The First Emperor of China

by Jonathan Clements

  The movie Hero (Ying Xiong, 2002) presents a considerably more symbolic and fictionalised account of the assassination plots against the First Emperor, within a framing device distantly inspired by Jing Ke’s throne-room deception. A sheriff arrives at the palace, claiming to have dispatched three assassins, although the trophies he bears of his achievement are merely a ruse to get within striking distance of the First Emperor himself. However, in a marked move from previous accounts, the would-be assassin has a change of heart, and recognises that despite the terror and death tolls inflicted by the Emperor, China is better off with him than without him.

  Recent accounts of the First Emperor have found some intriguing new angles on his life. Some, such as his portrayal in the Jackie Chan vehicle The Myth (2005) or the gloriously schlocky The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) favour throwaway, populist accounts, heavily sprinkled with curses and sorceries. Tan Dun’s opera, The First Emperor (2006) makes a stab for artistic integrity, although this latter version notably draws heavily on the plot of the movie The Emperor’s Shadow for its storyline. Perhaps the most controversial version was that presented in the Cantonese TV series A Step into the Past (Xun Qin Ji, 2001), a science fiction tale in which a time-traveller from near-future Hong Kong returns to the Qin era and becomes intimately embedded in the establishment of the Qin state. Despite its pulpy origins, its suggestion that the past is not fixed, and its acceptance of the possibility of reincarnation, turned it into a cause celebre for the censorship bureau of the People’s Republic of China, and led to that most draconian of directives, a ban on time travel, or at least in its depiction.

  The most recent version of his story, and the most shadowy of the depictions that turn aside from confronting him directly, can be found in The Qin Empire (Da Qin Diguo, 2008), an account not of the life of the First Emperor, but of the crucial era of his great-great grandfather, Xiao the Educated Duke, and that ruler’s famous encounter with Lord Shang, the architect of Legalism. In concentrating on the period when the Qin realm begins its grand project to seize control of all China, and the moment in 337 BC when Xiao’s son, the Graceful Duke, proclaims himself to be the first king of Qin, the Qin Empire tells the story of the First Emperor entirely through his absence. Throughout, it bears the strong message that the intrigues of the 4th century will have their pay-off a century later, that some day a man will be born who will internalise every element of Lord Shang’s dark philosophy, and that the country of Qin itself will be honed by decades of hardship into the military state that such a man would require, in order to become China’s First Emperor.

  Appendix IV: Chronology

  337 Accession of the Graceful Duke of Qin, and flight of the Legalist adviser Lord Shang. Lord Shang is executed after an abortive coup attempt.

  324 The Graceful Duke crowns himself King of Qin. The supposed Son of Heaven, the ruler of the Zhou dynasty, is powerless to stop him.

  318 Five nations form a coalition with barbarians to fight Qin, but are beaten back.

  316 Qin conquest of Sichuan.

  311 Death of the Graceful King. Accession of the Martial King.

  307 Death of the Martial King in a weight-lifting accident. He is succeeded by his teenage half-brother, the Bright King, with Queen Dowager Xuan as regent.

  305 Implication of numerous Qin nobles in a failed coup attempt. The late Martial King’s mother and wife are both implicated in the plot.

  304 Official coming-of-age ceremony for the Bright King. Presumed end of Xuan’s regency.

  c.300 Qin builds a Long Wall to resist western nomads.

  295 Xunzi sent to study in Qi, the Land of the Devout.

  290 Birth of Lü Buwei.

  288 The rival rulers of Qi and Qin both proclaim themselves Sovereign Rulers of All Under Heaven (i.e. the world). Later retracted.

  285 Qin quashes a rebellion in Sichuan.

  284 Combined armies of Yan, Qin, Wei and Zhao invade Qi, led by a Yan general.

  283 Birth of Anguo. Xunzi arrives in Chu.

  280 Li Si born in Qi. Birth of Han Fei.

  278 A Qin general captures the Chu capital and burns the ancestral tombs.

  276 Revolt in Chu.

  265 Death of Queen Dowager Xuan.

  c.261 While being held hostage in the state of Zhao, minor Qin princeling Yiren befriends merchant Lü Buwei.

  c.259 Lü Buwei lets Yiren have his concubine Zhaoji, who some claim is already pregnant.

