Xianyang

Capital of the state of Qin on the Wei River, the laboratory of Legalism. Here Shang Yang rebuilt a society around strict law, collective responsibility, and rank earned by service, making Qin the machine that would swallow all rival states. The first emperor ruled all China from Xianyang, and the dynasty built on Shang Yang's laws outlived him by only four years.

Xianyang was built to be an instrument. Shang Yang moved the Qin capital here and reorganized everything around it: households registered in groups that were punished collectively, land opened to sale, rank granted for heads taken in battle rather than for birth. The nobles he stripped of privilege had him torn apart by chariots as soon as his protector died. The system outlived him and swallowed every rival state within a century.