Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇): The Life and Legacy of China's First Emperor

Every Chinese child learns his name at school. He ended centuries of war, gave China one writing system and one kind of money, and connected walls that became part of the Great Wall. He also burned books, forced huge numbers of people into hard labor and spent his last years searching for a way to live forever. His name is 秦始皇 (Qín Shǐhuáng), the first emperor of China.

Many people know him through the Terracotta Army, the thousands of clay soldiers that guard his tomb. In this guide, we focus on the man himself: who he was, how he unified China, what he changed, why people still argue about him, and the Chinese words that come from his story.

Key takeaways

• 秦始皇 means “the First Emperor of Qin.” His personal name was 嬴政 (Yíng Zhèng).
• He became king of Qin as a boy and unified China in 221 BC by conquering six rival states.
• He invented the title 皇帝 (huángdì, “emperor”), used by Chinese rulers until 1912.
• He standardized writing, money, weights and measures and even the width of cart axles.
• He is also remembered for harsh laws, the burning of books and his search for immortality.
• He died in 210 BC, and the Qin dynasty fell only a few years later, in 207 BC.

What does 秦始皇 mean?

The name is a title, not a personal name. It has three parts:

The full title is 秦始皇帝 (Qín Shǐ Huángdì), “the First Emperor of Qin,” which is why you will also see the spelling Qin Shi Huangdi in English. Chinese people almost always use the shorter form 秦始皇.

How to pronounce it: Qín Shǐhuáng. Qin sounds like “chin” with a rising tone. Shi is like “shr” with a dipping tone. Huang sounds like “hwahng,” again with a rising tone.

His personal name was 嬴政 (Yíng Zhèng). Before he became emperor, people called him 秦王政 (Qín wáng Zhèng), “King Zheng of Qin.”

Who was Qin Shi Huang?

A boy king (259–238 BC)

Ying Zheng was born in 259 BC in Handan (邯郸), the capital of the state of Zhao, where his father was living as a hostage. At that time there was no single “China.” The land was divided into seven large states that had fought each other for more than two hundred years. Historians call this the 战国 (Zhànguó) period, the Warring States, a time of almost constant 战争 (zhànzhēng, war).

In 246 BC, at about 13, Zheng became king of Qin, the strongest of the seven states in the far west. For the first years, powerful ministers ruled for him. In his early twenties he took full control and began a long series of wars.

Six states in ten years (230–221 BC)

Qin had a large, well-organized army and strict laws (法律, fǎlǜ) that rewarded soldiers for victories. One by one, King Zheng's armies conquered the other six states:

The other states fought back in every way they could. In 227 BC, the state of Yan sent an assassin, 荆轲 (Jīng Kē), to kill the king. Jing Ke hid a dagger inside a rolled-up map, but the attack failed. The story of 荆轲刺秦王 (“Jing Ke tries to kill the King of Qin”) is one of the most famous in Chinese history and has been made into many films.

221 BC: the first emperor

In 221 BC, after the last state fell, Zheng had done what no one before him had done: he had 统一 (tǒngyī, unified) China. He was 38 years old. He felt that the old title 王 (wáng, “king”) was no longer big enough. So he took 皇 and 帝 from the names of the great rulers of legend and created a new title: 皇帝 (huángdì), “emperor.” (To learn more about this word and the world of the emperors, see our guide to Chinese emperors.)

He called himself 始皇帝, the “First Emperor.” His son would be the Second Emperor, 二世, and his family would rule for 万世 (wànshì), “ten thousand generations.” He also made the word 朕 (zhèn, “I”) a word that only the emperor could use for himself.

00:53

One country, one standard: what Qin Shi Huang changed

Conquering China was one thing. Holding it together was harder. The seven states had different scripts, coins, measures and laws. With his chancellor 李斯 (Lǐ Sī), the First Emperor made the whole country follow one 标准 (biāozhǔn, standard).

书同文: one written language

Before Qin, the same word could be written in quite different ways in different states. There was no single 文字 (wénzì, writing system). The new government made the Qin style of characters, 小篆 (xiǎozhuàn, “small seal script”), the standard and dropped the other forms. People across China still spoke very different dialects, but now they could read the same 汉字 (hànzì, Chinese characters). Many historians see this as one of the most important reasons China stayed one country for so long.

车同轨: same carts, same roads

It sounds like a small detail, but it mattered. Carts ran in deep ruts on dirt roads. If carts from one region had a different axle width, they could not use the roads of another. With one standard width, and a network of new roads, the army and goods could move quickly across the empire.

A coin that lasted 2,000 years

The 半两钱 (bànliǎng qián) was a round coin with a square hole in the middle. Different states had used coins shaped like knives, spades and shells. After Qin, the round coin with a square hole remained the basic shape of Chinese coins for about two thousand years.

郡县制: no more kingdoms

Instead of giving land to relatives and nobles, the emperor divided the country into 36 commanderies (郡, jùn), each split into counties (县, xiàn). Officials were appointed and removed by the central government. Even today, 县 is still a word for “county” in China.

00:52

Did Qin Shi Huang build the Great Wall?

Partly. Before unification, several states had already built walls to defend their borders. In about 215 BC, the First Emperor sent his general 蒙恬 (Méng Tián) north to fight the Xiongnu (匈奴), a nomadic people. Meng Tian joined older walls together and built new sections, creating one long northern wall.

So Qin Shi Huang did not invent the Great Wall, but he made it one wall for the first time. Most of the stone-and-brick 长城 (Chángchéng) that tourists visit near Beijing today is much younger: it was rebuilt during the Ming dynasty, more than 1,500 years later.