  258 Zhaoji gives birth to Zhao Zheng, later Ying Zheng, who is presumed to be the son of Yiren.

  257 Qin engineers bridge the Yellow River by lashing together boats. Siege of Handan. The servant Zhao Sheng dies to save Yiren, who henceforth feels obliged to care for his son Zhao Gao. Presumed commencement of studies of Li Si and Han Fei under Xunzi.

  256 Qin troops dethrone the Son of Heaven, ending the Zhou dynasty.

  251 Death of the Bright King. Enthronement of Anguo as the Learned King. Ying Zheng returns to Xianyang, the Qin capital, with his parents. Sudden death of the Learned King.

  250 Yiren is enthroned as the Merciful King. Lü Buwei is made Grand Councillor. Work presumed to begin on the Annals of Lü Buwei. Xunzi leaves Qin.

  249 Lü (homeland of Confucius) conquered by Chu.

  248 Birth of Liu Bang (future Han Emperor)

  247 Death of the Merciful King. Li Si decides to leave his master Xunzi, and seek his fortune in Qin.

  246 The 13-year-old Ying Zheng is the new king of Qin, with his ‘Second Father’ Lü Buwei acting as regent, alongside his mother Zhaoji. Li Si becomes a senior scribe.

  244 Famine, a plague of locusts and outbreaks of disease threaten security of Qin. Lü Buwei offers ennoblement for a fee paid in grain.

  c.239 Work is completed on Lü Buwei’s ultimate encyclopaedia, The Annals. Death of the Lady of Summer. Sighting of Halley’s Comet. Death of Chengjiao.

  238 Rebellion of Lao Ai. Assassination of Lord Chunsen, prime minister of Chu. Xunzi loses his post in Chu. Ying Zheng undergoes his ceremony of manhood.

  237 Lü Buwei exiled to Sichuan. Li Si becomes Minister of Justice. Another comet. Attempt to exile all foreigners from Qin.

  235 Lü Buwei commits suicide.

  234 Qin armies attack Zhao and Han.

  233 Han Fei, famous philosopher and former classmate of Li Si, meets an untimely death in Xianyang. Li Si’s mission to the state of Han.

  232 The Red Prince returns to Yan without the king of Qin’s permission.

  231 Presumed commencement date of the Red Prince’s assassination plot.

  230 Qin conquers Han. Completion of the Zheng canal project. Death of the Lady of Glorious Sun.

  228 Qin conquers Zhao. Death of Zhaoji.

  227 Jing Ke’s assassination attempt on Ying Zheng, masterminded by the Red Prince.

  226 Qin forces storm the capital of Yan, forcing the Red Prince’s father to flee north-east to Liaodong.

  225 Qin conquers Wei. Qin armies advance on Chu.

  224 Centenary of the accession of the first king of Qin.

  223 Qin conquers Chu.

  222 The last of the Yan defenders is defeated in Liaodong; official date of the fall of Yan.

  221 Qin annexes Qi, the last remaining state. The ruler of Qin now rules the entire region understood to constitute ‘the world’. Distant barbarians eventually refer to it by the name of its conqueror, as ‘China’. In celebration of the imposition of one rule over the entire region, Ying Zheng assumes the new title – First Emperor. First reference to the construction of a tomb at Mount Li. Division of the former seven kingdoms into 36 imperial prefectures. Possible date of Gao Jianli’s assassination attempt.

  220 Imperial inspection of the Wall zone north of the Qin heartland.

  219 The First Emperor tours his domain, intending to make sacrifices at Mount Tai, and sending out the first of several missions in search of the Elixir of Life. Li Si becomes Grand Councillor.

  218 Imperial entourage heads east again. Assassination
attempt masterminded by Zhang Liang; discovery of the conspiracy of the Ji family.

  217 The year in which ‘nothing happened’. The First Emperor dabbles in Taoist mysticism and possibly makes undercover expeditions to observe his subjects.

