King Zhaoxiang of Qin
Reigning over 55 years, he was one of the longest-serving rulers during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Although making numerous policy mistakes during his later years, his aggressive territorial expansions were pivotal in consolidating the state of Qin as the dominant military powerhouse in the late Warring States period. It was the strategic dominance established during his reign that paved the way to Qin's eventual successful unification of China under his great-grandson, Ying Zheng.
Fengjian
During the pre-Qin period, fengjian represented the Zhou dynasty political system, and various thinkers, such as Confucius, looked to this system as a concrete ideal of political organization. In particular, according to Confucius, during the Warring States period, the traditional system of rituals and music had become empty and hence his goal was to return to or bring back the Zhou dynasty political system. With the establishment of the Qin dynasty in 220 BCE, the Qin emperor unified the various vassals and abolished fengjian organization, consolidating a new system of rule, namely the junxian or prefectural system. The Qin emperor established thirty-six prefects and created a centralized system to combat dissent by local officials. There are many differences between the two systems, but one is particularly worth mentioning: the prefectural system gave more power to the emperor, since it congealed power at the center or the top. From the Qin dynasty onward, Chinese literati would find a tension between the Confucian ideal of fengjian and the imperial system.