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Qin Shi Huang
First emperor of the Qin Dynasty

Qin Shi Huang, born Ying Zheng, was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China, known for unifying the warring states by 221 BC. Born in Handan, he ascended as King of Qin and expanded his empire through military campaigns adding regions like Hunan and Guangdong to the Sinosphere. Working with minister Li Si, Qin Shi Huang standardized laws, currency, and weights, and built major projects including the initial Great Wall, extensive roads, and the mausoleum guarded by the Terracotta Army. Despite being depicted as a harsh Legalist ruler, his reign profoundly influenced Chinese history until the 1911 revolution.

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Names

Modern Chinese sources often give the personal name of Qin Shi Huang as Ying Zheng, with Yíng (嬴) taken as the surname and Zheng (政) the given name. However, in ancient China, the naming convention differed, and the clan name Zhao (趙), the place where he was born and raised, may be used as the surname. Unlike modern Chinese names, the nobility of ancient China had two distinct surnames: the ancestral name (姓) comprised a larger group descended from a prominent ancestor, usually said to have lived during the time of the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and the clan name (氏) comprised a smaller group that showed a branch's current fief or recent title. The ancient practice was to list men's names separately—Sima Qian's "Basic Annals of the First Emperor of Qin" introduces him as "given the name Zheng and the surname Zhao"56—or to combine the clan surname with the personal name: Sima's account of Chu describes the sixteenth year of the reign of King Kaolie as "the time when Zhao Zheng was enthroned as King of Qin".7 However, since modern Chinese surnames (despite usually descending from clan names) use the same character as the old ancestral names, it is much more common in modern Chinese sources to see the emperor's personal name written as Ying Zheng,8 using the ancestral name of the House of Ying.

The rulers of the state of Qin had styled themselves kings from the time of King Huiwen in 325 BC. Upon his ascension, Zheng became known as the King of Qin910 or King Zheng of Qin.1112 This title made him the nominal equal of the rulers of Shang and Zhou, the last of whose kings had been deposed by King Zhaoxiang of Qin in 256 BC.

Following the surrender of Qi in 221 BC, King Zheng reunited all of the lands of the former Kingdom of Zhou. Rather than maintain his rank as king, however,13 he created a new title of huángdì (emperor) for himself. This new title combined two titles—huáng of the mythical Three Sovereigns (三皇, Sān huáng) and the dì of the legendary Five Emperors (五帝, Wŭ Dì) of Chinese prehistory.14 The title was intended to appropriate some of the prestige of the Yellow Emperor,15 whose cult was popular in the later Warring States period and who was considered to be a founder of the Chinese people. King Zheng chose the new regnal name of First Emperor (Shǐ Huángdì, Wade-Giles Shih Huang-ti)16 on the understanding that his successors would be successively titled the "Second Emperor", "Third Emperor", and so on through the generations. (In fact, the scheme lasted only as long as his immediate heir, the Second Emperor.)17 The new title carried religious overtones. For that reason, sinologists starting with Peter A. Boodberg or Edward H. Schafer18—sometimes translate it as "thearch" and the First Emperor as the First Thearch.19

The First Emperor intended that his realm would remain intact through the ages but, following its overthrow and replacement by Han after his death, it became customary to prefix his title with Qin. Thus:

  • 秦, Qín or Ch'in, "of Qin"
  • 始, Shǐ or Shih, "first"20
  • 皇帝, Huángdì or Huang-ti, "emperor", a new term21 coined from

As early as Sima Qian, it was common to shorten the resulting four-character Qin Shi Huangdi to 秦始皇,25 variously transcribed as Qin Shihuang or Qin Shi Huang.

Following his elevation as emperor, both Zheng's personal name 政 and possibly its homophone 正26 became taboo.27 The First Emperor also arrogated the first-person pronoun 朕 for his exclusive use, and in 212 BC began calling himself The Immortal (真人, Others were to address him as "Your Majesty" (陛下, in person and "Your Highness" (上) in writing.28

Birth and parentage

According to the Shiji written by Sima Qian during the Han dynasty, the first emperor was the eldest son of the Qin prince Yiren, who later became King Zhuangxiang of Qin. Prince Yiren at that time was residing at the court of Zhao, serving as a hostage to guarantee the armistice between Qin and Zhao.2930 Prince Yiren had fallen in love at first sight with a concubine of Lü Buwei, a rich merchant from the state of Wey. Lü consented for her to be Yiren's wife, who then became known as Lady Zhao after the state of Zhao. He was given the name Zhao Zheng, the name Zheng (正) came from his month of birth Zhengyue, the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar;31 the clan name of Zhao came from his father's lineage and was unrelated to either his mother's name or the location of his birth. (Song Zhong [zh] says that his birthday, significantly, was on the first day of Zhengyue.32) Lü Buwei's machinations later helped Yiren become King Zhuangxiang of Qin33 in 250 BC.

