---
type: article
status: Published
slug: "first-emperor-annals"
title: "The Annals of the First Emperor of Qin"
author: "Sima Qian"
tradition: "chinese"
language: "lzh"
genre: "history"
period: "c. 94 BCE"
source_url: "https://zh.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=%E5%8F%B2%E8%A8%98%2F%E5%8D%B7006&oldid=7907969"
certainty: observed
source: "https://zh.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=%E5%8F%B2%E8%A8%98%2F%E5%8D%B7006&oldid=7907969"
unknowns: none known
---
# The Annals of the First Emperor of Qin

## Original

### King Zheng of Qin (247–222 BCE)

秦始皇帝者，秦莊襄王子也。莊襄王為秦質子於趙，見呂不韋姬，悅而取之，生始皇。以秦昭王四十八年正月生於邯鄲。及生，名為政，姓趙氏。年十三歲，莊襄王死，政代立為秦王。當是之時，秦地已并巴、蜀、漢中，越宛有郢，置南郡矣；北收上郡以東，有河東、太原、上黨郡；東至滎陽，滅二周，置三川郡。呂不韋為相，封十萬戶，號曰文信侯。招致賓客游士，欲以并天下。李斯為舍人。蒙驁、王齮、麃公等為將軍。王年少，初即位，委國事大臣。晉陽反。

秦始皇元年，將軍蒙驁擊定之。

二年，麃公將卒攻卷，斬首三萬。

三年，蒙驁攻韓，取十三城。王齮死。十月，將軍蒙驁攻魏氏暢、有詭。歲大饑。

四年，拔暢、有詭。三月，軍罷。秦質子歸自趙，趙太子出歸國。十月庚寅，蝗蟲從東方來，蔽天。天下疫。百姓內粟千石，拜爵一級。

五年，將軍驁攻魏，定酸棗、燕、虛、長平、雍丘、山陽城，皆拔之，取二十城。初置東郡。冬雷。

六年，韓、魏、趙、衛、楚共擊秦，取壽陵。秦出兵，五國兵罷。拔衛，迫東郡，其君角率其支屬徙居野王，阻其山以保魏之河內。

七年，彗星先出東方，見北方，五月見西方。將軍驁死。以攻龍、孤、慶都，還兵攻汲。彗星復見西方十六日。夏太后死。

八年，王弟長安君成蟜將軍擊趙，反，死屯留，軍吏皆斬死，遷其民於臨洮。將軍壁死，卒屯留、蒲鶴反，戮其尸。河魚大上，輕車重馬東就食。

嫪毐封為長信侯。予之山陽地，令毐居之。宮室車馬衣服苑囿馳獵恣毐。事無小大皆決於毐。又以河西太原郡更為毐國。九年，彗星見，或竟天。攻魏垣、蒲陽。四月，上宿雍。己酉，王冠，帶劍。長信侯毐作亂而覺，矯王御璽及太后璽以發縣卒及衛卒、官騎、戎翟君公、舍人，將欲攻蘄年宮為亂。王知之，令相國昌平君、昌文君發卒攻毐。戰咸陽，斬首數百，皆拜爵，及宦者皆在戰中，亦拜爵一級。毐等敗走。即令國中：有生得毐，賜錢百萬；殺之，五十萬。盡得毐等。衛尉竭、內史肆、佐弋竭、中大夫令齊等二十人皆梟首。車裂以徇，滅其宗。及其舍人，輕者為鬼薪。及奪爵遷蜀四千餘家，家房陵。（四）［是］月寒凍，有死者。楊端和攻衍氏。彗星見西方，又見北方，從斗以南八十日。十年，相國呂不韋坐嫪毐免。桓齮為將軍。齊、趙來置酒。齊人茅焦說秦王曰：「秦方以天下為事，而大王有遷母太后之名，恐諸侯聞之，由此倍秦也。」秦王乃迎太后於雍而入咸陽，復居甘泉宮。

