n.
or Ch'i
One of the largest and most powerful of the many states into which early China was divided (771?221 BC).
During the Eastern Zhou dynasty , Qi was the first state to fully institute a uniform tax system, a central army, and a centralized bureaucracy based on talent rather than hereditary rank. It formed a league of states in 651 BC to stave off invasions from the north and south, but its hegemony was short-lived. In 221 BC it was absorbed into the Qin dynasty .