A unified country developed from a vassal state at the end of the Warring States Period was the first unified dynasty in China feudal society (22 BC1~ 207 BC). After the emperors of Qin encroached on the princes, Qin Shihuang completed the cause of unifying the six countries and realized the transformation from the enfeoffment system to the county system. The autocratic centralization he established and some measures he took to consolidate reunification were adopted by later emperors. The Qin dynasty was urgent and tyrannical, which led to its rapid demise. At the end of last year, the peasant war led by Chen Sheng and Guangwu initiated the tradition of armed resistance against the dark rule in the history of China, which had far-reaching influence. Due to the social influence caused by the separatist situation in the past, the separatist tendency appeared again in the process of anti-Qin. In the subsequent sovereignty dispute between Chu and Han (207-202 BC), Han won and Chu lost, which controlled the separatist regime and restored the unified country.
Authoritarian centralization was established in 22 1 BC, and the king of Qin (reigned from 246 BC to 2 10 BC) unified the six countries, ending the long-term vassal regime and establishing a vast country with Xianyang as its capital. The territory of this country is east to the sea, west to Longxi, south to Lingnan, and north to Hetao, Yinshan and Liaodong. The King of Qin adopted the honorific title of the legendary Three Emperors and Five Emperors, claiming to be the first emperor of this country, which was handed down from generation to generation by later generations and called the second and third emperors. He thinks that the system that regards the emperor's behavior as his own death is "the son discusses the father and the minister discusses the monarch", which is detrimental to the dignity of the emperor, so he declares its abolition. He stipulated that the emperor should call himself "I" and formulated the system and documents of respecting the monarch and restraining the ministers. These are all to show the emperor's supreme authority, which indicates that Qin's rule will be eternal and long-lasting. Since the Zhou Dynasty, the system of sealing off the country and building a clan is incompatible with the autocratic imperial power and unifying the country and must be changed. In the twenty-sixth year of the first emperor (the first 22 years1year), Prime Minister Wang Wan asked the princes to be princes of Yan Qi Chu, which was approved by the ministers. Ting Wei and Li Si advocated abolishing the enfeoffment system and fully implementing the county system. Qin Shihuang accepted Lisi's suggestion and divided the whole country into 36 counties, which was later increased to more than 40 counties. These counties are completely controlled by the central government and the emperor and are local administrative units under the central government. Centralization was established from then on. In the twenty-eighth year of the first emperor, Yishan carved a stone and said, "Remember the troubled times, divide the country into civil works and compete with each other"; "this is the royal family, a world, soldiers will no longer rise." This shows that Qin Shihuang thought it necessary to cancel the enfeoffment system of counties and counties in order to eliminate military struggles in various places.
On the basis of the official system of Qin State during the Warring States Period, Qin Shihuang adjusted and expanded the official system and established a new government agency to meet the needs of reunifying the country. In this institution, the central government has the prime minister Qiu and the physician. The Prime Minister has two members, left and right, who are in charge of political affairs. Qiu is in charge of the military and doesn't often buy it. The Imperial Scholar is the second deputy of the Prime Minister, in charge of the library secretary and supervising officials. Under the Prime Minister, Qiu, and imperial envoys, there are various ministers who are in charge of specific government affairs, including doctors in charge of the palace, guards stationed in the palace, deputy generals in charge of public security in Gyeonggi, Tingwei in charge of punishment, internal history of Ji Xia, taxes on mountains and seas and handicrafts supplied by the government to the royal family, those in charge of the palace, those in charge of domestic ethnic affairs and foreign affairs, and guest appearances. The prime minister, Qiu, Qiu, discussed the state affairs, and the emperor ruled.
Local administrative agencies are divided into counties and counties. There are guards, governors and supervisors in the county. The sheriff is in charge of his county. The county commandant assisted the county magistrate and gave a military salute. Supervised by the county police. County, 1 10,000 households or more, and 1 10,000 households or less. The county magistrate and the governor have subordinates such as Cheng and Wei. County officials are appointed and removed by the central government. There are townships below the county level, and three bosses are set up for education. Misers are responsible for litigation and taxation, and swimmers are responsible for public security. There is a village in the country, which is the most basic administrative unit. There is Li Dian, later known as Li Zheng and Li Kui, with "Hao Shuai" as the powerful person. In addition, there is a special organization for public security and banning thieves, called pavilion, long. The two pavilions are about 10 miles apart.
