Qin Dynasty

Confucius (551-479 B.C.E.) longed for unification, but regionalism has been a problem throughout China's history.  The Qin dynasty represented a success in the permanent battle to keep China centralized and unified.

Confucians argued that people are drawn to a righteous leader as water flows downhill.  Confucians didn't achieve unification.  Legalists did.

Following centuries of warfare between competing states, Qin, the westernmost one, was able to conquer its rivals because it found new ways to organize the state.  Legalist reforms included a bureaucracy organized on the basis of 'merit' and even abolition of all priveleges of the nobility.

Law had been, and ultimately continued to be, considered secondary to morality as a social control.  (A problem with this which continues today is that officials treat decicions as independent moral choices, causing them to become arbitrary and capricious.)

However, the Legalist school of thought (and some of its techniques existed long before the 'school') had Han Fei Zi arguing very persuasively

Chu

Xun Zi

Ki Si

Han Fei Zi

King Zheng, or Qin Shi Huang

Xiongnu

"Pax Sinica"

The dynastic cycle