Ancient Civilizations: Chinese Dynasties

The leader of the Qin dynasty was Emperor Shihuangdi, who is known as the first emperor of the Qin dynasty and in fact, the first imperial emperor of China. He conquered the remaining city-states and united ancient China and created a very strict government. He began the process of building the Great Wall of China.

 The Qin dynasty ended China's Warring States period. And it began the development of a centralized government, which created a rigid set of laws that could be applied across the different city-states. Now the Qin dynasty started when it gained power and became the ruling house.

Liu Bang became emperor of the Han during the period of the Qin Dynasty. Eventually, he became emperor of the now unified Chinese empire. Now the Han empire after Liu Bang had a strong central government, and it included emperor Wudi who instituted Confucianism as the primary philosophy at the Chinese empire. Which included requirements for certain government officials to pass a civil service exam, to demonstrate that they had month high moral character and advanced.

The Han accomplished many things during their time. They emphasized the importance of education, and in fact, built a centralized university.

During this time historians, poets, and writers all prospered because they were thought of as being very virtuous. And the writings of math, medicine, philosophy, religion, and the arts came to the forefront.

This is in opposition to the former Qin dynasty, which actually burned many writings.

People still refer to themselves as Han.