DOCSLIB.ORG

Emperor Qin in the Afterlife

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Emperor Qin in the Afterlife 108534_TXT 11/8/07 1:24 PM Page 10 Emperor Qin in the Afterlife Jennifer Wolff Writing 20 (Spring 2007): The Archaeology of Death Professor Christine Beaule After taking Dr. Christine Beaule’s archaeology based writing class, I f the many great archaeological finds in the 20th century, one of the learned to appreciate all that we can grandest is the discovery of Emperor Qin Shihuangdi’s terracotta learn from burial sites. The artifacts at army. The ruler of the state of Qin, King Cheng, proclaimed him- a grave site can tell us what an ancient self the First Emperor of China in 221 BC taking the name culture found important in life and Shihuangdi (first sovereign). After hundreds of years of open war- what they believed about death. With Ofare between the different feudal lords, referred to as the Warring States period this in mind, I chose a case study that (475-221 BC) (Capon 1983), the state of Qin raised an army that conquered presented me with the opportunity them all and seized power (Cotterell 1981; Treasure! Tomb of the Terracotta to explore the past. Until I did the Warriors 1998). A monument of some 7,000 clay officers, soldiers, horses, research for this project, all I knew and chariots was found underground just outside Mount Li in Shaanxi about the terracotta figures was that China, the legendary resting place of the First Emperor. The question that they were found in China and that still puzzles scholars and archaeologists is why Emperor Qin had this army there were a lot of them. I wanted to of pottery constructed. The answer may lie with the other items found in his learn who the army was created for, tomb in addition to the terracotta warriors. why it was made, and what it could Very little of the tomb has actually been excavated, but the writings of the tell us of ancient Chinese beliefs in Han scholar Sima Qian (145–c. 90 BC) provide us with the only record of the afterlife. what the tomb of the First Emperor may contain. At present, we do not have As the final project for my class, the technology that would allow archaeologists to safely open the tomb to veri- this piece challenged my abilities to fy these writings without exposing the tomb’s contents to the air which could do effective research and to report it quickly corrode the ancient artifacts. In this essay I contend that Qin’s elaborate in a clear and academic way. I spent the semester learning how to use the tomb and its guardians reflect the parts of life that the Emperor thought were of great- resources available to me to success- est importance to him, and those things which he wanted to take with him into death fully write, revise, and present an and the afterlife. This desire for a reconstruction of certain aspects of his surround- essay. With these tools, writing about ings in his final resting place may have stemmed from his obsession with immortality. the terracotta army proved to be an Edmund Capon’s book on the terracotta army not only gives a detailed account intellectually rewarding experience. of the archaeological findings at the excavation site, but it also gives the reader an introduction to the man for whom this grandiose burial was completed. From Capon’s book we can learn the political and philosophical climate of the time and Qin’s place in it. He ruled his empire by employing the philosophy of Legalism (Capon 1983), a revolutionary approach to governing that condemned the old ways and relied heavily on his army. As the head of his new empire, Qin disband- ed the feudal system, centralized the State, and unified China under his banner. However, his Legalist policies and contempt for the old philosophical views of The question that still puzzles scholars and archaeologists is why Emperor Qin had this army of pottery constructed. 