Hello people,
I am currently researching on factors that benefitted or even made possible the quick rise of the Qin dynasty and unision of China, and factors that led to the quick fall of it afterwards. If somebody with knowledge regarding that could share a quick summary, point me in right direction, or just give me some tips I would be most grateful.
Kind regards.
Also: A Chinese friend recommended a older text, but since I couldn't find a translation and my ancient Chinese is still beginner level I forgot the name. I think it was something like 亲过论 (Qin guo lun)
Guo Qin lun (过秦论) (dissertation on the errors of Qin) was a memo by Jia Yi (贾谊) submitted to Emperor Wen, part of it was quoted by the widely popular Sima Qian in his annal of the First Emperor. Wikisource has a copy of Guo Qin lun in its entirety here https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/過秦論
It is an interesting and highly influential document to later days Confucians, but highly biased -- Jia Yi was an early Confucian with a streak of legalist. He believed that only a strong, highly centralized state like Qin could maintain the peace for "all under heaven", but at the same time, he believed Qin's unpopular policies, namely legalist practices caused erosion in morality, caused its down fall rather than multiple other probable dispassionate causes.
How did Qin rise and fall? If you go by the traditional narrative (that adheres closely to official history of the period, completed about a century after the fall of Qin -- Shiji (史记) by Sima Tan and Sima Qian, father and son) , Qin was a state at the edge of "civilization" sliding into semi-barbarity until it enacted reforms proposed by legalist Shang Yang (商鞅). Three key reforms were: administrative, taxation, and the rule of law -- feudal yi (邑) were converted into prefects (xian (县)) with officials appointed directly by the court, ancient practice of jingtian (井田) was replaced by direct taxation, and harsh laws were used to terrorize the populace into behaving. Qin was transformed almost over night, the subjugated populace was turned into discipline fighting units, combined with its geographical advantages, belligerent leaders with expansionist mindset, Qin slowly strangled first its neighboring states and then inevitably conquered them all. However, the ruthlessness and its lack of humanity (ren) and righteousness (yi) of those policies, combined with the emphasis on manipulating the wording of the law to produce results that pleased their superiors, which turned the officials into a bunch of "wordsmiths" that unable to report the truth, resulted in Qin's rapid disintegration.
I can tell you that it's much more interesting to dissect the plausible causes of Qin's rise (and subsequently its fall), but that requires going quite deep into the rabbit hole that was Warring States China, with the three Jin states in particular; with a reassessment of diplomatic machination of the period. But that would take longer than just an essay and may be you only want the traditional narrative.
For prime sources, there aren't that many to draw on:
Other sources: Zhanguo ce, Guoyu
For the rise of the Qin, you might be interested in the book War and State Formation in Ancient China and Early Modern Europe by Victoria Hui (2005) which looks at how the multistate system of the Warring States era in China could break down with one state conquering the others while the same didn't happen in 16th century Europe.
(Also Qin was clearly the dominant power by 278 BC so its rise was not that quick)