However, the Shiji also claimed that the first emperor was not the actual son of Prince Yiren but that of Lü Buwei.34 According to this account, when Lü Buwei introduced the dancing girl to the prince, she was Lü Buwei's concubine and had already become pregnant by him, and the baby was born after an unusually long period of pregnancy.35 According to translations of the Lüshi Chunqiu, Zhao Ji gave birth to the future emperor in the city of Handan in 259 BC, the first month of the 48th year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin.36

The idea that the emperor was an illegitimate child, widely believed throughout Chinese history, contributed to the generally negative view of the First Emperor.37 However, a number of modern scholars have doubted this account of his birth. Sinologist Derk Bodde wrote: "There is good reason for believing that the sentence describing this unusual pregnancy is an interpolation added to the Shiji by an unknown person in order to slander the First Emperor and indicate his political as well as natal illegitimacy".38 John Knoblock and Jeffrey Riegel, in their translation of Lü Buwei's Lüshi Chunqiu, call the story "patently false, meant both to libel Lü and to cast aspersions on the First Emperor".39 Claiming Lü Buwei—a merchant—as the First Emperor's biological father was meant to be especially disparaging, since later Confucian society regarded merchants as the lowest social class.40

Reign as King of Qin

Regency

In 246 BC, when King Zhuangxiang died after a short reign of just three years, he was succeeded on the throne by his 13-year-old son.41 At the time, Zhao Zheng was still young, so Lü Buwei acted as the regent prime minister of the State of Qin, which was still waging war against the other six states.42 Nine years later, in 235 BC, Zhao Zheng assumed full power after Lü Buwei was banished for his involvement in a scandal with Queen Dowager Zhao.43

Zhao Chengjiao, the Lord Chang'an (长安君),44 was Zhao Zheng's legitimate half-brother, by the same father but from a different mother. After Zhao Zheng inherited the throne, Chengjiao rebelled at Tunliu and surrendered to the state of Zhao. Chengjiao's remaining retainers and families were executed by Zhao Zheng.45

Lao Ai's attempted coup

As King Zheng grew older, Lü Buwei became fearful that the boy king would discover his liaison with his mother, Lady Zhao. He decided to distance himself and look for a replacement lover for the queen dowager, and found a macrophallic man named Lao Ai.46 According to The Record of Grand Historian, Lao Ai was disguised as a eunuch by plucking his beard. Later Lao Ai and queen Zhao Ji got along so well that they secretly had two illegitimate sons together,47 and Lao Ai was ennobled as Marquis and showered with riches. Lao Ai, now grown ambitious, had been planning to replace King Zheng with one of his own sons, but during a dinner party he was heard bragging about being the young king's stepfather.48 In 238 BC, while the king was travelling to the former capital Yong (雍), Lao Ai seized the queen mother's seal and mobilized an army in an attempted coup d'état.49 When notified of the rebellion, King Zheng ordered Lü Buwei to let Lord Changping and Lord Changwen [zh] attack Lao Ai. Although the royal army killed hundreds of rebels at the capital, Lao Ai successfully fled.50

A bounty of 1 million coins was placed on Lao Ai's head if he was taken alive or half a million if dead.51 Lao Ai's supporters were captured and beheaded; then Lao Ai was captured and executed via dismemberment by five horse carriages, while his entire clan was exterminated to the third degree.52 His two young sons were also executed, while the Queen Dowager Zhao was placed under house arrest until her death many years later. Lü Buwei was forced to commit suicide by drinking a cup of poisoned wine in 235 BC.5354 Ying Zheng then assumed full power as the King of the Qin state, and Li Si became the new chancellor in replacement of Lü Buwei.

First assassination attempt

King Zheng and his troops continued their conquest of the neighbouring states. The state of Yan was no match for the Qin states: small and weak, it had already been harassed frequently by Qin soldiers.55 Crown Prince Dan of Yan plotted an assassination attempt against King Zheng, recruiting Jing Ke and Qin Wuyang for the mission in 227 BC.5657

The assassins gained access to King Zheng by pretending a diplomatic gifting of goodwill: a map of Dukang and the severed head of Fan Wuji.58 Qin Wuyang stepped forward first to present the map case but was overcome by fear. Jing Ke then advanced with both gifts, while explaining that his partner was trembling because "[he] had never set eyes on the Son of Heaven". When the dagger unrolled from the map, Jing immediately attacked King Zheng, but the king leapt to his feet and managed to dash away. He then desperately tried to flee from the assassin, circling around a pillar while struggling to unsheathe his own longsword. None of the king's courtiers nearby were allowed to carry arms in his presence, and only a royal physician managed to slowed down the assassin by slamming a medicine bag. When King Zheng finally managed to drawn out his sword, he slashed Jing's thigh and immobilized the assassin. In desperation, Jing Ke threw the dagger but missed, and was subsequently killed by King Zheng and the now-arrived royal guards. The Yan state was conquered in its entirety five years later.

Second assassination attempt

Gao Jianli was a close friend of Jing Ke, and wanted to avenge his death.59[self-published source] As a famous zhu player, he was summoned to play for King Zheng. Someone in the palace recognized him and guessed his plans.60 Reluctant to kill such a skilled musician, the king ordered his eyes put out, and then proceeded with the performance. The king praised Gao's playing and even allowed him closer. The zhu had been weighted with a slab of lead, and Gao Jianli swung it at the king but missed. The second assassination attempt had failed; Gao was executed shortly after.

Unification of China

Main article: Qin's wars of unification

In 230 BC, King Zheng began the final campaigns of the Warring States period, setting out to conquer the remaining six major Chinese states and bring China under unified Qin control.

The state of Han, the weakest of the Warring States, was the first to fall in 230 BC. In 229, Qin armies invaded Zhao, which had been severely weakened by natural disasters, and captured the capital of Handan in 228. Prince Jia of Zhao managed to escape with the remnants of the Zhao army and established the short-lived state of Dai, proclaiming himself king.