10 108534_TXT 11/8/07 1:24 PM Page 11 Confucianism lead him to facilitate a book capital city to work on his final resting place. The burning of all the old texts (Capon 1983). He work on the tomb and the terracotta warriors is esti- also rounded up many of China’s leading mated to have spanned 38 to 39 years, and took a philosophers and had them executed (Trea- great toll on the Chinese population (Capon 1983). sure! Tomb of the Terracotta Warriors 1998). Just as Qin had control of everything around him, he Qin’s Legalist policy did not suit the newly would also have control of how he entered the after- unified Chinese nation the way it suited the life and how he would pass his time in the next earlier state of Qin in its quest for complete world. rule of China. Later Han scholars attributed The discovery of the terracotta warriors outside the early downfall of the Qin Empire to this Qin’s tomb was made by chance while a farmer was lack of policy change (Lewis 2007). digging a well in Shaanxi Province in 1974. The Nevertheless, the First Emperor brought entire archaeological site now covers 56.25 km2 and many changes to China. He standard- includes four main pits and numerous satellite pits ized writing, language, measurements, and burials. Three of the main pits contain both currency, and trade (Treasure! warriors and horses, but the fourth was left unfin- Tomb of the Terracotta War- ished and empty by the original artisans. The ex- riors 1998). He also improved cavation has shown that there the roadways to make travel were columns in the pits that Qin’s harsh policies made easier and commissioned supported a roof and layers of the connecting and filling earth that reached up to ground him many enemies, espe- in of the disjointed sec- level and the floors were paved tions of what would be- with highly durable bricks cially among the feudal come the Great Wall of (Tianchou 1985). China (Kuwayama 1987). The warriors and pits are lords he had conquered, Despite the advances arranged in a fashion that sug- Qin made for China, he gests to scholars that they repre- and at least three assassi- was a ruthless and tyran- sented the different sections of nical ruler. He delivered Qin’s real army. For example, Pit nation attempts were punishments of unparal- No. 1 is the largest of the pits. leled cruelty to those who It contains an estimated 6,000 made on his life. These committed treason or any warriors, mainly infantrymen, other crime. Qin’s harsh and six chariots, each drawn by attempts on Qin’s life policies made him many ene- four horses (Capon 1983). Renbo mies, especially among the feu- Wang of the Shaanxi Provincial were responsible for his dal lords he had conquered, and Museum suggests that the mem- at least three assassination attempts bers of this pit represent the paranoia about death were made on his life (Cotterell Right Army of the Imperial 1981). These attempts on Qin’s life Guard. This section of the army and his obsession with were responsible for his paranoia would not have worn helmets about death and his obsession with (only Qin officers had those) finding the route to finding the route to immortality. and always took the offensive. Qin Shihuangdi also commis- The lack of heavy armor on the immortality. sioned the building of hundreds Qin foot soldiers allowed them of palaces both for himself and to attack quickly and with an unrivaled ferocity the lords upon whom he wanted (Cotterell 1981). Pit No. 2 is smaller and “L” shaped, to keep a close watch. From the containing an estimated 1,000 clay soldiers, 400 day he took the throne in 221 horses, and 80 chariots (Tianchou 1985). Most of BC, he began construction on these soldiers were members of the cavalry, along his tomb and the terracotta with archers belonging to the Left Army of the Qin army that would rest just out- Imperial Guard. From the descriptions of the type of side of it in Shaanxi Province, just soldiers found in Pits 1 and 2 we see that the tradi- as the Egyptian pharaohs started tional Qin Right and Left armies are infantry and s construction on their tombs at the cavalry, respectively. beginning of their reigns. Hundreds The third pit is the smallest and in the shape of a of artisans and thousands of convict- “U”. It appears to be the command post, with 68 ed laborers from all of the various warriors, one chariot, and only four horses (Capon regions of China were brought to Qin’s 1983; Tianchou 1985). The number of officers in this 11 108534_TXT 11/8/07 1:24 PM Page 12 pit and its well protected position in the north- Chinese mortuary rituals have been many From the day he took west corner of the overall formation (Capon and varied throughout history, yet there is lit- 1983, pp. 41), with the two larger parts of the tle written about the beliefs and practices that the throne in 221 BC, army in front of it, suggest this was indeed the surrounded death during the Warring States he began construction general’s headquarters. Additionally, some of (481-221 BC) and Qin (221-206 BC) periods. on his tomb and the the weapons recovered from this pit were It was believed at this time that the soul was meant more for ceremonial use than practical divided into two parts: one that would stay terracotta army that use in battle (Cotterell 1981).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Shang Dynasty