大索，逐客，李斯上書說，乃止逐客令。李斯因說秦王，請先取韓以恐他國，於是使斯下韓。韓王患之。與韓非謀弱秦。大梁人尉繚來，說秦王曰：「以秦之彊，諸侯譬如郡縣之君，臣但恐諸侯合從，翕而出不意，此乃智伯、夫差、湣王之所以亡也。願大王毋愛財物，賂其豪臣，以亂其謀，不過亡三十萬金，則諸侯可盡。」秦王從其計，見尉繚亢禮，衣服食飲與繚同。繚曰：「秦王為人，蜂準，長目，摯鳥膺，豺聲，少恩而虎狼心，居約易出人下，得志亦輕食人。我布衣，然見我常身自下我。誠使秦王得志於天下，天下皆為虜矣。不可與久游。」乃亡去。秦王覺，固止，以為秦國尉，卒用其計策。而李斯用事。

十一年，王翦、桓齮、楊端和攻鄴，取九城。王翦攻閼與、橑楊，皆并為一軍。翦將十八日，軍歸斗食以下，什推二人從軍取鄴安陽，桓齮將。十二年，文信侯不韋死，竊葬。其舍人臨者，晉人也逐出之；秦人六百石以上奪爵，遷；五百石以下不臨，遷，勿奪爵。自今以來，操國事不道如嫪毐、不韋者籍其門，視此。秋，復嫪毐舍人遷蜀者。當是之時，天下大旱，六月至八月乃雨。

十三年，桓齮攻趙平陽，殺趙將扈輒，斬首十萬。王之河南。正月，彗星見東方。十月，桓齮攻趙。十四年，攻趙軍於平陽，取宜安，破之，殺其將軍。桓齮定平陽、武城。韓非使秦，秦用李斯謀，留非，非死雲陽。韓王請為臣。

十五年，大興兵，一軍至鄴，一軍至太原，取狼孟。地動。十六年九月，發卒受地韓南陽假守騰。初令男子書年。魏獻地於秦。秦置麗邑。十七年，內史騰攻韓，得韓王安，盡納其地，以其地為郡，命曰潁川。地動。華陽太后卒。民大饑。

十八年，大興兵攻趙，王翦將上地，下井陘，端和將河內，羌瘣伐趙，端和圍邯鄲城。十九年，王翦、羌瘣盡定取趙地東陽，得趙王。引兵欲攻燕，屯中山。秦王之邯鄲，諸嘗與王生趙時母家有仇怨，皆阬之。秦王還，從太原、上郡歸。始皇帝母太后崩。趙公子嘉率其宗數百人之代，自立為代王，東與燕合兵，軍上谷。大饑。

二十年，燕太子丹患秦兵至國，恐，使荊軻刺秦王。秦王覺之，體解軻以徇，而使王翦、辛勝攻燕。燕、代發兵擊秦軍，秦軍破燕易水之西。二十一年，王賁攻（薊）［荊］。乃益發卒詣王翦軍，遂破燕太子軍，取燕薊城，得太子丹之首。燕王東收遼東而王之。王翦謝病老歸。新鄭反。昌平君徙於郢。大雨雪，深二尺五寸。

二十二年，王賁攻魏，引河溝灌大梁，大梁城壞，其王請降，盡取其地。

二十三年，秦王復召王翦，彊起之，使將擊荊。取陳以南至平輿，虜荊王。秦王游至郢陳。荊將項燕立昌平君為荊王，反秦於淮南。二十四年，王翦、蒙武攻荊，破荊軍，昌平君死，項燕遂自殺。

