China_008-061 10/15/08 9:58 AM Page 8 People Qin Shi Huangdi Li Si Wudi Sima Qian Cao family Taizong Xuanzang Wu Zetian Li Bai Huizong Su Shi Zhu Xi Kublai Khan Hongwu Yongle Head with green flesh tones, Qin dynasty, terracotta, lacquer, pigment, Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses, Lintong. China_008-061 10/15/08 9:58 AM Page 10 Qin Shi Huangdi “He changed the calendar and chose black as the color . and chose six as the basic number: seals and official hats measured Ding tripods are among the most The earliest sources that tell of the all six inches, carts six feet” (Sima Qian) ancient ritual food vases; they Nine Legendary Tripods, cast were used for meat offerings in the during the mythical Xia dynasty, royal tombs of the Shang epoch. date to the 6th–4th centuries BC. The tripods were said to have been handed on from dynasty to dynasty, Qin Shi Huangdi symbols of the passage of political power and the right to rule. In 221 BC, having defeated the six principal contenders for supreme First emperor of China power, the leader of the Qin dynasty assumed the new title of Shi Period Huangdi, “first august emperor,” and laid the basis for an empire Qin (221–206 BC) whose structure remained intact for more than two thousand years. To Reign increase the central power, the first emperor divided the country into 247–221 BC (reign of Qin); 221–210 BC thirty-six administrative units, the governors of which had to report to (emperor) central authorities and were supported in their tasks by generals in Family name charge of military control. The laws of the individual kingdoms in Zhao or Qin force until then were replaced by a penal code destined to remain at the Given name base of the Chinese judicial system until the threshold of the 20th cen- Zheng tury. Coins, weights, and measures, even the width of cart axles were Terms Small seal script standardized; the writing forms in use were standardized, creating so- (xiaozhuan) called small seal script, making possible the codification of a unitary Related entries literary language for the empire. The first emperor undertook massive Li Si, Mandate of construction projects, building new roads and canals that eased the heaven, Controlling water, War, Great Wall, movement of people and goods; existing fortresses were strengthened The quest for and connected to form a barrier along the northern border, the Great immortality, Xianyang Wall. Sumptuous palaces and an immense mausoleum were built to preserve The historian Sima Qian During the Han period it The scene depicts the moment the imperial power (mid-2nd century BC) was said that Qin Shi in which the cables broke and for eternity. The lamented the loss of the Huangdi had sent thousands the men tumbled back. The Nine Tripods and repeated of men to remove the image is thus symbolic of enormous strain the legend according to tripods from the river, but at heaven’s disapproval of the Qin placed on the peo- which they had sunk in the the critical moment a dragon government and thus legitimizes Si River near Pencheng150 had bitten through the the Han seizure of power. Ding tripod, Qin ple of China to pro- years before the unification cables, making them fall dynasty, from the pit vide the money and of the country by the Qin. back into the waves. with acrobats near the tomb of Qin Shi labor demanded by these Huangdi at Lintong, undertakings led to a gen- bronze, 64 cm diam., The Emperor Seeks the Tripods, Chinese History eral insurrection and thus Eastern Han Dynasty, 2nd century Museum, Beijing. AD, rubbing of a stone bas-relief, the end of the dynasty only a few years after from the eastern wall of Room 2, the first emperor’s death. Wu Liang Shrine, Shandong. 10 11 China_008-061 10/15/08 9:58 AM Page 12 Qin Shi Huangdi As soon as he ascended the throne of The three enormous pits of the mausoleum, containing more Qin, in 246 BC, the first emperor had than seven thousand terracotta soldiers, are famous throughout work begin on his tomb at Mount Li, the world, but few know that the statues were all covered by a near the capital of Xianyang. The work natural lacquer that had been applied as an undercoat for the continued until 208 BC. layer of paint made using precious mineral pigments. When the statues were removed from the moist soil, the layer of lacquer dried out and flaked off the surfaces, remaining The emperor arranged to stuck to the ground have himself surrounded by that had held them all the comforts that he for more than would require in the two millennia. afterlife; the two quadrigas would prove useful for the inspection trips he would take in the other world. The horse trappings and Only in recent accessories for the carts are years, and with the decorated with inlaid gold and use of various silver. Both carts were covered chemical methods, by very thin bronze canopies. has it been possible to reattach the paint to the Carts, charioteers, and terracotta. The horses were all painted, archers were increasing the realistic restored in situ in effect of the quadrigas. 