China | Page 5

Chinese nation, and their principal
representative showed no diminution of energy on attaining the throne,
and exhibited in a higher post, and on a wider field, the martial and
statesmanlike qualities his ancestors had displayed when building up
the fabric of their power as princes of the empire. Their supremacy was
not acquiesced in by the other great feudatories without a struggle, and
more than one campaign was fought before all rivals were removed
from their path, and their authority passed unchallenged as occupants of
the Imperial office.
It was in the middle of this final struggle, and when the result might
still be held doubtful, that Tsin Chi Hwangti began his eventful reign.
When he began to rule he was only thirteen years of age, but he quickly
showed that he possessed the instinct of a statesman, and the courage of
a born commander of armies. On the one hand he sowed dissension
between the most formidable of his opponents, and brought about by a
stratagem the disgrace of the ablest general in their service, and on the
other he increased his army in numbers and efficiency, until it became
unquestionably the most formidable fighting force in China. While he
endeavored thus to attain internal peace, he was also studious in
providing for the general security of the empire, and with this object he
began the construction of a fortified wall across the northern frontier to
serve as a defense against the troublesome Hiongnou tribes, who are
identified with the Huns of Attila. This wall, which he began in the first

years of his reign, was finished before his death, and still exists as the
Great Wall of China, which has been considered one of the wonders of
the world. He was careful in his many wars with the tribes of Mongolia
not to allow himself to be drawn far from his own border, and at the
close of a campaign he always withdrew his troops behind the Great
Wall. Toward Central Asia he was more enterprising, and one of his
best generals, Moungtien, crossed what is now the Gobi Desert, and
made Hami the frontier fortress of the empire.
In his civil administration Hwangti was aided by the minister Lisseh,
who seems to have been a man of rare ability, and to have entered
heartily into all his master's schemes for uniting the empire. While
Hwangti sat on the throne with a naked sword in his hand, as the
emblem of his authority, dispensing justice, arranging the details of his
many campaigns, and superintending the innumerable affairs of his
government, his minister was equally active in reorganizing the
administration and in supporting his sovereign in his bitter struggle
with the literary classes who advocated archaic principles, and whose
animosity to the ruler was inflamed by the contempt, not unmixed with
ferocity, with which he treated them. The empire was divided into
thirty-six provinces, and he impressed upon the governors the
importance of improving communications within their jurisdiction. Not
content with this general precept, he issued a special decree ordering
that "roads shall be made in all directions throughout the empire," and
the origin of the main routes in China may be found with as much
certainty in his reign as that of the roads of Europe in the days of
Imperial Rome. When advised to assign some portion of his power to
his relatives and high officials in the provinces he refused to repeat the
blunders of his predecessors, and laid down the permanent truth that
"good government is impossible under a multiplicity of masters." He
centralized the power in his own hands, and he drew up an organization
for the civil service of the State which virtually exists at the present day.
The two salient features in that organization are the indisputable
supremacy of the emperor and the non-employment of the officials in
their native provinces, and the experience of two thousand years has
proved their practical value.

When he conquered his internal enemies he resolved to complete the
pacification of his country by effecting a general disarmament, and he
ordered that all weapons should be sent in to his capital at Hienyang.
This "skillful disarming of the provinces added daily to the wealth and
prosperity of the capital," which he proceeded to embellish. He built
one palace within the walls, and the Hall of Audience was ornamented
with twelve statues, each of which weighed twelve thousand pounds.
But his principal residence named the Palace of Delight, was without
the walls, and there he laid out magnificent gardens, and added
building to building. In one of the courts of this latter palace, it is said
he could have drawn up 10,000 soldiers. This eye to military
requirements in even the building of his residence showed the temper
of his