Xianyang

Qin Shi Huangdi, the first Qin emperor, envisioned a central bureaucratic structure headed by royalty to rule China under his name. Though it came at the severe cost of public sentiment, Qin was an extremely proactive emperor who implemented much of what he had envisioned before. It’s agreed upon that the Qin Dynasty laid the foundation for the massive cultural and economic development of China that took place during the Han Dynasty. Although the Qin Dynasty is easily considered among the most influential time periods in Chinese history, it actually failed to achieve many of its ideological goals. In fact, socioeconomic disparity was not eliminated and despite the ideal of enriching the lives of the common people, it was under Qin rule in which public resentment of the authoritarian government was at its peak as there were countless peasant revolts against the bureaucratic rule of China. Within the bureaucracy itself, the emperor alone wielded substantial political clout. Although the Communist regime in post World War II China is widely recognized as a nation that had a discrepancy between ideology and state, the Qin Dynasty is seldom considered to have a similar outcome. The failure of the flawless egalitarian state in socio-economic facets of living standards and equitability as well as political aspects during the Qin Dynasty mirrors the developments of early Communist China. Among the key aspects of the Qin unification was the act of completely clearing all local…

It can be as small as just one house. Such as building homes underground to “reduce heating and cooling costs”. It has also been used on a very large scale: “Direct-use of geothermal has gained much more traction in China. One of its biggest success stories is the city of Xianyang in Shaanxi province, known as China’s “Geothermal Energy City”. Xianyang began development its hot water resources with temperatures ranging from 55-120 degrees Celsius in the 1990’s, and now has 30 wells used for…

and deserts presented both positive and negative effects to human existence. Ancient China was located in the eastern part of Asia. As time went on, China expanded its borders to the north, south, and west. Today, China itself covers one-third of the continent of Asia. It is the third largest country in the world. China also has the world’s largest population. China shares borders with fourteen other countries. Major cities, which developed and grew along the Huang He, Chang Jiang, Wei and Luo…

the two groups was intensifying. At this time, the Yin Shang was being ruled by King Zhou, who was terrible to his people and because of this caused them to be very angry at him. Chief of the Zhou tribe, Wenwang, thought it was the right time to attack and overtake the Yin. Wenwang trusted his son, Wuwang to be a good king after he died and they made a plan to take over China. The Qin Dynasty lasted from 221 -206 BC, with the two emperors being Yingzheng and Qin Shi Huang When Yingzheng was…

platforms and many-pillared audience halls at their centers. Clay bricks that were previously used for construction was replaced by stone from Elam columns, cedar timber from Lebanon for the roofs, gold from Lydia and Bactria, turquoise from central Asia, silver and ebony from Egypt, and ivory from Nubia to create ornate structures that were meant to awe audiences. (TimeMaps, n.d.) Qin Shihuangdi was the first emperor in early Chinese history to unify China and centralize their government. His…

state, Lewis explains“Many of these innovations also gave a tangible form to the new office of emperor, and conveyed a sense that the ruler and his government must be obeyed”. The impact of that is exponential as it essentially strengthening his mandate of heaven and therefore his authority to rule. This allowed Huangdi to take bolder steps in his unification movement with the people's consent. A critical part of Huangdi’s centralization campaign, was his use of infrastructure. Huangdi employed…

divided the Chinese heartland into distinct regions”. Lewis continues on to explain that these major regional divisions provided the basis of the Warring States, because they divided China and one centralized government had difficulty uniting the people past the massive divide in distance and culture the geography created. This meant that in order to keep his emperor Huangdi had to physically unify it. Huangdi’ physically unified China through his use of infrastructure. Huangdi employed…

This style of governing harshly punished people and ignited fear within the population. Legalism in the Qin dynasty placed all power on the law, and because the emperor was in charge of enforcing the law, all of the power was in his hands, resulting in a totalitarian regime that was very unpopular with the Chinese people (Legalism). Shi Huangdi moved all of the formerly powerful nobles to the capital city of Xianyang, ensuring that he could watch everything to prevent revolt (British Museum).…

huangdi, a dynasty that would reach to the end of time, just as his realm reached to the limits of space” (Lewis 52). Although the Qin dynasty fell in the midst of the Second Qin Emperor’s reign and the First Emperor proved not to be the progenitor of an endless dynasty, the title of huangdi remained in use by Chinese rulers until AD 1911 (Wood 26). The First Emperor defined what it meant to be huangdi, what it meant to be a Chinese Emperor. He set precedents for the position of the emperor that…