HOME | DD

Description
In the long history of Chinese civilization, there have been numerous emperors, kings, lords and rulers with a penchant for cruelty. However, few have earned the same place in Chinese history as the very first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi, a man whose name was so synonymous with cruel governance that Chinese dynasties activity avoided being associated with him for over two thousand years after his death.

It was the King of Qin who united (and by united, I mean conquered) the various kingdoms in northern China at the end of the Warring States Period (475-221 BCE), founding the Qin Dynasty and proclaiming himself the first emperor of China in 221 BCE (Qin Shi Huangdi means first emperor of Qin: huangdi was a new term invented just for him, designating his connection to heaven). While the new emperor lived only a few years, dying in 210 BCE, he left a major mark on the Chinese consciousness: his rule was enforced through armed might and brutality, allegedly burying scholars alive and burning thousands of books (there is modern debate over the extent to which this is true though). Around 215 BCE, Shi Huangdi began united the fragmented border walls of the previous Chinese kingdoms and expanding them into a long wall: the original 'Great Wall of China.' This wall began a massive graveyard, famous for poor working conditions and starvation. The depredations associated with this wall were so infamous that it would not be until the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) that the border walls even began to refereed by the same term used during the Qin Dynasty, such were the connotations.

His death also became legendary. The first emperor sought in vain for a source of immortality, ingesting copious amounts of mercury. Mercury of course, does not improve your mental state in any beneficial way, and also does quite the opposite of immortalizing you. Shi Huangdi had been preparing for his death for years, however, in the form of his monumental mausoleum, containing a massive tomb supposedly with rivers of mercury and the heavens recreated in jewels in the ceiling, as well as traps and automatic crossbows. In addition, the famous Terracotta Army was built to guard and serve him in the next world.

Unfortunately for the state of Qin, a spoiled and inept heir and a scheming eunuch meant that the Qin state only survived another four years after Shi Huangdi's death. The succeeding dynasty, the Han (206 BCE-220 CE), one of the greatest in Chinese history, did their best to slander the Qin and make the first emperor appear as nothing but the greatest of tyrants, which directly painted the image he would have for posterity. Only recently have their been efforts to revisit the Qin which have demonstrated some of the hyperbole of the Han accounts like that of Sima Qian, but in general most scholars have had little good to say about Qin Shi Huangdi himself. Even if not as terrible as his successor dynasty depicted him, it is difficult to fully rehabilitate this man.

As an aside, the walls constructed under Qin Shi Huangdi eroded in a few decades: the extant Great Wall as we know it was built under the Ming Dynasty over 1600 years after Shi Huangdi's death. To learn more about these walls, and the role they played in the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century, check out my video on the topic: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCizKd…

Description
In the long history of Chinese civilization, there have been numerous emperors, kings, lords and rulers with a penchant for cruelty. However, few have earned the same place in Chinese history as the very first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi, a man whose name was so synonymous with cruel governance that Chinese dynasties activity avoided being associated with him for over two thousand years after his death.

It was the King of Qin who united (and by united, I mean conquered) the various kingdoms in northern China at the end of the Warring States Period (475-221 BCE), founding the Qin Dynasty and proclaiming himself the first emperor of China in 221 BCE (Qin Shi Huangdi means first emperor of Qin: huangdi was a new term invented just for him, designating his connection to heaven). While the new emperor lived only a few years, dying in 210 BCE, he left a major mark on the Chinese consciousness: his rule was enforced through armed might and brutality, allegedly burying scholars alive and burning thousands of books (there is modern debate over the extent to which this is true though). Around 215 BCE, Shi Huangdi began united the fragmented border walls of the previous Chinese kingdoms and expanding them into a long wall: the original 'Great Wall of China.' This wall began a massive graveyard, famous for poor working conditions and starvation. The depredations associated with this wall were so infamous that it would not be until the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) that the border walls even began to refereed by the same term used during the Qin Dynasty, such were the connotations.

His death also became legendary. The first emperor sought in vain for a source of immortality, ingesting copious amounts of mercury. Mercury of course, does not improve your mental state in any beneficial way, and also does quite the opposite of immortalizing you. Shi Huangdi had been preparing for his death for years, however, in the form of his monumental mausoleum, containing a massive tomb supposedly with rivers of mercury and the heavens recreated in jewels in the ceiling, as well as traps and automatic crossbows. In addition, the famous Terracotta Army was built to guard and serve him in the next world.

Unfortunately for the state of Qin, a spoiled and inept heir and a scheming eunuch meant that the Qin state only survived another four years after Shi Huangdi's death. The succeeding dynasty, the Han (206 BCE-220 CE), one of the greatest in Chinese history, did their best to slander the Qin and make the first emperor appear as nothing but the greatest of tyrants, which directly painted the image he would have for posterity. Only recently have their been efforts to revisit the Qin which have demonstrated some of the hyperbole of the Han accounts like that of Sima Qian, but in general most scholars have had little good to say about Qin Shi Huangdi himself. Even if not as terrible as his successor dynasty depicted him, it is difficult to fully rehabilitate this man.

As an aside, the walls constructed under Qin Shi Huangdi eroded in a few decades: the extant Great Wall as we know it was built under the Ming Dynasty over 1600 years after Shi Huangdi's death. To learn more about these walls, and the role they played in the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century, check out my video on the topic: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCizKd…