Ch'in

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Ch'in

(chĭn), dynasty of China, which ruled from 221 B.C. to 206 B.C. The word China is derived from Ch'in, the first dynasty to unify the country by conquering the warring feudal states of the late ChouChou
, dynasty of China, which ruled from c.1027 B.C. to 256 B.C. The pastoral Chou people migrated from the Wei valley NW of the Huang He c.1027 B.C. and overthrew the Shang dynasty. The Chou built their capital near modern Xi'an in 1027 B.C. and moved it to Luoyang in 770 B.C.
..... Click the link for more information. period. King Cheng took the title Shih Huang-ti or Shi Huangdi [first august emperor] in 221 B.C. and began to consolidate the new empire. In matters of state he was counseled by Li Ssu (d. 208 B.C.), a scholar of the Legalist school of philosophy, which emphasized the need for strict laws in social and political relations and for obedience to state authority. Under Shih Huang-ti, Ch'in extended the empire W to Guizhou, N to Gansu, and S to Tonkin in what is now Vietnam, and made the capital Xianyang (near modern Xi'an, Shaanxi prov.) the most splendid city of China; it is speculated that much of the Great WallGreat Wall of China,
series of fortifications, c.3,890 mi (6,260 km) long (not including trenches and natural defensive barriers), winding across N China from Gansu prov. to Liaoning prov.
..... Click the link for more information. was built during his reign. To govern the vast empire, Ch'in abolished feudalism, instituted a centralized government that was the model for later unifying dynasties, established uniform laws, weights, and measures, standardized the written language, and built a network of roads and canals that converged on the capital. Ch'in Shih Huang-ti has been regarded as a brutal autocrat by many since he is said to have imposed harsh laws, levied heavy taxes, tolerated no criticism, and burned all books except the useful ones on medicine and agriculture. Shih Huang-ti died in 210 B.C. and was succeeded by a weakling son. Overburdened peasants revolted and overthrew the Ch'in dynasty in 206 B.C. Soon after, the HanHan
, dynasty of China that ruled from 202 B.C. to A.D. 220. Liu Pang, the first Han emperor, had been a farmer, minor village official, and guerrilla fighter under the Ch'in dynasty.
..... Click the link for more information. dynasty came to power in China.

Bibliography

See D. Bodde, China's First Unifier (1938, repr. 1967); D. Twitchett and M. Loewe, ed., The Cambridge History of China (Vol. 1, 1986).

References in periodicals archive ?

Three substantial chapters present the history of the Western Ch'in era (385-421 AD) and the primary sources on Buddhism remaining from that era, a full analysis of the bronze Buddha altar with canopy found in eastern Kansu in 1976, and five-Buddha and multiple Buddha groupings throughout China and Central Asia in the early period.

Early Buddhist art of China and Central Asia; v.3: The Western Ch'in in Kansu in the Sixteen Kingdoms Period and inter-relationships with the Buddhist art of Gandhara

Questi sono i nomi di coloro, ch'essendo anchora in vita godono l'eccelsa gloria de lor fecondi ingegni, le imagini de quali mi ritrouo hauere, & sono poste nel Museo con tal'ordine, che l'honor solo dell'eta precede ogni nobilta di ricchezze, di gradi, o di sangue, ch'in essi risplenda.

Los Hvomini Famosi de Paolo Giovio. Alberti en el primer Museo

Ch'in is the foundation and the element for any meaningful and fruitful relationship to last, whether it is between individuals, families, or in business relationships.

The mark of a Confucianist leader

HULSEWE, REMNANTS OF CH'IN LAW (1985); Yuan Yuan Shen, Conceptions and Receptions of Legality: Understanding the Complexity of Law Reform in Modern China, in LIMITS, supra note 2; Karen Turner, War, Punishment, and The Law of Nature in Early Chinese Concepts of The State, 53 HARV.

Were Chinese rulers above the law? Toward a theory of the rule of law in China from early times to 1949 CE

Among the most important conceptual reference points in the classicist tradition of understanding everything in terms of ancient precedents and analogies were the tumultuous events leading up to the first great unification of China by the Ch'in (Qin) dynasty in 221 BCE.

The past as prism: China and the shock of plural sovereignty

They are life-sized replica figures of emperor Ch'in Shi-huang-ti's soldiers dating from around 210BC.

We love 1975

Nylan remarks that in early China neither the Ch'in nor Wang Mang probably deserved their reputation for despotism.

Democracy, values and modes of representation

But in China, too, the self-proclaimed First Emperor Ch'in Shi Huangdi was so obsessed with finding immortality that he sent thousands of explorers to seek it out.

The future of immortality

While action and special effects abound in Hero--an epic about an assassin's attempt to bring down the Ch'in emperor, the first emperor of China--there is also deliberate delicacy and little bloodshed.

Action Reigns at the Berlinale

In contrast to lao, the Chinese word ch'in indicated the work of artisans and merchants, and presupposed skill and patience in order to create artificial go ods, which were not considered especially deserving or meritorious.

Selling is Poverty, Buying a Shame: representations of work, effective leadership and market failures on Wallis

Ma la schiera infernal, ch'in quel conflitto La tirannide sua cader vedea, sendole cio' permesso, in un momento I'aria in nube ristrinse e mosse il vento.

Tasso's God: divine action in Gerusalemme Liberata *

There were some obvious omissions in Volume I that have now been added, for example, the entries on Ts'ao Ts'ao (155-220) and Ch'in Kuan (1049-1100).