Shi Huangdi's Obituary.

 Shi Huangdi, also known as Emperor Qin, has died this year (210 BCE) after he became ill and died on his expedition to Shandong province to see another "expert" for immortality. The name of our country, China, was decided to be name that by Qin.

 Emperor Qin intended for his dynasty to last for a thousand generations. Though his ideal of a unified empire, has inspired all Chinese governments to succeed for the next millennia. So Qin has achieved immortality.

 Li Si and the other ministers are worried about people going to seize this moment able to rebel against the abuses of the government, so they are keeping the death of Emperor Qin a secret from everyone.

 Emperor Qin has ordered the construction of his burial about 20 miles east of Xianyang about 30 years ago. The 700,000 workers and craftsmen put together had worked these near 30 years on the tomb. Since Qin had died unexpectedly, the tomb was not finished yet. He is being planned to be burried in a few months, sorounded by a 400 foot high, four-sided pyramid-shaped, going to cover about a square mile.

 May Emperor Qin rest in peace.

New Emporer, New Clothes.

 Emporer Qin and the high officials had fine clothing, but Qin had the finest of our imperial color, yellow.

 For state occasions, you would see Emperor Qin displaying on him a yellow silk robe with nine, five- clawed dragons. He was the only one to wear yellow silk in his time.

 For princes, they could wear any color robe as long as it had nine, four- clawed dragons on the robe.

 Then, the high officials' robes were any color they wanted with nine, three- clawed dragons.

 The dragon was a key figure in Chinese beliefs. The five- clawed dragon represents the male yang (the long positive force in the universe.)

Emperor Qin Doesn't Read Books.

 What a very good idea it was to burn what Emperor Qin called "undesirable books", also known as the Confucian Classics.

 The decision to burn the Confucian Classics was made after a scholar one day compared Emperor Qin to model kings of the Western Zhou from The Book of Documents. All the books were burned, expect for the important, approved books about Qin himself. All scholars that protested Emperor Qin for burning the books were forced to work on state projects or were executed (Torn in two by the waist, killed for criticizing, etc.) just like what happened to the daring scholar.

 This was a good idea by the emperor for burning all Confucian Classics, because he shouldn't really have been compared to the Western Zhou models, because there was really no reason to be compared to him. Who knows who Qin could have been compared to next for the wrong reasons?

 Another reason for burning the books, was because the Legalist beliefs were countered to the teachings of Laozi and Confucius. At some point, someone was bound to point out the differences between the policies of Qin and the ideal benevolent ruler.

 Earlier today I spoke with one of the townsmen about the book burnings and he says, "Yes. Very, very, very good idea to burn the Confucian Classics. Emperor Qin has done none of what the Western Zhou has horibally done to China. I doubt he would if he wants what is best for all of China."

Major Project Done in Less than 10 Years.

 After a decade of building, Emperor Qin has completed the Long Wall.

 The decision to link the Long Wall was to keep the bands of barbarian tribesmen out from invading the North so China would not be taken over by them.

 The Long Wall is made of various materials in various places. For the mountain regions, the wall was made of stones and gravel. For open plains, clay. The North-eastern woodlands part of the wall was made of planks made from pine, fir and oak trees. While part of the wall that ran through the Gobi Desert was made of sand, pebbles and tamarisk twigs. The Wall, which runs for almost nearly 2,000 miles, was linked and made by about 1 million people, including various kings and people from all over China. They were all housed, clothed and fed.

 The making of the Long Wall has helped in two ways: bad and good. Good, because it kept China safe from getting invaded by barbarians and whoever wanted to try to take over China. The way it was bad, about four-hundred thousand people died from exhaustion or starvation and some were killed for sleeping on the job. People who tried to run away were hunted down, and if they were found they were beaten or executed by overseers as a warning to the other workers so they would not do the same.