Qin Shi Huang

Hello. My name is Ying Zheng, but you might know me by the name I took later, Qin Shi Huang. I was born a long, long time ago, in the year 259 BCE. When I was a boy, the land I lived in was not one big country called China. It was broken into many separate kingdoms that were always fighting. In 246 BCE, when I was only 13 years old, I became the king of my kingdom, which was called Qin. I had a very big dream: to bring all the fighting kingdoms together and make one giant, peaceful family.

For many years, I worked hard to make my dream come true. My armies were strong, and one by one, we united all the kingdoms. Finally, in the year 221 BCE, the last kingdom joined us. All of China was one big country for the very first time. It was a day for a great celebration. To show that this was a new beginning, I gave myself a new title: Qin Shi Huang. It means 'First Emperor of Qin.' I wanted everyone in my new country to feel like they belonged to the same team and could work together.

To help everyone feel united, I made some important changes. I decided we should all use the same kind of money, the same kinds of weights for measuring things, and even write using the same letters. This made it much easier for people from different parts of China to talk to each other and trade things. I also wanted to protect our new home. I ordered my people to connect many smaller walls that were already built along the northern edge of our country. By joining them together, we started to build one Great Wall to keep everyone safe.

I also had a secret army built—not of real people, but of thousands of clay soldiers, horses, and chariots to protect me in the afterlife. My life came to an end in the year 210 BCE. I lived to be 49 years old. Even though my time as emperor was over, my dream of a united China lived on. Today, people can still visit the Great Wall and see my amazing Terracotta Army, remembering me as the first emperor who brought China together.