Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: How long did the Qin dynasty last?
The Qin dynasty (Chinese:秦朝; pinyin:Qíncháo; Wade–Giles:Chʻin²-chʻao²) was the first dynasty of Imperial China,[2] lasting from 221 to 206 BC. Named for its heartland in Qin state (modern Gansu and Shaanxi), the dynasty was founded by Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of Qin. The strength of the Qin state was greatly increased by the Legalist reforms of Shang Yang in the fourth century BC, during the Warring States period. In the mid and late third century BC, the Qin state carried out a series of swift conquests, first ending the powerless Zhou dynasty, and eventually conquering the other six of the Seven Warring States. Its 15 years was the shortest major dynasty in Chinese history, consisting of only two emperors, but inaugurated an imperial system that lasted, with interruption and adaptation, until 1912 CE.
Dapu (打譜) is the transcribing of old tablature into a playable form. Since qin tablature does not indicate note value, tempo or rhythm, the player must work it out for him/herself. Normally, qin players will learn the rhythm of a piece through a teacher or master. They sit facing one another, with the student copying the master. The tablature will only be consulted if the teacher is not sure of how to play a certain part. Because of this, traditional qinpu do not indicate them (though near the end of the Qing dynasty, a handful of qinpu had started to employ various rhythm indicating devices, such as dots). If one did not have a teacher, then one had to work out the rhythm by themselves. But it would be a mistake to assume that qin music is devoid of rhythm and melody. By the 20th century, there had been attempts to try to replace the "jianzi pu" notation, but so far, it has been unsuccessful; since the 20th century, qin music is generally printed with staff notation above the qin tablature. Because qin tablature is so useful, logical, easy, and the fastest way (once the performer knows how to read the notation) of learning a piece, it is invaluable to the qin player and cannot totally be replaced (just as staff notation cannot be replaced for Western instruments, because they developed a notation system that suited the instruments well).
In 221 BC, after the conquest of Qi, Ying Zheng proclaimed himself "Qin Shi Huang" (秦始皇; literally "First Emperor of Qin") and established the Qin dynasty. The Qin Empire was divided into 36 commanderies, with Xianyang as the imperial capital. Qin Shi Huang created a centralised state and empire that would become the bedrock of future Chinese dynasties. Although the Qin dynasty lasted 15 years only, its influence on Chinese history lasted for centuries to come.
Qin Hui or Qin Kuai (January 17, 1090 – November 18, 1155) was a Chancellor of the Song dynasty in Chinese history. He is widely regarded as a traitor for his part in the persecution and execution of his political enemy, Yue Fei, a general who fought for the Song against the Jin dynasty during the Jin–Song Wars, resulting him being condemned by later generations of being corrupt. Modern historians, however, have placed as much blame (if not more) on the reigning Emperor Gaozong himself. He was also nicknamed "Long-legged Qin" () by the people out of scorn.
During this time, Li Si and Zhao Gao fell out, and Li Si was executed. Zhao Gao decided to force Qin Er Shi to commit suicide due to Qin Er Shi's incompetence. Upon this, Ziying, a nephew of Qin Er Shi, ascended the throne, and immediately executed Zhao Gao.[26] Ziying, seeing that increasing unrest was growing among the people[note 6] and that many local officials had declared themselves kings, attempted to cling to his throne by declaring himself one king among all the others.[15] He was undermined by his ineptitude, however, and popular revolt broke out in 209 BC. When Chu rebels under the lieutenant Liu Bang attacked, a state in such turmoil could not hold for long. Ziying was defeated near the Wei River in 207 BC and surrendered shortly after; he was executed by the Chu leader Xiang Yu. The Qin capital was destroyed the next year, and this is considered by historians to be the end of the Qin Empire.[27][note 7] Liu Bang then betrayed and defeated Xiang Yu, declaring himself Emperor Gaozu[note 8] of the new Han dynasty on 28 February 202 BC.[28] Despite the short duration of the Qin dynasty, it was very influential on the structure of future dynasties.
In 209 BC, during the reign of Qin Er Shi, Qin Shi Huang's son and successor, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang started an uprising in Dazexiang to overthrow the Qin dynasty due to the Qin government's brutal and oppressive policies. Although the revolt was crushed by imperial forces, several other rebellions also started consecutively all over China over the next three years. The last Qin ruler, Ziying, surrendered to a rebel force led by Liu Bang in 206 BC, bringing an end to the Qin dynasty. Several of the rebel forces claimed to be restoring the former states that were annexed by Qin and numerous pretenders to the thrones of the former states emerged. In 206 BC, Xianyang was occupied and sacked by the forces of Xiang Yu, a descendant of the Chu general Xiang Yan.