    misterfengshui.com 風水先生 History of China ANCIENT 3 Sovereigns and 5 Emperors Xia Dynasty 2100–1600 BC Shang Dynasty 1600–1046 BC Zhou Dynasty 1122–256 BC Western Zhou Eastern Zhou Spring and Autumn Period Warring States Period IMPERIAL Qin Dynasty 221 BC–206 BC Han Dynasty 206 BC–220 AD Western Han Xin Dynasty Eastern Han Three Kingdoms 220–280 Wei, Shu & Wu Jin Dynasty 265–420 Western Jin 16 Kingdoms Eastern Jin 304–439 Southern & Northern Dynasties 420–589 Sui Dynasty 581–618 Tang Dynasty 618–907 ( Second Zhou 690–705 ) 5 Dynasties & 10 Kingdoms 907–960 Liao Dynasty 907–1125 Song Dynasty 960–1279 Northern Song Xi Xia Southern Song Jin Yuan Dynasty 1271–1368 Ming Dynasty 1368–1644 Qing Dynasty 1644–1911 MODERN Republic of China 1912–1949 People's Republic of China (Mainland China) 1949–present Republic of China (Taiwan) 1945-present from Wilkipedia [email protected] Fax: 852-2873-6859 misterfengshui.com 風水先生 Timeline of Chinese History The recorded history of China began in the 15th century BC when the Shang Dynasty started to use markings that evolved into the present Chinese characters. Turtle shells with markings reminiscent of ancient Chinese writing from the Shang Dynasty have been carbon dated to as early as 1500 BC.[1] Chinese civilization originated with city-states in the Yellow River (Huang He) valley. 221 BC is commonly accepted to be the year in which China became unified under a large kingdom or empire. In that year, Qin Shi Huang first united China. Successive dynasties in Chinese history developed bureaucratic systems that enabled the Emperor of China to control increasingly larger territory that reached maximum under the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty and Manchurian Qing Dynasty.
    [Show full text]
  • Hwang, Yin (2014) Victory Pictures in a Time of Defeat: Depicting War in the Print and Visual Culture of Late Qing China 1884 ‐ 1901
    Hwang, Yin (2014) Victory pictures in a time of defeat: depicting war in the print and visual culture of late Qing China 1884 ‐ 1901. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/18449 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. VICTORY PICTURES IN A TIME OF DEFEAT Depicting War in the Print and Visual Culture of Late Qing China 1884-1901 Yin Hwang Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the History of Art 2014 Department of the History of Art and Archaeology School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 2 Declaration for PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person.
    [Show full text]
  • Zhou and Qin Ethical Culture and the Cultivation of Socialism Core
    Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, volume 21 3rd Annual International Conference on Management, Economics and Social Development (ICMESD 2017) Zhou and Qin Ethical Culture and the Cultivation of Socialism Core Values Jin-Yu HU School of Humanity, Economy and Law of Northwestern Polytechnical University Deputy director of Postgraduate Administration Department at Chang’an University Keywords: Zhou and Qin Ethical Culture, Socialism core values, Cultivation. Abstract. Zhou and Qin Ethical Culture is the basis and core of Chinese Culture which represents the source and orientation of traditional Chinese Culture. Investigation of the relationship between Zhou and Qin Ethical Culture and socialism core values is not only an important theoretical but also a practical issue. Applying the conviction ethic and responsibility theory of Zhou and Qin Ethical Culture as reference, could have strong inspiration and practical value for the cultivation values with the modern socialism as its core. Introduction Core value is known as the country, society and individual dominated value proposition. It does not exit originally and will not remain the same. The formation of core value requires an “advocated”, “cultivation” and “practice” process. Whether core value can be accepted by populace and become a general consensus, depends on two aspects: 1) if it is compliant with the historical and cultural psychology of our nation, has a basis in the traditional culture, and reflects ethic characteristics; 2) if it is scientifically advanced, complied with the world trend, and reflects the orientation of advancement of our nation. Once these two aspects are met, core value will become a community consensus, and a force to unite the people and direct social progress.
