XI Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2019

The civilization of ancient Chine appeared in the second half of the first Millennium BC. In those days, China was an ancient feudal state, which was called Zhou (named after the ruling dynasty). As a result of wars, the state of Zhou split into several small kingdoms and principalities, which waged a continuous war for power, influence and territory. The Chinese themselves call this era of their history – the era of Fighting kingdoms. Over time, seven major kingdoms stood out, they conquered the rest of the state: Qin, Chu, Wei, Zhao, Han, Qi and Yan.

Despite the political fragmentation, Chinese culture and civilization were actively moving forward, new cities were formed, crafts and agriculture flourished, and iron replaced bronze. This period is called the century of Chinese philosophy, because at that time lived the famous Chinese philosophers Lao Tzu and Confucius. They had a numerous disciples and followers (for example, Zhuang Tzu) who also filled the world with their wisdom thoughts and works.

Again, despite the fact that Chinese civilization consisted of seven fragmented kingdoms at that time, they had a common essence, one language, same traditions, history and religion. And soon enough one of the strongest kingdoms-Qin under the rule of the harsh and militant Emperor Qin Shi Huang managed to conquer all the other kingdoms and to reunite ancient China under the banner of a single state.

The Qin dynasty ruled United China for only 11 years, but this decade was one of the greatest in Chinese history. The reforms carried out by the Emperor affected all aspects of Chinese life. What were these reforms of ancient China that had such an impact on the lives of the Chinese?

The first was land reform, which dealt a crushing blow to community land ownership, and for the first time, land was freely bought and sold. The second was the administrative reform, which divided the entire Chinese territory into administrative centers, they are also counties (Xiang), at the head of each such County was a state official who was responsible to the Emperor for the order in his territory. The third important reform was the tax reform. If before the Chinese paid land tax – tithe from the harvest, now the fee was levied depending on the cultivated land, which gave the state an annual constant income, regardless of crop failure, drought, etc.All the risks associated with crop failures now fell on the shoulders of farmers.

And without a doubt the most important in those troubled times was the military reform, which, however, preceded the unification of China: first the Qin, and then the General Chinese army was rearmed and reorganized. Army started to have cuvalries , bronze weapons were replaced by iron, long horse clothing of soldiers was replaced by a short and more comfortable (like nomads). The soldiers were divided into five and dozens, connected with each other by the system of mutual responsibility, those who did not show proper courage were subjected to severe punishment.

Actually, these measures of reformer Qin Shi Huang helped to make the Qin army one of the most efficient in ancient China, to defeat other kingdoms, to unite China and turn it into the strongest state in the East.

The Qin dynasty was replaced by the Han dynasty, which strengthened the work of its predecessors, expanded Chinese territories, and extended Chinese influence to neighboring Nations, from the Gobi desert in the North to the Pamir mountains in the West.