 In 221 BCE the king of the state of Qin vanquishes his final rival and declares himself the First Emperor, inaugurating both the Qin dynasty and China’s imperial era. The First Emperor’s success was founded in part on his adherence to social and political ideas akin to those in the Book of Lord Shang, and he endeavors to extend socio-political standardization and control in unprecedented ways in the new empire. The Qin dynasty does not long outlive its founder, but it is followed by the four-century-long Han dynasty in which many of key characteristics of imperial Chinese state and society are first established. A lengthy period of disunity follows the collapse of the Han in 220 CE; over this period and through the succeeding Sui and Tang dynasties, intellectuals focus less on social and political philosophy than on issues of spiritual cultivation and abstract metaphysics: in particular, this is the era when Chinese Buddhism comes of age. While there certainly is socio-political thinking to be found (see, for example, Chiu-Duke 2000) it makes sense to focus in this section on the Han dynasty.