In 227 BC, fearing a Qin invasion, Crown Prince Dan of Yan ordered a failed assassination attempt on King Zheng. This provided casus belli for Zheng to invade Yan in 226, capturing the capital of Ji (modern Beijing) that same year. The remnants of the Yan army, along with King Xi of Yan, were able to retreat to the Liaodong Peninsula.

After Qin besieged and flooded their capital of Daliang, the state of Wei surrendered in 225 BC. Around this time, as a precautionary measure, Qin seized ten cities from Chu, the largest and most powerful of the other Warring States. In 224, Qin launched a full-scale invasion of Chu, capturing the capital of Shouchun in 223. In 222, Qin armies extinguished the last Yan remnants in Liaodong and the Zhao rump state of Dai. In 221, Qin armies invaded the state of Qi and captured King Jian of Qi without much resistance, bringing an end to the Warring States period.

By 221 BC, all Chinese lands had been unified under the Qin. To elevate himself above the feudal Zhou kings, King Zheng proclaimed himself the First Emperor, creating the title which would be used as the title of the Chinese sovereign for the next two millennia. Qin Shi Huang also ordered the Heshibi to be crafted into the Heirloom Seal of the Realm, which would serve as a physical symbol of the Mandate of Heaven, and would be passed from emperor to emperor until its loss in the 10th century.

During 215 BC, in an attempt to expand Qin territory, Qin Shi Huang ordered military campaigns against the Xiongnu nomads in the North. Led by General Meng Tian, Qin armies successfully routed the Xiongnu from the Ordos Plateau, setting the ancient foundations for the construction of the Great Wall of China. In the South, Qin Shi Huang also ordered several military campaigns against the Yue tribes, which annexed various regions in modern Guangdong and Vietnam.61

Reign as Emperor of Qin

Administrative reforms

Further information: Administration of territory in dynastic China § Qin dynasty (221–206 BC)

In an attempt to avoid a recurrence of the political chaos of the Warring States period, Qin Shi Huang and Li Si worked to completely abolish the feudal system of loose alliances and federations.6263 They organized the empire into administrative units and subunits: first 36 (later 40) commanderies, then counties, townships, and hundred-family units (里, Li, roughly corresponding to modern-day subdistricts and communities).64 People assigned to these units would no longer be identified by their native region or former feudal state, for example "Chu person" (楚人, Chu rén).65 Appointments were to be based on merit instead of hereditary right.66

Economic reforms

Qin Shi Huang and Li Si unified China economically by standardizing the weights and measurements. Wagon axles were prescribed a standard length to facilitate road transport.67 The emperor also developed an extensive network of roads and canals for trade and communication.68 The currencies of the different states were standardized to the Ban Liang coin.69 The forms of Chinese characters were unified. Under Li Si, the seal script of the state of Qin became the official standard, and the Qin script itself was simplified through removal of variant forms. This did away with all the regional scripts to form a universal written language for all of China, despite the diversity of spoken dialects.70

Monumental statuary

According to Chinese records,71 after unifying the country in 221 BC, Qin Shuhuang confiscated all the bronze weapons of the conquered countries, and cast them into twelve monumental statues, the Twelve Metal Colossi, which he used to adorn his Palace.72 Each statue was said to be 5 zhang [11.5 meters] in height, and weighing about 1000 dan [about 70 tons].73 Sima Qian considered this as one of the great achievements of the Emperor, on a par with the "unification of the law, weights and measurements, standardization of the axle width of carriages, and standardization of the writing system".7475 During 600 years, the statues were commented upon and moved around from palace to palace, until they were finally destroyed in the 4th century AD, but no illustration has remained.7677

Philosophy

Main articles: Legalism (Chinese philosophy) and Burning of books and burying of scholars

While the previous Warring States era was one of constant warfare, it was also considered the golden age of free thought.78 Qin Shi Huang eliminated the Hundred Schools of Thought, which included Confucianism and other philosophies.7980 With all other philosophies banned, Legalism became the mandatory ideology of the Qin dynasty.81

Beginning in 213 BC, at the instigation of Li Si and to avoid scholars' comparisons of his reign with the past, Qin Shi Huang 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.82 This would also serve to further the ongoing reformation of the writing system by removing examples of obsolete scripts.83 Owning the Classic of Poetry or the Book of Documents was to be punished especially severely. According to the later Shiji, the following year Qin Shi Huang had some 460 scholars buried alive for possessing the forbidden books.8485 The emperor's oldest son Fusu criticized him for this act.86 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.87

Recent research suggests that this "burying Confucian scholars alive" is a Confucian martyrs' legend. More probably, the emperor ordered the execution of a group of alchemists who had deceived him. In the subsequent Han dynasty, the Confucian scholars, who had served the Qin loyally, used this incident to distance themselves from the failed regime. Kong Anguo (c. 165 – c. 74 BC), a descendant of Confucius, described the alchemists as Confucianists and entwined the martyrs' legend with his story of discovering the lost Confucian books behind a demolished wall in his ancestral house.88

Qin Shi Huang also followed the theory of the five elements: fire, water, earth, wood, and metal. It was believed that the royal house of the previous Zhou dynasty had ruled by the power of fire, associated with the colour red. The new Qin dynasty must be ruled by the next element on the list, which is water, Zhao Zheng's birth element. Water was represented by the colour black, and black became the preferred colour for Qin garments, flags, and pennants.89 Other associations include north as the cardinal direction, the winter season and the number six.90 Tallies and official hats were 15 centimetres (5.9 inches) long, carriages two metres (6.6 feet) wide, one pace (步; bù) was 1.4 m (4.6 ft).91

Third assassination attempt

Further information: Zhang Liang (Western Han)

In 230 BC, the state of Qin had defeated the state of Han. In 218, a former Han aristocrat named Zhang Liang swore revenge on Qin Shi Huang. He sold his valuables and hired a strongman assassin, building a heavy metal cone weighing 120 catties (roughly 160 lb or 97 kg).92 The two men hid among the bushes along the emperor's route over a mountain during his third imperial tour.93 At a signal, the muscular assassin hurled the cone at the first carriage and shattered it. However, the emperor was travelling with two identical carriages to baffle attackers, and he was actually in the second carriage. Thus the attempt failed,94 though both men were able to escape the subsequent manhunt.95

Public works

Great Wall

Main article: Great Wall of China

Numerous state walls had been built during the previous four centuries, many of them closing gaps between river defences and impassable cliffs.9697 To impose centralized rule and prevent the resurgence of feudal lords, the Emperor ordered the destruction of walls between the former states, which were now internal walls dividing the empire.

However, to defend against the northern Xiongnu nomads, who had beaten back repeated campaigns against them, he ordered new walls to connect the fortifications along the empire's northern frontier. Hundreds of thousands of workers were mobilized, and an unknown number died, to build this precursor to the current Great Wall of China.9899100 Transporting building materials was difficult, so builders always tried to use local materials: rock over mountain ranges, rammed earth over the plains. "Build and move on" was a guiding principle, implying that the Wall was not a permanently fixed border.101 There are no surviving records specifying the length and course of the Qin walls, which have largely eroded away over the centuries.

Lingqu Canal

Main article: Lingqu

In 214 BC the Emperor began the project of a major canal allowing water transport between north and south China, originally for military supplies.102 The canal, 34 kilometres in length, links two of China's major waterways, the Xiang River flowing into the Yangtze and the Lijiang River, flowing into the Pearl River.103 The canal aided Qin's expansion to the south-west.104 It is considered one of the three great feats of ancient Chinese engineering, along with the Great Wall and the Sichuan Dujiangyan Irrigation System.105

Elixir of life

As he grew old, Qin Shi Huang desperately sought the fabled elixir of life which supposedly confers immortality. In his obsessive quest, he fell prey to many fraudulent elixirs.106 He visited Zhifu Island three times in his search.107

In one case he sent Xu Fu, a Zhifu islander, with ships carrying hundreds of young men and women in search of the mystical Mount Penglai.108 They sought Anqi Sheng, a thousand-year-old magician who had supposedly invited Qin Shi Huang during a chance meeting during his travels.109 The expedition never returned, perhaps for fear of the consequences of failure. Legends claim that they reached Japan and colonized it.110

It is also possible that the Emperor's book burning, which exempted alchemical works, could be seen as an attempt to focus the minds of the best scholars on the Emperor's quest.111 Some of those buried alive were alchemists, and this could have been a means of testing their death-defying abilities.112

The emperor built a system of tunnels and passageways to each of his over 200 palaces, because travelling unseen would supposedly keep him safe from evil spirits.

Final years

Death

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" (始皇死而地分).113 The Emperor sent an imperial secretary to investigate this prophecy. No one would confess to the deed, so all living nearby were put to death, and the stone was pulverized.114

During his fifth tour of eastern China, the Emperor became seriously ill in Pingyuanjin (Pingyuan County, Shandong), and died in July or August of 210 BC, at the palace in Shaqiu prefecture, about two months travel from Xianyang,115116 at the age of 49.

The cause of Qin Shi Huang's death remains unknown, though he had been worn down by his many years of rule.117 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.118

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.119 Li Si decided to hide the emperor's death: the only members of the entourage to be informed were a younger son, Ying Huhai, the eunuch Zhao Gao, and five or six favourite eunuchs.120 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.121 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.122

After they reached Xianyang, the death of the Emperor was announced.123 Qin Shi Huang had not liked to talk about his death and had never written a will.124 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.125 Meng Tian's brother Meng Yi, a senior minister, had once punished Zhao Gao.126 Li Si and Zhao Gao forged a letter from Qin Shi Huang commanding Fusu and General Meng to commit suicide.127 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".128

Family

Further information: Qin dynasty family tree

The immediate family members of Qin Shi Huang include:

Qin Shi Huang had about 50 children (about 30 sons and 15 daughters), but most of their names are unknown. He had numerous concubines but appeared to have never named an empress.134

Qin dynasty
See Family tree of Qin
Zheng 政259–210 BCKing of Qin 秦王r. 247–221 BCQin Shi Huang 秦始皇r. 221–210 BC
118 or 25 (disputed)
Fusu 扶蘇d. 210 BCHuhai 胡亥229–207 BCQin Er Shi 秦二世r. 210–207 BC
Ziying 子嬰d. 206 BCKing of Qinr. 207 BC