As early as 10 years in Qin Xiangong (the first 375 years), Qin established a "household registration system" for the purpose of "accusing traitors". Later, Shang Yang stipulated that both men and women should be included in the household registration after birth and removed from the list after death; And, "Why did you let the people fight?" It is stipulated in the Qin Law that migrants have to pay for their registered permanent residence, which is called "changing their registered permanent residence". During the Qin Dynasty, the household registration system became more and more complete. In the sixteenth year of Qin Dynasty (23 1), men were required to declare their age, which was called "the age of the book". According to the presumption of Yunmeng Qin Bamboo Slips, the household registration was recorded in the fifteenth year of Qin Dynasty (the other was seventeen years), which was called "corvee". Book year and Fu nationality are the basis of national conscription system. In the thirty-first year of the first emperor, "the land was cultivated by thousands of hands", that is, the people were required to declare their land. Land is included in the household registration, which gives the country the main basis for collecting land rent. There are age, land and other contents in household registration, so the household registration system far exceeds the need of "accusing traitors" and has become a fundamental system for the state to rule the people. Qin bought a title of 20 to reward the military. The state grants farmland houses according to people's ranks of titles, and people with high titles can also get privileges such as food city (see title system). Titles are included in household registration, so household registration is also a person's identity certificate.
Governing a big country requires a consistent and relatively complete legal system throughout the country. Unearthed Yunmeng Qin Bamboo Slips provide some contents of Qin Law revised successively from Qin Xiaogong to Qin Shihuang, including laws and interpretations of criminal law, numerous other laws and cases, and legal documents on prison management (see Yunmeng Qin Law). After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, based on the Qin law and referring to the laws of the six countries, he formulated the national laws. After the gains and losses of the Han Dynasty, Qin law became the blueprint of the laws of previous dynasties before the Tang Dynasty.
In order to maintain the unity of great powers, we need a strong army. In order to eliminate the remnants of the six countries, Qin Jun stationed troops all over the country, which is the key area of garrison. Qin sent troops with bronze tiger symbols, which were cut in half, with the right part in the hands of the emperor and the left part in the hands of the leader. Only by combining the left and right symbols can the army be mobilized. This is an important system to ensure that military power is in the hands of the emperor. Qin Jun is an unprecedented great deterrent. It is estimated that there are 7000 warrior figures, chariots 100 and horses 100 in the two pits excavated in recent years. Warrior figurines are as tall as real people, and the weapons they hold are physical objects rather than funerary objects. This large military array consisting of vehicles, infantry and cavalry is a powerful symbol of Qin Jun.
Qin Shihuang not only established a set of autocratic and centralized ruling institutions and systems, but also adopted the theory of five virtues of Yin and Yang in the Warring States period to defend the legal system of the Qin Dynasty. According to the theory of five virtues, in the end, every dynasty ruled in the order of five virtues, such as earth, wood, gold, fire and water, and so on. Qin's water virtue is still black, so Qin's dresses and flags are all black; The corresponding number of Shuide is six, so the length of symbol transmission and the height of crown are six inches each, and the width of bar is six feet; Water virtue is the main punishment, so political rule strives to be harsh and does not pay attention to "benevolence and righteousness"; Corresponding to Shuide, the calendar begins in October, and so on. Qin Shihuang also decided on a set of complex sacrificial ceremonies and Buddhist ceremonies suitable for the position of emperor, and carried out activities at the right time. Qin Shihuang built many palaces near Xianyang, modeled after the palaces of Kanto countries, and built a magnificent Epang Palace south of Weishui. The layout of Xianyang Palace is taken from Wei Zi Palace in the sky. It is like the residence of God on earth and a symbol of world unity. Qin Shihuang also built a mausoleum in Lishan ahead of schedule. The rivers and seas in the mausoleum were infused with mercury, with astronomy above and geography below. He took these measures, just as he adopted the emperor's name, to show that his power on earth is equivalent to God's power in heaven, thus instilling mysterious imperial power into his subjects. The mysterious concept of imperial power is the ideological basis of authoritarian centralization.
