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First Chinese Imperial Period

First Chinese Imperial Period

The first Chinese Imperial Period began in 221 B.C. that constituted China Proper. In the same year, the strongest of all time periods, the Warring States or the western frontier state of Qin, subdued the last of its rival states of Eastern Zhou while depending heavily on the legalist scholar advisors. The English China was said to be evolved from the Qin Dynasty. After the king of Qin Dynasty gained his control over the entire kingdom of China, he was titled as Shi Huangdi.

He was the First Emperor of China before whom this title was reserved for deities and sage-emperors of Chinese mythology. This formulation also brought centralized and non-hereditary bureaucratic system on the Qins new empire. Qin administered centralization through ruthless ways and emphasized on regulating legal coding and bureaucratic system, writing and coinage system, thought procedure and scholarship pattern.

To put a halt to the imperial ruling critiques, Qin killed many rebellions including Confucian scholars and took the possession of their books and burnt them all. Qins enhancement was supported by several military expeditions promoting the northern and southern frontiers. The Warring states built many fortification walls together making a 5,000-km long great wall to fight against the barbarian intruders.

The Great Wall of China, for instance, is made up of four great walls stretched out during the periods of Western Han, Sui, Jin and Ming. It extends from north-eastern Heilongjiang Province to north-western Gansu.

Many other public works activities undertaken required heavy manpower and resources, including authoritarian measures. At the death of the first Qin emperor in 210 B.C., revolts took place. His dynasty was into existence for not more than twenty years, but the imperial system set henceforth was practiced in the next two millenniums.

After the revolts, Han Dynasty was revived between 206 B.C. and A.D. 220, and a new capital emerged called Changan. The new kingdom did adopt the Qin administrative structure with less of centralized ruling system, and rather established vassals in few areas to facilitate political structure.

The Han rulers adopted the Confucian ideals of government and the scholars were granted status during this period. Much focus was given on intellectual system, literature and art. In this period, Sima Qian provided a detailed chronicle between Xia-Han dynasty, named as Shiji. Paper and porcelain were also invented during the Han Empire.

The silk route was the name given to the paths of caravan traffic for the export of Chinese silk to the Roman Empire. A tributary system was formulated by the Han court to promote peace with non-Chinese local powers and not force the latter to adopt Han lordship. Flooded and puzzled by many corrupt practices of the Qin dynasty, the Han Empire came to an end in A.D. 220.

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