Qin Shihuang -- the first emperor in Chinese History
Qin
Shihuang was a better-known name. Actually his name is Ying
Zheng . The history records that the last Zhou Emperor was
defeated by Zhuang Xiang Wang of the Qin State who occupies
a very important position in the history of his time.
While he was living in the state of Zhao as a hostage he became
acquainted with a traveling merchant of remarkable ability.
He took the prince as a man through whom his own fortunes
might be made. He was the famous Lii Buwei. By a liberal use
of the money he possessed, Lii managed to get the young prince
free. Finding that his own wife, who was an exceedingly beautiful
woman, was pregnant, Lii managed to inspire the prince with
such a love for her that he requested her from him as his
wife. With apparent reluctance he granted this request, and
so in course of time he had the pleasure of finding his own
offspring the acknowledged heir to the throne. When this prince
became king of Qin he made Lii his prime minister, and for
the next ten years Lii was the ruling force in the state.
When Zhuang Xiang Wang died, his son, or, rather, Lii Buwei's
son, came to the throne. This boy of thirteen may be considered
really to be the founder of the Qin Dynasty. His name was
Ying Zheng, better know as Qin Shi Huang (246 - 221 BC).
When he grew up, he found severe domestic troubles marring
his happiness. He discovered that his mother had been guilty
of the gravest immoralities, and that Lii was giving out that
he was his father. And he found that Lii had actually been
guilty of facilitating the excesses of the Queen dowager.
He at once banished his mother to a fortress and dismissed
Lii Buwei from his office of prime minister and sent him home
to his estate, with a warning that he was to remain on his
good behavior, and that any indiscretion would be visited
with serious punishment. Though prudent in ordinary life,
Lii Buwei had not the wisdom to follow out this advice, and
before long he was found guilty of another kind of crime.
Being afraid of the king's vengeance he poisoned himself.
The next great event during this reign was the destruction
of the state of Yan and its absorption into that of Qin. Dan,
the heir of the dukedom, was at feud with king Zheng of Qin
and was burning with a desire to revenge his wrongs. A man
named Jing Ke volunteered to do the bloody deed. But the question
was, how to penetrate through the guards that surrounded the
king, so that he could get near his person.
At that time there was living in Yan a fugitive from Qin,
for whose head the king of Qin had offered a thousand pieces
of gold. Jing Ke dropped a hint to this man. Being a deadly
enemy to the Qin King this man offered his life most willingly
to rid the world of this tyrant. Jing Ke, taking with him
his head and a map of Yan, proceeded to the court of Zheng,
under the pretense of bringing the head, and also of pointing
out to him how easily he could conquer and add Yan to his
dominions. But while Jing Ke was showing him the map waiting
for a chance, he grabbed the dagger hidden in the map to stab
him. Zheng saw the gleam of his knife, and starting up in
the greatest alarm began to struggle with the would-be assassin,
who was soon overcome and slain. The king was so enraged at
this attempt on his life that he determined to avenge himself
by invading Yan. This he did, and soon this state was added
to his own.
In the twenty-first year of his reign, the foreign conquests
of the Qin and the wall building and other public works were
accomplished at an enormous cost of wealth and human life.
The ever-increasing burden of taxation, military service,
and forced labor bred a deep-seated resentment against the
Qin rule among the common people of the new empire. In addition,
the literate classes were alienated by government policies
of thought control, particularly the burning of books. The
successor of Shi Huang Di came under the domination of a wily
palace eunuch. A power struggle ensued, crippling the central
administration, and the indignant population rose in rebellion.