To be clear, I understand the controversy surrounding the movie ie. arguably propaganda by the Chinese government as part of its one China policy etc. That said, I was wondering if there was any truth in its claims that Qin Shi Huang Di's actions laid the bureaucratic/pseud-nationalist/cultural framework for a united "Chinese" country.
As ridiculous as the film is (although I do enjoy watching it) - the claims are not ridiculous. The Qin's greatest innovation, and in the end its downfall, was Shi Huangdi's attempts at radically centralizing power over the many states that made up the empire. The regional power bases were too strong, and Shi Huangdi's policies too rigid, and the whole house of cards came down in a heap shortly after his death.
However, only a couple of generations later, with Han Wudi, the dreams of Shi Huangdi would be realized, and in fact surpassed. Wudi achieved unprecedented centralization of power. The model for his centralizing efforts? You guessed it, Qin Shi Huangdi.
It is a bit silly to read back 2000+ years to suggest causality and foundationality - any number of variations might have occurred that would have rendered the central state moot. In fact, after Shi Huangdi's death, the central state succeeded for about 350 years, and then decentralized mini-states dominated the region for nearly 400 years before the Sui-Tang re-empiring.
So, if I were living in the mid 6th century CE, I might think a centralized state was possible, but it wouldn't be a present reality.
Nonetheless, most of the last 1300 years have been dominated by the central state.