the qin dynasty the first empire in china. not good enough not good enough. the first unified
china that we've seen. still not good enough. the first time we see china
as we think of it today and as we know it today. that's better! let's get started
hello everyone my name is austin in china and today we are talking about the qin dynasty. this
dynasty came about because of and put and end to the warring states period, because in about 230 bc
the qin began to conquer all of the states around what it is now china, and in 221 - bam! we have
a new dynasty that only lasts for what 15 years .15 years. and it's actually one of the most
important dynasties, because it laid the very foundations for china as we know it today. and
i mean as we get into it you'll see a lot got done in 15 years because its echoes are still
all around me all around everyone in china and the world today. taking it back a little bit,
the qin state was located in what is now shaanxi province, at this place called xianyang. it served
as sort of a buffer state between the zhou and the other states at the time who were at war warring
states period a lot of war okay yes but the thing is... they were not although they were a buffer
zone and were sort of useful to the zhou, the zhou didn't like them very much. they were considered
kind of backward and kind of a little bit barbaric not so they weren't great people to be around. but
the chain didn't let that stop them and they tried all these different ways to try and ingratiate
themselves with the chain or to try and improve their social standing or political standing
around the area including things like marriage for example that's the most common way that people
kind of built up their status. But that still begs the question how did the qin one state conquer all
of these other states one state against all these? it's kind of crazy right? well that is because of
the duke of xiao and his chancellor shang yang. let's talk about this guy because i think this guy
laid the foundations for the qin dynasty. without him none of this other stuff would
have even happened. shang yang is crucial in study of this period because it's one of the
greatest representations of chinese legalism because of two theories mainly treating the
people as one and also fixing the standards let's first talk about fixing the standards across the
kingdom of china at the time different regions had different standards when it came to like different
currencies different weights different measures different ways of well looking at everything so
why don't we standardize everything so that no matter where people are across the kingdom
they all speak sort of the same language that was one thing they use the same weights for
another thing use the same measures they use the same currency they use the same everything
this is the way to go right very progressive he is by definition a reformer a systematic reform
and he created this massive bureaucracy that in one form or another still exists today china is
still a heavily bureaucratic state but what did he do to actually conquer everyone else well
for one thing he built up the army and how did he do that now before all of this happened the army
was made up of the nobility only the noble could take part in the military and could fight in war
but not according to shang yang. he opened it up for commoners commoners peasants anyone could go
in and based on rank and based on achievements in the army when you were done with the army you
would be given plots of land wow that's great so if you're a peasant who doesn't really have
much you don't have anything you can join the army fight for the chain and then afterwards
you would be given land and then you could begin a whole new life that sounds pretty good right but
one thing he did that was a little bit hairy was he stripped the nobility from nobles who didn't
want to fight or tried to pay other people to fight so that they didn't want to can't do that
the policy is you have to fight right otherwise i'm taking your stuff so you've got this reformed
military you've got maybe a few nobles who have been stripped of their titles and maybe of their
lands for not joining the army and you've also got the idea of doubly taxing households that have
more than one sign and this was done in order to break up the clans it partly abolished
primogeniture really uh that was a really big deal because family is such an important thing in china
but then you doubly tax and you get rid of primogeniture and you do this for really big clans
now that's a way to get people angry at you but it is a way to break people up into smaller nuclear
families he also freed convicts who worked on clearing the land for agriculture because he
wanted china to be a more agricultural society instead of a society centered within cities and
what he also did was say hey we need to be more loyal to the state than to your clan
more loyal to the government than to your family and this was another thing because again regional
differences clan history clan you know clan kind clan it's clans are such a big thing
warlords at this time so these are measures that were put in place to fight against that and also
the idea of enslaving farmers who couldn't meet quotas and rewarding farmers who could meet quotas
now i don't know about this whole enslaving thing but you know it's something it's it's an idea it's
a reform as with any time in history big changes are accompanied by hate widespread hate and the
nobility hated shang yang so much upon the duke xiao's death the nobility were after him
he you know there are all these different accounts but he either like ran away or he was exiled or
he tried to raise his own army to fight against these nobles he tried to create his own state
like there are all these different stories but basically what is agreed upon is that
he was executed in like someone 338 something like that not just executed he was like pulled
apart he was drawn and quartered essentially but i think it was five horses they tied him to all
different directions just pulled that mofo apart and you know that was the end of him but the thing
is we talk about this guy we talk about shang yang because you'll see the reforms that the
qin dynasty put into place later you'll know how important he is the conquest began with the states
of shu and ba which is actually where i live in sichuan present-day sichuan and these two kingdoms
were going at it they were going out and going out and asked the qin for help and she is like
you know what i can help you and then goes in and conquers these two states and over the next
like 40 years they start moving thousands and thousands of families and businesses
and things like that to promote their interest down in these kingdoms and that was very beginning
of it the very next kingdom to fall i believe was the zhao and after that just state after
state after state i believe there are five more after that and then 221 bc we have a unified
china for the first time everyone is under the qin umbrella wow i mean this is a huge step
in china's history here we go now we've got china and even the argument of the qin dynasty the name
chin chin ah china china china comes from the qin dynasty that's one of the arguments
anyway for the origin of the name of this country the qin dynasty is established we
have a united china. golf clap! the qin had one fantastic and we have this new emperor who decides
to give himself a new title he decides to call himself an emperor whereas before we didn't have
emperors we just had rulers so he decides to call himself chin sure so the first chin
and then huang di emperor so you've got this combination in chinese of like mythical ruler of
god and then you've got the first of this dynasty and wow what a name what a name qin shi huang di
