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The Rise of the Emperors
The Warring States Period and the Han Dynasty
(475 B.C.–A.D. 220)
During the Warring States Period, at the twilight of the Bronze Age, many different states within the ruling dynasty were competing for power. In 221 B.C., the leader of the strong Qin (“chin”) state conquered all the others. He renamed himself Qin Shi Huangdi (“chin shur hwahng-dee”), or “first emperor of Qin.” The Chinese empire was born. It would survive almost two thousand years.
Qin Shi Huangdi died only eleven years later, but the government he created was the model for the four-hundred-year Han Dynasty. The Qin unified China; under the Han, China blossomed.
Jade represented status and power for the Han elite, as it had for their predecessors. They proudly displayed it in life, and took it to the grave in forms that would protect them after death.
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