Qin Shi Huang

""The reason why China suffers bitterly from endless wars is because of the existence of feudal lords and kings. A reliance of ancestral temples initially brought brought stability, but the revival of states results in the spread of soldiers. Doing so will bring about stability.""

- Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian

Qin Shi Huang (260-210 BC), personal name Ying Zheng, was a king of the state of Qin (246-221 BC) who conquered all the Warring States and united China in 221 BC. Rather than maintain the title of King born by the Shang and Zhou rulers, he rules as the first Emperor of the Qin Dynasty from 220-210 BC. The title Emperor (huangdi) would continue to be borne by Chinese rulers over for the next two millennia.

During his reign, his generals greatly expanded the size of the Chinese state: campaigns south of Chu permantly added the Yue lands of Hunan and Guangdong to the Chinese cultural orbit; campaigns in Central Asia conquered the Ordos Loop from the nomad Xiongyu, althought eventually causing their federation under Modu Chanyu. Qin Shi Huang also worked with with his minister Li Si to enact major economic and politic reforms aimed at the standarditation of the diverse practices of the of the earlier Chinese states, traditionally said to have lead to the banning and burning of many of the books and the executions recalcitrant scholars. His public works projects included the unification of diverse state walls into a single Great Wall of Chinaand a massive new national road system, as well as city-sized mausoleum guarded by the life-sized Terracotta Army. He ruled until his death in 210 BC after a futile search for an elixir of immortality.