QIN SHI HUANG
Note the importance placed on stability even in ancient China. This value even in the 21st Century preoccupied the Chinese government. Next to independence, it is probably the most important Chinese objective because China has seen so many periods of instability some of which killed more Chinese than the Germans did in WWII.
Unfortunately there has never been agreement as to which books and writings were of use to society and which were not.
Qin Shi Huang was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. From 247 to 221 BC he was Zheng, King of Qin (秦王政, Qín Wáng Zhèng, personal name 嬴政 Yíng Zhèng or 趙政 Zhào Zhèng). He became China's first emperor when he was 38 after the Qin had conquered all of the other Warring States and unified all of China in 221 BC. Rather than maintain the title of "king" (王 wáng) borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor (始皇帝) of the Qin dynasty from 221 BC to 210 BC. His self-invented title "emperor" (皇帝 huángdì) would continue to be borne by Chinese rulers for the next two millennia.