1999 using a procedure developed especially for the terracotta army. The two bronze single-shaft Archer, restored and carts, made to a scale of 1:2, are photographed in situ, Qin The two quadrigas as they perfectly working models that dynasty, Pit 2 of the mausoleum were found, in 1980, in the One of the quadrigas after reproduce the royal carriages of the first emperor, lacquered western area of the mausoleum its restoration, Museum of down to the smallest detail. and painted terracotta, Museum of the first emperor at Lintong, Qin Terracotta Warriors and of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Shaanxi, Qin dynasty. Horses, Lintong. Horses, Lintong. 12 13 China_008-061 10/15/08 9:58 AM Page 14 Li Si “In the state of the intelligent ruler there is no literature . the Chinese historiography relates The victims of this pyre of books that Li Si, promoter of a included not only the chronicles of law is the only teaching. There are no quoted sayings of the centralized state, urged the first feudal states but also Confucian early kings, the magistrates are the only instructors” (Han Fei) emperor to silence dissent by classics; only the chronicles of the means of a drastic measure: the Qin and scientific texts were spared. burning of books, an event that Li Si took place in 213 BC. The intransigent politics of Qin Shi Huangdi received theoretical Prime minister of Qin support from the Legalist school, represented at court by Prime Shi Huangdi Minister Li Si. The oldest text related to this movement is the Period Book of Lord of Shang, the creator of which had served the Qin Qin (221–206 BC) king in the 4th century BC. The author of the principal Legalist Life BC During the years of circa 280–208 BC work, Han Feizi, was put to death in 233 by Li Si, following a court intrigue. In the ideal Legalist state, power is concentrated in persecution Fu Terms Sheng had hidden a Legalism the hands of the ruler, who makes use of the “law,” inflexible and copy of the Classic (fajia, liter., “school equal for everyone with the exception of the ruler himself, and of of Documents of law”) inside the walls of Book of Lord Shang “methods,” deceptive tactics by which he maintains control of his home, and he (Shangjunshu) the state, manipulating human instincts. The Legalist state does spent the rest of his The Book of Master life, well into his Han Fei not recognize cultural differences and does not have room for nineties, teaching (Han Feizi) individual expression. This was also the ideological thinking its contents. Law (fa) Methods (shu) behind the standardization of weights and measurements and writing. Later Chinese historians credited Li Si for having created Related entries Fu Sheng is seated Qin Shi Huangdi, the new uniform writing system, but also found fault with him cross-legged on a simple mat; on the Officials and literati, for persecuting literati and for destroying works of literature and Writing, Confucianism low table in front history from earlier periods. Following the death of Qin Shi of him are the tools of a man of Huangdi, Li Si took part in the plot that brought the second letters: a pen and emperor to the throne. Later, he himself fell victim to a plot, an ink stone. On the floor near the shortly before the collapse of the Qin dynasty, which also marked mat is the famous the end of the supremacy of the Legalist school. book he managed to keep hidden. According to legend, in 212 BC, the year after the book burning, 460 Measurement unit Confucian scholars were buried alive with edict of the first for having defended their ideas. emperor, Qin dynasty, from Zhuguo, Zoucheng province, engraved clay, 20.5 cm diam., Shandong Provincial Museum, Portrait of Fu Sheng, Tang Shandong. dynasty, 9th century AD, ink and color on silk, 25.4 x 44.7 cm, Municipal Museum of Art, Osaka. 14 15 China_008-061 10/15/08 9:58 AM Page 16 Wudi “We therefore direct the leaders of provinces and districts to examine officials and private citizens . for those able to become our generals, our ministers, our ambassadors” (Han emperor Wudi) In 138 BC the Han General Zhang Qian The mission failed in its emperor Wudi sent was captured by the objective but was of Wudi Zhang Qian with a Xiongnu, and ten years fundamental importance hundred men on an passed before he to the Chinese embassy to the Yuezhi, succeeded in escaping government, which as a located in ancient Bactria and reaching the Yuezhi, result obtained its first The first emperors of the Han dynasty had a conciliatory atti- in Central Asia, to make only to find they had no eye-witness account of Emperor tude toward bordering peoples and lands, most of all the an alliance with them intention of becoming the populations of the against the powerful involved in a war with “western lands.” Period Xiongnu tribes of northern China; Wudi replaced this with an Xiongnu nomads.