Qin Timeline
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reign of Shi Huangdi (221-210 B.C.E.) |
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Confucius (551-479 B.C.E.)
longed for unification, but regionalism has been a problem throughout China's
history. The Qin dynasty represented a success in the permanent battle
to keep China centralized and unified.
Confucians argued that people are
drawn to a righteous leader as water flows downhill. Confucians
didn't achieve unification. Legalists did.
Following centuries of warfare between competing states, Qin, the westernmost
one, was able to conquer its rivals because it found new ways to organize the
state. Legalist reforms included a bureaucracy organized on the basis
of 'merit' and even abolition of all priveleges of the nobility.
Law had been, and ultimately continued to be, considered secondary to morality
as a social control. (A problem with this which continues today is that
officials treat decicions as independent moral choices, causing them to become
arbitrary and capricious.)
However, the Legalist school of thought (and some of its techniques existed
long before the 'school') had Han Fei Zi arguing very persuasively
Chu
Xun Zi
Ki Si
Han Fei Zi
King Zheng, or Qin Shi Huang
Xiongnu
"Pax Sinica"
The dynastic cycle
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