17. 秦的统一

With the defeat of the other six warring kingdoms, Qin Shi Huang unified the northern China. The king of Qin became the First Emperor of Qin in China. As emperor, Qin Shi Huang reorganized the bureaucracy, abolishing the existing nobility and replacing nobles with officials appointed by him. He also built a network of roads, with the capital of Xianyang at the hub. In addition, the emperor simplified the written Chinese script, standardized weights and measures, and minted new copper coins. In his reign for 35 years, he managed to create magnificent and enormous construction projects. He also brought incredible cultural and intellectual growth, as well as a lot of disasters to China.

秦始皇灭掉六国（six warring kingdoms）之后，统一了中国北方。秦国国王成为了中国的秦始皇帝。作为皇帝，秦始皇重组了官僚机构（bureaucracy），废除了既有的贵族，并以他任命的官员取代。他还建立了以都城咸阳为中心的道路网。此外，秦始皇还简化汉字的写法，统一度量衡（weights and measures），铸造了新的铜币。在35年的统治中，他建造了宏伟庞大的建筑工程，也带来了难以置信的文化和知识的增长，同时也给中国带来了许多灾难。