Qin was a principality in the Wei River Valley, where the Chuanrong had overrun the Zhou king in 771. It was one of the smaller of the seventeen states that made up Zhou civilization, and it was seen by peoples of the other states as inferior and semi-barbaric because of the many Tibetan and Turkish people that it had absorbed. Qin retained the martial spirit and vigor of nomadic herdsmen, and Qin was a thoroughfare for trade between Zhou civilization and the tribal lands in Central Asia, a trade that had been contributing to Qin's wealth.

Qin's ruler had an innovative chief minister, Shang Yang -- philosophically a Legalist. He convinced the ruler to apply law to all his subjects and to reward people for good service and merit rather than give favor according to kinship. As chief minister he rewarded battlefield heroism. He had none of Confucianism's disdain for commerce and instead encouraged trade and work. He encouraged the making of cloth for export. He threatened with slavery any able-bodied man who was not engaged in a useful occupation. He encouraged immigration, asking educated and talented persons from other states to move to Qin, and he offered farming people from other states virgin land and promised them exemption from military service.

Many came to Qin, increasing Qin's manpower and food production and strengthening its military. The size of an army had become more significant -- armies no longer made up mainly adventuresome aristocrats. With commoners flooding into the army of Qin, the ruler of Qin was able to reduce the power of his warrior-aristocrats and nobles. In one revolutionary sweep the ruler of Qin divided his principality into counties and had these counties administered by appointed officials rather than by nobles.

In Qin was the palace intrigue that plagued the Roman Empire. When the ruler of Qin died, Shang Yang was left without protection at court, and jealous persons at court had Shang Yang executed. But his work lived on. Qin started winning large battles. It was what is today called the "Era of Warring States," a period described as beginning in 476 BCE or thereabouts, when the power of the Zhou emperors declined and authority fragmented. Chariots manned by aristocrats were replaced by men on horseback, and armies included infantry conscripts with iron swords, crossbows and metal tipped spears.

In 314 BCE -- twenty-four years after the death of Shang Yang -- the kingdom of Qin won a military victory over nomads to its north. In 311, Qin expanded southward against more nomadic people, and there the conquerors founded the city of Chengdu. Other states were also expanding: Yan against so-called barbarians east of the Liao River, and Chu was expanding southward across the Yangzi River. War and conquest reduced the number of states to eleven.

Qin joined a coalition of four other states against Qi, which the allies of Qin feared the most. Qi was traditionally expansionist and hegemonic, well organized and densely populated relative to most other states. It was high in food production and had grown wealthy also from trade in iron and other metals. To their detriment, the allies of Qin viewed Qin as semi-barbaric and therefore weaker and less of a threat than Qi.

In 256, Qi absorbed Lu, and Qin expanded into territory that belonged to the Zhou family -- an area around Luoyang containing about 30,000 people and thirty-six villages. A Zhou prince counter-attacked, trying to claim the Zhou throne for himself. Qin's army defeated him, and the Zhou dynasty came to an end.

In 246 BCE, Yong Zheng, the thirteen-year-old son of the ruler of Qin, succeeded his father. After sixteen years of rule, Zheng embarked upon the conquest of the remaining states that had been a part of Zhou civilization. Armies of hundreds of thousands were involved on both sides. Qin defeated one state after another: Han in the year 230, Zhao in 228, Wei in 225, the large but more sparsely populated and less tightly knit Chu in 223, Yan in 222 and Qi in 221. Occasionally, to eliminate possible military opposition, Qin's armies slaughtered all enemy males of military age.

The Era of Warring States was over. Zheng became ruler of all that had been Zhou civilization. He went to a sacred mountain, Dai Shan, where, it would be said, he received the Mandate from Heaven to rule the "entire world." He took the name Shihuang-di (di signifying emperor), and Qin Shi Huang, and he expanded the frontiers of what had been Zhou civilization southward to Guangzhou and to Guangxi, creating what would thereafter be considered China. And he pushed into Annam, or northern Vietnam -- an area the Chinese would hold only temporarily.

Shihuangdi had become the first emperor of China.

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Books

China and the Search for Happiness by Wolfgang Bauer, 1976

The Ageless Chinese by Dun J. Li, 1971

China, a Macro History by Ray Huang, 1990

The Rise and Splendor of the Chinese Empire by Rene Grousset

The Cambridge History of China. Volume 1: the Ch'in and Han Empires

China, a Cultural History by Anton Cotterell, 1988

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Warring States and the Creation of China in 221 BCE