Judging by the frequency with which Ts'in moved its capitals (but
always within a limited area in the Wei valley, between that river
and its tributary the K'ien), they cannot have been very important
or substantial places; in fact, there are no descriptions of early
Ts'in economic life at all; and, for all we know to the contrary,
the headquarters of Duke Muh, when he entered upon his reforms in
the seventh century B.C., may have resembled a Tartar encampment.
The _Kwoh-yü_ has no chapter devoted to Ts'in, which (as indeed
stated) for 500 years lived a quite isolated life of its own. In later
times, especially after the reforms introduced by the celebrated
Chinese princely adventurer, Wei Yang, during the period 360--340,
the land administration was reconstituted, the capital was finally moved
to Hien-yang, and every effort was made to develop all the resources
of the country. Ts'in then possessed 41 _hien,_ those with a
population of under 10,000 having a governor with a lower title than
the governors of the larger towns, Probably the total population of
Ts'in by this time reached 3,000,000. A century later, when the First
August Emperor was conquering China, armies of half a million men
on each side were not at all uncommon. When his conquests were
complete, he set about building palaces on both banks of the Wei in
most lavish style, as narrated in the last chapter. It is said of him that,
"as he conquered each vassal prince, he had a sketch made of his
palace buildings," and, with these before him as models, he lined
the river with rows of beautiful edifices,--evidently, from the
description given, much resembling those lying along the Golden
Horn at Constantinople; if not in quality, at least in general
spectacular arrangement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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