In 221 BC, Qin conquered the other six Warring States and founded the Qin dynasty; the He Shi Bi was then taken from the last duke of Zhao by Qin Shi Huangdi, who ordered it made into his imperial seal. The words, "Having received the Mandate from Heaven, may (the emperor) lead a long and prosperous life." (受命於天，既壽永昌) were written by Chancellor Li Si, and carved onto the seal by a man named Sun Shou. When Colonel Liu Bang attacked Xianyang, Ziying handed the jade over as a way of surrendering. The seal was to be passed on even as the dynasties rose and fell, but was lost between the Tang and Ming dynasties.
The site features a long documented history of almost three millennia, having served as the location for several palaces built during the reigns of past Chinese dynastic rulers, including King You of the Zhou dynasty, Qin Shi Huang of the Qin dynasty, and an expanded version by Wu Han of the Han dynasty. Under the Tang emperors Taizong and Xuanzong, the palace structure was rebuilt and renamed the Huaqing Palace. However, during the events associated with the An Lushan rebellion, considerable damage was done to the site. Nevertheless, the historical legacy of the Huaqing pools has received lasting commemoration, such as in the following mention of Emperor Xuanzong and Yang in Bai Juyi's poem "":
The dynasty is often compared to the earlier Qin dynasty for unifying China after prolonged division. Wide-ranging reforms and construction projects were undertaken to consolidate the newly unified state, with long-lasting influences beyond their short dynastic reigns.
However, while the empire at times was extended to the north, the Qin could rarely hold on to the land for long. The tribes of these locations, collectively called the Hu by the Qin, were free from Chinese rule during the majority of the dynasty.[23] Prohibited from trading with Qin dynasty peasants, the Xiongnu tribe living in the Ordos region in northwest China often raided them instead, prompting the Qin to retaliate. After a military campaign led by General Meng Tian, the region was conquered in 215 BC and agriculture was established; the peasants, however, were discontented and later revolted. The succeeding Han dynasty also expanded into the Ordos due to overpopulation, but depleted their resources in the process. Indeed, this was true of the dynasty's borders in multiple directions; modern Xinjiang, Tibet, Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, and regions to the southeast were foreign to the Qin, and even areas over which they had military control were culturally distinct.[24]
Duke Zhuang succeeded his father Duke Cheng of Qi, who died in 795 BC, as ruler of Qi. He had a long reign during an era of upheaval in China. In 771 BC, the Quanrong tribes from the west attacked Haojing, capital of the Zhou Dynasty, and killed King You of Zhou. Duke Xiang of the state of Qin sent his army to escort King You's son King Ping of Zhou to the new capital Luoyi, marking the beginning of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. As a reward for Qin's protection King Ping formally granted Duke Xiang of Qin a nobility rank and elevated Qin to the status of a vassal state on par with other major states such as Qi and Jin. Although Qi was little affected by the turmoil as it was located east of the Zhou territory, the state of Qin would from then on grow stronger and eventually conquer Qi in 221 BC and unite China under the Qin Dynasty.
Although Qin would eventually develop into a major power that would conquer all other Chinese states and unite China in 221 BC to start the Qin Dynasty, at the time of the Marquis of Qin it was still a minor state of the Western Zhou Dynasty classified as an "attached state" (附庸, "fuyong"). Qin rulers did not receive any nobility rank until four generations later during the reign of Duke Xiang of Qin, so "the Marquis of Qin" was presumably an honorific posthumous title that his descendants used to refer to him.
In the late Qin dynasty, Sima Ang served as a general in the insurgent Zhao state and joined other rebel forces in overthrowing the Qin dynasty. After the fall of the Qin dynasty, Sima Ang declared himself the king of a separate state, Yin (殷), with its capital at Henei (河內; in present-day Henan). In the early Han dynasty, Sima Ang's kingdom became a commandery of the Han Empire and his descendants had lived there since. Sima Yi, a descendant of Sima Ang, served as an official, military general and regent of the Cao Wei state in the Three Kingdoms period. His grandson, Sima Yan, usurped the throne from the last Cao Wei emperor and established the Jin dynasty. After the Jin dynasty ended, many members of the Sima clan changed their surname to avoid persecution.
