To what extent did geography help Qin Shi Huangdi keep China unified?
Introduction
China is an emerging superpower in today’s ever-changing society. Despite this, many people do not know a thing about the history of the country. This fact makes the question “To what extent did geography help Qin Shi Huangdi keep China unified” worthy of investigation. Before him, China was composed of seven separate warring states. Qin Shi Huangdi unified China in 221 BC and managed to keep it unified because of geography, his means of border protection, and his totalitarian rule. This essay will tell the story of Shi Huangdi’s life, how he unified China, and will analyze how one man managed to keep such a vast country unified.
Early Life
Much of Qin …show more content…
He believed and made others believe that he was sent from God and that he then had the right to total control. To do this, when he had unified the states, he changed his name to Qin Shi Huangdi which means First Sovereign Emperor of Qin. The “di” in his name suggests divinity and this is what caught people’s attention (Szczepanski). The belief that he was divine led him on a crazy quest for immortality. Huangdi also allowed no act against him to go unpunished. Once one of his advisors tried to take the throne, but when Huangdi found out about it, he not only had him executed, but his entire clan (Gracie). This was not an isolated event either. Huangdi, on many occasions had people killed just for being in association with a person who was against him. This stemmed from the intense paranoia he had, which many believe to have stemmed from the time when his own mother and Lu Buwei tried to take his power (Szczepanski). Because of this paranoia, Huangdi not only punished people who acted against him, but even just criticized him. Many scholars of the time, like Confucius, believed that Huangdi was a bad ruler and criticized him for not having governors. Huangdi had 400 of these scholars arrested and then buried them, alive, whilst 700 others were stoned (Gracie). Huangdi also tried to keep his country unified by making everything uniform. He managed to standardize written language, currency, weights, measurements, and even cart width (Szczepanski). In order to do this he destroyed or burned anything that was not the new standardized way. For this reason the BBC calls him “The Ruthless Emperor Who Burned Books” (Gracie). This standardization not only promoted unity amongst the people, but also made life easier for the people, because all carts could fit on the roads and people knew how much they would get when they purchased something. Another way Qin Shi Huangdi used his
Introduction
China is an emerging superpower in today’s ever-changing society. Despite this, many people do not know a thing about the history of the country. This fact makes the question “To what extent did geography help Qin Shi Huangdi keep China unified” worthy of investigation. Before him, China was composed of seven separate warring states. Qin Shi Huangdi unified China in 221 BC and managed to keep it unified because of geography, his means of border protection, and his totalitarian rule. This essay will tell the story of Shi Huangdi’s life, how he unified China, and will analyze how one man managed to keep such a vast country unified.
Early Life
Much of Qin …show more content…
He believed and made others believe that he was sent from God and that he then had the right to total control. To do this, when he had unified the states, he changed his name to Qin Shi Huangdi which means First Sovereign Emperor of Qin. The “di” in his name suggests divinity and this is what caught people’s attention (Szczepanski). The belief that he was divine led him on a crazy quest for immortality. Huangdi also allowed no act against him to go unpunished. Once one of his advisors tried to take the throne, but when Huangdi found out about it, he not only had him executed, but his entire clan (Gracie). This was not an isolated event either. Huangdi, on many occasions had people killed just for being in association with a person who was against him. This stemmed from the intense paranoia he had, which many believe to have stemmed from the time when his own mother and Lu Buwei tried to take his power (Szczepanski). Because of this paranoia, Huangdi not only punished people who acted against him, but even just criticized him. Many scholars of the time, like Confucius, believed that Huangdi was a bad ruler and criticized him for not having governors. Huangdi had 400 of these scholars arrested and then buried them, alive, whilst 700 others were stoned (Gracie). Huangdi also tried to keep his country unified by making everything uniform. He managed to standardize written language, currency, weights, measurements, and even cart width (Szczepanski). In order to do this he destroyed or burned anything that was not the new standardized way. For this reason the BBC calls him “The Ruthless Emperor Who Burned Books” (Gracie). This standardization not only promoted unity amongst the people, but also made life easier for the people, because all carts could fit on the roads and people knew how much they would get when they purchased something. Another way Qin Shi Huangdi used his