A son of one of the concubines of the penultimate feudal ruler of Ch’in was living as a hostage in the neighbouring state of Chao, in what is now northern Shansi.  There he made the acquaintance of an unusual man, the merchant Lue Pu-wei, a man of education and of great political influence.  Lue Pu-wei persuaded the feudal ruler of Ch’in to declare this son his successor.  He also sold a girl to the prince to be his wife, and the son of this marriage was to be the famous and notorious Shih Huang-ti.  Lue Pu-wei came with his protege to Ch’in, where he became his Prime Minister, and after the prince’s death in 247 B.C.  Lue Pu-wei became the regent for his young son Shih Huang-ti (then called Cheng).  For the first time in Chinese history a merchant, a commoner, had reached one of the highest positions in the state.  It is not known what sort of trade Lue Pu-wei had carried on, but probably he dealt in horses, the principal export of the state of Chao.  As horses were an absolute necessity for the armies of that time, it is easy to imagine that a horse-dealer might gain great political influence.

Soon after Shih Huang-ti’s accession Lue Pu-wei was dismissed, and a new group of advisers, strong supporters of the Legalist school, came into power.  These new men began an active policy of conquest instead of the peaceful course which Lue Pu-wei had pursued.  One campaign followed another in the years from 230 to 222, until all the feudal states had been conquered, annexed, and brought under Shih Huang-ti’s rule.

2 Centralization in every field

The main task of the now gigantic realm was the organization of administration.  One of the first acts after the conquest of the other feudal states was to deport all the ruling families and other important nobles to the capital of Ch’in; they were thus deprived of the basis of their power, and their land could be sold.  These upper-class families supplied to the capital a class of consumers of luxury goods which attracted craftsmen and businessmen and changed the character of the capital from that of a provincial town to a centre of arts and crafts.  It was decided to set up the uniform system of administration throughout the realm, which had already been successfully introduced in Ch’in:  the realm was split up into provinces and the provinces into prefectures; and an official was placed in charge of each province or prefecture.  Originally the prefectures in Ch’in had been placed directly under the central administration, with an official, often a merchant, being responsible for the collection of taxes; the provinces, on the other hand, formed a sort of military command area, especially in the newly-conquered frontier territories.  With the growing militarization of Ch’in, greater importance was assigned to the provinces, and the prefectures were made subordinate to them.  Thus the officials of the provinces were originally army officers but now, in the reorganization of the whole