Qin Shi Huang

Qin Shi Huang had several concubines and numerous children through them. It is believed that he fathered around 50 children of whom about 30 were sons. His 17th son, Fusu, was the Crown Prince.

He feared death greatly and despised even talking about it. Thus he made no will. He wanted to live forever and searched far and wide for the medicine for immortality.

He died on September 10, 210 BC during one of his tours of Eastern China. In an ironic twist of fate, his death occurred after he ingested mercury pills, made by his alchemists and court physicians in an attempt to make him immortal.

He was born as Ying Zheng on 7 February 260 BC to the Qin prince Yiren and Lady Zhao. However, some historians believe that he was not the biological son of Yiren, but of a shrewd merchant called Lü Buwei who once had Lady Zhao as his concubine.

The merchant Lü Buwei was very close to Yiren, and through his political cunning helped Yiren become King Zhuangxiang of Qin and served as his Prime Minister.

King Zhuangxiang of Qin died after a short reign of just three years in 246 BC and being his eldest son 13-year-old Ying Zheng was crowned the king. He was now called Qin Wang Zheng (King Zheng of Qin).

Since the king was still very young, his father’s Prime Minister Lü Buwei continued to hold his position and acted as the king’s regent for the next eight years. King Zheng attained the age of 22—the legal age to rule the kingdom by himself—in 238 BC.

Meanwhile, his mother, Lady Zhao had taken up a lover called Lao Ai with whom she had two sons secretly. Now Lao Ai attempted a coup d'etat to usurp the young king but the king learned of his conspiracy and had him executed. The king also learned that the Prime Minister Lü Buwei was involved in the conspiracy and banished him to Shu. Lü Buwei then committed suicide.

Finally Ying Zheng assumed full power as the King of the Qin state in 235 BC. He then chose Li Si as the new chancellor.

The king now embarked on several campaigns to expand his empire. At that time, seven warring states constituted China and each one was vying for control of the land. Qin was one of the states, the others being Qi, Yan, Zhao, Han, Wei, and Chu.

Qin Shi Huang ruled as the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty and unified China in 221 B.C. During his reign the Chinese state underwent vast expansions and he is also credited to have enacted major economic and political reforms. One of his major public works projects is the unification of diverse state walls into a single Great Wall of China.