Legacy

Mausoleum and Terracotta Army

Main article: Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor

See also: Terracotta Army and Qin bronze chariot

Sima Qian, writing a century after the First Emperor's death, wrote that it took 700,000 men to construct the emperor's mausoleum. British historian John Man points out that this figure is larger than the population of any city in the world at that time and he calculates that the foundations could have been built by 16,000 men in two years.135 Sima Qian never mentioned the Terracotta Army, but he did mention that the Qin Emperor built monumental bronze statues for his palace.136 The terracotta statues were discovered by a group of farmers digging wells on 29 March 1974.137 The soldiers were created with a series of mix-and-match clay molds and then further individualized by the artists' hand. Han Purple was also used on some of the warriors.138 There are around 6,000 statues, whose purpose was to protect the Emperor in the afterlife from evil spirits.139 Also among the army are chariots and 40,000 real bronze weapons.[95]

One of the first projects which the young king accomplished while he was alive was the construction of his own tomb. In 215 BC Qin Shi Huang ordered General Meng Tian to begin its construction with the assistance of 300,000 men.140 Other sources suggest that he ordered 720,000 unpaid laborers to build his tomb according to his specifications.141 Again, given John Man's observation regarding populations at the time (see paragraph above), these historical estimates are debatable. The main tomb (located at 34°22′53″N 109°15′13″E / 34.38139°N 109.25361°E / 34.38139; 109.25361) containing the emperor has yet to be opened and evidence suggests that it remains relatively intact.142 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.143 The tomb was built at the foot of Mount Li, 30 kilometers away from Xi'an. Modern archaeologists have located the tomb, and have inserted probes deep into it. The probes revealed abnormally high quantities of mercury, some 100 times the naturally occurring rate, suggesting that some parts of the legend are credible.144 Secrets were maintained, as most of the workmen who built the tomb were killed.145146

Reputation and assessment

Traditional Chinese historiography almost always portrayed the Emperor as a brutal tyrant who had an obsessive fear of assassination. Ideological antipathy towards the Legalist State of Qin was established as early as 266 BC, when Confucian philosopher Xunzi disparaged it. Later Confucian historians condemned the emperor, alleging that he burned the classics and buried Confucian scholars alive.147 They eventually compiled a list of the Ten Crimes of Qin to highlight his tyrannical actions.148

The famous Han poet and statesman Jia Yi concluded his essay The Faults of Qin (過秦論, Guò Qín Lùn) with what was to become the standard Confucian judgment of the reasons for Qin's collapse. Jia Yi's essay, admired as a masterpiece of rhetoric and reasoning, was copied into two great Han histories and has had a far-reaching influence on Chinese political thought as a classic illustration of Confucian theory.149 He attributed Qin's disintegration to its internal failures.150 Jia Yi wrote that:

Qin, from a tiny base, had become a great power, ruling the land and receiving homage from all quarters for a hundred odd years. Yet after they unified the land and secured themselves within the pass, a single common rustic could nevertheless challenge this empire... Why? Because the ruler lacked humaneness and rightness; because preserving power differs fundamentally from seizing power.151

In the modern period, 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. At that time, some began to regard Confucian traditions as an impediment to China's entry into the modern world, opening the way for changing perspectives.

At a time when foreign nations encroached upon Chinese territory, leading Kuomintang historian Xiao Yishan emphasized the role of Qin Shi Huang in repulsing the northern barbarians, particularly in the construction of the Great Wall.

Another historian, Ma Feibai (馬非百), published in 1941 a full-length revisionist biography of the First Emperor entitled Qín Shǐ Huángdì Zhuàn (秦始皇帝傳), calling him "one of the great heroes of Chinese history". Ma compared him with the contemporary leader Chiang Kai-shek and saw many parallels in the careers and policies of the two men, both of whom he admired. Chiang's Northern Expedition of the late 1920s, which directly preceded the new Nationalist government at Nanjing was compared to the unification brought about by Qin Shi Huang.

With the advent of the Chinese Communist Revolution and the establishment of a new, revolutionary regime in 1949, another re-evaluation of the First Emperor emerged as a Marxist critique. This new interpretation of Qin Shi Huang was generally a combination of traditional and modern views, but essentially critical. This is exemplified in the Complete History of China, which was compiled in September 1955 as an official survey of Chinese history. The work described the First Emperor's major steps toward unification and standardisation as corresponding to the interests of the ruling group and the merchant class, not of the nation or the people, and the subsequent fall of his dynasty as a manifestation of the class struggle. The perennial debate about the fall of the Qin dynasty was also explained in Marxist terms, the peasant rebellions being a revolt against oppression—a revolt which undermined the dynasty, but which was bound to fail because of a compromise with "landlord class elements".

On hearing he'd been compared to the First Emperor for his persecution of intellectuals,152 Mao Zedong reportedly boasted in 1958:

He buried 460 scholars alive; we have buried forty-six thousand scholars alive... You [intellectuals] revile us for being Qin Shi Huangs. You are wrong. We have surpassed Qin Shi Huang a hundredfold. When you berate us for imitating his despotism, we are happy to agree! Your mistake was that you did not say so enough.153

Since 1972, however, a radically different official view of Qin Shi Huang in accordance with Maoist thought has been given prominence throughout China. Hong Shidi's biography Qin Shi Huang initiated the re-evaluation. The work was published by the state press as a mass popular history, and it sold 1.85 million copies within two years. In the new era, Qin Shi Huang was 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. Personal attributes, such as his quest for immortality, so emphasized in traditional historiography, were scarcely mentioned. The new evaluations described approvingly how, in his time (an era of great political and social change), he had no compunctions against using violent methods to crush counter-revolutionaries, such as the "industrial and commercial slave owner" chancellor Lü Buwei. However, he was criticized for not being as thorough as he should have been, and as a result, after his death, hidden subversives under the leadership of the chief eunuch Zhao Gao were able to seize power and use it to restore the old feudal order.