here's a big problem though mr qin you've got all this new territory right here but the thing is
how are you going to rule it everyone's speaking different languages everyone is using different
weights and measures everyone's got different cultural standards every
hold on let's go back and use shang yang's ideas how about that and that's exactly what
happened qin shi huang put into effect all of these measures to standardize the script all
across china so that now for the first time people all across the country what is now a country
can communicate with each other can do business with each other have ways to exchange ideas and to
you know build commerce and but this is a massive deal and what also happened is that
you know all this led to kind of maybe the idea of standardizing thought and this led to
the creation of an imperial academy and it led to the collection the confiscation of various like
regional texts and they were confiscated and held for later while sending out all the standardized
ones to different provinces different areas of the country and he not only did this with the
language and to a certain degree with thought but he did this with the money and all of this other
stuff that we talked about with shang yang just immediately these measures went into place and
you know what let's not stop with language let's not stop with weights measures and currency let's
build roads all across the country let's build 4 000 miles of road in a 500 mile super highway
that connects different parts of the country together yeah okay let's do that
dude this guy is going crazy with this country in the best way you may not have heard
of the straight road you may not have heard of these highways but these this highway these roads
were used to transport materials across china to build something called the great wall of china
i think you've heard of that the great wall of china guess what
began to be built during this dynasty now i keep talking about all this great stuff that he did but
as a person he was kind of weird he had this thing for self-glorification and just being like
extra so for for example at his palace he had this palace right as all emperors do
he whenever he would conquer a new place so this is before even all of china was united we would
conquer a new state a new kingdom or new warlord across from where he lived across from his palace
he would build a replica of the conquered person's palace and fill it with girls who would sing and
play instruments like and those girls would be from the conquered place so they he would
not only conquer them he'd take some of the ladies get them to perform in a replica of their leader's
house sing songs to their new emperor and he would connect all of these little mini palaces together
along the riverside across from his own palace like whoa but wait there's more and not only that
the weapons from his enemies his conquered enemies he would bring in all these weapons that are made
from you know iron and bronze or whatever weapons are made from steel and they would be melted down
and then used for for statues all around the capital of xianyang as well so it's like not
only do they get conquered and they get their girls sent over here to these replica palaces
but they get their stuff melted down man and also and wait there's even more oh wait there's even
more so this guy had this sorceress named Lu Sheng and she made these predictions about how he would
be assassinated how you know he should be afraid for his life so he had all these like networks of
tunnels he had all these like networks of tunnels people were forbidden from knowing his location
he would communicate with people through like writing and this and that and it was everything
was just this huge mask of secrecy he was so afraid of being discovered not only that people
were forbidden from using his personal name in legal documents in imperial documents and anyone
who did do that or who revealed his location told anybody where he was they would be executed
dang you guys know that movie hero right gently awesome movie yeah it's about that guy that guy
right there he's not a popular guy so he took a lot of measures maybe maybe a little bit extra but
wait there's more the most extra achievement by qin shi huang was the thing that we all know him
for he sent 700 000 workers down to the foot of the Lishan mountains and got them building
building building constructing this massive complex temples administrative buildings animals
like houses and people and this is like he built an entire city that he could rule from from
the grave from the afterlife and next to that just outside what i believe i believe was the
east gate just outside the east gate he built what we now know as the terracotta warriors
the terracotta army the terracotta warriors one of the seven wonders of the world built
by the same guy who did all of the stuff we just talked about so you've got like 8 000 soldiers
about 600 like horses and you got chariots and you've got an entire city that you've built
around it there's even like a fish pond in there i think they built like a river and like a fish pond
what the heck and then not only that we still don't know everything that's in the tomb because
it's said that he created all these rivers throughout his tomb made of mercury mercury
rivers and the level of mercury around the site is so high that the excavation of the tomb is still
like not it's not done they can't do it and well done on him i suppose for getting this all done
very very quickly because he did die fairly soon afterwards the dynasty only lasted about 15 years
and some of that was not even him and the thing is we know that he didn't like people knowing where
he is or his status or things like that so after he died the the escort around him where he was
they had all of these carts filled with dead fish because they didn't want people
to know that he was dead they didn't want people to smell his body some of the officials
of qin shi huang actually like forged letters from him to other people including one of his
sons like they sent a letter to one of his sons and said hey son you need to commit suicide
so that your younger brother can rule in your stead and he did he did why did he do that i
don't understand i need to look more into this i just wanted to make the video but i should
do another video about that why did he do that he was not popular qin shi huang was not popular and
by the end of qin shi huang's reign and his death especially after his death the entire nation is
in revolt against him because of these legalistic principles super harsh punishments and all of that
and there's this guy named xiang yu who comes in and he conquers everything and he executes
qin shi huang's younger son and then splits china up into 18 little states ruled by warlords but
don't click away just yet we've got another guy named liu bang who comes in and he starts fighting
with xiang yu and xiang yu and liu bang are fighting over and over and over for a long time
liu bang starts winning and winning and xiang yu is like i'm so bummed out right now and he commits
suicide in liu bang who comes from a place called the han river valley that sounds familiar the han
river valley he comes in, liu, he establishes a new dynasty called the han dynasty so now we have
this transition of power from the qin to xiang yu then to the han dynasty the han dynasty is a story
we'll have to tell another time so there we have it the qin dynasty the shortest dynasty in chinese
history but possibly one of the most important because of everything that we've talked about
in this video so thank you all very much for watching if you'd like to support me in this
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