On this episode of the World Famous Sofa King Podcast, we travel back time and look at the first emperor of unified China, Qin Shi Huan. His legacy is one of power, unification, reformation, and madness in the quest for eternal life. He was the one who started construction of the Great Wall of China and fought a massive series of wars to unify the 7 warring states to serve him as emperor. He drank mercury, burned books, killed just about everyone, and left behind the amazing army of terra cotta soldiers.

Everything about this guy is controversial, even his birth. One account is that the was the son of a kidnapped prince and a wealthy consort. Another is that he was the son of this consort and a powerful merchant named Lu Buwei who just used the prince to give his unborn son power. Either way, Lu Buwei put this prince in power as king and then after his death, ruled the kingdom until (his son) the prince was old enough to take power.

And take power, he did. Qin Shi Huan ruled over a period known as Warring States Period of China. Every single kingdom was conquered by this young king, and he even survived multiple assassination attempts (Fidel Castro’s got nothing on this kid). He completely remade China, killing all previous nobles, murdering scholars who didn’t agree with him. He also build roads, crated a canal that still serves to this day, and unified their language and coinage and culture.

But, Qin Shi Huan went a little bit crazy at the end. He became obsessed with living forever, and he demanded scholars and sorcerers bring him potions. They were often made of mercury, which didn’t help things. By the time this amazing man died, he build an army of 8000 terra cotta soldiers to help him conquer heaven just as he did the earth!

 

Visit Our Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army

https://www.thoughtco.com/qin-shi-huang-first-emperor-china-195679

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/2000-year-old-texts-reveal-first-emperor-chinas-quest-eternal-life-180967671/

https://www.livescience.com/22454-ancient-chinese-tomb-terracotta-warriors.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingqu