Xi'an Tarracottta Army

6. Emperor Qin Front View

Emperor is a controversial ruler in Chinese history. He was crowned when he was 13. But the power remained in the hands of his prime minister and his mother and her paramour until his adult ceremony came. He successfully killed the prime minister and his mother's paramour and secured his own rule. When he was 39 he unified China. His main contributions to China are the unification of measurements, currencies and characters and building national road system. Under his cruel rule, Confucian scholars were buried alive and Confucian books were burned. Hundreds of thousands people died in massive construction of his mausoleum (Terracotta Army is just small of it), the Great Wall of China and his grand E Pang Palace. Our statue is a sculpture of imagination.

In order to consolidate the nascent empire, Qin Shi Huang reformed politics, economy and culture. In politics, he abolished the hereditary vassal enfeoffment system and established prefectures and counties, ruled directly by the emperor. Based on the original rules of the Qin State, the emperor adopted some regulations of other rival states to form a workable law of the Qin Dynasty. In economy, he claimed that both the agriculture and commerce were very important. People should have them developed together. Besides, tax system began to function and coinage and metrology were all standardized. In culture, the emperor unified the Chinese characters in writing, which promoted the development of the Chinese culture. However, he also suppressed scholars who were not to his liking. Consequently, many scholars involved were killed in Xian Yang.

Qin Shi Huang longed for longevity, so he sent his ministers to go on quests seeking for an elixir of immortality. However, death claimed him before he could find success on that matter. The emperor departed from the world of the living in 210 BC while traveling. The Peasant Uprising led by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang broke out soon after Hu Hai, the second generation, got onto the throne. Accordingly, the Qin Dynasty came to an abrupt end in 206 BC. Qin Shi Huang is truly an epoch-making historic emperor in China's history.