Qin Shi Huang

Born Ying Zheng, he became king of the state of Qin at 13 and, by 221 BC, had conquered the six rival kingdoms. He took a new title, Shi Huangdi (“First Emperor”), and the word “China” in many languages is thought to come from the name Qin. His government standardised writing, coins, weights and measures and even cart axle widths, and linked earlier walls in the north into a long frontier defence. Later historians, writing under the dynasty that replaced his, remembered him as harsh: they recorded the burning of books and heavy forced labour. His dynasty collapsed only four years after his death in 210 BC, but the idea of one unified empire lasted two thousand years.