Kwisatz Haderach

It was really a typical attempt to established a centralised, authoritarian state with the Emperor as the sole authority. Peasants got it quite much worse under Qin despotism, as they were commissioned to forced labour to build amongst other things the beginning of the Great Wall. About 7 million people were forcely commissioned, and many of them probably died.

Yes, there was legal equality between everyone except the Emperor (but rather, the equality was more like "everyone get to work as slaves for the state"). Moreover, most land-owners were crushed during Qin legalism. The state had a policy of confiscating land and trying to abolish feudalism. Qin legalism lasted in about 12 years in all of the Chinese Empire before Qin was overthrown by Han.

Seriously, I peered into an old thread and saw this.

While its generally a good post, you have made one fault there. The Codé Napoléon was not the first law ever guaranteeing equality before itself. In China during the Qin dynasty, legalism was strictly enforced, which meant harsh laws before which everyone were equal, breaking with the hierarchic traditions of confucianism.