3540 AM · 221 BCE · world history
Qin Shi Huang and the Great Wall
China is unified for the first time, and northern fortifications are joined into one wall.
The ruler of Qin conquers six rival states and declares himself first emperor. In eleven years of rule he imposes a single script, currency, cart-axle width and law code, and divides the land into administrative commanderies. Border ramparts are joined into a continuous line, ancestor of the Great Wall. His tomb is guarded by a terracotta army.
Sources
Documents of the period
- the Chinese dynastic histories — Sima Qian, Shiji — the deeds of the First Emperor and the unification of China
Scholarship
- archaeology of China — the terracotta army (found in 1974) and the surviving stretches of the early wall
Basis: documents and evidence.