    [Show full text]
  • Review Of" Worlds of Bronze and Bamboo: Sima Qian's Conquest Of
    Swarthmore College Works Chinese Faculty Works Chinese Summer 2001 Review Of "Worlds Of Bronze And Bamboo: Sima Qian's Conquest Of History" By G. Hardy Alan Berkowitz Swarthmore College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-chinese Part of the Chinese Studies Commons Recommended Citation Alan Berkowitz. (2001). "Review Of "Worlds Of Bronze And Bamboo: Sima Qian's Conquest Of History" By G. Hardy". Biography. Volume 24, Issue 3. 600-606. DOI: 10.1353/bio.2001.0050 https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-chinese/6 This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chinese Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 600 Biography 24.3 (Summer 2001) Grant Hardy. Worlds of Bronze and Bamboo: Sima Qian’s Conquest of His- tory. New York: Columbia UP, 1999. 301 pp. ISBN 0-231-11304-8, $42.50. Readers of Biography surely know Sima Qian (ca. 145–ca. 86 B.C.E.), or should. (For those unfamiliar, he was the compiler of China’s most influen- tial work of history and biography, the 130 chapter Shi ji [also romanized Shih chi], Records of the Historian,1 a monument of vast scope and insight, still one of China’s most read classical works. Sima was the man’s family name, Qian his given name [also romanized as Ssu-ma Ch’ien].) As Grant Hardy relates at the outset of his provocative and thoroughgoing treatment of the man and his opus, “after Confucius and the First Emperor of Qin, Sima Qian was one of the creators of Imperial China”; indeed, “he virtually created the two earlier figures” (xi).
    [Show full text]
  • Discovering Discrepancies in Numerical Libraries
    Discovering Discrepancies in Numerical Libraries Jackson Vanover Xuan Deng Cindy Rubio-González University of California, Davis University of California, Davis University of California, Davis United States of America United States of America United States of America [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT libraries aim to offer a certain level of correctness and robustness in Numerical libraries constitute the building blocks for software appli- their algorithms. Specifically, a discrete numerical algorithm should cations that perform numerical calculations. Thus, it is paramount not diverge from the continuous analytical function it implements that such libraries provide accurate and consistent results. To that for its given domain. end, this paper addresses the problem of finding discrepancies be- Extensive testing is necessary for any software that aims to be tween synonymous functions in different numerical libraries asa correct and robust; in all application domains, software testing means of identifying incorrect behavior. Our approach automati- is often complicated by a deficit of reliable test oracles and im- cally finds such synonymous functions, synthesizes testing drivers, mense domains of possible inputs. Testing of numerical software and executes differential tests to discover meaningful discrepan- in particular presents additional difficulties: there is a lack of stan- cies across numerical libraries. We implement our approach in a dards for dealing with inevitable numerical errors, and the IEEE 754 tool named FPDiff, and provide an evaluation on four popular nu- Standard [1] for floating-point representations of real numbers in- merical libraries: GNU Scientific Library (GSL), SciPy, mpmath, and herently introduces imprecision. As a result, bugs are commonplace jmat.
    [Show full text]
  • List of Translations Into English of the Shiji of Sima Qian (Ssu-Ma Ch’Ien) and The
    List of translations into English of the Shiji of Sima Qian (Ssu-ma Ch’ien) and the “Letter to Ren An” The numbered list below includes the translations into English known to me of the 130 chapters of the Shiji by Sima Qian (or, Ssu-ma Ch’ien; 145-c. 90 BCE) and of Sima Qian’s “Letter to Ren An,” which is chapter 62 of the Han Shu written by Ban Gu (32-92 CE). Please send additions and corrections to this list to me at [email protected] In the numbered list, for each of the 130 chapters of the Shiji and then the “Letter” (listed last), the translations known to me are listed in order of the date of publication. The abbreviations of the publications cited are given below, preceding the numbered list. The series of volumes edited by William Nienhauser (see the titles listed under WN in the abbreviations below) aims to translate the entire Shiji into English with scholarly annotation. Nienhauser gives a brief history of the translation of the Shiji in volume 1 of 1994 (see below, WN 1, pp. xv-xvii). The first translation into a Western language of the Shiji with scholarly annotation was into French by Édouard Chavannes, who published the first forty-seven chapters in five volumes, Les Mémoires historiques de Se-ma Ts’ien (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1895- 1905, reprint edition, Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1969). The reprint edition also included a supplementary sixth volume with translations of chapters 48-52 by Paul Demiéville and a bibliography by Timoteus Pokora of translations of chapters 48-130 of the Shiji into “English, Russian, French, German, and occasionally other European languages.” Abbreviations of Publications Cited, in Order of Date of Publication These abbreviations are used to indicate the translations of Sima Qian, Shiji into English that appear in the numbered list below.
