Qin, the princedom that became an empire

In the land that today, we call China, there has been unrest. For hundreds of years, small kingdoms have been fighting each other for power. But in 221 BCE, a prince from the small kingdom of Qin - prince Ying Zheng - succeeds in defeating all the surrounding small kingdoms. He is now the sole ruler of a big kingdom. He changes his name to Qin Shi Huangdi, meaning "the first almighty emperor".

It is now that the country we call China comes into being. The inhabitants call their country: The Middle Kingdom. Qin Shi Huangdi rules with strict and harsh laws. He wants his new big kingdom to hold together after hundreds of years of chaos and war. Therefore, he sets up a form of government which is the same throughout the whole kingdom.

He standardizes. The Emperor dresses only in black, and all of his soldiers have black armor, and ride with black flags. In his kingdom, he makes black his standard colour. Qin Shi Huangdi also decides that there will be the same kind of money - the same currency - throughout the land. And if you need to weigh or measure something, everyone must use the same units of weight and length.

A system of measurement is created for the whole country. He builds roads: express roads from the capital of Xianyang to all the conquered areas of the empire. So that these new roads won’t get damaged, Qin Shi Huangdi decrees that all wagons should have the same distance between their wheels, so that they can drive in the same tracks. The emperor also arranges for walls to be built that link together all the conquered small kingdoms. These walls will defend the new kingdom against horse-riding tribes from the surrounding plains.

Ten of thousands of workers die during the building of the walls. This is the beginning of what today we call The Great Wall of China, the world's longest construction. Like many other leaders throughout history, Qin Shi Huangdi is terrified of losing power. His advisor and chief minister Li Si believes that ancient historical and religious writings might encourage the people to rebel and take power away from the emperor. Li Si’s advice is that the people should be forbidden to read anything written before Shi Huangdi became emperor.

Qin Shi Huangdi takes Li Si’s advice, and burns all the books in the country that are not about forestry, fortune-telling, or medicine. The only history books that may exist must be written by the emperor's own historian. He executes up to 460 educated people - academics - because they have kept their ancient writings. In the year 210 BCE, Qin Shi Huangdi dies. Some say he is poisoned by a pill that he took to become immortal.

It fails. But Qin Shi Huangdi is prepared for death. For twelve years, he made 700,000 prisoners build an enormous underground grave, a mausoleum, the world’s largest underground memorial. It’s as big as 7,843 football pitches. The mausoleum is filled with 8,000 life-size sculptures of soldiers, horses, and wagons.

They are made of fired clay: terra cotta. Each one has a different facial expression. At the centre of the mausoleum is a large square burial mound. According to an historical document from the first century AD, the emperor is buried together with riches in this mound, and artificial rivers of mercury are created to flow around him. It’s also said that there are deadly traps for those who try to disturb Qin Shi Huangdi's final rest.

The terracotta army is considered to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the world, but only a small part of the mausoleum area has been excavated. There is still much more to explore.