Abstract:
The unification by Emperor Qinshihuang was not confined to the incorporation of the six kingdoms into Qin Empire. And in fact, Qin Empire became larger than the original Kingdom of Chu in territory through marching towards Lingnan, merging Guilin, Nanhai, Xiangjun(象郡) as its counties, thus Lingnan area was integrated into the cultural circle of central plains and the coastline controlled by the central plains regime was longer than ever before, which is critical to the history of Chinese coastal areas and territorial seas, the history of maritime resource development, and history of maritime transportation. Therefore, Qin’s contribution during the early era of Emperor Qinshihuang should not be neglected when examining the opening of the south coastline in the West Han Dynasty.
