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Qin Shi Huang: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Qin Shi Huang
Born in the city of Handan in 259 BC, the child who would become the First Emperor of China was named Zhao Zheng, a name derived from the month of his birth and the clan of his birthplace rather than his father's lineage. His early life was a precarious dance between political hostage status and royal ambition, as his father, Prince Yiren, was held at the court of Zhao to guarantee an armistice between the warring states of Qin and Zhao. The boy's mother, Lady Zhao, was originally a concubine of the wealthy merchant Lü Buwei, who orchestrated a scheme to elevate Yiren to the throne of Qin. This arrangement created a bizarre family dynamic where the merchant became the de facto stepfather to the future emperor, and the boy grew up under the shadow of a father who was essentially a political pawn. The story of his birth was later poisoned by rumors that he was actually the illegitimate son of Lü Buwei, a claim designed to discredit him by associating him with a merchant, the lowest class in ancient society. These rumors, whether true or fabricated by political enemies, cast a long shadow over his reign, suggesting a man born of deception who would rule with the same ruthless cunning. When his father died in 246 BC, the thirteen-year-old Zhao Zheng ascended the throne, leaving Lü Buwei to serve as regent prime minister while the state of Qin continued its relentless wars against its six rivals.
The Consolidation of Power
The transition from a boy king to a sovereign ruler was marked by a series of bloody purges that eliminated every potential threat to his authority. In 238 BC, a man named Lao Ai, who had been disguised as a eunuch and secretly fathered two sons with the Queen Dowager, attempted a coup d'état to replace the young king with one of his own children. The rebellion was crushed with brutal efficiency; Lao Ai was torn apart by horse carriages, his family executed to the third degree, and his two hidden sons were killed. This event triggered the downfall of Lü Buwei, who had facilitated the relationship between the queen and Lao Ai. Fearing exposure, Lü Buwei committed suicide by drinking poisoned wine in 235 BC, clearing the path for Zhao Zheng to assume full power. The king then turned his attention to internal dissent, executing his legitimate half-brother Zhao Chengjiao, who had rebelled and surrendered to the state of Zhao. The purge extended to the families and retainers of the rebels, ensuring that no faction within the court could challenge his absolute authority. With the regency ended and internal enemies removed, the king was free to pursue the external conquests that would define his legacy, transforming the state of Qin from a powerful kingdom into the sole ruler of China.
The Conquest of Warring States
Common questions
When was Qin Shi Huang born and what was his birth name?
Qin Shi Huang was born in the city of Handan in 259 BC and his birth name was Zhao Zheng. This name was derived from the month of his birth and the clan of his birthplace rather than his father's lineage.
How did Qin Shi Huang unify China and when did the process end?
Qin Shi Huang unified China by launching a systematic campaign to conquer the remaining six major states beginning in 230 BC. The process took nine years to complete and ended in 221 BC when the Qin armies captured the state of Qi.
What happened to the books and scholars during the reign of Qin Shi Huang?
In 213 BC Qin Shi Huang ordered most existing books to be burned to eliminate the Hundred Schools of Thought. The following year the emperor had some 460 scholars buried alive for possessing the forbidden books according to the later Shiji.
How did Qin Shi Huang die and what was the cause of his death?
Qin Shi Huang died in July or August of 210 BC at the palace in Shaqiu prefecture at the age of 49. The cause of his death remains unknown though one hypothesis holds that he was poisoned by an elixir containing mercury.
Who succeeded Qin Shi Huang and how was the succession managed?
Qin Shi Huang was succeeded by his younger son Hu Hai who started his brief reign as the Second Emperor. Chancellor Li Si and the chief eunuch Zhao Gao conspired to kill the eldest son Fusu and forged a letter from Qin Shi Huang commanding Fusu and General Meng to commit suicide.
When were the terracotta statues discovered and how many were excavated?
The terracotta statues were discovered by a group of farmers digging wells on the 29th of March 1974. There are around 6,000 statues excavated whose purpose was to protect the Emperor in the afterlife from evil spirits.
Beginning in 230 BC, the king launched a systematic campaign to conquer the remaining six major states, a process that would take nine years to complete. The state of Han, the weakest of the rivals, fell first, followed by the invasion of Zhao in 229 BC, which had been severely weakened by natural disasters. The state of Yan, fearing a Qin invasion, orchestrated a desperate assassination attempt in 227 BC involving the assassin Jing Ke, who tried to kill the king with a dagger hidden inside a map of Dukang. The attempt failed, and the Yan state was conquered in its entirety five years later. The campaign continued with the siege and flooding of the capital of Daliang, leading to the surrender of Wei in 225 BC. The largest and most powerful state, Chu, was invaded in 224 BC, and its capital of Shouchun fell in 223 BC. By 221 BC, the Qin armies had extinguished the last remnants of Yan and the Zhao rump state of Dai, and invaded the state of Qi, capturing King Jian without significant resistance. This final victory unified all Chinese lands under the Qin, ending the Warring States period. The king then proclaimed himself the First Emperor, creating a new title that combined the mythical titles of the Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors, ensuring that his successors would be known as the Second Emperor, Third Emperor, and so on.