According to the "Shuowen Jiezi", the character for Qin is a compound ideogram which combined two characters: "chong" 舂 "to pound", and "he" 禾 "grain". The character originally refers to Qin Valley (秦谷) in Longxi near Tianshui, Gansu and became the name of that area. The area was granted to Feizi, a descendants of Gao Tao, by King Xiao of Zhou as a fief in the 9th century BC, which then grew into the state of Qin. In the 3rd century BC, the state of Qin unified China and became the first imperial dynasty under Qin Shi Huang. After the fall of the dynasty in 206 BC, the descendants of Qin royalty, whose ancestral name was Ying (), was said to have adopted the surname Qin. Many people sought to identify themselves with the Qin long since the fall of the Qin dynasty; in Japan, the Hata clan of Japan claims descent from a branch of the Qin royal family, "Hata" being the native Japanese reading for the character "Qin".
During the Zhou Dynasty, centralized power decreased throughout the Spring and Autumn period until the Warring States period in the last two centuries of the Zhou Dynasty. In this period, the Zhou court had little control over its constituent states that were at war with each other until the Qin state consolidated power and formed the Qin dynasty in 221 BC. The Zhou Dynasty had formally collapsed only 35 years earlier, although the dynasty had only nominal power at that point.
The Warring States period ended in 221  after the state of Qin conquered the other six kingdoms, reunited China and established the dominant order of totalitarian autocracy. King Zheng of Qin proclaimed himself the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty. He enacted Qin's legalist reforms throughout China, notably the forced standardization of Chinese characters, measurements, road widths (i.e., cart axles' length), and currency. His dynasty also conquered the Yue tribes in Guangxi, Guangdong, and Vietnam. The Qin dynasty lasted only fifteen years, falling soon after the First Emperor's death, as his harsh authoritarian policies led to widespread rebellion.
Despite its military strength, the Qin Dynasty did not last long. When the first emperor died in 210 BC, his son was placed on the throne by two of the previous emperor's advisers, in an attempt to influence and control the administration of the entire country through him. The advisors squabbled among themselves, however, which resulted in both their deaths and that of the second Qin emperor. Popular revolt broke out a few years later, and the weakened empire soon fell to a Chu lieutenant, who went on to found the Han Dynasty. Despite its rapid end, the Qin Dynasty influenced future Chinese regimes, particularly the Han, and the European name for China is derived from it.
The Zhou dynasty (–256 BC; ) was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang dynasty and preceded the Qin dynasty. Although the Zhou dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, the actual political and military control of China by the dynasty, surnamed Ji (), lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as the Western Zhou.
Iron, however, largely remained a product for non-military and non-aristocratic use, employed by farmers for hundreds of years, and did not really affect the nobility of China until the Qin dynasty, when iron long-swords became a part of the Qin army's equipment.
In 221 BC, the Qin state unified China by conquering the other six major states and established the Qin dynasty. However, the oppressive and extremely unpopular dynasty lasted only 14 years. In 209 BC, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang started the Dazexiang Uprising to overthrow the Qin dynasty.
Yang Lin (杨林) was a member in royal family of Sui Dynasty. He was the cousin of Yang Jian, the founder of Sui. His weapon was a long stick called Qiulongbang (literally, the stick to seal dragons). Before the establishment of Sui Dynasty, Yang Lin was a general in Northern Zhou Dynasty, a major kingdom ruled by Yuwen family during Southern and Northern Dynasties era. He took part in the war that Northern Zhou Dynasty annexed Northern Qi Dynasty, another major kingdom in the same era. During the war, Yang Lin won a lot of battles, including the battle of Jizhou (济州) during which he killed the Northern Qi's general Qin Yi (秦彝), the father of Qin Shubao (see below). After his cousin Yang Jian took the place of Yuwen family and founded the Sui Dynasty, Yang Lin got a highest title of nobility. He was always loyal to Sui Dynasty even at the very end of his life. 