The work was very hard, and countless workers died. A famous folk story tells of 孟姜女 (Mèng Jiāngnǚ), whose husband was taken away to build the wall. When she finally arrived to bring him winter clothes, she learned he had died. She cried so hard that part of the wall fell down. The story is a legend, but it shows how ordinary people remembered the Qin.

The dark side: harsh laws and 焚书坑儒

Qin was run on strict laws and heavy punishments. Huge numbers of people were sent to build roads, walls, 宫殿 (gōngdiàn, palaces) and the emperor's tomb. This is why many Chinese 历史 (lìshǐ, history) books describe him as a 暴君 (bàojūn), a “tyrant.”

The most famous charge against him is 焚书坑儒 (fénshū kēngrú), “burning books and burying scholars.” According to the historian 司马迁 (Sīmǎ Qiān):

• In 213 BC, Li Si advised the emperor to burn the history books of the other states and many works of 哲学 (zhéxué, philosophy). Books on medicine, farming and fortune-telling were spared.
• In 212 BC, after some advisers who had promised him immortality ran away, the emperor had more than 460 学者 (xuézhě, scholars) killed in the 首都 (shǒudū, capital), Xianyang (咸阳).

Most historians accept that books were burned. The second part is more debated. Sima Qian wrote about a century later, under the Han dynasty, which had reasons to make the Qin look bad. Many scholars think the victims were mostly magicians and advisers (方士, fāngshì) rather than Confucian scholars, and some doubt that they were really buried alive. Either way, 焚书坑儒 became a lasting symbol of a ruler trying to control what people think.

The search for immortality

The man who controlled all of China could not control one thing: death. In his later years, Qin Shi Huang wanted to 长生不老 (chángshēng bù lǎo), to live forever and never grow old.

He sent a magician named 徐福 (Xú Fú) across the eastern sea to find the islands of the 神仙 (shénxiān, immortals) and bring back an elixir of life. According to Sima Qian, Xu Fu sailed away with thousands of young boys and girls and never came back. A popular legend says he reached Japan. Nobody knows what really happened.

The emperor also took medicines from his advisers that were supposed to make him immortal. Some of these “elixirs” may have contained mercury (水银, shuǐyín). Many people believe they damaged his health, but this is a theory, not a proven fact.

How did Qin Shi Huang die?

In 210 BC, the emperor was on his fifth great tour of the empire when he fell seriously ill. He died at 沙丘 (Shāqiū), in today's Hebei Province. He was about 49 years old.

What happened next sounds like a TV drama. According to Sima Qian, the emperor had written a letter calling his eldest son, 扶苏 (Fúsū), back to the capital to take over. But the powerful eunuch 赵高 (Zhào Gāo) and the chancellor Li Si kept the death a 秘密 (mìmì, secret). It was summer, and the body began to smell, so they loaded carts of salted fish next to the emperor's carriage to hide it. Back in the capital, they announced a fake order: Fusu was to kill himself, and a younger son, 胡亥 (Húhài), would become the Second Emperor, 秦二世.

This is the traditional story. A bamboo-slip text found in recent years tells it differently and says Huhai was chosen by his father. Historians are still discussing it.

The fall of the Qin dynasty (207 BC)

The Second Emperor was weak, and Zhao Gao held the real power. Taxes (税, shuì) and forced labor got even worse. In 209 BC, two 农民 (nóngmín, farmers) named 陈胜 (Chén Shèng) and 吴广 (Wú Guǎng) were leading a group of conscripts who were late because of heavy rain. Under Qin law, being late meant death, so they decided to rebel instead. Chen Sheng's question became famous: “王侯将相宁有种乎？”—“Are kings and nobles born that way?”

Rebellions spread across the country. In 207 BC, the last Qin ruler surrendered to the rebel leader 刘邦 (Liú Bāng), who later founded the Han dynasty (汉朝). The 朝代 (cháodài, dynasty) that was meant to last ten thousand generations lasted about 15 years.

His tomb and the Terracotta Army

Work on Qin Shi Huang's tomb began soon after he became king and continued for decades. The tomb mound near today's Xi'an has never been opened. In 1974, farmers digging a well nearby found the first pieces of the 兵马俑 (bīngmǎyǒng), the Terracotta Army: thousands of life-size clay soldiers buried to protect the emperor after death. Read the full story, with facts and visiting tips, in our guide to the Terracotta Army.

Hero or tyrant? The legacy of Qin Shi Huang

For two thousand years, Chinese scholars mostly remembered Qin Shi Huang as a 残酷 (cánkù, cruel) ruler. Later thinkers saw him differently. The Ming-dynasty writer Li Zhi (李贽) famously called him 千古一帝 (qiāngǔ yí dì), “the greatest emperor of all time.” Today, most Chinese people see both sides: a brilliant, ruthless ruler whose empire was short but whose system lasted.

What he left behind:

• The idea of one China. After Qin, a united empire was seen as normal and division as a problem to fix.
• The emperor system. The title 皇帝 was used for more than 2,000 years, until the last emperor gave up the throne in 1912.
• A shared written language. People with very different dialects could still read the same texts.
• The name “China”? A popular theory says the English word China comes from 秦 (Qín) through Sanskrit Cīna. Many scholars accept this, but the origin of the word is not certain, and other theories exist.

Qin Shi Huang is also a favorite character in pop culture. Zhang Yimou's film Hero (《英雄》, Yīngxióng, 2002) retells the assassination story, and he even appears as a fighter in the anime Record of Ragnarok.

Useful vocabulary

Next time you see a round coin with a square hole or read a Chinese character, remember the man who first made all of China use them: 秦始皇.