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Military growth (338-250)
By
325, all major state rulers had taken the title of king, supposedly reserved
to the leader of the Chou, an indication of the difficult spot in which the
House of Chou found itself. It will finally be destroyed by Ch’in in 256.
Meanwhile, in Ch’in, the new office of chancellor was instituted.
Thanks
to its geographical position (the natural protection of the mountains on
its west flank), Ch’in could militarily gain new territories at a steady
pace during this century, while at the same time securing its own borders
and weakening its rivals by gaining new territories at his frontiers at
their expense. Those were thus forced into diplomatic activity, either to
withstand Ch’in’s advances or to cooperate with it. But the most impressive
figures reported regarding this period is the number of campaigns of Ch’in’s
army and the casualties (there would have been 1’489’000 killed in the
conflict during 130 years –a figure difficult to believe)
Final conquests and triumph (250-221)
Cheng
was the name of the first emperor of China. He was born in 259 and
first ruled as king, as it was the custom, until the unification in 221; it’s
during this period that emerged two major figures of Ch’in’s politics of
that time:
·
Lü Pu-Wei: His place of birth is
actually unknown, although it seems certain it wasn’t in Ch’in proper. He
became one of the richest merchants of his time, probably thanks to luxury
goods. He met and became friends with a relative of the heir apparent,
Tsu-ch’u, and succeeded then in convincing the heir to accept Tsu-ch’u as
his proper heir. The king of Ch’in died in 251 and the heir apparent a year
later, enabling his own heir to become king in turn until his death in 247.
At that time, his son, Cheng, succeeded him to the throne; it may well be
that he was indeed Lü Pu-Wei’s son, since his mother was Lü Pu-Wei’s
concubine until he agreed to give her to Tau-Chu although she was already
pregnant.
Lü Pu-Wei became then chancellor until
237 under Cheng’s rule. He was given a title and revenues, a unique fate
for a merchant in Chinese History. He also tried to gain prestige by
surrounding himself with gentlemen and scholars. His downfall came when he
resumed his relations with Cheng’s mother, the king banishing him when he
learned of it, and died during his march to exile.
·
Li SSu: Also a foreigner who arrived
in Ch’in in 247 after studying with the major Confucian thinkers of that
time; he first was a follower of Lü Pu-Wei, and thus gained access to the
king, whom he advised until 237 when a decree ordered the expulsion of all
foreigners for reasons still unclear to us. He persuaded the king to cancel
the decree thanks to the eloquence of a memorial he presented on the
question. From then on, he had a brilliant career till his death in 208,
short before the downfall of the Ch’in dynasty.
By
221, the armies of Ch’in had conquered all resistance against his rule over
the former seven states and the House of Chou. Let’s have a look at the fundamental
reasons behind this triumph:
v
Geography: as was already suggested
above, Ch’in location provided natural protection from invasions and
isolation from other states
v
Agriculture: did not determine but
reinforced Ch’in’s march to Empire, especially thanks to two major
irrigation constructions, the Cheng Kuo canal and the irrigation system of
the Ch’eng-Tu plain, the former even turning bare lands into fertile
regions
v
Military experience: because of all the battles
it sustained against non-Chinese attacks, Ch’in’s armies acquired a crucial
experience for later campaigns
v
Readiness to break with
tradition:
since Ch’in did not share the same cultural traditions as the other Chinese
states, they were more ready to introduce radical changes
v
Readiness to employ
foreign talent: Ch’in had a long tradition of employing foreign talents,
as demonstrated above, to make up for its cultural “backwardness”; those
proved to be some of the finest statesmen in Ch’in’s history
v
Rulers and their court: Ch’in was lucky enough to be
ruled for almost one and a half century by long-lasting rulers, surrounded
by highly competent and helpful advisors
v
Administration: considered maybe as the most
important factor in Ch’in’s triumph, what we know of the law of that time
comes mainly from a text discovered in the grave of a provincial official,
dealing mostly with administrative law. Penalties mentioned are certainly
outrageous for today, but not so much compared with other periods in most
countries. But what may have been an important factor is the emphasis on
efficiency and precision in administrative procedures, on the exactitude in
of the quantification of data, and on the improvement of agricultural
production and conservation of natural resources.
Many
would also list a certain superiority in terms of metallurgy with a more
intensive use of iron than its neighbors, but the archeological evidence
seems to testify against this theory, as the weapons recovered are mostly
bronze
III: The
Ch'in Empire
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