二十五年，大興兵，使王賁將，攻燕遼東，得燕王喜。還攻代，虜代王嘉。王翦遂定荊江南地；降越君，置會稽郡。五月，天下大酺。

### The First Emperor (221 BCE)

二十六年，齊王建與其相后勝發兵守其西界，不通秦。秦使將軍王賁從燕南攻齊，得齊王建。

秦王初并天下，令丞相、御史曰：「異日韓王納地效璽，請為藩臣，已而倍約，與趙、魏合從畔秦，故興兵誅之，虜其王。寡人以為善，庶幾息兵革。趙王使其相李牧來約盟，故歸其質子。已而倍盟，反我太原，故興兵誅之，得其王。趙公子嘉乃自立為代王，故舉兵擊滅之。魏王始約服入秦，已而與韓、趙謀襲秦，秦兵吏誅，遂破之。荊王獻青陽以西，已而畔約，擊我南郡，故發兵誅，得其王，遂定其荊地。燕王昏亂，其太子丹乃陰令荊軻為賊，兵吏誅，滅其國。齊王用后勝計，絕秦使，欲為亂，兵吏誅，虜其王，平齊地。寡人以眇眇之身，興兵誅暴亂，賴宗廟之靈，六王咸伏其辜，天下大定。今名號不更，無以稱成功，傳後世。其議帝號。」丞相綰、御史大夫劫、廷尉斯等皆曰：「昔者五帝地方千里，其外侯服夷服諸侯或朝或否，天子不能制。今陛下興義兵，誅殘賊，平定天下，海內為郡縣，法令由一統，自上古以來未嘗有，五帝所不及。臣等謹與博士議曰：『古有天皇，有地皇，有泰皇，泰皇最貴。』臣等昧死上尊號，王為『泰皇』。命為『制』，令為『詔』，天子自稱曰『朕』。」王曰：「去『泰』，著『皇』，采上古『帝』位號，號曰『皇帝』；他如議。」制曰：「可。」追尊莊襄王為太上皇。制曰：「朕聞太古有號毋謚，中古有號，死而以行為謐。如此，則子議父，臣議君也，甚無謂，朕弗取焉。自今已來，除謚法。朕為始皇帝。後世以計數，二世三世至于萬世，傳之無窮。」

始皇推終始五德之傳，以為周得火德，秦代周德，從所不勝。方今水德之始，改年始，朝賀皆自十月朔。衣服旄旌節旗皆上黑。數以六為紀，符、法冠皆六寸，而輿六尺，六尺為步，乘六馬。更名河曰德水，以為水德之始。剛毅戾深，事皆決於法，刻削毋仁恩和義，然後合五德之數。於是急法，久者不赦。

丞相綰等言：「諸侯初破，燕、齊、荊地遠，不為置王，毋以填之。請立諸子，唯上幸許。」始皇下其議於群臣，群臣皆以為便。廷尉李斯議曰：「周文武所封子弟同姓甚眾，然後屬疏遠，相攻擊如仇讎，諸侯更相誅伐，周天子弗能禁止。今海內賴陛下神靈一統，皆為郡縣，諸子功臣以公賦稅重賞賜之，甚足易制。天下無異意，則安寧之術也。置諸侯不便。」始皇曰：「天下共苦戰鬬不休，以有侯王。賴宗廟，天下初定，又復立國，是樹兵也，而求其寧息，豈不難哉！廷尉議是。」

分天下以為三十六郡，郡置守、尉、監。更名民曰「黔首」。大酺。收天下兵，聚之咸陽，銷以為鐘鐻，金人十二，重各千石，置廷宮中。一法度衡石丈尺。車同軌。書同文字。地東至海暨朝鮮，西至臨洮、羌中，南至北向戶，北據河為塞，并陰山至遼東。徙天下豪富於咸陽十二萬戶。諸廟及章臺、上林皆在渭南。秦每破諸侯，寫放其宮室，作之咸陽北阪上，南臨渭，自雍門以東至涇、渭，殿屋複道周閣相屬。所得諸侯美人鐘鼓，以充入之。

二十七年，始皇巡隴西、北地，出雞頭山，過回中。焉作信宮渭南，已更命信宮為極廟，象天極。自極廟道通酈山，作甘泉前殿。筑甬道，自咸陽屬之。是歲，賜爵一級。治馳道。

### Tours and Inscriptions (219–215 BCE)

二十八年，始皇東行郡縣，上鄒嶧山。立石，與魯諸儒生議，刻石頌秦德，議封禪望祭山川之事。乃遂上泰山，立石，封，祠祀。下，風雨暴至，休於樹下，因封其樹為五大夫。禪梁父。刻所立石，其辭曰：

皇帝臨位，作制明法，臣下修飭。二十有六年，初并天下，罔不賓服。親巡遠方黎民，登茲泰山，周覽東極。從臣思跡，本原事業，祗誦功德。治道運行，諸產得宜，皆有法式。大義休明，垂于後世，順承勿革。皇帝躬聖，既平天下，不懈於治。夙興夜寐，建設長利，專隆教誨。訓經宣達，遠近畢理，咸承聖志。貴賤分明，男女禮順，慎遵職事。昭隔內外，靡不清凈，施于後嗣。化及無窮，遵奉遺詔，永承重戒。