    [Show full text]
  • The Old Master
    INTRODUCTION Four main characteristics distinguish this book from other translations of Laozi. First, the base of my translation is the oldest existing edition of Laozi. It was excavated in 1973 from a tomb located in Mawangdui, the city of Changsha, Hunan Province of China, and is usually referred to as Text A of the Mawangdui Laozi because it is the older of the two texts of Laozi unearthed from it.1 Two facts prove that the text was written before 202 bce, when the first emperor of the Han dynasty began to rule over the entire China: it does not follow the naming taboo of the Han dynasty;2 its handwriting style is close to the seal script that was prevalent in the Qin dynasty (221–206 bce). Second, I have incorporated the recent archaeological discovery of Laozi-related documents, disentombed in 1993 in Jishan District’s tomb complex in the village of Guodian, near the city of Jingmen, Hubei Province of China. These documents include three bundles of bamboo slips written in the Chu script and contain passages related to the extant Laozi.3 Third, I have made extensive use of old commentaries on Laozi to provide the most comprehensive interpretations possible of each passage. Finally, I have examined myriad Chinese classic texts that are closely associated with the formation of Laozi, such as Zhuangzi, Lüshi Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals of Mr. Lü), Han Feizi, and Huainanzi, to understand the intellectual and historical context of Laozi’s ideas. In addition to these characteristics, this book introduces several new interpretations of Laozi.
    [Show full text]
  • Official Colours of Chinese Regimes: a Panchronic Philological Study with Historical Accounts of China
    TRAMES, 2012, 16(66/61), 3, 237–285 OFFICIAL COLOURS OF CHINESE REGIMES: A PANCHRONIC PHILOLOGICAL STUDY WITH HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS OF CHINA Jingyi Gao Institute of the Estonian Language, University of Tartu, and Tallinn University Abstract. The paper reports a panchronic philological study on the official colours of Chinese regimes. The historical accounts of the Chinese regimes are introduced. The official colours are summarised with philological references of archaic texts. Remarkably, it has been suggested that the official colours of the most ancient regimes should be the three primitive colours: (1) white-yellow, (2) black-grue yellow, and (3) red-yellow, instead of the simple colours. There were inconsistent historical records on the official colours of the most ancient regimes because the composite colour categories had been split. It has solved the historical problem with the linguistic theory of composite colour categories. Besides, it is concluded how the official colours were determined: At first, the official colour might be naturally determined according to the substance of the ruling population. There might be three groups of people in the Far East. (1) The developed hunter gatherers with livestock preferred the white-yellow colour of milk. (2) The farmers preferred the red-yellow colour of sun and fire. (3) The herders preferred the black-grue-yellow colour of water bodies. Later, after the Han-Chinese consolidation, the official colour could be politically determined according to the main property of the five elements in Sino-metaphysics. The red colour has been predominate in China for many reasons. Keywords: colour symbolism, official colours, national colours, five elements, philology, Chinese history, Chinese language, etymology, basic colour terms DOI: 10.3176/tr.2012.3.03 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Han Fei and the Han Feizi
    Introduction: Han Fei and the Han Feizi Paul R. Goldin Han Fei 韓非 was the name of a proli fi c Chinese philosopher who (according to the scanty records available to us) was executed on trumped up charges in 233 B.C.E. Han Feizi 韓非子, meaning Master Han Fei , is the name of the book purported to contain his writings. In this volume, we distinguish rigorously between Han Fei (the man) and Han Feizi (the book) for two main reasons. First, the authenticity of the Han Feizi —or at least of parts of it—has long been doubted (the best studies remain Lundahl 1992 and Zheng Liangshu 1993 ) . This issue will be revisited below; for now, suffi ce to it to say that although the contributors to this volume accept the bulk of it as genuine, one cannot simply assume that Han Fei was the author of everything in the Han Feizi . Indeed, there is a memorial explic- itly attributed to Han Fei’s rival Li Si 李斯 (ca. 280–208 B.C.E.) in the pages of the Han Feizi ( Chen Qiyou 陳奇猷 2000 : 1.2.42–47); some scholars fear that other material in the text might also be the work of people other than Han Fei. Second, and no less importantly, even if Han Fei is responsible for the lion’s share of the extant Han Feizi , a reader must be careful not to identify the philosophy of Han Fei himself with the philosophy (or philosophies) advanced in the Han Feizi , as though these were necessarily the same thing.