The strengthening and deification of imperial power, the comprehensive implementation of county system, the establishment of bureaucracy and various systems embodying imperial power autocracy, the perfection and unification of laws, and the emperor's strengthening of military control are the main contents of authoritarian centralization. Authoritarian centralization was an indispensable condition for maintaining feudal unity at that time. However, this political system has great restrictions on the people; Moreover, its role in promoting economic and cultural development can also be transformed into a blocking role, which is more significant in the later period of feudal society.
The measures to prevent the feudal separatist regime caused by the long-term division of Confucianism led Qin Shihuang to pay close attention to the trend of the old places in the six countries and worried that the old nobles in the six countries would attempt to restore them. In order to prevent the recurrence of the separatist situation, Qin Shihuang moved 120,000 rich and powerful families in six countries to Xianyang, and the other part moved to Bashu, Nanyang, Sanchuan and Zhao Di, so that they could be monitored separately from the countryside. He destroyed the seized and confiscated weapons and cast twelve clocks weighing thousands of stones in Xianyang? Copper man. He also ordered that "the barriers should be destroyed, the defense should be made clear, and the obstacles should be removed", so as to eliminate the means of feudal nobles relying on separatist regimes as much as possible. In order to control the vast territory, especially the old territory of the six countries, Qin Shihuang also built Chidao from the capital Xianyang to all parts of the country, with Yanqi in the east and Wu Chu in the south. He himself visited many counties along the equator and carved stones in many places to demonstrate. In order to strengthen the northern defense, in the thirty-fifth year of Qin Shihuang (2 12 BC), a straight road was built from Xianyang to Jiuyuan (now west of Baotou, Inner Mongolia), with a ravine of 1,800 miles. Wuchi Road was built in the southwest, which is now the place south of Yibin in Sichuan and Zhaotong in Yunnan, and officials were set up nearby.
Qin Shihuang also struggled with the ideological and political tendency of the separatist regime. At that time, some Confucian scholars and tourists hoped to restore the situation of aristocratic separatism. They "go in with their hearts, but come out with their opinions." They quoted poems, books and hundreds of languages and regarded the past as the past. In the thirty-fourth year of the first emperor, Prime Minister Lisi demanded that poetry books be burned and private schools be destroyed. He suggested that "historians should burn all the records of the Qin Dynasty. If you are not a doctor, people who dare to collect poems, books and hundreds of languages in the world will learn to keep them and burn them. Some people who dare to speak "poetry" and "books" abandon the market. Think of the past as a family that is not the present. Those officials are all guilty of the same crime if they don't mention it. If it doesn't burn for the next 30 days, it will be a city. Those who don't go, the book of planting trees. If you want to learn laws and regulations, you should take officials as teachers. " Qin Shihuang accepted this suggestion, so there was a book burning incident. In the second year, the alchemist who sought the elixir for Qin Shihuang slandered him and invited him to flee. Qin Shihuang sent an imperial adviser to monitor the Confucian alchemist in Xianyang and killed more than 460 people who were considered to have violated the ban. Under the early historical conditions of feudal society, in the era of fierce struggle between unification and division, it is understandable that Qin Shihuang used the means of burning books to bury Confucianism to crack down on aristocratic politics. However, the behavior of burning books to bury Confucianism and destroy culture is extremely barbaric, which has caused great losses to the preservation of ancient documents and academic teaching.
Although Qin Shihuang's policy customization adopted two thoughts of Yin and Yang, it was basically based on Legalism. Burning books to bury Confucianism, "teaching by law" and "taking officials as teachers" more prominently reflect his legalist thought.
Orderly system Qin Shihuang unified the political, economic and cultural systems of some countries based on the original system of Qin, in an attempt to eliminate the regional differences caused by long-term separatism as much as possible in order to facilitate reunification.
During the Warring States period, although the basic structure of Chinese characters in different countries was the same, the complexity of fonts and the position of radicals were different. Li Si was ordered to unify the script. Based on the characters of Qin State and referring to the characters of six countries, he formulated seal script, wrote it as a model, and promoted it throughout the country. At that time, there was a popular calligraphy called official script, which was simpler than Xiao Zhuan.
