Qin Dynasty of China

Qin Dynasty...

The year was 221 B.C, when the Qin dynasty conquered all five countries (Wei, Qi, Chu, Han, and Zhao) and united them under one flag. At the time I was 10 years old, I was happy to know that the war was over, which also mean that I do not have to join the military. The feeling of the weight on my shoulders seemed to have dropped, because now I can stay home and help the family with the farm.

One month has passed by; the life of the people was getting worse, though some good things came along as well. Finally, the country has a central government and education system. Now, everybody can learn one language rather than six. For the first time, people can use money for trade rather than goods. Further more, the government invented ways for us to measure standard weight with TI 83 Plus calculator (Just kidding).

The emperor, Zhi Huangdi started to create a network of roads to connect the empire, resulting easier trade. Since, the Qin kingdom just began; it has started to use a lot of money on different projects. Tax seemed to be on the rise every month. Life has started to become hard than before the united of the country. At the same time, the Xiongnu began to attack some parts of the country, which delayed the food trade. As a result, people became hungry from starvation.

The building of the Great Wall...

Finally in the year of 220 B.C (hehe, year of 220 B.C), the emperor heard our pray. He had the idea of building a wall to cut off the Xiongnu. The emperor said with this wall, it will protect the kingdom for thousands of years. The recruited of builders began. At first strong men were recruited, and since I was 11 at the moment also mean that I was among the first to be on the list. However, at that time my family has some money so we were able to bride the local official to delay my service. Yes, 3000 years ago I was a chicken and still now (hehe). According to the soldiers, if a person works hard, he will only have to be in service for a couple of years then he will be able to come home.

Five years had passed, none of the men left have returned. Due to the scarce number of men that were left, money was not able to save me anymore. I was drafted. When I arrived to the building site, I saw people gotten beaten from left and right. The screams were coming from the young to old people who were having the whip slashing their skin all around me. People were carrying stones from bottom of the mountain up to the top in order to build the wall.

After being here for 6 months, with not a whole lot of food I'm starting to get skinny. I'm so skinny that even a chopstick looks fatter. Due to the difficult life, I heard that there were couples of assassinations carried out against the emperor. All attempts ended in failure. I heard a few soldiers said that the reason for the assassins was unable to kill the emperor because he was quite a martial artist himself. The emperor was able to prolong the fight to buy time until the guards came to finish up the killers.

(A side note, one of the famous movies that talk about this was "Hero" by Jet li. If you have not seen this, do take my recommendation and take some time of watch it. Great movie.)

I was also informed that it is impossible to poison him as well, because before the emperor eat or drink, he will let the mistress taste it. Talk about a bullet proof plan.

The legend of the Great Wall...

One day while working, I saw a most disturbing thing ever. Few days ago, there were some heavy thunder and rain; the soldiers ask us to repair some parts of the wall that were damaged by the weather. While digging, I dug up a human's leg, talk about some adrenaline to wake you up in the morning. I finally realize that this was where all the dead people were buried. The body was not send home to the family, but it was inside the wall.

I was just sitting here and trying look up into the sky but can't. The wall is so tall; it felt like it covered half of the world. Yesterday, I heard a story that gives me some hope. There was a woman who came to the Great Wall to try to recover her husband's bones. She walked over two miles and looked at every inch of the Wall and still can't find his bones. Out of depression, she sat down and cried into the sky. The Jade emperor felt sorry for her then strike a lightning down and break a part of the wall, which revealed the bones deep inside the wall. She was able to recover all his bones and gave him a proper burial.

This story passed throughout the camp. I wish when I die somebody would come to carry my bones back to my village. Sigh. My village was located only eight mountains away, pass five rivers, through a forest, then walk two miles, ride a boat out about 25 yards, and there was my village. If I die, I hope somebody from my family got my message.

Let's it burn...

The year was 214 B.C., I been here for some time now. I'm so skinny that I'm might just able escape through the cracks in the wall. (How you like my skinny jokes so far?). The emperor seemed to get crazier as the day goes by. Even those that don't know kung fu had begun their own way to get to the people by books and lessons in school. There were scholars that started to debate behind the emperor. Soon, everything got to the emperor and you know he was not going to take it lying down.

In the year 213 B.C., the emperor started to burn all books, for the literatures were poisoning the people, but everyone knew that the emperor was trying to secure his legacy by not letting anything he does bad go on to the next generation. However, the emperor's actions did not end there. From the capital, he commanded to have over 350 scholars buried alive as a lesson to whoever opposed him. Then he eliminated all the future's problem that the rest of scholars may cause, the king also ordered about 700 more scholars to stone to dead. Yes, statements had been made.

After that incident, nobody questioned the emperor. Three quite hard years passed by (210 B.C) in a blink of an eye. Then, all suddenly, the emperor passed away with no particular reason. Today, the soldiers have moved me from the Great wall to a new site. As a tradition, even when the king died, he still needed protection and had people accompanied him down in hell. Oops, I meant to say up to heaven.

This is supposed to be a fun story, but half way it got depress. Sorry, thank you for passing by. Hope, I have cover all the significant details happen in Qin dynasty. If you feel that missing something, please, let me know. Thank you in advance. Addition to this article, I will add a highlight section at the end of the article if you are confused about the facts in the article. Until next time, wherever I am and wherever you are, have a safe night everybody.

Highlights

• Qin dynasty start in the year of 221 B. C, which conquer Wei, Qi, Chu, Han, and Zhao.
• The first emperor was Zhi Huangdi.
• The Great Wall of China starts approximately around the year of 220 B. C.
• The benefit of Qin dynasty allowed China to have a central government for the first time, bring in a new education system, create money for trade, build a highway to the capital, and invent a standard weight system.
• The story about the woman finding her family's bones during the lighting was a legend during that time.
• In the year of 213 B.C, the emperor commanded to burn books, buried and stoned scholars alive. Total were about 1,000 scholars killed during that incident.
• In 210 B. C, the emperor dead. There a lot question about his dead, because everybody have their own reason. Some said that his closest officials instead of poisoning the emperor with a full dose at once, they divided the portion of poison over a course of several years. This allowed the death to seem more natural. Another story said he addict to medication that could make him immortal. Some of the compounds that he consumed consist of poison and mercury, which might be the reason of his dead. This issue I will let you make your own judgment.
• However, it is for sure that he did not die because of assassination.
• True fact, there were a total of 8,000 statues in the Terracotta army, which were buried with the emperor. This tradition replaced the original one, which was whoever served the emperor during the time he was on the throne such as mistresses, servants, body guards, and personal officials would have to be buried alive. The reason for doing this was that they need to complete their duty even death.
• Hope, you enjoy my skinny jokes.

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External Resource

• Qin Dynasty (Wikipedia)