How did one emperor make a whole country write and weigh the same way?

China's first emperor tried to make a whole country work like one machine. Before him, the lands we now call China were a patchwork of rival states, each with its own coins, measures and habits. After Qin Shi Huang and his minister Li Si unified them, they set out to standardize all of it: weights and measures, money, and the writing system. Even wagon axles were given a standard length, which made road transport easier.

Writing got the same treatment. Under Li Si, the seal script of the state of Qin became the official standard, and it was simplified by removing variant forms. This replaced the regional scripts with one written language for all of China, despite the many spoken dialects. The goal was practical: Qin standardization aimed to let officials write faster with brush and ink. Money followed the same logic, with the currencies of the different states replaced by one coin, the Ban Liang.

Behind it was a political fear. The Warring States period had been chaotic, and Qin Shi Huang and Li Si wanted to prevent a repeat. So they abolished the feudal system of loose alliances and cut the empire into 36 commanderies, further divided into more than 1000 districts.

There is a darker side, and a caution about it. In 213 BC most existing books were ordered burned, apart from works on practical subjects such as agriculture and medicine, and a later source says 460 scholars were buried alive. But the image of the tyrant comes partly from the scathing assessments written under the Han dynasty that replaced the Qin. His dynasty fell in 206 BC, soon after his death.