Qin unifies China
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In 221 BCE the Qin state destroyed the last of the rival kingdoms and created the first unified empire of China, an event whose marks are still visible in the language and the map. Ying Zheng, king of Qin since 246, had used the strategies of Shang Yang and Li Si, rewarding agriculture and war, and his armies took Han, Zhao, Yan, Wei and Chu in turn. He took a new title, Shi Huangdi, the first emperor, and imposed a single administration of commanderies and counties with centrally appointed governors, a single system of weights and measures, a standard axle width for carts, and one written script across the empire. The walls of the northern frontier were linked, and books that did not concern agriculture or divination were burned in 213, with scholars buried the next year, according to the traditional account. The short and harsh dynasty fell within four years of the emperor's death in 210, torn by rebellion under Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, but its unification was permanent: the Han inherited the empire, the script and the roads, and no lasting partition of China occurred again until the twentieth century. The dynasty's standard script was the ancestor of the characters used today.