To round out this re-evaluation, Luo Siding put forward a new interpretation of the precipitous collapse of the Qin dynasty in an article entitled "On the Class Struggle During the Period Between Qin and Han" in a 1974 issue of Red Flag, to replace the old explanation. The new theory claimed that the cause of the fall of Qin lay in the lack of thoroughness of Qin Shi Huang's "dictatorship over the reactionaries, even to the extent of permitting them to worm their way into organs of political authority and usurp important posts."

Depictions in popular media

  • "The Wall and the Books" ("La muralla y los libros"), an acclaimed essay on Qin Shi Huang published by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) in the 1952 collection Other Inquisitions (Otras Inquisiciones).154
  • The Emperor's Shadow (1996) – The film focuses on Qin Shi Huang's relationship with the musician Gao Jianli, a friend of the assassin Jing Ke.155
  • The Emperor and the Assassin (1999) – The film covers much of Ying Zheng's career, recalling his early experiences as a hostage and foreshadowing his dominance over China.156157
  • Hero (2002) – The film stars Jet Li, a nameless assassin who plans an assassination attempt on the King of Qin (Chen Daoming). The film is a fictional re-imagining of the assassination attempt by Jing Ke on Qin Shi Huang.158
  • Rise of the Great Wall (1986) – a 63-episode Hong Kong TV series chronicling the events from the emperor's birth until his death.159 Tony Liu played Qin Shi Huang.
  • A Step into the Past (2001) – a Hong Kong TVB production based on a science fiction novel by Huang Yi.160
  • Qin Shi Huang (2002) – a mainland Chinese TV semi-fictionalized series with Zhang Fengyi.161
  • Kingdom (2006) – a Japanese manga that provides a fictionalized account of the unification of China by Ying Zheng with Li Xin and all the people that contributed to the conquest of the six Warring States.
  • Fate/Grand Order (2015), an online, free-to-play role-playing mobile game of the Fate franchise developed by Delightworks and published by Aniplex features Qin Shi Huang as a Ruler class servant.162
  • Civilization VI (2016), a turn-based strategy 4X video game developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K features Qin Shi Huang as a playable leader.163
  • First Emperor: The Man Who Made China (2006) – a drama-documentary special about Qin Shi Huang. James Pax played the emperor. It was shown on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom in 2006.164
  • China's First Emperor (2008) – a special three-hour documentary by The History Channel. Xu Pengkai played Qin Shi Huang.165
  • The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) – the third of The Mummy trilogy. It happened that after General Ming Guo was killed for touching Zi Yuan, she put a curse on the Emperor and his army.
  • Qin Shi Huang is depicted in seventh volume of the manga Record of Ragnarok, fighting Hades. In the manga, he is depicted as a tall slender young man with a cloth covering his eye. He is also shown to be wearing traditional Chinese clothing.166

Notes

Bibliography

Early

Modern

Books

Articles

Further reading

  • Bodde, Derk (1967) [1938]. China's First Unifier: a Study of the Ch'In Dynasty as Seen in the Life of Li Ssu (280?–208 B.C.). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. OCLC 605941031.
  • Levi, Jean (1987). The Chinese Emperor. Translated by Bray, Barbara. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
  • Yu-ning, Li, ed. (1975). The First Emperor of China. White Plains: International Arts and Sciences Press. ISBN 978-0-87332-067-2.
  • Media related to Qin Shi Huang at Wikimedia Commons
  • Quotations related to Qin Shi Huang at Wikiquote

References

  1. Volume 06 of Records of the Grand Historian indicated that Ying Zheng was born in the zhengyue of the 48th year of the reign of King Zhao(xiang) of Qin. Using the Zhuanxu calendar, the month corresponds to 27 Jan to 24 Feb 259 BC in the proleptic Julian calendar. (以秦昭王四十八年正月生于邯郸。) https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/s:%E5%8F%B2%E8%A8%98/%E5%8D%B7006 ↩

  2. Müller 2021, "Introduction". - Müller, Claudius Cornelius (29 May 2021). "Qin Shi Huang". Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Qin-Shi-Huang ↩

  3. Sima 2007, pp. 15–20, 82, 99. - Sima, Qian (2007). Records of the Grand Historian: Qin dynasty. Translated by Dawson, Raymond. Columbia University Press]. ISBN 978-0-19-922634-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=ruicEVx96lwC ↩

  4. Loewe 2000, p. 654. - Loewe, Michael (2000). A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods (221 BC - AD 24). Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-10364-1. ↩

  5. Sima 1994, p. 127. - Sima, Qian (1994). William, Nienhauser (ed.). The Grand Scribe's Records I: The Basic Annals of Pre-Han China. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253340214. https://books.google.com/books?id=qDo3xBcsX-UC ↩

  6. In simplified Chinese, 及生，名为政，姓赵氏.[13] The differentiation between the two types of surnames had largely been lost well before Sima Qian's time, as can be seen from his grammatical construction using 姓 as a verb – "to be surnamed" – with the object 氏, a different kind of surname. ↩

  7. Sima 1994, p. 439. - Sima, Qian (1994). William, Nienhauser (ed.). The Grand Scribe's Records I: The Basic Annals of Pre-Han China. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253340214. https://books.google.com/books?id=qDo3xBcsX-UC ↩

