Transcript The History of China

The History of China
Reunification of the country
• China is a country that has given us
many important invents and
discoveries. For example: the
inventions of the compass, paper and
silk. Thanks to this country we know
what is tea and rice. China is an
ancient country with a unique culture,
which developed in a self-contained
civilization. That’s why the history of
this country is very interesting. It is
full of wars and military conflicts like a
history of any other country. No
doubt, the most important of them is
the war for the unification, the result
of which was the emergence of the
new great country, the apparent
symbol of which is the Great Chinese
Wall.
• The history of China as a whole
country started only in the third
century BC after the Qin’s wars
of unification. Before that this
country did not exist. Instead of
it, there were 7 independent
kingdoms, that fought with each
other. This period is called the
Warring States Period. However,
the emperor of the Qin dynasty,
Ying Zheng, decided to conquer
the other six major states (Han,
Zhao, Yan, Wei, Chu, Qi) and
combine them in the territories
that later became China. His
dynasty was not the first dynasty
to rule China. Shang and Zhou
were the two of the dynasties
which existed before Qin.
• Ying Zheng began his
campaign by first conquering
the Han state in 230 BC. As
the weakest state, Han was
the easiest for the King of
Qin to conquer. The next
state to conquer was Zhao
and its capital Handan easily
fell to the Qin forces. After
Zhao, Ying Zheng conquered
the state of Yan in 227 BC,
Wei in 225 BC, Chu in 223 BC,
Yan in 222 BC, and finally Qi
in 221 BC. The victory over
Yan was an important victory
for Ying Zheng as it allowed
him to rule over
northeastern China.
• Chu was the largest state which
controlled southern China and
was the hardest to defeat.. The
first attempt in 224 BC to
conquer the state was a failure.
Ying Zheng was finally
successful in his second
attempt when he ordered
more troops to be used. The
victory at Chu was indeed
decisive for Ying Zheng as it
was the largest of the seven
states and the conquest of the
state allowed Ying Zheng to
rule over southern China. The
Qi army surrendered to the Qin
army without a fight.
• When all the states were
conquered, Ying Zheng
declared himself as the first
emperor with the title Shih
Huang Ti and the first ruler of
the Qin dynasty.
• Recently, scientists have found a
tomb of Shih Huang Ti and near it
there is the Terracotta Army. It is a
collection of terracotta sculptures
depicting the armies of Qin Shi
Huang. It is a form of funerary art.
The army was buried with the
emperor and it’s purpose was to
protect the emperor in his afterlife.
• There are many opinions about
Ying Zheng in China. Some people
say, that he was a cruel dictator,
others believe that he was
performing a great mission.
Nobody can tell the truth, because
nobody knows it. There is a legend,
that he built the Great Wall on the
bones of his enemies. But there is
another legend, and I like it more.
This legend is very well shown in
the film “Hero”. Here is the plot of
this film.
• In ancient China during the Warring
States Period, a nameless prefect of a
small jurisdiction arrives at the Qin
state's capital city to meet the king of
Qin, who has survived an attempt on his
life by the assassins Long Sky, Flying
Snow, and Broken Sword. Therefore, no
visitors are to approach him within 100
paces. 'Nameless' claims that he had
slain the three assassins and he displays
their weapons in front of the king, who
allows Nameless to sit closer to him and
tell him his story.
• Nameless recounts killing Long Sky;
later to meet Flying Snow and Broken
Sword at a calligraphy school in the
Zhao state, where he set them against
each other until Snow killed Sword and
was herself slain by Nameless. As the
tale concludes, the king expresses
disbelief and accuses Nameless of
staging the duels with the assassins,
who surrendered their lives to allow
him to gain the king's trust and take the
king's life.
• Nameless admits that he is a native of the
Zhao state and that his family was killed by
Qin soldiers, and confesses that he defeated
Sky without killing him and had proposed
co-operation to Snow and Sword. After
Snow's apparent death, Sword approached
Nameless and told him that the only way to
achieve peace was to unite the states under
a common dynasty; namely that of Qin,
which alone has the ability to do so, thus
revealing why Sword gave up his earlier
assassination attempt.
• The king, affected by the tale and by
Sword's understanding of his dream to unify
China, ceases to fear Nameless. He then
tosses his sword to Nameless and examines
a scroll drawn by Sword, and understands
that it explains the ideal warrior, who,
paradoxically, should have no desire to kill.
When Nameless realizes the wisdom of
these words, he abandons his mission and
spares the king.
• At the Qin palace, the king reluctantly
orders Nameless killed, being urged thereto
by his court. As the film ends, Nameless
receives a hero's funeral and a closing text
identifies the king as Qin Shi Huang.
• Qin dynasty lasted only 16 years
and collapsed when it was
defeated by Liu Bei, the founder of
the Han dynasty. Although the Qin
dynasty was not the first dynasty
in China, it was remembered as
the first dynasty to rule over all of
China, after its first emperor was
the first person to reunite China.
• Unification of China by the Qin
Dynasty plays an important role in
the history of the country. The first
emperor of the Qin Dynasty
carried out a lot of reforms. He
introduced a united system of
weights and measures, established
a system of centralized
administration, held a unification
of writing and increased the
territory of the state.
• So, to sum it up, the reunification
of China marked the beginning of
China's further development as a
whole country.