於是乃并勃海以東，過黃、腄，窮成山，登之罘，立石頌秦德焉而去。

南登瑯邪，大樂之，留三月。乃徙黔首三萬戶瑯邪臺下，復十二歲。作瑯邪臺，立石刻，頌秦德，明得意。曰：

維二十八年，皇帝作始。端平法度，萬物之紀。以明人事，合同父子。聖智仁義，顯白道理。東撫東土，以省卒士。事已大畢，乃臨于海。皇帝之功，勸勞本事。上農除末，黔首是富。普天之下，摶心揖志。器械一量，同書文字。日月所照，舟輿所載。皆終其命，莫不得意。應時動事，是維皇帝。匡飭異俗，陵水經地。憂恤黔首，朝夕不懈。除疑定法，咸知所辟。方伯分職，諸治經易。舉錯必當，莫不如畫。皇帝之明，臨察四方。尊卑貴賤，不踰次行。瑯邪不容，皆務貞良。細大盡力，莫敢怠荒。遠邇辟隱，專務肅莊。端直敦忠，事業有常。皇帝之德，存定四極。誅亂除害，興利致福。節事以時，諸產繁殖。黔首安寧，不用兵革。六親相保，終無寇賊。驩欣奉教，盡知法式。六合之內，皇帝之土。西涉流沙，南盡北戶。東有東海，北過大夏。人跡所至，無不臣者。功蓋五帝，澤及牛馬。莫不受德，各安其宇。

維秦王兼有天下，立名為皇帝，乃撫東土，至于瑯邪。列侯武城侯王離、列侯通武侯王賁、倫侯建成侯趙亥、倫侯昌武侯成、倫侯武信侯馮毋擇、丞相隗林、丞相王綰、卿李斯、卿王戊、五大夫趙嬰、五大夫楊樛從，與議於海上。曰：「古之帝者，地不過千里，諸侯各守其封域，或朝或否，相侵暴亂，殘伐不止，猶刻金石，以自為紀。古之五帝三王，知教不同，法度不明，假威鬼神，以欺遠方，實不稱名，故不久長。其身未歿，諸侯倍叛，法令不行。今皇帝并一海內，以為郡縣，天下和平。昭明宗廟，體道行德，尊號大成。群臣相與誦皇帝功德，刻于金石，以為表經。」

既已，齊人徐巿等上書，言海中有三神山，名曰蓬萊、方丈、瀛洲，僊人居之。請得齋戒，與童男女求之。於是遣徐巿發童男女數千人，入海求僊人。

始皇還，過彭城，齋戒禱祠，欲出周鼎泗水。使千人沒水求之，弗得。乃西南渡淮水，之衡山、南郡。浮江，至湘山祠。逢大風，幾不得渡。上問博士曰：「湘君神？」博士對曰：「聞之，堯女，舜之妻，而葬此。」於是始皇大怒，使刑徒三千人皆伐湘山樹，赭其山。上自南郡由武關歸。

二十九年，始皇東游。至陽武博狼沙中，為盜所驚。求弗得，乃令天下大索十日。

登之罘，刻石。其辭曰：

維二十九年，時在中春，陽和方起。皇帝東游，巡登之罘，臨照于海。從臣嘉觀，原念休烈，追誦本始。大聖作治，建定法度，顯箸綱紀。外教諸侯，光施文惠，明以義理。六國回辟，貪戾無厭，虐殺不已。皇帝哀眾，遂發討師，奮揚武德。義誅信行，威燀旁達，莫不賓服。烹滅彊暴，振救黔首，周定四極。普施明法，經緯天下，永為儀則。大矣哉！宇縣之中，承順聖意。群臣誦功，請刻于石，表垂于常式。

