Peerless is level 1 of 4 in the China Hall of Fame: changed the field itself. Tell the country's story without them and the story breaks. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
The king of Qin who conquered the other warring states in 221 BC and created the first unified Chinese empire, standardising its script, coinage, weights and measures.
As King Zheng of Qin he defeated the six rival states and took the new title of First Emperor. His government standardised writing, currency, measures and even axle widths, linked existing walls into an early Great Wall and built roads across the empire.
The terracotta army buried near his tomb at Xi'an, discovered in 1974, is one of the great archaeological finds of the twentieth century.
His rule was also notoriously harsh. Traditional histories record the burning of books and the killing of scholars who criticised him, and his building projects relied on forced labour on an enormous scale. The Qin dynasty collapsed within four years of his death.
The terracotta army buried near his tomb at Xi'an, discovered in 1974, is one of the great archaeological finds of the twentieth century.
His rule was also notoriously harsh. Traditional histories record the burning of books and the killing of scholars who criticised him, and his building projects relied on forced labour on an enormous scale. The Qin dynasty collapsed within four years of his death.
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