Qin Dynasty

The Qin Dynasty was a period between 221-206 BC in China. The Geography of the Qin Dynasty was originally started by the first emperor who extended China’s boarders south to where current day Vietnam is located as well as current day Korea. The Central Kingdom is located in the Yellow River Valley. The rivers that occupy the region are Yangese, Yellow, and Wet Rivers.

The Qin Dynasty was a very non-religious period of time for China. Beliefs were limited to what the ruler decided the beliefs were going to be. So religion took a side step and a militaristic, more philosophic way of thinking developed. This type of thinking is later described in Intellectual Development section. The only beliefs that were even remotely religious included that you needed objects to accompany you to the afterlife for protection. An example of this would be the Terra Cotta Army.

           

The Qin Dynasty had many different artistic emergences despite the militaristic way of living.

This above is a gold headdress ornament, the design is very delicate, and very intricately done.

This is a carriage that was excavated from Qin Shihuangdi’s tomb, this is made of bronze. The detail is very meticulous and very exquisitely done. The purpose for this is debated, is it to take the emperor around in the afterlife? Or is its purpose to take the emperor to his afterlife?

This is a bronze crane, you can see the detail in his thin legs and noticeable individual feathers.

Under the rule of Shihuandgi there was definitely social development. People were persuaded to spy on their neighbors and turn in law breakers. There was also a new social system of bureaucracy. In this bureaucracy it was basically a social pyramid, there was one person at the top and many at the bottom. Each person above the other person would in turn be their supervisor and so on and so forth.

The politics in the Qin Dynasty is very interesting to look at. The Qin Dynasty was run by a ruler named Qin Shihuangdi, the name of this ruler meant first emperor which is quite fitting to the magnitude of authority he possessed. He had control over politics, economy and military affairs. Legalism was used within government (Legalism is explained further in social development), so intensely in fact that Qin burnt all “useless” books, meaning books that were not about medicine, prophecy and agriculture. This ended up being quite a shot at Confucianists because scholars who opposed this were buried alive. Needless to say he could be very harsh and his dynasty did not last long, partially due to this.

This is an artistic piece depicting the “burning of the books” and the burial of those who opposed.

The economy was a mostly agricultural economy. Money, weights, measures were standardized to make long distance transactions smoother and more convenient. Higher taxes and required labor from peasants prevented the economy from collapsing after years and years of warfare. The economy is explained as a wartime economy that continued into peace time through exploitation of peasants. However this eventually led to peasant uprisings such as the Yellow Turban Uprising.

This an example of the standard currency used, it’s a bronze coin.

The demography was that there were 20 million people in 221 B.C. There were some factors that affected the size of the population. Warring regions decreased population, but when China reunited, development in technology increased the population.

The intellectual development of the Qin Dynasty was lead strongly by Legalism with a little bit of Confucianism in the shadows. Legalism was a militaristic rule that emphasized order and complete control of the people. Legalism stated that laws should reward those who follow the law and punish those harshly who do not. Confucianism on the other hand was quite different. It said that the moral example of superiors was the key to social harmony and that society is based on unequal relationships such as:  the husband is superior to the wife, the father is superior to the son, older brother is superior to the younger brother, and the more obvious ruler is superior to the subject.

            The technology was astounding during the Qin Dynasty. As explained earlier they had technological developments by standardizing things like weights, measures, currency, etc.  But China during this time also did amazing work with bronze, silver, gold, and other metals. The images below show some the creative and practical work done with these kinds of materials. Perhaps the greatest display of the Qin Dynasty is the Great Wall of China. While it may lead you to believe it had an enormously complicated process, this is untrue. The Great Wall was built by stamping earth (mud, dirt, clay, etc.) between frames and boards.

This is a bronze flask, with intricate symbols and designs decorated the outside.

This is a silver dish with beautiful designs that are covering the entire dish.

This is a bronze edicts artifact, with characters engraved on it.

This is a picture of the Great Wall of China, the simple technique surely was not simple to execute.