Much of what has come to make China was united for the first time in 221 BC In the same year the western border of Qin, the most aggressive of the Warring States, subjugated the last of its rival states. (Qin in Wade-Giles romanization is Ch'in, from which the English China probably derived.) Once the king of Qin consolidated his power, took the title Shi Huangdi (the first emperor), the formulation previously reserved for deities and the mythological sage-emperors, and imposed Qin centralized and bureaucratic nonhereditary of his new empire. In the presentation of six other major states of Eastern Zhou, the king of Qin scholars relied on consultants legalistic. Centralization, achieved by ruthless methods, was to harmonize the laws and bureaucratic procedures, the forms of writing and coins, and a way of thinking and science. To silence criticism of imperial rule, the kings banished or executed many special Confucian scholars and confiscated and burned their books (.) Qin magnification was aided by frequent military campaigns that promote border with the north and south. To fend off the barbarian invasions, the walls built by the various warring states were connected to make a big wall of 5,000 kilometers (.) What is commonly known as the Great Wall [image Great Wall] are actually four great walls rebuilt and extend the Western Han, Sui, Jin, and Ming periods, not a wall, in a continuous manner. At their ends, the Great Wall stretches from the northeastern province of Heilongjiang () in the province of Gansu (). A series of public works have also been made to strengthen and improve the imperial state. These activities require enormous capacity fees, not to mention repressive measures. The rebellion broke out as soon as the first emperor of Qin died in 210 BC His dynasty was extinguished less than twenty years after its triumph. Imperial system initiated during the Qin dynasty, however, set a pattern that has developed over the next two millennia.
[Map of Khan] After a brief civil war, a new dynasty, called Han (206 BC-220 AD), with its capital at Chang'an (). The new empire retained much of the Qin administrative structure but retreated a bit 'from centralized domain by establishing vassal principalities in some areas for reasons of political expediency. Han rulers modified some of the harshest aspects of the previous dynasty, the Confucian ideals of government, out of favor during the Qin adopted creed of the Han empire, and Confucian scholars were prominent status as the basis of governance. Civil service system test begins. Efforts intellectuals, literary and artistic revived and flourished. Han period produced China's most famous historian, Sima Qian (145-87 BC?) Who Shiji (Historical Records) provides a detailed chronicle of the legendary Xia emperor to emperor Han Wu Ti (141-87 BC). Technological advances also marked this period. L ', two great Chinese inventions of paper and porcelain, date from the time it is.
Han dynasty, after which the members of the ethnic majority in China, they are called the "people of Han," was also known for his military prowess. Empire extended west to the edge of the Tarim Basin (in modern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region), making possible relatively secure caravan traffic across Central Asia to Antioch, Baghdad, and Alexandria. traces of the caravan is often called the "silk road" (), since the route was used to export Chinese silk to the Roman Empire. Chinese troops invaded also annexed parts of northern Vietnam and North Korea at the end of the second century BC Han control of peripheral regions was generally insecure, however. To ensure peace with non-Chinese local powers, the Han court developed a mutually beneficial "tributary system" (). States are not allowed to remain autonomous in exchange for Chinese symbolic recognition of the estate. tax obligations confirmed and strengthened through intermarriages decision-making level and periodic exchanges of gifts and goods.
After 200 years, Han rule was interrupted briefly (24.9, Wang Man, or reformer), and then restored for another 200 years. The rulers, however, were not able to adapt to the centralization that had: population growth, increased wealth and, as a result of financial difficulties and rivalries and political institutions more difficult. Riddled with the corruption characteristic of the dynastic cycle, by AD 220 the Han empire collapsed.
Age of Strife
The fall of the Han dynasty was followed by nearly four centuries of rule of the warlords. Years of civil wars and disunity began with the era of the Three Kingdoms (Wei, Shu and Wu, which reigns in the overlap between AD 220-80). Recently, fiction, and drama is very romantic reputation cavalry of the term. The unit was restored briefly in the early years of the Jin Dynasty (265-420 AD), but Jin could not long contain the invasions of nomadic peoples. In 317, the Jin court was forced to flee from Luoyang and restored
Same in Nanjing in the south. Transfer of the capital coincided with China's political fragmentation in the sequence of dynasties, which lasted from AD 304-589. During this period, the accelerated process Sinicization between Chinese newcomers in the north and among the indigenous tribes of the south. This process was also accompanied by the increasing popularity of Buddhism (introduced into China in the first century AD) in the north and in the south of China. Despite the lack of political unity of time, there have been significant technological advances. The invention of gunpowder (at that time only for the use of fireworks) and the wheelbarrow is believed to date to the sixth or seventh century. Advances in medicine, astronomy and cartography are also noted by historians.
