The king of the Qin state, Yinzheng, conquered the other six dukes through ten years of wars and brought an end to riotous Warring States Period (476 BC - 221 BC) in 221 BC. He built up the Qin Dynasty, the first unified, multi-national, autocratic and power-centralized state in Chinese history, making Xianyang, a city near Xi'an in Shaanxi Province, as his capital city. Although Qin is a short dynasty with a span of only fifteen years, it opened 2,000-year-long imperial history in China and exerted a far-reaching influence on the subsequent dynasties. Except for frontiers in the west, southwest and northeast, Qin's territory has been fairly intact up to the present-day. To protect the northern frontier, the first Qin emperor ordered the construction of the Great Wall. He instituted centralism and a strict set of rules by which people lived oppressively. An army of peasants overthrew the harsh Qin regime just one year after the death of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang in 207 BC.

Political History

The first Qin emperor lived from 259 BC to 210 BC. He was crowned at the age of 13 after his king father died. Since he was too young to administer his country, the real power was in the hand of the prime minister, Lu Buwei, who, as was said, was the real father of the young emperor. Emperor Qin remained silent and kept strengthening his own force. When proper occasion came, he arrested the prime minister and sentenced him to death. At the news, the prime minister did nothing but roared out laughter, "Well done, well done, that is my boy."

The first Qin emperor seized power at the age of 22 in 238 BC. Soon after, he launched a unification campaign from 230 BC to 221 BC. The emperor was a great politician. After he unified the country, he carried out a series of political reforms. He divided the country into 36 prefectures, and subdivided into more counties. All the regional governments were subordinate to the central government, which was in the charge of the emperor himself. The first Qin emperor standardized the measurement of weight and length, written script, legal system and currency. He migrated thousands of people to southern border areas to pioneer the virgin land. As the northern tribe, the Xiongnu kept plundering the northern frontiers, Emperor Qin appointed one of his excellent generals, Mengtian, to the northern areas Mengtian beat back the Xiongnu tribe and supervised the construction of the Great Wall.

Anyway, despite all great jobs he did, Emperor Qin ruled as a ruthless tyrant. In order to standardize human thoughts, he burnt most of the books in the country to prevent freethinking. Furthermore, the emperor imposed heavy tax and constrained thousands of people to work on the Great Wall. In the second year after his enthronement, he started the construction of his mausoleum, which took almost 700,000 conscripts over 30 years. In order to continue his reign after his death, he also ordered the construction of the Terra-Cotta Army east of his mausoleum.

The tyranny of Emperor Qin Shi Huang and his successor resulted in the wide oppose in the country. Present uprisings continually struck the regime of the Qin. Finally in 207 BC, Xiangyu's army inflicted heavy losses on the Qin army and in the following year,Liubang broke Xianyang, the capital of Qin, and ended the notorious Qin Dynasty.

Later, in pursuit of the domination of the country, a four-year war, known as Chu-Han War, broke out between Xiangyu and Liubang. Finally, in 202 BC, Liubang defeated Xiangyu and established the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 24 AD), proclaiming himself the emperor of the Han.

Chu-Han War

It refers to the war between Xiangyu and Liubang.

After the collapse of the Qin Empire, the country fell apart again. A new round of power struggle broke out in 206 BC between two leaders of rebellion army.

One of the rivals was Xiangyu, who was born in an aristocratic family of former Chu State in present Jiangsu Province. He received martial arts training from childhood and was versed in military matters. At the end of the Qin Dynasty (221 - 206 BC), he rose up and led his men to defeat the main body of Qin army, proclaimed himself King Of West Chu. The other was Liubang, who was also from present Jiangsu Province. It was his army who first broke into the Qin capital in 206 BC and abolished all the harsh laws set by the Qin, which help him won popularity among local people.

However, Liubang realized that he was inferior to Xiangyu in military force. So when he felt the jealousness by Xiangyu, he decided to beat a temporary retreat in Hanzhong in Shaanxi Province with the title King of Han authorized by Xiangyu.

Liubang fostered his force secretly in Hanzhong. Soon he got a better hank over Xiangyu. The tug of war lasted four years. Due to his blind arrogance and blindness to men of ability, Xiangyu lost the battles at last and committed suicide at Wujiang River in present Anhui Province. Liubang became the founder of the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 24 AD) in 206 BC, the second empire in imperial history after Qin.