Qin Shihuang abolished currencies of different shapes and sizes in various countries during the Warring States Period, and changed to gold as the currency, with the unit of 22; Take the round hole copper coin of the old Qin line as the next coin, and the text is half, which is as heavy as its text. Qin Shihuang unified the national weights and measures with the standards of weights and measures formulated by Shang Yang. Today, the power of the Qin dynasty is engraved with the imperial edict of unified measurement issued in the twenty-sixth year of the first emperor (2 1 1). This kind of weight has been unearthed and widely distributed, and it has also been found outside the Great Wall, which shows that unified measurement is serious and effective. Qin Shihuang also stipulated the allowable limits of weights and measures errors by law. He set 6 feet as steps and 240 steps as acres. However, the 240-step system was actually used only in the old Qin Dynasty and probably in the old Zhao Dynasty, while many areas in the East still used the 100-step system as an acre until the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
The unification of writing, currency and weights and measures provides convenient conditions for economic and cultural development and promotes the development of a unified country.
The wars against Xiongnu and Vietnamese Xiongnu were distributed in the Mongolian Plateau, and they often invaded the south from the end of the Warring States Period. After the national reunification, Qin Shihuang sent Meng Tian to lead 300,000 troops to fight against the Huns. In the thirty-second year of the first emperor (2 15 BC), Meng Tian recovered the land south of Hetao, which was called "Henan land" at that time, and further expelled the Huns in the second year. Qin started from Yuzhong (east of Lanzhou, Gansu, but there are different opinions) to the north, set up 34 counties in the east of the Yellow River and south of Yinshan Mountain, and built a river on a section of the Yellow River. Qin also restored and connected Yan, Zhao and Qin Changcheng during the Warring States Period, and built the Great Wall of Wan Li, one of the great ancient world projects from Lintao (now Minxian County, Gansu Province) in the west to Liaodong in the east, to protect the northern agricultural areas. Then, Qin moved tens of thousands of people to Hetao. This has played a positive role in reclaiming border areas and strengthening border defense.
The Vietnamese in China are distributed in East China and South China, divided into Fujian, Vietnam and Xi 'ou. Fujian and Vietnam are now in Zhejiang and Fujian, South Vietnam is now in Guangdong and eastern Guangxi, and xi 'ou is now in southwestern Guangdong, southwestern Guangxi and even southeastern Yunnan. The Yue people "tattooed their hair and embraced their arms" and engaged in fishing and hunting agriculture. Xi 'ou people are mainly engaged in agricultural production.
In the twenty-fourth year of the King of Qin (223 BC), Wang Jian led Qin Jun to destroy Chu, continued southward, won part of the land of the Yue people, and set up Huiji County (now Suzhou, Jiangsu). In twenty-six years, Qin Shihuang sent Wei Tu Sui to send 500,000 troops, divided into five armies, to attack Kancheng (now Jingxian County, Hunan Province), Jiuyi (now Ningyuan South, Hunan Province), Panyu (now Guangzhou, Guangdong Province), Ye Nan (now Nankang, Jiangxi Province) and Yugan (now Yugan, Jiangxi Province) for three years. Qin Jun defeated the resistance of Fujian and Vietnam, and set up Minzhong County (now Fuzhou, Fujian) with its land. Qin Jun, who attacked South Vietnam, also occupied Panyu. Only Qin Jun, on the western front, met with stubborn resistance from the Xi 'ou people. In order to solve the difficulty of salary transfer in Qin Jun, Jian Lu led troops to dig a canal between Xiangshui and Lishui (now Xing 'an, Guangxi) to connect the traffic of the Yangtze River and the Pearl River system. In the battle with the Ou people, Xi Ou Jun translated and Qin Jun Commander Wei Tusui died one after another. In thirty-three years, Qin Shihuang sent reinforcements from the people, husbands and businessmen who fled in Neixian County to conquer Western Europe, and built Nanhai County (now Guangzhou, Guangdong), Xiang Jun County (now Chongzuo, Guangxi) and Guilin County (now Guiping, Guangxi) in the hometown of Southern Guangdong and Western Europe and its adjacent areas, and continued to recruit people to defend them. In this way, hundreds of thousands of northern farmers stayed there to live with the Vietnamese and develop the Pearl River Basin.