The First Emperor
‘First august god of the Qin’
The first challenge to Ying Zheng’s reign was over and lessons had been learned. Ruthless control became the standard treatment for all, including members of his own family.
Waiting in the wings was Lu Buwei’s protégé, the scholar Li Si, who was now the power behind the throne. He had perfected a totalitarian ideology and was ready to impose it on a unified China.
Inches from death
By 227 BC, Qin had swallowed three of the independent states of China, ‘like a silkworm devouring a leaf’. Panic spread ahead of the advancing war machine. The population of the state of Yan, next in the firing line, knew that they would be powerless to resist.
A diplomatic mission was sent to the Qin court – its aim: to halt the advancing martial bandwagon in its tracks. The ambassadors brought peace offerings to Ying Zheng. One was a map of Qin’s conquests, guaranteed to flatter the king. The other gift was the head of a renegade Qin general, returned as a sign that Yan would not harbour Ying’s enemies.
But the men carrying the gifts were no diplomats – they were professional assassins. The plan was for one of them to distract Ying Zheng by showing him the head, while the second assassin got close enough to stab the king’s heart with a dagger. Neither expected to return from this mission.
Because of Lao Ai’s attempted coup d’état, Ying had decreed that no one at court could be armed except him, and no one except him could summon troops. But as the assassins tried to murder him, it was obvious that the new security system had failed. As his ministers looked on aghast, not lifting a finger to defend him, the king managed to kill both attackers. The great conqueror, the invincible king, had been inches from death, and he knew it.
A terrible revenge
From then on, Ying Zheng became increasingly paranoid, and for the rest of his reign, images of death haunted his dreams. It wasn’t so much the act of dying that he feared, but the realisation that he was filling the spirit world with the souls of those he had sacrificed – souls who would all, as soon as he was dead, seek a terrible revenge. There was only one thing that could protect him in the next world: a spirit army.
Since the moment he had become king, Ying Zheng had planned for his own death. A tomb was being constructed that, by tradition, would contain replicas of his most precious possessions, including his army. That tradition would continue, but on a scale that no one had seen before.
Ying Zheng was not only afraid of the souls of his dead enemies. He also provided stone armour for any vengeful deceased soldiers …
The birth of China
By 223 BC, Ying Zheng stood at the brink of achieving his ultimate dream: the unification of China. He had taken all but two of the Seven Warring States, with the largest, Chu, being the last great prize to be claimed.
However, the conquest machine had stalled. The Chu army had destroyed Ying Zheng’s first invasion force, and they were more than ready to do it again. Now half a million Chu soldiers threatened to end his dream of empire.
In a desperate bid to overcome them, the Qin king committed everything he had: new provisions, better weapons and half a million more men. Now two vast forces of equal size faced each other and the fate of China hung in the balance.
To the Chu generals, the Qin army looked set for a long siege of the state of Chu. This prompted the generals to reconsider their advanced position, and they decided to withdraw to more defendable lines. But the Qin encampment had been an illusion. Ying Zheng’s entire force was actually primed and ready to move, and soon it roundly defeated the Chu army.
The last great obstacle to Ying Zheng’s imperial dream had finally been crushed. The sole remaining independent state – Chi – succumbed without a fight. By 221 BC, the ultimate prize had been won. Qin was now China, and at the age of 34, Ying Zheng was crowned with a veil of stars symbolising the divinity of China’s first emperor.
‘He called himself “Qin Shi Huang”,’ says Professor Jeffrey Riegel. ‘Literally translated, that means he was the “first august god of the Qin”. He regarded himself not only as a deified figure, but also as an initiator, a creator, someone who was beginning a long lineage. And so, with the help of his chief minister Li Si, the first emperor Qin Shi Huang put in place a system of governance that would long outlast him.’