  8. See Nienhauser's gloss of the name Zhao Zheng (n. 579).[14] ↩

  9. Sima 1994, p. 127. - Sima, Qian (1994). William, Nienhauser (ed.). The Grand Scribe's Records I: The Basic Annals of Pre-Han China. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253340214. https://books.google.com/books?id=qDo3xBcsX-UC ↩

  10. zh [Sima Qian]. 《史记》 [Shiji], 秦始皇本纪第六 ["§6: Basic Annals of the First Emperor of Qin"]. Hosted at 國學網 [Guoxue.com], 2003. Accessed 25 December 2013. (in Chinese) /wiki/Sima_Qian ↩

  11. Sima 1994, p. 123. - Sima, Qian (1994). William, Nienhauser (ed.). The Grand Scribe's Records I: The Basic Annals of Pre-Han China. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253340214. https://books.google.com/books?id=qDo3xBcsX-UC ↩

  12. Sima Qian. Shiji, 秦本纪第五 ["§5: Basic Annals of Qin"]. Hosted at 國學網 [Guoxue.com], 2003. Accessed 25 December 2013. (in Chinese) http://www.guoxue.com/shibu/24shi/shiji/sj_005.htm ↩

  13. Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A Manual, pp. 108 ff Archived 25 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2000. ISBN 0-674-00247-4. Accessed 26 December 2013. https://books.google.com/books?id=ERnrQq0bsPYC&pg=PA108 ↩

  14. Luo Zhewen & al. The Great Wall, p. 23. McGraw-Hill, 1981. ISBN 0-07-070745-6. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  15. Fowler, Jeaneane D. An Introduction to the Philosophy and Religion of Taoism: Pathways to Immortality, p. 132. Sussex Academic Press, 2005. ISBN 1-84519-086-6. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  16. 司马迁 [Sima Qian]. 《史记》 [Shiji], 秦本纪第五 Archived 13 June 2022 at the Wayback Machine ["§5: Basic Annals of Qin"]. Hosted at 维基文库 [Chinese Wikisource], 2012. Accessed 27 December 2013. (in Chinese) https://zh.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=%E5%8F%B2%E8%A8%98/%E5%8D%B7005&variant=zh-hant ↩

  17. Hardy, Grant & al. The Establishment of the Han Empire and Imperial China, p. 10. Greenwood, 2005. ISBN 0-313-32588-X. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  18. Major, John. Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought: Chapters Three, Four, and Five of the Huainanzi, p. 18 Archived 21 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine. SUNY Press (New York), 1993. Accessed 26 December 2013. https://books.google.com/books?id=eT_MoGYdSAMC&pg=PA18 ↩

  19. Kern, Martin. "The stele inscriptions of Ch'in Shih-huang: text and ritual in early Chinese imperial representation". American Oriental Society, 2000. ↩

  20. Wood, Frances. (2008). China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors, pp. 2–33. Macmillan Publishing, 2008. ISBN 0-312-38112-3. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  21. While the specific title was new, also note the use of 皇天上帝 ("August Heaven Shangdi"), a conflation of the Zhou and Shang gods by the Duke of Zhou used in his addresses to the conquered Shang peoples.[25] /wiki/Shangdi ↩

  22. Lewis, Mark. The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han, p. 52 Archived 5 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Belknap Press (|Cambridge, MA), 2009. ISBN 978-0-674-02477-9. Accessed 27 December 2013. /wiki/Mark_Edward_Lewis ↩

  23. Creel, Herrlee G. The Origins of Statecraft in China, pp. 495 ff. University of Chicago Press (Chicago), 1970. Op. cit. Chang, Ruth. "Understanding Di and Tian: Deity and Heaven from Shang to Tang Dynasties Archived 28 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine", pp. 13–14. Sino-Platonic Papers, No. 108. Sept. 2000. Accessed 27 December 2013. http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp108_chinese_deity_heaven.pdf ↩

  24. Chang, "Understanding Di and Tian", 4–9. ↩

  25. 司马迁 [Sima Qian]. 《史记》 [Shiji], 秦始皇本纪第六 Archived 15 June 2022 at the Wayback Machine ["§6: Basic Annals of the First Emperor of Qin"]. Hosted at 维基文库 [Chinese Wikisource], 2012. Accessed 27 December 2013. (in Chinese) https://zh.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=%E5%8F%B2%E8%A8%98/%E5%8D%B7006&variant=zh-hant ↩

  26. That both were forbidden has been the general understanding of historians but Beck cites numerous sources from the era employing the latter character in support of the argument that it was not forbidden until the reign of the Second Emperor of Qin.[29] /wiki/Second_Emperor_of_Qin ↩

  27. His father's name 子楚 also became taboo, prompting references to Chu to be replaced by its original name "Jing" (荆).[29] /wiki/King_Zhuangxiang_of_Qin ↩

  28. Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A Manual, pp. 108 ff Archived 25 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2000. ISBN 0-674-00247-4. Accessed 26 December 2013. https://books.google.com/books?id=ERnrQq0bsPYC&pg=PA108 ↩

  29. Wood, Frances. (2008). China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors, pp. 2–33. Macmillan Publishing, 2008. ISBN 0-312-38112-3. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  30. Sima 1993, pp. 35, 59. - Sima, Qian (1993). Records of the Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty. Translated by Watson, Burton (3rd ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231081696. ↩

  31. Sima 1993, pp. 35, 59. - Sima, Qian (1993). Records of the Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty. Translated by Watson, Burton (3rd ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231081696. ↩

