HISTORY 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Written Language, Meritocracy, Qin Dynasty
Document Summary
History 250 lecture 14 the qin dynasty. China had been in chaos since 400 bce. First emperor set the qin code in order: born in 260 bce, he was 30 years old when he unified china in 230 bce, biggest issue had to have army in order. Built up 600,000 troops who were well equipped and trained. Previously fighting was very civilized: had a systematic way of fighting and told the other side when and where they would attack. New developments: soldiers dressed in all black, new equipment the crossbow. Could do 5 shots in succession: a large part of the army was on horse (cavalry) The qin were better trained, commanded and planned than the other states. Most important thing was to make sure that other states couldn"t make alliances. Bribed other states to break their military alliances. 223 bce qin suffered its first defeat. By 221 bce only one state was left (chi)
