During the Warring States Period (c. 300 B.C.)in China, the state of Ch'in had, with the utmost ruthlessness, set about and succeeded in rolling up China like a mat. In the year 256 B.C. the Ch'in had taken the city of Loyang, capital of the ruling Chou Dynasty. As a result, the Ch'in Dynasty was founded
In the year 246 B.C. a thirteen year old prince of the new dynasty became emperor. He called himself Ch'in Shih Haung Ti "First August Emperor of the Ch'in Dynasty".
He continued the Ch'in policy of "rolling up China like a mat" until in the year 221 B.C. he had brought all China under his rule. Described as a giant of a man with a large nose, piercing eyes, chest of a bird of prey, voice of a jackel and heart of a wolf. "A man", his enemies conclude, "completely without without beneficence."
Among Ch'in's actions as emperor:
- Abolishing (for a time) fuedalism by requiring 120,000 old, noble familes from their vassel state to the dynasty's new capital.
-Issuing a decree that all metal lances, arrowheads, knives and utensils be confiscated nationwide and sent to the capital. There they were melted down and formed into giantic metal staues to "guard" the emperor's residence.
-In 214 B.C. in order to wipe out all opposition and previous history, Ch'in ordered the first "Burning of the Bookks". All books -- except those of magic, farming and medicine-- were ordered to be burned. Refusal to obey meant death. Nearly 500 scholors who had tried to conceal their manuscripts were thrown in to huge fire pits.
-The Great Wall. The world's longest graveyard. Over 1 million slaves/conscriped workers are said to have perhised. The Chinese say that every stone cost a human life.
-It took approx. 700K workers built Emperor Ch'in enormous palace, the building laced with overhead walkways and underground passages so that only a tiny handful of men ever knew where the emperor, who had already escaped three assisination attempts, was at any one time. To reveal this information meant immediate death.
- For the first time in Chinese history, men were castrated for a reason other than punishment. Realizing that his 3,000 concubines could not maintain the imperial residence, he ordered a huge number of male subjects to be castrated so they might maintain the palace and its grounds while protecting the chasity of the concubines.
- He standardized not only laws and customs,but Chinese characters, weights, measures, coinage and the lenght of cart axels.
- Ch'in died c. 212 B.C. after a reign of basrely 12 years. He refered to himself as Lord of Ten-thousand Years, full sure that he and his descendents would rule forever. Yet by the year 208 B.C., (Ch'in emperors #2 and #3 having been assisinated) "The empire slipped from the House of Ch'in like a fleeing dear, and the whole world joined in it's pursuit." (source Burton Watson, translator "Records of the Grand Historian of China")
- In 1973, in answer to critism of the chaos resulting from the Cultural Revolution, Mao is said to have boasted : "You have berated me by comparison to the First Emperor, who was a dictator. I have constantly admitted I am just that. Who was this great First Emperor? All he did was bury alive 460 scholors at the Burning of the Books, while I have buried 46,000! You berate me as anolther First Emperor,but you are wrong-- I have outdone him a hundred times." (source Mary M. Anderson, "The Hidden Power")