"The only way for a ruler to rule is with an iron fist and pen to write strict laws." -Alex

Downey

Remember that you must respond in 1 FULL paragraph.

C9:Shi Huangdi

• 221BCE Ying Zheng took the throne and renamed himself Shi Huangdi–Meaning “first emperor”

• Followed the Legalist political beliefs–Created a strong

government with strict laws and harsh punishments

Legalism

• Legalism – the belief that people were bad by nature and needed to be controlled

• This is a political philosophy without religious concerns– Deals only with government and social control

• Society needed strict laws to keep people in line and that punishments should fit the crimes–Citizens should be held responsible for each

other’s conduct

Unity and efficiency were 2 main principles of Legalism

• United meaning that all of China should be one country and thus people should be prepared for war at all times

• Efficiency meaning that those who were best for the job should get the job (not nobles or inheritance of jobs)

C10: POLICIES

• Shi Huangdi ordered the burning of any writings that did not agree with Legalism– Saved books dealing with farming, medicine and

predicting the future –Many scholars opposed the book burnings: in

response Shi Huangdi burned 460 scholars (alive)

Expansion• First he conquered the lands around the

Yellow and the Yangzi Rivers • Then he went north to the Gobi Desert and

south to the Xi River • To ensure that there was no rebellion after a

city was conquered he would have his soldiers destroy all of the walls and take all of the weapons

Control

• Claimed all of the power for himself – Took land aways from the lords and moved their

families to the capital so he could keep an eye on them

• Divided China into districts, each district had its own governor– Each district was then divided into counties and

these counties were governed by appointed officials – This allowed Shi Huangdi enforce his tax system

Building Projects

• Forced commoners to work on government building projects

• Workers faced years of hardship, danger and more often than not death

Rules and Punishments

• China had different rules and punishments for different regions

• Shi Huangdi unified the legal system of China

Unifications

• Unified Writing system• Unified money –Standardized gold and copper coins–Standardized weights and measures

ACHIEVEMENTS

Building Projects

• Roads that connected the empire to the capital making communication easier

Water system

• Built canals that connected the country’s rivers

• Irrigation to make more land good for farming

Great Wall of China• Barrier that linked

earlier walls across China’s northern frontier–First section of

the wall was built in the 600s BCE

Took hundreds of thousands of labors to build the wall (most of the workers died during the construction of the wall)

Terracotta Warriors

• Created himself an army of terracotta warriors for the afterlife.

C11:The fall of the Qin

• Although, Shi Huangdi’s policies unified China they also built resentment

• He died in 210 BCE –Within a few years of his death the Qin

Dynasty fell

After Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi

• Rebel forces formed across the country – each group claimed to have right to the throne –Rebel forces attacked the capital and burnt

it to the ground– The new emperor fled and the country fell

into civil war

3 of 5

1. What is legalism?2. Why did Qin Shi Huangdi burn books?3. Why did Qin Shi Huangdi create a unified

coinage and writing system?4. How did the strict laws under Qin Shi

Huangdi affect the people of his empire?5. What caused the fall of Qin Dynasty?