mu of Zhou, his father was king Yu of Zhou, who calmed down the rebellion of Xu state for thousands of miles and was granted the title of Zhao City. His clan was Zhao family (in the pre Qin period, "surname" only means the source, mostly used for sacrifice, used for women's appellation, while "surname" means a branch of the family, used for men's appellation). The surname Ying was prosperous, so "Zhao" was also one of the pronouns of Qin Dynasty.

The early Qin people were granted the title of Qin by King Xiao of Zhou for their meritorious service in raising horses for the royal family of Zhou. During the period of king you of Zhou, Hourong invaded the capital of ho. Because of his contributions to defending the royal family of Zhou, Xianggong of Qin was officially granted the title of vassal state, and Qin became the name of the state. Before the first emperor of Qin unified China, Qin was just a title of vassal state. After the unification, the name of vassal state became the title of Dynasty in China. Because the ruler's surname is Ying, it is also called Ying Qin.

history

The rise of Qin State

The Qin people are a branch of the Chinese (Han) who moved to the West. During the period of emperor Xiaogong of Qin, he ordered the people to seek virtue and issued the order of seeking virtue to the whole world: "if there are guests and officials who can plan to strengthen Qin, I will respect the officials and divide the land with them."

Shang Yang, a Wei man, ran from the state of Wei to Liyang, the capital of Qin. He helped Qin Xiaogong carry out reform and reform, and moved his capital to Xianyang (now Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province). Under the recommendation of King Jian, the Minister of filial piety, Shang Yang presented a set of reform plan of "following the name and being responsible for the truth, and punishing those who believe in rewards". Qin Xiaogong was greatly praised and determined to carry out the reform.

The core ideas of Shang Yang's reform are: severe punishment, weakening the people, restraining business and banning travel. It quickly made the state of Qin from a humble and weak country in the west to a powerful military country with "the son of heaven sent him" and "the princes Behe".

In the short period of more than ten years of Shang Yang's reform, the state of Qin was well governed, without any trace, without thieves in the mountains, and with enough money and people. All the people of Qin were "brave in public battles but afraid of private fights", and they were happy when they heard about the wars. Even the emperor of Zhou also gave gifts to Xiaogong, and granted him the title of "Fang Bo" (the leader of the princes). Many countries came to congratulate him, and Qin became the most prosperous country at that time.

The reform presided over by Shang Yang is the most comprehensive, systematic and thorough in all countries. Since Shang Yang carried out the policy of awarding military merit (military merit conferring system), the army of Qin became more and more brave. Weapons and equipment are constantly improving. There are three kinds of arms: walking, riding and riding. When the number of troops was large, it reached "one million with armour, one thousand with chariots and ten thousand on horseback". Then there appeared Wei Liaozi, Bai Qi, Wang Jian, Meng Tian and other famous military strategists and generals.

It made the state of Qin quickly become the strongest in the Warring States period, took an important step in the rise of the Qin Dynasty, and gradually made the state of Qin become the central force to realize China's reunification.

Attack and destroy the six countries

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Qin Dynasty's war against the six Kingdoms

In the 17th year of the reign of the king of Qin (230 BC), South Korean general Nei shiteng led the Qin army to destroy South Korea, captured Han Wang'an, and Han died. The land acquired was set up in Yingchuan county.

In the 19th year of the reign of the king of Qin (228 BC), Wang Jian, a general of the state of Qin, invaded Handan, the capital of Zhao state. Zhao Wang Qian was forced to surrender to Qin, Zhao Po, and set up Handan County, Julu County, and Taiyuan county. Prince Jia of Zhao led a hundred people of his clan to escape to Daicheng.

In 227 BC, Prince Dan of Yan sent Jing Ke and Qin Wuyang to assassinate the king of Qin. The king of Qin immediately sent Wang Jian to lead the attack on Yan.

In the 21th year of the reign of the king of Qin (226 BC), Wang Jian conquered the Yandu thistle, and the king of Yan Xi retreated to Liaodong and killed taizidian for peace.

In the 22nd year of the reign of the king of Qin (225 BC), Wang Ben, the son of Wang Jian of the Qin army, led 100000 troops to attack the state of Wei, encircling Daliang, the capital of Wei, and diverting water from the Yellow River gap to irrigate Daliang. Three months later, the city of Daliang was broken, the king of Wei surrendered and Wei died. In the same year, Wang Jian led 600000 troops to attack the state of Chu. He stationed troops to practice martial arts. He did not fight against the wall and waited for work with ease.

In 224 BC, Wang Jian led 600000 troops across the huaishui River and besieged Shouchun, the capital of Chu state.

