The Rise And Fall Of The Zheng Dynasty

Qin Shi Huang (also named Ying Zheng before being emperor) became king of Qin in 246 BCE. While the king of Qin, Ying Zheng boost Qin’s economy by rewarding people for good service and merit rather than their association. He encouraged the making of cloth for export, but threatened anyone who didn’t have a useful occupation to slavery. Ying Zheng offered people farming land and exemption from military service for those who came to Qin. This made him more likeable to the common people than the aristocrats and nobles. One achevement he did was to divide Qin into counties and had them run by appointed officials rather than nobles. (Tin-bor Hui, 2005)
In 314 BCE Ying Zheng won a victory over nomads, and in 311BCE defeated nomadic people from Chengdu.
Qin Shi Huang simplified the written Chinese script, standardized weights and measures, and minted new copper coins. Even with his army, the Qin Empire faced constant threat from the Xiongnu (the ancestors of Attila's Huns). The emperor ordered the construction of an enormous defensive wall to ward off the invaders. Thousands of slaves and criminals died in carrying out this task between 220 and 206 BCE. The northern section of the wall is what is now called the Great Wall of China, also the emperor ordered construction of a canal, which linked the Yangtze and Pearl River systems called the Lingqu. (Lewis,
Confucius believed that a well-ordered society tied to ancient tradition and education. An ideal ruler must be compassionate, not forceful, care for the burden of their people. Failure to do so the ruler will lose the “Mandate of Heaven” and have a disasters reign. Qin Shi Huang follows Legalists the belief that people were basically motivated by self-interest and therefore had to be controlled by a strong ruler and stern punishments. Under Qin Shi Huang rule, he appointed district officials to investigate crimes, arrested suspects, and acted as judges. Criminal suspects were beaten to get a confession and presumed guilty until they could prove their innocence. Without no jury or lawyers, trials were placed in front of a judge. Qin Law Code set specified harsh punishments for particular crimes from beatings with a stick, hard labor on public works, and banishment to frontier regions. Severe offense result in body mutilation from tattooing the face to castration, and the worst crimes result in the death penalty by beheading, boiled in a cauldron, or rip apart by horse-drawn chariots. Many people were foul by the law. People frequently did not realize they had committed a crime until they had been arrested. Also if one member of the family commits a crime the whole family is charged for the crime.