    [Show full text]
  • Han Feizi's Criticism of Confucianism and Its Implications for Virtue Ethics
    JOURNAL OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY Journal of Moral Philosophy 5 (2008) 423–453 www.brill.nl/jmp Han Feizi’s Criticism of Confucianism and its Implications for Virtue Ethics * Eric L. Hutton Department of Philosophy, University of Utah, 215 S. Central Campus Drive, CTIHB, 4th fl oor, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA [email protected] Abstract Several scholars have recently proposed that Confucianism should be regarded as a form of virtue ethics. Th is view off ers new approaches to understanding not only Confucian thinkers, but also their critics within the Chinese tradition. For if Confucianism is a form of virtue ethics, we can then ask to what extent Chinese criticisms of it parallel criticisms launched against contemporary virtue ethics, and what lessons for virtue ethics in general might be gleaned from the challenges to Confucianism in particular. Th is paper undertakes such an exercise in examining Han Feizi, an early critic of Confucianism. Th e essay off ers a careful interpretation of the debate between Han Feizi and the Confucians and suggests that thinking through Han Feizi’s criticisms and the possible Confucian responses to them has a broader philosophical payoff , namely by highlighting a problem for current defenders of virtue ethics that has not been widely noticed, but deserves attention. Keywords Bernard Williams, Chinese philosophy, Confucianism, Han Feizi, Rosalind Hursthouse, virtue ethics Although Confucianism is now almost synonymous with Chinese culture, over the course of history it has also attracted many critics from among the Chinese themselves. Of these critics, one of the most interesting is Han Feizi (ca.
    [Show full text]
  • The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2012 Dynamics of Disintegration: The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier Wai Kit Wicky Tse University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Asian History Commons, Asian Studies Commons, and the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Tse, Wai Kit Wicky, "Dynamics of Disintegration: The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier" (2012). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 589. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/589 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/589 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Dynamics of Disintegration: The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier Abstract As a frontier region of the Qin-Han (221BCE-220CE) empire, the northwest was a new territory to the Chinese realm. Until the Later Han (25-220CE) times, some portions of the northwestern region had only been part of imperial soil for one hundred years. Its coalescence into the Chinese empire was a product of long-term expansion and conquest, which arguably defined the egionr 's military nature. Furthermore, in the harsh natural environment of the region, only tough people could survive, and unsurprisingly, the region fostered vigorous warriors. Mixed culture and multi-ethnicity featured prominently in this highly militarized frontier society, which contrasted sharply with the imperial center that promoted unified cultural values and stood in the way of a greater degree of transregional integration. As this project shows, it was the northwesterners who went through a process of political peripheralization during the Later Han times played a harbinger role of the disintegration of the empire and eventually led to the breakdown of the early imperial system in Chinese history.
    [Show full text]
  • The First Emperor of China
    INTERACTIVE STUDENT NOTEBOOK The First Emperor of China Was the Emperor of Qin an effective leader? PREVIEW Place an X in the column that indicates whether you think each of the actions described below is evidence that a leader is effective or ineffective. Leader Effective Ineffective A leader who has absolute control over his people A leader who unifies the government A leader who makes laws for everyone to follow A leader who protects his people from invaders A leader who has his opponents killed A leader whose legacy lasts years beyond his death Which one of the actions makes a leader the most effective? Which one of the actions makes a leader the least effective? Explain your choices. © Teachers’ Curriculum Institute The First Emperor of China 1 INTERACTIVE STUDENT NOTEBOOK READING NOTES Social Studies Vocabulary As you complete the Reading Notes, use these terms in your answers. Qin Shi Huangdi Great Wall immortal standardize censor Section 1 Step 1: In the image at right, circle and label three interesting details. Then, in the space below, explain what you think these details reveal about the Emperor of Qin. You may also look at this image in Section 1 of the Student Text. Step 2: Read Section 1. Answer the questions below in complete sentences. 1. Did Qin Shi Huangdi’s control of China help or hurt the country? Explain. 2. How did Qin Shi Huangdi end feudalism? Why did he do this? Step 3: Did the Emperor of Qin’s efforts to control China make him an effective ruler? Mark your answer with an X on the spectrum below.
    [Show full text]