History of Imperial China
...ted advisor was Li Su. Under his advice, in 232 BCE, Emperor Cheng, at the age of twenty-seven, began a campaign to unify and centralize all the northern areas of China. The surrounding areas in China were no match for the wealth and military power of the Qin, and by 221 BCE, Cheng conquered all of the northern kingdoms. He gave himself the title, Qin shih-huang-ti, or "The First Exalted Emperor of the Qin". Under his guidance, and the advice of Li Su, created the form of government that served as the model for all of the future Chinese dynasties. First, the government was centralized around the emperor and his ministers. Then, in order to break the power of the nobles, he gave their lands to the peasants. To make the taxation process fair, the taxes were taken directly from the peasants rather than passing through the hands of the noble. Only 4 years after Cheng died, the empire collapsed. The peasants could no longer afford to pay and the nobles wanted their lands back. This caused widespread rebellion in China. The dynasty after the Qin is the well-known Han. The Han Dynasty was one of the most famous dynasties. The new Han Dynasty retained much of the Qin’s governmental structure, but retreated from centralized rule by establishing central houses for the sake of political convenience (Kuan 192). The Han rulers modified some of the aspects of the dynasty before. A civil service examination system was started. Intellectual, literary, and artistic endeavors revived and flourished. It is often compared to the renaissance period in Italy.(Spencer 157). Technological advances marked this period of time. Silk was traded from the Silk Route. After about 200 years, Han rule was interrupted briefly and then restored for another 200 years. The Han rulers, however, were unable to adjust to what centralization had became, a growing population, increasing wealth and resultant financial difficulties and rivalries, and ever-more complex political institutions. Complicated with the corruption in 220 CE the Han empire collapsed. The dynasty after the Han was the Sui. The Sui dynasty was one of the lesser-known dynasties. It only lasted about 200 years. Nonetheless, it was an important dynasty prior to what is known as the gold era. China was reunified in 589 CE to the Sui dynasty, which has been compared to the earlier Qin dynasty in its accomplishments. The Sui dynasty’s government was tyrannical in demands on the people, who were required to pay taxes and forced to work. The Grand Canal was a big engineering feat and in the undertaking of other construction projects, including the reconstruction of the Great Wall. Weakened by costly and disastrous military campaigns against Korea, the dynasty faded away through a combination of popular revolts, and disloyalty. The following dynasty after the Sui was the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty in China was perhaps the best dynasty China has ever been through. The dynasty was incredibly prosperous and remarkably powerful. There were many inventions and innovations during this period. The government however was horrendously setup. Whenever someone saw a governmental building, it meant corruption. The government increased taxes, seeing that people were making more money, it also used the state of the economy to boost the emperor’s power. The Tang Dynasty also suffered from isolation that hindered its growth in the world. The next dynasty was the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty was much like the Tang Dynasty before it. The Song Dynasty was had many, many innovations and inventions. Its government, however was severely flawed in many areas. It raised taxes 350% from the beginning of the dynasty to the end. The government officials thought that this would unify China. The Song was a time of great advances, politically, the Song was a failure (Dolan 154). The Mongols, forcing the dynasty to abandon a northern capital in the early 1100’s, conquered the northern half of China. Then a hundred and fifty years later, the Mongols, fresh from conquering everything between Manchuria and Austria, invaded and occupied China. The dynasty following the Tang Dynasty was the Yuan Dynasty. The Mongols ruled the Yuan dynasty. Its leader Genghis Khan, was very nomadic and warlike. He conquered China and most of it’s neighboring countries. The government got rid of the civil service exams because Genghis thought that this would hurt the Mongols. In those times, a lot of Mongols were illiterate. The Mongols rejuvenated the Silk Road, in which the isolation came to an end. Marco Polo, a young explorer spent 17 years in China, exploring the Silk Road and other things as well. The Chinese never liked the Mongols, however the Mongols had a way of ruling that was unique and the Chinese appreciated it. The Mongols let the Chinese keep their traditions and have their freedoms. A major innovation was the first making of paper money. Before the Yuan Dynasty, people had to lug around heavy metal coins to pay people, now all they had to do was give a sheet of paper to the seller. However, A good society is not without pimples. The paper currency that was invented depreciated at a rate at 1000% in 10 years, another flaw was the corruption going on in the upper positions in the government. Rivalry among the Mongol imperial heirs, natural disasters, and numerous peasant uprisings led to the collapse of the Yuan dynasty. The next dynasty is the Min...