  216 While walking alongside a canal in Xianyang, the disguised First Emperor is assaulted by local criminals.

  215 Second quest for the Elixir of Life. First Emperor is warned of the danger presented by ‘Hu’.

  214 A new campaign conquers the new provinces in south China, known as Nanhai, the South Seas.

  213 The Burning of the Books. First cometary observation for 20 years (presumed to be interpolated by the later Han dynasty).

  212 Massacre of 460 scholars. Banishment of Prince Fusu. Construction underway on the Afang palace.

  211 Discovery of a meteorite inscribed with a prophecy of the First Emperor’s downfall. Mars, the ‘Executioner of Heaven’, does not leave the constellation of the Heart.

  210 Death of First Emperor. Death of Xunzi.

  208 Zhao Gao takes over. Execution of Li Si. Tomb-builder Zhang Han turns his labour gang into a fighting force to repel invaders.

  207 Zhao Gao presents a deer to the Second Emperor. Zhang Han pursues Qin’s enemies across the border, but eventually defects in fear of his life.

  206 Death of the Second Emperor. Crowning of Ziying as ‘king’, not emperor. Ziying submits to the rebels and is executed. Xianyang is destroyed and the tomb of the First Emperor is reportedly desecrated (although this may refer to the tomb complex, and not his actual grave).

  202 After a civil war, Liu Bang is proclaimed as the first of the emperors of the new Han dynasty.

  200 The Han capital, Chang’an, is established across the Wei River from the ruins of Xianyang.

  195 Liu Bang orders for twenty households to move to the site of the First Emperor’s tomb to guard it from souvenir hunters.

  AD

  1932 In Lintong, a local farmer finds a terracotta head.

  c. 1940 Mount Li is fortified, leading to the discovery of several artifacts during the digging of trenches.

  1961 The First Emperor’s tomb is designated as a national historical site.

  1973 Discovery of many complete ancient manuscripts preserved as silk scrolls in a grave in Mawangdui.

  1974 Farmers find the Terracotta Army while sinking a shaft for a well.

  1975 Discovery of Judge Xi’s grave in Hebei.

  1976 Archaeologists uncover the first of several construction sites that were homes and workplaces to the original tomb-builders.

  1978 Archaeologists uncover pits of sacrificial animals and rare birds near graves presumed to be of the First Emperor’s executed sons.

  1981 Discovery of high quantities of mercury at the main mound; possibly the remains of the ‘mercury sea’ thought to have once surrounded the coffin.

  1987 The First Emperor’s tomb is designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO.

  1996 Excavation of the ‘Animal Pit’ north of the site.

  1998 Excavation of stone armour in pit K9801.

  1999 Excavation of K9901, the ‘Acrobats and Strongmen’ pit.

  2000 Excavation of K0006, the ‘Officials’ pit and K007, the ‘Musicians’ pit; the latter also contained 46 bronze birds.

  2001 Excavation of Pit K0007, the ‘Terracotta Musicians’.

  2006 University College London’s Institute of Archaeology commences analytical chemistry and fluoroscopic spectrometry tests on artefacts from the Terracotta Army.

  2007 Touring exhibition of the Terracotta Army at the British Museum, and several other sites worldwide establishes new popular interest in the site and its creators.

  References and Further Reading

  Bauer, W. and Herbert Franke. The Golden Casket: Chinese Novellas of Two Millennia [trans. Christopher Levenson]. Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1967.

  Barnes, G. The Rise of Civilization in East Asia: The Archaeology of China, Korea and Japan. London: Thames & Hudson, 1999.

  Birrell, A. Chinese Mythology: An Introduction. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1993.

  Bodde, D. China’s First Unifier. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1967.

  _____. ‘The State and Empire of Ch’in’, in D. Twitchett and M. Loewe, eds., The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 1, pp.21-102. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

  Chang, K. Art, Myth, and Ritual: The Path to Political Authority in Ancient China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983.

  Clements, J. Confucius: A Biography. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2004.

  _____. Pirate King: Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2004.

  Cotterell, A. The First Emperor of China. London: Macmillan, 1981.

  Cottrell, L. The Tiger of Ch’in: How China Became a Nation. London: Evans Brothers, 1962.

