The Ch'in Empire III: The First Empire

NB: I did not enter into details about the various intellectual currents, or about such important constructions like the Great Wall or the First Emperor’s mausoleum. They will be treated separately in a while. Neither do I report here the “cruelty” acts of the First Emperor. I’ll explain why in time, although it’s already hinted at here.

Reforms, achievements, excesses (221-210)

From “King” to “Emperor”

As his first act as the ruler of the unified empire, the Ch’in ruler asked his minister for a title in accordance with his new position. This is how his title changed from wang (king) to huang-ti (august emperor). The word ti is especially felicitous because it carried along numerous references to deities and legendary rulers of ancient times, as well as to earlier tentatives from both Ch’in and CH’I rulers to get called by that title.

Therefore, the first Emperor is known as Ch’in (or Qin) Shihuangdi, that is the First August Emperor, and expected that his line would follow by calling themselves “the Second”, etc, for “thousand and ten thousand of generations”. Unfortunately, there will be only one generation after his carrying, briefly, the same title, until 207. The last ruler of the Dynasty will rule under the title of “wang” again because of the then difficult political climate.

The political unification

The First Emperor approved Li SSu’s advice to renounce to the old feudal system and once for all divide the entire country into a system of commanderies/counties, which has been perpetuated long after the collapse of the dynasty. He therefore disapproved of his chancellor who wanted him to place the more distant territories into the hands of relatives, a system that had proven fallible under Chou, as the family links tended to loosen up with time, and as a result, would go to war against each other.

The system was roughly as follow:

36 (by 210 they were more, maybe 40-42) commanderies placed under the administration of a civil governor, a military commander and an imperial inspector

an unknown number of counties (maybe around 1000) administrated by magistrates

The officials were appointed by the central government and could be recalled at any time.

To reinforce these measures, ruling families and their relatives were to live and be sustained by the Emperor, allowing him to keep control and a close eye over the most powerful families of his Empire. At the same time, he also secured his military power by a massive destruction of armaments and the leveling of city-walls and other constructions that could obstruct military moves.

The system worked pretty well until the collapse of the Empire, when most families would return to their possessions.

The cultural unification

Probably because of new implements and materials for writing, as well as the growing need for more documents coming along with the intensification of the centralized government’s and administration’s work, Li Ssu suggested the unification of script following these main lines:

simplification and rationalization of the characters
standardization of regional variants into one system
universalization of this system

This is probably one of the major changes introduced under Ch’in since it would have been hard to maintain cohesion in a unified China using various writing systems

Legal and economic measures

Again, the period was marked by a standardization of the law code that was essentially going back to Shang Yang and his main principles, among which are the mutual responsibility and the severity of the punishment, so as to deter people committing crimes and other infractions.

Not much is known about economic developments, apart from the fact that trade was repressed and agriculture encouraged.

Other standardizations

Shang Yang’s reforms concerning the standardization of weights and measures were applied throughout the Empire, the standards used seemingly the same as those of his days. They may even have been exported outside China (some standards have been found in Kirin, Manchuria, at the time lying outside Chinese borders). Another standardization is that of metal currency, as well as the establishment of a standard for carts, which was especially important because of the poor state of the roads in parts of the country.

Roads, walls, palaces

Before the Empire, labors such as constructions of walls, roads and other buildings, as well as military service, were mostly performed by peasants. From the Ch’in dynasty onwards, it could be organized on a far greater scale, and other disfavored groups of the population were to be used.

Some of the greater works have been performed by some 300’000 people under Meng T’ien, then the most important general. Among his works are one of a series of imperial highways (some 6800 km in total) known as the Straight Road, his segment being 800km long, and the worldwide known Great Wall, which is about 3’440km today. Those who served there were also to fight against the barbarians under the general’s lead.

Under the reign of this first Dynasty, many palaces were built for the rich families from all over the Empire that were to live nearby the Emperor; he himself had a new throne hall near the capital Hsien-Yang raised in 212 called O-Pang, the Nearby Palace, named so because it was close to the capital.

Conquests and colonizations

Internal warfare ceased in 221, only to be followed almost immediately by military and colonial expansion, both to the north and the south, during ten years. The conquests made in the south were especially important both economically and socially because the land there was fertile and well-watered, and thus made an ideal area for the spread of the Chinese agriculture and way of life. It is also there that took place one of the greatest hydraulic works, a canal designed to the transport of grain to support the military campaign, canal that has been in used until today. Those southern provinces, however, were lost during the last years of Ch’in and had to be regained by the Han Dynasty.

Along with these territory gains, large numbers of civilians were sent to live in these new lands. Many were disfavored people (some of them being former members of the administration who failed at their task), but some were also ordinary families, who would receive a reward for such a move.

