What were the social, cultural, and political consequences of the unification of China under the strong centralized governments of the Qin and Han empires?

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Army of the First EmperorThe thousands of life-size ceramic soldiers buried in pits about a half mile from the First Emperor’s tomb help us imagine the Qin military machine. It was the Qin emperor’s concern with the afterlife that led him to construct such a lifelike guard. The soldiers were originally painted in bright colors, and they held real bronze weapons. (Robert Harding World Imagery)

LLike the Roman Empire (see Chapter 6), the Chinese empire was put together through force of arms and held in place by sophisticated centralized administrative machinery. The governments created by the Qin and Han Dynasties affected many facets of Chinese social, cultural, and intellectual life.