The Qin Dynasty, although renowned for its brutality and paranoid emperor, should also receive a legacy of great achievements given its astonishing and monumental impressions embedded in Chinese history. Despite overshadowed by his less appealing side, one should not overlook the ambitions of China’s first emperor, Shi Huangdi, who integrated geographical and social aspects into one state, which would constitute the ideology of unification for future dynasties. The idea of “China” would not exist today without the successful consolidation of power by the Qin Dynasty.

The territorial map of the conquests under the Qin symbolizes probably its greatest accomplishment, the unification of the Seven Warring States in 221 BC. The dashed lines represent the former boundaries of the individual kingdoms prior to Ying Zheng’s (Shi Huangdi) conquests. The location of the Qin Dynasty’s landscape on the plaque conveys one specific message: without the central goal of establishing a single state, no other unified architectural, political, or social projects could exist.

The Great Wall, consistently seen as the quintessential symbol of Chinese culture, possessed origins during the Qin Dynasty. After securing control of the Qin Empire, Shi Huangdi sought to protect his territory from the northern barbarians. His solution was to construct a wall spanning the empire’s northern border, hence the image’s location on the top of the plaque. Although serving as a defensive fortification, the wall also represented a unity of a people. The Great Wall did not exist solely as a newly erected structure, rather a great part of its construction laid in the joining of previously built walls prior to Qin’s unification. In addition, the wall separated an agricultural Chinese culture from the nomadic tribes. What the Great Wall conveys in this plaque is the integration and isolation of a common lifestyle as well as a geographical boundary.

Prior to his death, Emperor Shi Huangdi ordered the design and construction of his final resting place. The underground tomb, possibly one of the greatest burial sites in history, emulates much of the divine aspects Shi Huangdi expressed in his imperial rule. Sources say a map of the Qin conquests comprised the floor of the complex, including natural features, such as rivers flowing with mercury, in addition to a palace and a ceiling filled with gems to symbolize the heavens. The presence of Shi Huangdi’s tomb in this plaque projects the idea that the Qin possessed great technological advancements and resources to be able to construct such an impressive feat of engineering.

In addition to the lavish tomb itself, Shi Huangdi also commanded builders to create clay soldiers to take to the afterlife, hence the origins of the terracotta army. Each soldier, with lifelike human qualities and armor, as well as genuine military equipment, served to protect the emperor even in death. The terracotta army holds a position in this plaque to signify the importance of the military during the Qin period. It was the army that accomplished unification and gave Shi Huangdi his power. The military proved an integral part in China’s foundation, thereby earning a position in the Qin’s greatest achievements.

The widespread use of the crossbow during the Qin period provided its army with a deadly weapon, given its easy use greater power than a traditional bow. But why should a common weapon used throughout Chinese history be given such prestige in the Qin Dynasty? Given the importance of the military, the crossbow proved an effective piece of equipment to assist Ying Zheng’s army in establishing his dream of a unified empire. The Qin’s ability to successfully mass-produce and equip its armies with this weapon, despite its complex design, demonstrates the advanced production capability of this early dynasty.

With the foundation of the Qin Dynasty completed, Ying Zheng then needed to build its economy. With seven different kingdoms under his control, the emperor work towards standardizing the currency. Known as the banliang, the circular coin boasted a square hole in its center and replaced earlier forms of financial methods of payment, thus the appearance of China’s first unified currency. The single form of payment therefore centralized trade and commerce within the new empire. The Qin Dynasty gave birth to numerous “firsts” in Chinese history, and the banliang proved no exception given its use under later dynasties.

As with the creation of a single currency, the Qin also desired to ease the accesses to trade and commerce across a vast territory. To accomplish this task, the dynasty took part in a road construction project that rivaled that of ancient Rome. In addition, the wheel also received a standardized measurement in relations to the width of the roads as means to make transportation more efficient. The system of roads and the establishment dimensions of the wheel projected the Qin’s desire to make the empire a smaller and accessible place.

The goal of this plaque serves to portray the positive, lasting effects of the Qin Dynasty. Aside from the chaos that took place under Emperor Shi Huangdi, one can learn of the great consolidation tactics within the military, economic, and social reforms. Whether the construction of a massive fortification or the production of a simple coin, the idea of unification prevailed throughout the Qin Dynasty, and eventually paved the way for the rise of future Chinese dynasties.

I am Garwin Leung, and I study history as my college major with a focus on East Asia.  I was born in New York and in my free time, I enjoy spending time with friends. More by Garwin

In the Warring States Period, China was divided and at war. It was a dangerous place to live. China needed unity and peace. This plaque shows the transition from a divided China to a unified China. The transition brought peace to the land at the cost of lives lost in war, but the benefits of a unified and peaceful China outweighs the cost. Also, this plaque illustrates the new policies brought about by the Qin Dynasty government with symbols indicated by arrows stretching from the map of unified China to the symbols. Some policies helped Qin Shi Huangdi to establish order and uniformity, and others, such as burning of certain books, suppressed dissent in the empire. Although these changes negatively impacted some Chinese, the benefits outweighed the cost—suppression dissent kept China out of civil war, standardization of roads, currency and measurements of length and volume provided uniformity in the empire, and a united China could put up better defense against the northern barbarians.