Imperial progresses and inscriptions

The First Emperor is well known for intensively touring his empire, five times in ten years, especially the seacoast were he actually stayed for long periods of time (except on the 1^st tour in 220 when he went for the western border). The reason for his attraction to this particular area of his Empire is both because he hadn’t seen it before (the Ch’in state has no coast), and because he had been told that there he would find the elixir of immortality, a constant quest and worry for Ch’in Shihuangdi. Stone tablets were placed at important points during these tours, reflecting the official thinking and values, and bearing commemorations lauding the First Emperor’s achievements; only one part of one such a stone has been recovered today.

Intellectual currents

The Ch’in Empire is regarded as the ultimate embodiment of Legalism. Actually, it was far from the only ideology encountered in the empire, nor is Legalism a monolithic entity. It was indeed divided into 2 main currents, that of the followers of Shang Yang (harsh law, group responsibility, system of rewards and punishments) and that of Shen Pu-hai (methods and technics for impersonal, bureaucratic administration). Both are quoted by Li Ssu in his 209 memorial. It seems that the application of Legalism in everyday life was not as extreme as that expressed by Shang Yang’s records.

Confucianism was also able to develop, thanks to the First Emperor’s interest in it (he actually was interested in several schools of thinking) and to the prestige of the academicians gathered in the Ch’in academy which were, it is to be noted, expected to cover all of the contemporary knowledge among them. Confucius’ influence was present in the law (many laws, despite being legalist in form, were actually related to Confucian values), but also in the various inscriptions on stones the First Emperor had erected during his various tours.

Another current was that of the Five Elements (earth, metal, wood, fire and water). It said that each new ruling house was under the aegis of the dominant element when it came to power. When a new element follows as the dominant one 8the elements were succeeding each other in an unvarying sequence), the ruler can win its favor with the proper ritual. Again, the First Emperor followed the advices of the scholars and had several things done accordingly (use of the “right” number, color….).

One must also add early Taoism to the influences. In short, one could sum up his beliefs as being part Legalism, which he probably deemed necessary for ruling, the rest being divided between a myriad of others, especially those related to tales of immortality, for, as I’ve briefly mentioned above, he has been said to be constantly on the looking for a way to become immortal. Certainly, the understanding of having achieved something unprecedented had made him aware of the fragility of one’s life, and thus of one’s ruling.

The Collapse (210-206)

Ch’in Shihuangdi did during his 5^th tour of China, ironically while he was again on is quest for immortality, after falling ill in August-September 210, the exact cause remaining unknown. His eldest son Fu-su was on the northern border with Meng T’ien. Chao Kao, an eunuch who was the tutor of one of the emperor’s younger sons, Hu-hai, succeeded in his plot to get Hu-hai on the throne by exchanging letters, withholding the original written by the dying First Emperor summoning Fu-su to go back to the capital to succeed him, and sending one to the northern border accusing them both of disloyalty and ordering them to commit suicide, which they did.

Unfortunately, during his second year of reign (209), the second emperor, Hu-hai, started to make the law even harsher, on his tutor’s advice. The same year, rebellion broke out, and among the main actors was Lin Chi, future founder of the Han Dynasty. The instigators of the rebellion arrived at the gate of the capital, before being beaten by an army of convicts lead by Chang Han, a very capable Ch’in general. However, Chang Han had to surrender to the rebelled armies in August/September 207.

Meanwhile, Chao Kao had Li Ssu arrested and executed with his kin, and took over the title of chancellor, after which he started to plot against the emperor himself, who retired from the capital, believing he was seeing hallucinations (this impression was all Chao Kao’s making). He committed suicide soon afterwards. He was succeeded by the first emperor’s grandson, Tzu-ying, who, under the heated political situation, was only given the title of “king”. He tricked Chao Kao and either stabbed him himself or had it done by someone else.

But Chao Kao tragic dismiss was not enough to save the Empire. Lin Chi, then called Lin Pang, entered the capital, yet spared it and the king’s life, who had surrendered. His superiors, however, weren’t so merciless

The Reasons for the Collapse

Five reasons are usually given, out of which four can be doubted. First comes the moral factor, especially under the pen of Confucian latter writers. They underline the harshness of the law, but, as we saw, it was not harsher than the practice in other civilizations at the same time (I personally think that the law becoming harsher under the second emperor and then the king was, however, a factor). They also maintain as an important argument the intellectual deficiencies of Ch’in leaders and the repudiation of traditions but both are unconvincingly asserted. Unconvincing also is the social factor suggested by the Marxists.

The only one that seems to be generally agreed on is that of the overextension of resources, that is, turning from small state to empire, that the task inherent to the situation was just too much. Anyway, what should remembered above all is the main legacy of this short-lived dynasty, namely the state bureaucracy, which, after elaboration by the following Han dynasty, was to remain in place until the 20^th century.

Chapter II: The Former Han Dynasty