Qin Shi Huang
The First Emperor who unified China and created the title huángdì, ruling until his death in 210 BC.
Qin Shi Huang (February 259 – 12 July 210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China. He invented the title huángdì rather than reuse the existing title for "king"; the new title was used by monarchs in China and other countries for the next two millennia. Born in Handan, the capital of Zhao, as Ying Zheng or Zhao Zheng, his parents were King Zhuangxiang of Qin and Lady Zhao. The wealthy merchant Lü Buwei assisted him in succeeding his father as the king of Qin, after which he became King Zheng of Qin. By 221 BC, he had conquered all the other warring states and unified all of China, and he ascended the throne as China's first emperor.
- Class
- Archer / Ruler
- Historical Era
- Warring States Period to Qin Dynasty
- Notable Goal
- Achieving Eternity and Unification
Lore & Background
Qin Shi Huang worked with his minister Li Si to enact major economic and political reforms aimed at the standardization of the diverse practices among earlier Chinese states. He is traditionally said to have banned and burned many books and executed scholars. His public works projects included the incorporation of diverse state walls into a single Great Wall of China and a massive new national road system, as well as his city-sized mausoleum guarded by a life-sized Terracotta Army. He ruled until his death in 210 BC, during his fifth tour of eastern China. During his reign, his generals greatly expanded the size of the Chinese state: campaigns south of Chu permanently added the Yue lands of Hunan and Guangdong to the Sinosphere, and campaigns in Inner Asia conquered the Ordos Plateau from the nomadic Xiongnu, although the Xiongnu later rallied under Modu Chanyu.
In Their Own Story
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, he created a new title of huángdì (emperor) for himself. This new title combined two titles—huáng of the mythical Three Sovereigns and the dì of the legendary Five Emperors of Chinese prehistory. King Zheng chose the new regnal name of First Emperor (Shǐ Huángdì) 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.) The new title carried religious overtones. For that reason, sinologists - starting with Peter A. Boodberg or Edward H. Schafer - sometimes translate it as "thearch" and the First Emperor as the First Thearch.
Reader's Guide
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. However, the Shiji also claimed that the first emperor was not the actual son of Prince Yiren but that of Lü Buwei. 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. The idea that the emperor was an illegitimate child, widely believed throughout Chinese history, contributed to the generally negative view of the First Emperor. 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 to slander the First Emperor and indicate his political as well as natal illegitimacy". 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".
Did You Know?
- Qin Shi Huang invented the title huángdì (emperor) rather than reuse the existing title for 'king'.
- He was born in Handan, the capital of Zhao, in February 259 BC.
- By 221 BC, he had conquered all the other warring states and unified all of China.
- His public works projects included the incorporation of diverse state walls into a single Great Wall of China and a massive new national road system.
- He died on 12 July 210 BC during his fifth tour of eastern China.