The Standardization of Empire
To prevent a recurrence of the political chaos that had plagued the previous centuries, the First Emperor and his minister Li Si worked to completely abolish the feudal system of loose alliances and federations. They organized the empire into administrative units, starting with 36 commanderies and later expanding to 40, which were subdivided into counties, townships, and hundred-family units. People were no longer identified by their native region or former feudal state, but by their administrative unit, and appointments were based on merit instead of hereditary right. The empire was unified economically by standardizing weights and measurements, with wagon axles prescribed a standard length to facilitate road transport. The emperor developed an extensive network of roads and canals for trade and communication, and the currencies of the different states were standardized to the Ban Liang coin. The forms of Chinese characters were unified, with the seal script of the state of Qin becoming the official standard, and the Qin script itself was simplified through the removal of variant forms. This created a universal written language for all of China, despite the diversity of spoken dialects. The emperor also confiscated all the bronze weapons of the conquered countries and cast them into twelve monumental statues, the Twelve Metal Colossi, which were displayed in the palace. Each statue was said to be 5 zhang in height and weighing about 1000 dan, serving as a physical symbol of the Mandate of Heaven.
The Burning of Books and Scholars
In 213 BC, at the instigation of Li Si, the First Emperor ordered most existing books to be burned, with the exception of those on astrology, agriculture, medicine, divination, and the history of the state of Qin. This act was intended to eliminate the Hundred Schools of Thought, which included Confucianism and other philosophies, and to further the ongoing reformation of the writing system by removing examples of obsolete scripts. Owning the Classic of Poetry or the Book of Documents was to be punished especially severely. According to the later Shiji, the following year the emperor had some 460 scholars buried alive for possessing the forbidden books. The emperor's oldest son Fusu criticized him for this act, but the emperor remained unmoved. Recent research suggests that this 'burying Confucian scholars alive' is a Confucian martyrs' legend, and more probably, the emperor ordered the execution of a group of alchemists who had deceived him. The emperor's own library did retain copies of the forbidden books, but most of these were destroyed when Xiang Yu burned the palaces of Xianyang in 206 BC. The emperor also followed the theory of the five elements, believing that the royal house of the previous Zhou dynasty had ruled by the power of fire, and the new Qin dynasty must be ruled by the next element on the list, which is water. Water was represented by the color black, and black became the preferred color for Qin garments, flags, and pennants.
The Quest for Immortality
As he grew old, the First Emperor desperately sought the fabled elixir of life which supposedly confers immortality, falling prey to many fraudulent elixirs. He visited Zhifu Island three times in his search, and sent Xu Fu, a Zhifu islander, with ships carrying hundreds of young men and women in search of the mystical Mount Penglai. The expedition never returned, perhaps for fear of the consequences of failure, and legends claim that they reached Japan and colonized it. The emperor built a system of tunnels and passageways to each of his over 200 palaces, because traveling unseen would supposedly keep him safe from evil spirits. In 211 BC, a large meteor is said to have fallen in Dongjun in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and someone inscribed the seditious words 'The First Emperor will die and his land will be divided.' The emperor sent an imperial secretary to investigate this prophecy, and no one would confess to the deed, so all living nearby were put to death, and the stone was pulverized. During his fifth tour of eastern China, the emperor became seriously ill in Pingyuanjin and died in July or August of 210 BC, at the palace in Shaqiu prefecture, about two months travel from Xianyang, at the age of 49. The cause of his death remains unknown, though one hypothesis holds that he was poisoned by an elixir containing mercury, given to him by his court alchemists and physicians in his quest for immortality.
The Death and Succession
Upon witnessing the emperor's death, Chancellor Li Si feared the news could trigger a general uprising during the two months' travel for the imperial entourage to return to the capital Xianyang. Li Si decided to hide the emperor's death, and the only members of the entourage to be informed were a younger son, Ying Huhai, the eunuch Zhao Gao, and five or six favorite eunuchs. Li Si ordered carts of rotten fish to be carried before and behind the wagon of the emperor, to cover the foul smell of his body decomposing in the summer heat. Pretending he was alive behind the wagon's shade, they changed his clothes daily, brought food, and pretended to carry messages to and from him. After they reached Xianyang, the death of the emperor was announced. Qin Shi Huang had not liked to talk about his death and had never written a will. Although his eldest son Fusu was first in line to succeed him as emperor, Li Si and the chief eunuch Zhao Gao conspired to kill Fusu, who was in league with their enemy, general Meng Tian. Meng Tian's brother Meng Yi, a senior minister, had once punished Zhao Gao. Li Si and Zhao Gao forged a letter from Qin Shi Huang commanding Fusu and General Meng to commit suicide. The plan worked, and the younger son Hu Hai started his brief reign as the Second Emperor, later known as Qin Er Shi or 'Second Generation Qin'.
The Legacy of the First Emperor
Sima Qian, writing a century after the First Emperor's death, wrote that it took 700,000 men to construct the emperor's mausoleum, which was located at the foot of Mount Li, 30 kilometers away from Xi'an. The main tomb, containing the emperor, has yet to be opened and evidence suggests that it remains relatively intact. Sima Qian's description of the tomb includes replicas of palaces and scenic towers, 'rare utensils and wonderful objects', 100 rivers made with mercury, representations of 'the heavenly bodies', and crossbows rigged to shoot anyone who tried to break in. The terracotta statues were discovered by a group of farmers digging wells on the 29th of March 1974, and there are around 6,000 statues excavated, whose purpose was to protect the Emperor in the afterlife from evil spirits. Traditional Chinese historiography almost always portrayed the Emperor as a brutal tyrant who had an obsessive fear of assassination, but modern assessments began to emerge that differed from those of traditional historiography. The reassessment was spurred on by the weakness of China in the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century, and at that time, some began to regard Confucian traditions as an impediment to China's entry into the modern world. The First Emperor is now seen as a far-sighted ruler who destroyed the forces of division and established the first unified, centralized state in Chinese history by rejecting the past, marking the start of an epoch that closed in 1911.