Shi Huangdi

Shi Huangdi, also Ch'in Shih Huang Ti (259-210 bc), first emperor of China (221-210 bc), founder of the Qin (or Ch'in) dynasty. In 246 bc he succeeded under the name of Zheng (Cheng) to the throne of the Chinese feudal state of Qin. Completing a process begun by his predecessors, Zheng subjugated the other feudal states into which China was divided at that time, surviving assassination attempts (others followed later) and in 221 bc declared himself the sole master of China, assuming the title of Shi Huangdi, or first emperor. The feudal system was abolished, the nobility of the old states forced to live in the capital, and the whole country as it existed then was divided into 36 (later 42) provinces, with the governors appointed by the emperor. Shi Huangdi also standardized laws, weights and measures, and the written language, on the advice of his minister of state Li Xu, a fellow student of Han Fei Xi and an advocate of the totalitarian philosophy of legalism. In 213 bc he decreed that all books that disagreed with Qin theories of history and philosophy should be burned. The emperor also placed the economy and the defence of the empire under centralized control, constructed roads and canals, and, to protect the country from the inroads of the nomadic Huns, began the major portion of the Great Wall of China, reportedly using slave and conscript labour. Despite his reputation as a bloody tyrant, Shi Huangdi created a state whose structure was the basis of Imperial China until its end in 1911. Excavation of his tomb, an enormous complex of vast underground chambers surrounding a huge burial mound near Xi'an (Sian), has so far yielded an army of more than 6,000 life-size terracotta human figures and horses.