2018-11-27 Ch'in 秦朝

The state of Ch'in, from which the name China is probably derived, brought this age to an end in year 221B.C. by annihilating the last of the other opposing states, thus for the first time creating a really unified Chinese empire. The resulting Ch'in dynasty replaced the old feudal aristocracy by a centrally appointed nonhereditary bureaucracy, thus instituting a form of government that has since set a pattern for all later dynasties. With the sole exception of the creation of the Chinese Republic in 1912, these events marked the greatest single change in China's political history.
秦国并吞六国后，于公元前二二一年建立秦朝，第一次建立了真正统一的中华帝国。秦朝以中央集权、由中央政府委派地方官僚代替了过去各地区贵族割据、政权世袭的制度，由此开创了中国自此以后历朝的政治体制。这是中国政治史上，除一九一一年推翻帝制、建立民国之外，最重要的历史变革。