Establishment of the imperial system. After the unification of the six kingdoms, Qin Shi Huang immediately set about establishing a new imperial system - a centralized bureaucracy centered on the emperor.
"Wang" was originally the title of King of Zhou in the Western Zhou Dynasty, but in the Warring States Period, the status of King Zhou became lower and lower, and the monarchs of various countries began to claim the title of king. After Qin unified China, Qin Shi Huang felt that continuing to use the title "king" was not enough to show his great merits, because he felt that his merits were higher than those of the three emperors and the five emperors. So he picked some words from it and invented the title "emperor". Since then, "emperor" has become the exclusive title of the monarch, and it has been used until the fall of the Qing Dynasty, a total of more than 2,100 years.
When a previous king died, his ministers would give him a nickname based on his deeds and deeds during his lifetime. But Qin Shi Huang didn't like this kind of "son discusses father, minister discusses king" thing, so he abolished the nickname system, and instead used numbers to rank himself, he was the first emperor, and his descendants were the second and third respectively, and he hoped that the rule of Qin could continue forever, passed on to countless centuries, and never end. Since then, Qin Shi Huang Yingzheng has become the famous "Qin Shi Huang".
Qin Shi Huang also developed a series of systems commensurate with the emperor. The emperor called himself "I", and his orders and decrees were called "system" and "edict", and his seal was called "seal". These titles were exclusive to the emperor, and anyone else who used them was "a great rebellion" and would be punished with death.
Qin Shi Huang established a large bureaucracy in the imperial court, under which there were prime ministers, taiwei, and imperial historians, who were responsible for the management of government affairs, military affairs, and supervision. Then there are other **, which are in charge of specific affairs such as justice, finance, and the defense of the Beijing Division.
There was a heated debate among the ministers about what kind of local administrative system the empire should adopt. Most of the ministers advocated following the Zhou dynasty's feudal system, dividing remote areas such as Yan, Qi, and Chu to the princes. However, Tingwei Li Si strongly opposed it, and he advocated the complete abolition of the feudal system and the full implementation of the county system. Qin Shi Huang supported Li Si's opinion, and he told his ministers: "The people of the world are fed up with endless wars, and this is all because of the division of the princes. The implementation of the seal is to make enemies, and if you want to seek peace, it is not easy to say! So, Qin Shi Huang divided the country into thirty-six counties. With the expansion of the territory, especially after the northern expedition to the Xiongnu and the unification of the south, some counties were adjusted and added.
The county system is a two-tier administrative system. The prefect of the county is called the county guard, the military manager is called the county lieutenant, and there is a county supervisor who is in charge of overseer. There is a county under the county, and if it is a place where ethnic minorities live together, it is called "Dao", and if there are more than 10,000 households in the county, it is called the county order, and if there are less than 10,000 households, it is called the county magistrate. There is also a county lieutenant in the county who manages the military. The governors of the county and the prefectural were appointed by the imperial court and could not be hereditary. There are townships below the county, and there are li under the township, and the township is the lowest administrative unit, and the li is the grassroots organization under the control of the state. The county system is the source of the modern provincial and county system.
In 2002, archaeologists discovered more than 36,000 Qin slips in the ancient city of Liye in Longshan, Hunan. Some of these brief texts mention the place "Dongting County", but in our known historical documents, Dongting County is never mentioned. This means that when Qin Shi Huang set up the counties, the actual situation may have been much more complicated than we know.
In order to ensure the implementation of national decrees and the effectiveness of local governance, the emperor and the first institutions will promote the best policies and regulations to all parts of the country through a strict document system, and at the same time, they can also timely grasp the governance situation and dynamics of various places. For the country's military and political affairs, the ministers will generally discuss the court, and finally the emperor will make a decision.
In the Qin Empire, the power of the emperor was supreme, and he held all the political, economic, and military power in the country. Whether it's ** or local, there are armies. In order to control military power, they adopted the bronze tiger talisman system. The tiger talisman was split in two, half of which was kept by the emperor and the other half was in the hands of those who led the troops. The army can be mobilized only when the two halves of the tiger fit together.
This system has been used since Qin Shi Huang and has been used for more than 2,000 years. This system was a very complete bureaucratic system, from the emperor to the county and township, all of which were managed through clerical administration. This system appeared the earliest and most perfect in the world, creating the basic model of China's centralized bureaucratic system for more than 2,000 years, and also had an important impact on neighboring countries.
At the beginning of the 3rd century B.C., China already had a perfect bureaucratic administrative system and a unified centralized state form, which was very rare in the world at that time. In other parts of the world, the bureaucracy, made up of career bureaucrats, is much later. Therefore, it is generally believed that the unique path of China's historical development is closely related to the precociousness of China's national political form.
In order to prove the legitimacy of Qin's unification of the world, Qin Shi Huang adopted the Five Virtues Theory of the End, which was very popular at the time. This theory holds that the world is composed of five substances: earth, wood, metal, fire, and water, which are mutually reincarnated and constantly reincarnated. The Zhou Dynasty was the virtue of fire, and water overcame fire, so the Qin Dynasty was the virtue of water. Qin Shi Huang followed the regulations of water virtue, taking October as the beginning of the year; Advocating black, the clothes and flags are black, and the common people are called "Qianshou", because "Qian" means black; The number corresponds to six, so the rails, step width, etc. are all six feet; Shui De advocated torture and killing, so Qin Shi Huang advocated the politics of Legalism and implemented strict punishments.
In order to stabilize the newly unified country, Qin Shi Huang took a series of strong measures. In order to prevent the people of the old Six Kingdoms from rebelling against him, Qin Shi Huang collected all the civil **, and then destroyed them, cast them into bells and twelve bronze figures weighing thousands of stones, and put them in the Xianyang Palace. He also ordered the demolition of the castle and moat, which were used for defense. Qin Shi Huang moved all the nobles and wealthy people of the old Six Kingdoms to Guanzhong, Bashu and other places, so that they could stay away from him and no longer be able to contact their hometowns. At that time, there were 120,000 households that moved to Xianyang alone.