  Crump, J. Chan-kuo Ts’e. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1996.

  Di Cosmo, N. Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

  Fryer, J. The Great Wall of China. London: New English Library.

  Fu, Z. China’s Legalists: The Earliest Totalitarians and their Art of Ruling. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996.

  Geil, W. The Great Wall of China. London: John Murray, 1909.

  Harper, D. ‘Warring States, Qin, and Han Manuscripts Related to Natural Philosophy and the Occult,’ in Edward Shaughnessy, ed., New Sources of Early Chinese History: An Introduction to the Reading of Inscriptions and Manuscripts. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, 1997. pp.223-252.

  Hulsewé, A., ed. Remnants of Ch’in Law: An annotated translation of the Ch’in legal and administrative rules of the 3rd century B. C. discovered in Yün-meng Prefecture, Hu-pei Province, in 1975. Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1985.

  Hung, S. ‘The Age in which Ch’in Shi Huang was born,’ in Li (ed.) The First Emperor of China, pp.3-16.

  _____. ‘The Preparations for Unification,’ in Li (ed.) The First Emperor of China, pp.37-54.

  _____. ‘The Success of Unification’, in Li (ed.) The First Emperor of China, pp.74-90.

  _____. ‘The establishment of a system for the consolidation of unification’, in Li (ed.) The First Emperor of China, pp.91-115.

  Knoblock, J. Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988, 1990, 1994. [3 vols.]

  _____. and Jeffrey Riegel, eds. The Annals of Lü Buwei: A Complete Translation and Study. Stanford, CT: Stanford University Press, 2000.

  Kronk, G. Cometography: A Catalog of Comets. Volume 1: Ancient–1799. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

  Landers, J. ‘The Political Thought of Han Fei,’ Phd thesis, Indiana University, 1972.

  Lewis, M. The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.

  Li, Y. (ed.) The First Emperor of China. White Plains, NY: International Arts and Sciences Press, 1975.

  Lo, S. ‘The Struggle Between Restoration and Counterrestoration in the course of the founding of the Ch’in dynasty’, in Li (ed.) The First Emperor of China, pp.55-73.

  Loewe, M. A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han & Xin Periods (221 BC – AD 24). Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2000.

  _____. ‘The First Emperor and the Qin Empire,’ in Jane Portal (ed.) The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army. London: British Museum Press, 2007. pp.58-79.

  Mao, Q. The Discovery of the Eighth Wonder of the World, trans. Zhou Longru. Xi’an: Shaanxi People’s Art Publishing House, 1985.

  Momiyama, A. Shin no Shikôtei [Qin Shihuangdi]. Tokyo: Hakuteisha, 1994.

  Nienhauser, W. (ed). The Grand Scribe’s Records: Volume I – The Basic Annals of Pre-Han China. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.

  _____. The Grand Scribe’s Records: Volume VII – The Memoirs of Pre-Han China. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994. />
  Portal, J. (ed). The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army. London: British Museum Press, 2007.

  Ramsey, S. The Languages of China. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.

  (Reuters). ‘Rice a Building Block in China’. 1 March, 2005.

  Sage, S. Ancient Sichuan and the Unification of China. Albany: State Univeristy of New York Press, 1992.

  Shao, H. ‘What is the origin of “the wailing of Meng Chiang-nü at the Great Wall”?’, in Li (ed.) The First Emperor of China, pp. 162-3.

  Tinios, E. (ed) Emperors, Barbarians and Historians in Early Imperial China. Leeds: University of Leeds, School of History, 1995.

  _____. (ed) Han Shu 94: Memoir on the Hsiung-nu. University of Leeds, School of History, 1995.

  Wagner, D. Iron and Steel in Ancient China. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1993.

  Wang, H. and Leo S. Chang. The Philosophical Foundations of Han Fei’s Political Theory. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, Monographs of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, no. 7, 1986.

  Watson, B., ed. Records of the Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty. Hong Kong: Columbia University Press, 1993.

  Wei, C. ‘Ch’in Shih-huang’s book-burning as seen from the bamboo slips unearthed in Ying-ch’üeh-shan,’ in Li (ed.) The First Emperor of China, pp. 145-53.