At the end of Warring States Period （about 250BC） , Qínguó(秦国) became the strongest among all seven powerful kingdoms . Yíng Zhèng (嬴政) , as the son of the king ( 秦庄襄王) ，succeeded to the throne at the age of 13 ( 246BC). Though the real power was still controlled by the prime minister Lǚ Bùwéi ( 吕不韦) and Miào(缪)the eunuch specially trusted by the king’s mother, Yíng Zhèng gradually formed his political ambitions and waited for a chance at domination .
In 238 BC, Yíng Zhèng was crowned and came into real power as the king. He suppressed the insurrection run by Miào ，and dismissed Lǚ Bùwéi from his post of prime minister within two months after his coronation . During this life and death struggle, Yíng Zhèng was so decisive and masterful that he removed all his political enemies, seized all power of both military and administration and prevented the kingdom from breaking up . This struggle laid a strong foundation for his final goal of the union of China and revealed his character as an ambitious person as well.

Depending on the strongest power of the kingdom, Yíng Zhèng began to launch wars and swallowed up all other six powers within 10 years. In 221BC, it was Yíng Zhèng who established a most centralized and united dynasty ---- Qín Dynasty, which not only ended the long situation of separate regimes of feudal lords since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but also initiated a new feudal empire.
When discussing the title of the new empire , Yíng Zhèng accepted ideas from Lǐ Sī (李斯) and some other senior officials that the king of Qínguó had accomplished such marvelous achievements that a more respectful title should be used ---- not just king. So Yíng Zhèng adopted the character Huáng ( 皇 ) from the three Huángs : Tiān Huáng (天皇)，Dì Huáng ( 地皇) and Tài Huáng (泰皇) which had been respected as the religious ideals far from more ancient times. He also used the character Dì(帝) from the five previous kings ( 五帝) in far ancient time : Huáng dì( 黄帝 )， Zhuān Xū （颛顼）, DìKù（帝喾）, Yáo (尧) and Shùn (舜) . Finally , Huángdì( 皇帝)，title of an emperor , was used as the symbol of a new and magnificent era. Yíng Zhèng called himself “Shǐhuáng” ( 始皇) which means the initial emperor and he wanted his descendants to be called “ 二世，三世”which means the second , the
third and so on. He dreamt of perpetuity of his dynasty. Yíng Zhèng has been called Qín Shǐhuáng ( 秦始皇) ever since.
As an emperor , Qín Shǐhuáng set up an administrative official system to assist him in carrying out his policies. He accepted Lǐ Sī’s advice to establish the local system of prefectures and counties . According to the system the whole country was divided into 36 prefectures ( 郡 jùn) and counties(县xiàn) which were under the control of prefectures. The local governor was appointed or dismissed by the central government. In this system , the chaos created by separate regimes ended and the system has been followed by the later feudal dynasties for a long time.
In culture Qín Shǐhuáng found that during the Warring States Period language and measurement were not uniform . This blocked the economic and cultural intercourse of people in different areas. He ordered carrying out the unified policies in speech, currency system and measurement . This encouraged the intercommunion of people everywhere and aided the development of the entire country .
At that time the central areas of China were harassed by the nomad minority , Xiōngnú (匈奴). Qín Shǐhuáng sent his troops
led by General Méng Tián (蒙恬) to go on an expedition against and stop the invasion of Xiōngnú. From then on, in order to prevent the invasion of Xiōngnú Qín Shǐhuáng not only dispersed inlanders to the northern borders for the defence and cultivation there, but also ordered thousands of peasants to build up a more than 10，000 lǐ ( 里 , unit of Chinese length = 500 meters )long protective wall from Lín Táo ( 临洮 ，now in Gānsù Province ) in the west to Liáo Dōng ( 辽东，east of Liáoníng Province) in the east. That was the famous Great Wall ( 万里长城 Wàn Lǐ Chángchéng ) .
Qín Shǐhuáng sent his troops to explore the Yuèzú (越族) areas in South China, set up prefectures, settled people there and ordered the dredging of Líng Qú(灵渠) the only canal contacting inner rivers from the south to the north of China, which were used in the transportation and union of China.
Qín Shǐhuáng made great achievements for the union of China. After all he was a typical atrocious dictator in Chinese history . He dominated the country by insanely exploiting and cruelly oppressing people.
To enjoy his wealth and retain his glory and treasures, he started to build luxurious palaces and tombs for himself. Among those palaces, E Páng Gōng (阿房宫) was the most luxurious one ,
which had been built incompletedly from 212 BC to the end of Qín Dynasty . The famous prose “阿房宫赋” written by one of well known writers of Táng Dynasty , Dù Mù(杜牧) ， described the palace as “ 覆压三百余里，隔离天日” which means it covered more than 300 lǐ and it was so high that it could keep out the sunlight.
At the same time Qín Shǐhuáng also built up a giant tomb for himself at Líshān ( 骊山，now in Xī’ān City). The tomb was 50 zhàng (丈 unit of length = 3.3 meters ) high and its perimeter was 5 lǐ long . The inner decoration was so luxurious that it became a giant and magnificent palace ground under.
To build these palaces , tombs , and the Great Wall , every year more than 700,000 prisoners and slaves , and three million peasants,( which were close to the total amount of the young labors of the whole country), were forced to work on these projects. Because of the heavy corvees or escuages and the miserable labor condition , many people died at the work sites and even on their way to the sites.
Qín Shǐhuáng used the most cruel methods to oppress the people , too. Once, he heard that some one carved a curse on an aerolite , saying that the emperor would die and the country
would be separated. Qín Shǐhuáng was so angry that he ordered to kill all people living around the aerolite !
There is the well known terrible event in which Qín Shǐhuáng ordered the burning of books and burying of hundreds of Confucian scholars alive in order to retain his domination on the people. In the year 213BC, some of Confucian scholars suggested Qín Shǐhuáng resume the ancient infeudation system , but these ideas were opposed by the prime minister Lǐ Sī. In order to prohibit the scholars from using the past to satirize the present and mislead the common people . Qín Shǐhuáng followed Lǐ Sī’s advice to burn up lots of legend books and books written by hundreds of schools during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period . This was the “ Fénshū(焚书)”event, which damaged greatly ancient Chinese culture. The next year Qín Shǐhuáng ordered his men to bury alive 460 Confucian scholars who secretly slandered the emperor and this system . That was the event of “Kēngrú( 坑儒) ” . From then on the possibility of like the hundreds of schools of thought of the Warring States Period had gone for ever.
It was Qín Shǐhuáng’s tyranny that led to the perdition of the
Qín Dynasty. In the year he died, uprisings and rebellions everywhere caused the fall of the dynasty which had just been founded 14 years earlier . Both Qín Shǐhuáng’s achievements and tyrannies have had great influence on later generations.