Not long before Jewish scribes wrote the Enoch scroll (fifty years or so), a man named Ying Zheng was consolidating his power in China. Before Ying Zheng became ruler of the state of "Ch'in" (also called "Qin"), China had never been unified. Big changes were in store for the country - and for it's many Confucian scholars.

Who was Ying Zheng? As a thirteen-year-old prince, he ascended the throne in 247 BC. Within twelve years his armies had crushed most of the neighboring states. For the first time one state (Ch'in) was able to exact obeisance from its neighbors. For the first time one man was in charge. For the first time the walls of the former independent states were linked together - and extended - to form the Great Wall of China. And - for the first time - China had an emperor.

To commemorate such incredible accomplishments, Ying Zheng took a new name: Ch'in Shih Huang-Ti (pronounced "chin sher hwang-dee"). His name means Ch'in, The First Emperor.

To accomplish so much in a short time, the First Emperor imposed tough laws. Here's an example. If a member of a public works team didn't show up at the job site on time, his entire team would be killed. Confucian scholars disapproved of the Emperor's methods - and said so in their commentaries, articles and poems. The Emperor's response was harsh. He followed his prime minister's advice who

...urged the burning of the histories of all the former states except Qin [Ch'in], folk collections of poetry and articles and books by scholars of schools with views different from those of the Qin. [The First Emperor] ordered this done, but books on medicine, agriculture, and copies of condemned books were preserved in the Imperial capital. A year later he arrested some 400 Confucian scholars, the most active of whom had continued to attack him, and had them buried alive.

At least the First Emperor did not bury alive soldiers set to guard him in the after life. For more than a thousand years, no one knew an entire army of 6,000 terra cotta figures - in battle formation - were under the ground near the former imperial capital of Xi-an. (These treasures weren't rediscovered until 1974.)

The First Emperor had taken great care to protect himself, even though he had not taken care to protect the knowledge lost in all the books he burned. Even books saved in the State Library were eventually destroyed in the chaos following his death in 210 BC.

Ancient books tell us that life for workers during the Ch'in dynasty was filled with misery. "The ditches were filled with corpses" of workers and "piled-up skeletons supported one another." The Ch'in Dynasty ended soon after the First Emperor's death - sparked by a workers' rebellion.

GO TO STORY INDEX