Online Source of China's Qin Terracotta Warrior Army>> Legend of China's First August God of the Qin, Emperor Qin Shihuang

 

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Legend of China- First August God of the Qin, Emperor Qin Shihuang

 

Before the era of the China's First August God of the Qin, China was run on feudal orders through aristocratic family ties. With the royal line broken and fast growing of the feudal states by defeating and taking over the others, the royal power gradually diminished and thus chaos and ferocious warfare ensued. Gradually, seven main Kingdoms called 'Seven Overlords' emerged including westernmost Qin.

In 246 BC, the king of Qin died and his son Ying Zheng, the later China's First August God of the Qin succeeded him. According Chinese famous historian Sima Qian in late 2nd century BC, Ying Zheng was given a birth in 259 BC by a previous concubine of Lu Buwei-The ambitious Machiavellian and rich merchant presented his pregnant lover to the prince of Qin who eventually would come to the throne.

As Ying Zheng, the new young king was then barely 13 years old, his mother and actual father Lu Buwei acquired all his power. When Ying Zheng turned to be an ambitious young man, he took the deliberate actions to defeat his mother's plot to overthrow him. He soon secured full powers as Qin King, reinforced by banishing his mother from the Qin capital, forcing Lu Buwei to commit a suicide.

The first challenge to Ying Zheng's reign was over and the young king now embarked on his campaign of conquest. By then Qin Kingdom had developed an unstoppable army through hundred years of reforming. He began to establish a  bureaucracy system. Rather was by aristocracy as before, the military control was in the hands of professional strategists and generals who were career officers. And the Qin king committed everything he had to this army: new provisions, better weapons and half a million more men. All these reflected his sophisticated mode of attach: shock troops, followed by heavy infantry and backed by cavalry.

His military prowess with triumph in his military conquests also relied on the promotion system and rigid military law based on the loyaty to the Qin King. To get the promotion in the Qin society and live a better life, the only way was the outstanding  performance in the battle which means to bring as much enemy heads as possible. On the other hand, failure in the battlefield with insufficient number of heads meant death for all officers and soldiers-should they survived. This barbaric policy was greatly shaken in the rivals shoes. In the following decades, he conquered the other six kingdoms through bloody conflict.

His ultimate dream came to true in 221 BC. At the age of 34, Ying Zheng was crowned with a veil of stars symbolising the divinity of First August God. He was sending the clear message that he would have supreme power over the land that was later to be known as China. His empire, covered around one-third of Modern China was then the largest in the world and is believed to be the oldest political entity.

 

 

He called hismself 'Qin Shihuang' that means he was the first august god from the Qin Kingdom. He proclaimed himself to be a deified figure and a creator who would start a long lineage of Qin. And so, with the help of his chief minister Li Si, China's First August God of Qin put in place of a highly centralized, totalitarian governance system that would long outlast him and the short-lived Qin Dynasty.

 

The Giant Sculpture of the First Emperor in the Car Park of the Terracotta Warrior Museum

 

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