  32. Sima Qian; Sima Tan (1959) [90s BCE]. "vol. 6, Basic annals of Qin Shihuang". Shiji 史記三家注 [Records of the Grand Historian] (in Literary Chinese) (annotated critical ed.). Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju. 史記三家注 ↩

  33. Ren Changhong & al. Rise and Fall of the Qin Dynasty. Asiapac, 2000. ISBN 981-229-172-5. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  34. Huang, Ray. China: A Macro History Edition: 2, revised. (1987). M. E. Sharpe. ISBN 1-56324-730-5, 978-1-56324-730-9. p. 32. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  35. Huang, Ray. China: A Macro History Edition: 2, revised. (1987). M. E. Sharpe. ISBN 1-56324-730-5, 978-1-56324-730-9. p. 32. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  36. Lü, Buwei. Translated by Knoblock, John. Riegel, Jeffrey. The Annals of Lü Buwei: Lü Shi Chun Qiu : a Complete Translation and Study. (2000). Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3354-6, 978-0-8047-3354-0. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  37. Wood, Frances. (2008). China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors, pp. 2–33. Macmillan Publishing, 2008. ISBN 0-312-38112-3. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  38. Bodde 1986, pp. 42–43, 95. - Bodde, Derk (1986). "The State and Empire of Ch'in". In Twitchett, Dennis; Loewe, Michael (eds.). The Cambridge History of China, Volume 1: The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 BC–AD 220. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-24327-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=A2HKxK5N2sAC ↩

  39. The Annals of Lü Buwei. Knoblock, John and Riegel, Jeffrey Trans. Stanford University Press. 2001. ISBN 978-0-8047-3354-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) p. 9 978-0-8047-3354-0 ↩

  40. Bodde 1986, p. 43. - Bodde, Derk (1986). "The State and Empire of Ch'in". In Twitchett, Dennis; Loewe, Michael (eds.). The Cambridge History of China, Volume 1: The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 BC–AD 220. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-24327-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=A2HKxK5N2sAC ↩

  41. Donn, Lin. Donn, Don. Ancient China. (2003). Social Studies School Service. Social Studies. ISBN 1-56004-163-3, 978-1-56004-163-4. p. 49. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  42. Wood, Frances. (2008). China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors, pp. 2–33. Macmillan Publishing, 2008. ISBN 0-312-38112-3. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  43. Pancella, Peggy (2003). Qin Shi Huangdi: First Emperor of China. Heinemann-Raintree Library. ISBN 978-1-4034-3704-4. Archived from the original on 18 May 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2020. 978-1-4034-3704-4 ↩

  44. 司馬遷《史記·卷043·趙世家》：（赵悼襄王）六年，封长安君以饶。 ↩

  45. Shiji Chapter – Qin Shi Huang: 八年，王弟长安君成蟜将军击赵，反，死屯留，军吏皆斩死，迁其 民於临洮。将军壁死，卒屯留、蒲鶮反，戮其尸。河鱼大上，轻车重马东就食。 《史记 秦始皇》 ↩

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  47. Mah, Adeline Yen. (2003). A Thousand Pieces of Gold: Growing Up Through China's Proverbs. Published by HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-000641-2, 978-0-06-000641-9. pp. 32–34. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  48. Mah, Adeline Yen. (2003). A Thousand Pieces of Gold: Growing Up Through China's Proverbs. Published by HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-000641-2, 978-0-06-000641-9. pp. 32–34. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  49. Mah, Adeline Yen. (2003). A Thousand Pieces of Gold: Growing Up Through China's Proverbs. Published by HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-000641-2, 978-0-06-000641-9. pp. 32–34. /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  50. The Records of the Grand Historian, Vol. 6: Annals of Qin Shi Huang. [1] Archived 14 April 2013 at archive.today The 9th year of Qin Shi Huang. 王知之，令相國昌平君、昌文君發卒攻毐。戰咸陽，斬首數百，皆拜爵，及宦者皆在戰中，亦拜爵一級。毐等敗走。 http://ctext.org/shiji/qin-shi-huang-ben-ji ↩

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  58. Sima 2007, pp. 15–20, 82, 99. - Sima, Qian (2007). Records of the Grand Historian: Qin dynasty. Translated by Dawson, Raymond. Columbia University Press]. ISBN 978-0-19-922634-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=ruicEVx96lwC ↩

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  65. Chang, Chun-shu (2007), "The rise of the Chinese Empire", Nation, State, and Imperialism in Early China ca. 1600 BC–8 AD, University of Michigan Press, pp. 43–44, ISBN 978-0-472-11533-4 978-0-472-11533-4 ↩

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  74. Shiji by Sima Qian (c. 145–86 BC), after Liu An in the Huainanzi circa 139 BC: 收天下兵, 聚之咸陽, 銷以為鍾鐻金人十二, 重各千石, 置廷宮中. 一法度衡石丈尺. 車同軌. 書同文字. "He collected the weapons of All-Under-Heaven in Xianyang, and cast them into twelve bronze figures of the type of bell stands, each 1000 dan [about 70 tons] in weight, and displayed them in the palace. He unified the law, weights and measurements, standardized the axle width of carriages, and standardized the writing system."Quoted Nickel, Lukas (October 2013). "The First Emperor and sculpture in China". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 76 (3): 436–450. doi:10.1017/S0041977X13000487. ISSN 0041-977X. /wiki/Liu_An ↩

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