In the 24th year of the reign of the king of Qin (223 BC), the Chu army was demoralized and lacked food and grass, so it withdrew from the front line. Wang Jian took the opportunity to pursue and destroy the main force of Chu army, occupied Shouchun, the capital of Chu, and captured the king of Chu. The people of Chu established emperor Changping as king. Wang Jian led his troops across the Yangtze River, calmed the south of the Yangtze River, set up Kuaiji Prefecture, and killed Chu.

In the 25th year of the reign of the king of Qin (222 BC), Wang Ben defeated Liaodong and captured King Xi of Yan; then he defeated Daicheng and captured Wang Jia of Zhao. Yan and Zhao completely perished, and the first emperor of Qin set up Yanmen County in the dynasty.

In the 26th year of the reign of the king of Qin (221 BC), Wang Ben led his army to attack the state of Qi. The king of Qi fell without fighting, and Qi died.

At this point, Qin destroyed the six states and ruled the country. At that time, the state of Wei existed as a vassal, which was abolished in 209 BC.

At this point, the feudalism of the feudal state was over, and the autocratic centralization of the Han nationality began to unify the country. This is a special great event in ancient history. As a unified dynasty, a highly centralized centralized political system was established in the vast ruling area, "the same amount of instruments, the same writing."

severe law

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Tyranny

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The change of sand dunes

The impact of the long-term separatist situation made Qin Shihuang very concerned about the movement of the old land of the six countries and worried that the old nobles of the six countries were plotting to restore. In order to prevent the reappearance of the separatist regime, the first emperor of Qin moved 120000 families of the rich and powerful families of the six countries to Xianyang, and the other part to Bashu, Nanyang, Sanchuan and Zhaodi, so that they could be separated from their native land for surveillance.

He destroyed the seized and confiscated weapons and cast twelve bronze men in Xianyang. He also ordered that "the city should be destroyed, the river should be opened up for defense, and the dangerous obstacles should be removed", so as to eliminate as much as possible the means by which the feudal nobles were separated from each other.

In order to control the vast territory, especially the old territory of the six countries, Qin Shihuang also built a Chi road from Xianyang, the capital, to all parts of the country. He traveled along Chi road many times and carved stones in many places to show his strength.

In order to strengthen the defense of the north, in the 35th year of the first emperor of Qin Dynasty (212 BC), a straight road was built from Xianyang to Yunyang (now the northwest of Chunhua in Shaanxi Province) and to Jiuyuan (now the west of Baotou in Inner Mongolia). In Southwest China, wuchidao was built from the south of Yibin, Sichuan to Zhaotong, Yunnan.

In the ten years after the unification of Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang maintained a huge army, established a huge bureaucracy, carried out many large-scale wars, and completed huge national defense construction and civil construction. It is estimated that at that time, the population of the whole country was about 10 million, and more than 2 million people served in the army, accounting for more than one third of the young men.

Qin Shihuang took the advice of Zhao Tuo and others to move 500000 Qin people from Guanzhong to Lingnan, but this led to the emptiness of Guanzhong and greatly shaken the foundation of Qin's rule.

Qin * Ershi period, farmers living miserable, wearing a cow and horse clothes, eating dog food, often forced by the cruel officials to run away in the mountains and forests, riots. This kind of situation shows that the urgent and tyrannical government intensified the social contradictions, and at the same time, the first emperor of Qin completed the cause of unification, it also caused the collapse of the Qin Dynasty.

So Jia Shan in the Western Han Dynasty talked about the Qin Dynasty's situation of "mass robberies all over the mountain" and said: when Qin Shihuang was alive, his rule was collapsing, but because the emperor and the founding ministers were suppressing, no one dared to fight against the government.

Go to the end

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Peasant war at the end of Qin Dynasty

In 209 BC, Qin II Hu Hai ascended the throne. He further aggravated the exploitation and oppression of the peasants, taking "those who pay taxes deeply as Ming officials" and "those who kill people as loyal officials".

He ordered the peasants to increase the amount of millet and cugao, provide their own grain, and transport it to Xianyang for the needs of officials, the army, even dogs, horses, animals. He continued to build Afang palace and sent people to garrison far away. The objects of corvee collection and distribution were further expanded, the hardship of peasants reached the extreme, and the large-scale peasant uprising was imminent.

When the peasants were brewing anti Qin, the remaining forces of the old aristocracy of the six countries were waiting for the opportunity to carry out separatist activities. In the 36th year of the first emperor of Qin Dynasty (211 BC), the inscription "the first emperor died and divided" appeared in Dongjun, which is a sign of this separatist activity.

The first year of Qin II (A.D

Chinese PinYin : Qin Chao