On the top section of the plaque, rice farmers from the kingdom of Qin are shown to have become foot soldiers that fought to unite China under the Qin. Because they were just farmers drafted into the Qin army, they didn’t have horses, and so they became foot soldiers.

These farmer-foot soldiers of Qin were represented by terracotta statues found in Qin Shi Huangdi’s imperial tomb. The terracotta soldiers in Qin Shi Huangdi’s tomb are placed to the right of the drawings of the rice farmers. The arrow between the rice farmers and the terracotta soldiers means that the farmers became soldiers who fought to unite China.

Qin Shi Huangdi is represented by the line drawing to the right of terracotta soldiers that guarded his tomb. His image has a plus sign to the left such that the plus shows that Qin Shi Huangdi and the terracotta soldiers belong together in their own dynasty. The “di” in his name is translated into “emperor” or “highest deity” according to the Hansen textbook, 2^nd edition, thus in my drawing of Qin Shi Huangdi, he is depicted as a deity standing on the cloud. His title emperor in Chinese is to his right. The first Chinese character of his title is “da” (meaning great) and the second Chinese character is “wang” (meaning king). The “wang” character is composed of 3 horizontal lines linked with a vertical line, because the horizontal line represent heaven, people and earth, the vertical line represent the emperor, who rules all three.

Map of the Warring States Period with its Seven Kingdoms. There were only seven kingdoms fighting with each other whereas earlier in history, there were many more warring kingdoms. The arrow pointing to the map to the right shows that the land divided by the 7 kingdoms became unified under the Qin into one empire.

Map of the territory boundary of the newly established Qin Dynasty of the unified China/Empire.

Arrows stretch out from the map of the Qin Dynasty and point to various symbols on the plaque that are representative of the uniqueness of the Qin Dynasty.

The symbol towards the bottom left of the plaque shows that in the Qin Dynasty, the widths of roads and the length of the axle connecting the 2 wheels together were standardized. The double-headed arrows show the standardized length of the axle and the standardized widths of the roads.

The book and the fire symbol show that Qin Shi Huangdi ordered people to burn books, especially Confucian books. These books were bamboo scrolls. Please note that not all books were burnt because some of them survived. So in reality, historical statements that the Qin burnt all the Confucian books are too cut-and-dry to be true.

Qin Shi Huangdi started to build walls that would protect his empire from the Xiongnu of the North (barbarians who wanted invade China). The wall built in the Qin Dynasty was not the Great Wall of China, which was built later. The wall that the Qin built was a lot shorter than the Great Wall, which was lined with bricks. The wall of the Qin Dynasty was built with rammed-earth framed with wooden supports and stone. The significance of the wall of Qin was that it was the first wall in recorded history. They were built to protect China from the northern barbarians, and it inspired the building of the Great Wall of China in the Ming Dynasty.

In the Warring States Period, people used coins shaped into miniature swords or miniature bells to exchange on the market for real swords and bells. But in the Qin Dynasty, these miniature coins were outlawed. These miniature coins were melted down into hot metal, thus my plaque uses an arrow to shows these outlawed miniature coins were put back on fire to be destroyed and melted into hot metal. The coins that were allowed for use in the Qin Dynasty were circular coins that could be stringed together. I have depicted a string of four circular coins on my plaque.

Finally, the Qin standardized measurements of length and volume. My symbols for this are a ruler and a container of water with marked volume.

In conclusion, this plaque shows that Qin Shi Huangdi established a unified China, putting China at peace and the new policies implemented—standardization of roads and axle length, standardization of currency, standardization of measurements of length and volume, burning of books that could cause people to oppose the Qin government, and the building of a wall that protected China from the northern barbarians. The benefits of unifying China and establishing the new policies outweighed the costs. China became unified and peaceful at the cost of deaths of Qin’s enemies. The elimination of currency in the form of miniature objects caused some people to become poorer, but new currency in the form of circular coins facilitated proper trade and monetary exchanges. The standardization of measurements of length and volume as well as road width and axle lengths brought uniformity at the cost needing to modify older vehicles. The burning of Confucian books got rid of potential dissent and allowed Qin to stay in power and to keep China peaceful. The building of the wall protected China at the cost of deaths of laborers building the wall.

JIEYUAN DING is a senior at the University of Rochester (class of 2016). Jieyuan enjoys reading about history, playing the violin, watching movies and watching the news. More by Jieyuan