Qin Emperor Shihuang

Qin Emperor Shihuang (259-210BC) was the state-founding emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC). He was enthroned at the age of 13 and became an emperor at 39. From 230 to 221BC, he destroyed six states -- Han, Wei, Chu, Yan, Zhao and Qi -- in succession, unified China and established the feudal centralized system.

In order to consolidate his position, Qin Emperor Shihuang launched a series of reforms on politics, economy, culture and ideology. He asked his Prime Minister, Li Si, to unify the eight calligraphic styles that were thriving in other states and absorb some simplified characters and vulgar style scripts to create the standardizedQinzhuan(Qin-Dynasty seal) script.

This was China's first thorough character standardization movement led by the central government, and the uniform calligraphic style has great significance in pushing forward the development of Chinese characters.