Yang Lin had several adopted sons; they were all well-skilled in the military or martial arts. When he first met Qin Shubao, he was impressed by Qin's martial arts strategies and military tactics. As a result, Yang Lin asked Qin to be his 13th adopted son. Qin thought it was a great opportunity to revenge for his father Qin Yi, so he became the Yang Lin's 13th taibao (太保，adopted son). However, he never had a chance to revenge since Yang Lin was much stronger than him. Later, Qin escaped from Yang Lin's home and joined the rebellion in Wagang Fort. Yang Lin was very angry after knowing one of his adopted sons betrayed him. He asked his troop to attack Wagang Fort, but unfortunately, just before Wagang Fort's collapse, Wagang Fort's smart officer Xu Shiji (徐世勣, or Xu Maogong 徐茂公) subverted Yang Lin's assistant general Tang Bi (唐壁 in the book, or 唐弼 in real history). At the same time, one of Yang Lin's former assistant, Cao Yanping (曹延平, see below), who was dismissed by Yang Lin without a good reason, came to reinforce Wagang Fort. Later, Qin Shubao's cousin Luo Cheng also came to help Wagang Fort. In the next battle, half of his adopted sons, including Lu Fang (卢芳), Xue Liang (薛亮) and Yang Daoyuan (杨道源), were killed by warriors in Wagang Fort. To make things worse, another rebellion group, led by Liu Liuwang (刘留王), attacked Yang Lin's base camp in Dengzhou (登州). Yang Lin had no choice but to retreat from Wagang Fort. 
After the country totally falls into a chaos, Yang Lin started to put down rebellions around the whole country. Some small rebellion groups were destroyed by him. However, in the battle of Siming Mountain (see above), Yang Lin was defeated and nearly killed by the angry Pei Yuanqing, who just suffered a loss in the battle against Li Yuanba. 
Yang Lin was the one who came up with the idea of Yangzhou's martial arts test. However, after the plan was proved to be a failure, Yang Lin and one of his adopted son, Yin Yue (殷岳), was ambushed by Qin Shubao and Luo Cheng. Yin Yue was killed by Qin Shubao during the battle, and Yang Lin was hurt by Luo Cheng. It was a great time for Qin Shubao to revenge for his father, but Qin decided to forgive Yang Lin, for Qin was also Yang Lin's adopted son and Yang Lin taught him a lot about military and martial arts. Also, unlike many other local governors or generals at that time, Yang Lin never did harm on but often protect common people, and that was why Qin Shubao respected Yang Lin though Yang Lin killed Qin's father. At that point, the dejected Yang Lin said that he never regretted to ask Qin Shubao to be his adopted son although later he knew Qin Shubao's father was Qin Yi, because Qin Shubao was a real hero. He said that he always respected Qin Yi for the loyalty he showed, but he had to kill Qin Yi because they were enemies at that time. He also told Qin Shubao that Sui Dynasty might not be able to survive at this point, but the good future of the common people would be relied on heroes like Qin Shubao and Luo Cheng. After that, Yang Lin committed suicide by cutting the throat.
In an ancient well of the Ancient City Ruins of Liye built in the Warring States period and abandoned in the late Qin dynasty, more than 36,000 pieces of Bamboo Slips of the Qin dynasty were unearthed in June 2002. The huge amount of bamboo slips are the official files of Qianling County of Dongting Prefecture in the Qin dynasty period, they carry almost all the political, military, economic and social informations of the Qin dynasty. 
The Qin bamboo slips of Liye are important for the research of the unification of the Qin Empire and the cultural expansion of the Qin. The slips belong to a model of the local authorities in the Qin dynasty. They also filled in the blank pages of the "Records of the Grand Historian" and "Book of Han" on the Qin and Han dynasties, and fundamentally changed the face of the academic history of thousands of years on warring States, Qin and Han dynasties. The slips contain thousands of pieces of bamboo slips without words, which takes on a very high research value.
After his victory at Julu, Xiang Yu led his forces towards Guanzhong (the heartland of the Qin dynasty) and prepared for an invasion. In the winter of 207 BC, the last Qin emperor Ziying surrendered to Liu Bang in Xianyang (the Qin capital), bringing an end to the Qin dynasty. Xiang Yu later occupied Xianyang and divided the former Qin Empire into the Eighteen Kingdoms, each ruled by a vassal king. Ying Bu was named "King of Jiujiang" (九江王).
Before the Liye slips were found, there were only about 2,000 slips on the Qin dynasty and fewer than 1,000 words of official Qin records. The event was considered as the most important archaeological discovery of the Qin dynasty after the Qin Terracotta Army unearthed in 1973, and has been referred to as one of the great discoveries of Chinese archaeology in the 21st century. The bamboo slips and other cultural relics unearthed are regarded as encyclopedias of the Qin dynasty and displayed in the museum.