Shang Yang
Qin State statesman, chancellor and reformer (c. 390-338 BC) · China · Politicians · Lived 390 BC to 338 BC · aged 52
Shang Yang is read about 560 times a day, in 46 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 16 September 2026
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Something wrong?The architect of the state machinery that swallowed a continent. Shang Yang rewired Qin - its tax rolls, its armies, its peasants' lives - so thoroughly that two decades after his death, the kingdom he'd refashioned began devouring its rivals one by one until China was one thing under one throne.
Also in Deutsch
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About this person
Born in the Zhou vassal state of Wey around 390 BC, originally surnamed Gongsun, he drifted through Wei before landing office in Qin in 359 BC. As chief minister for twenty years, he launched two waves of reforms that rebuilt the state from the ground up: new administrative structures, political hierarchies, economic systems. The foundations held. Long after his death in 338 BC, Qin used the machine he'd built to conquer the other six kingdoms, unifying China under centralized rule for the first time. Writings bearing his name circulated late in the Warring States period and fed into the Han Feizi; scholars believe both Shang Yang and his followers shaped The Book of Lord Shang.
Politicians from China 6
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