Changes
made to further control and ensure a unified China
*
Bureaucracy:
Qin
Shihuangdi set up a system in whicheach worker wa appointed
to a job and
was trained for that job. Each worker had salary, followed
strict rules, and an
answered to a supperior. People at each level supervised
those below them.
Heading the bureaucracy was the emperor Qin Shihuangdi.
Eleven
chamberlains managed the emperor's household. Three high
officials,
sometimes called the "three dukes" held the highest held
the highest
government and military posts.
*
New standards: Qin
Shihuangdi set new standards for all China. All
measurements had to be
the same, and, and only one kind of money was legal. He
also decreed standard
written characters.
*
Land ownership: He took
land away from thousands of noble families. He ended ended
the
Chinese feudal system,so anyone could ownland as long as he
paid the land tax.
Now Qin Huangdi not the lords, controlled the peasants.
*
Censorship: In 213
B.C. Qin Huangdi ordered the burning of of "useless" books.
According
to his advisor, Li Si, all books were "useless" unless they
were about medicine,
agriculture, or prophecy. The government attacked writers,
and readers, as well
as their books. "Anyone referring to the past to criticize
the present should be
put to death, "Li Si told the emperor. Several hundred
scholars who criticized
the government were buried alive or punished in other ways.
*
Great wall: The wall
was built to keep out enemy invaders. Guards on the
watchtowers kept a
lookout for enemy for enemy forces. They signaled invasions
with flags or fires,
holding off the enemy until help came. To complete this
massive structure, Qin
Shihuangdi used a forced-labor crew of 300.000 men. These
workers connected
several existing walls to form one single,massive wall.