其東觀曰：

二十九年，皇帝春游，覽省遠方。逮于海隅，遂登之罘，昭臨朝陽。觀望廣麗，從臣咸念，原道至明。聖法初興，清理疆內，外誅暴彊。武威旁暢，振動四極，禽滅六王。闡并天下，甾害絕息，永偃戎兵。皇帝明德，經理宇內，視聽不怠。作立大義，昭設備器，咸有章旗。職臣遵分，各知所行，事無嫌疑。黔首改化，遠邇同度，臨古絕尤。常職既定，後嗣循業，長承聖治。群臣嘉德，祗誦聖烈，請刻之罘。

旋，遂之瑯邪，道上黨入。

三十年，無事。

三十一年十二月，更名臘曰「嘉平」。賜黔首裏六石米，二羊。始皇為微行咸陽，與武士四人俱，夜出逢盜蘭池，見窘，武士擊殺盜，關中大索二十日。米石千六百。

三十二年，始皇之碣石，使燕人盧生求羨門、高誓。刻碣石門。壞城郭，決通隄防。其辭曰：

遂興師旅，誅戮無道，為逆滅息。武殄暴逆，文復無罪，庶心咸服。惠論功勞，賞及牛馬，恩肥土域。皇帝奮威，德并諸侯，初一泰平。墮壞城郭，決通川防，夷去險阻。地勢既定，黎庶無繇，天下咸撫。男樂其疇，女修其業，事各有序。惠被諸產，久并來田，莫不安所。群臣誦烈，請刻此石，垂著儀矩。

因使韓終、侯公、石生求僊人不死之藥。始皇巡北邊，從上郡入。燕人盧生使入海還，以鬼神事，因奏錄圖書，曰「亡秦者胡也」。始皇乃使將軍蒙恬發兵三十萬人北擊胡，略取河南地。

三十三年，發諸嘗逋亡人、贅婿、賈人略取陸梁地，為桂林、象郡、南海，以適遣戍。西北斥逐匈奴。自榆中并河以東，屬之陰山，以為三十四縣，城河上為塞。又使蒙恬渡河取高闕、陽山、北假中，筑亭障以逐戎人。徙謫，實之初縣。禁不得祠。明星出西方。

### The Burning of the Books and the Scholars (213–211 BCE)

三十四年，適治獄吏不直者，筑長城及南越地。

始皇置酒咸陽宮，博士七十人前為壽。仆射周青臣進頌曰：「他時秦地不過千里，賴陛下神靈明聖，平定海內，放逐蠻夷，日月所照，莫不賓服。以諸侯為郡縣，人人自安樂，無戰爭之患，傳之萬世。自上古不及陛下威德。」始皇悅。博士齊人淳于越進曰：「臣聞殷周之王千餘歲，封子弟功臣，自為枝輔。今陛下有海內，而子弟為匹夫，卒有田常、六卿之臣，無輔拂，何以相救哉？事不師古而能長久者，非所聞也。今青臣又面諛以重陛下之過，非忠臣。」始皇下其議。丞相李斯曰：「五帝不相復，三代不相襲，各以治，非其相反，時變異也。今陛下創大業，建萬世之功，固非愚儒所知。且越言乃三代之事，何足法也？異時諸侯并爭，厚招游學。今天下已定，法令出一，百姓當家則力農工，士則學習法令辟禁。今諸生不師今而學古，以非當世，惑亂黔首。丞相臣斯昧死言：古者天下散亂，莫之能一，是以諸侯并作，語皆道古以害今，飾虛言以亂實，人善其所私學，以非上之所建立。今皇帝并有天下，別黑白而定一尊。私學而相與非法教，人聞令下，則各以其學議之，入則心非，出則巷議，夸主以為名，異取以為高，率群下以造謗。如此弗禁，則主勢降乎上，黨與成乎下。禁之便。臣請史官非秦記皆燒之。非博士官所職，天下敢有藏詩、書、百家語者，悉詣守、尉雜燒之。有敢偶語詩書者棄市。以古非今者族。吏見知不舉者與同罪。令下三十日不燒，黥為城旦。所不去者，醫藥卜筮種樹之書。若有欲學法令者，以吏為師。」制曰：「可。」

三十五年，除道，道九原抵雲陽，塹山堙谷，直通之。於是始皇以為咸陽人多，先王之宮廷小，吾聞周文王都豐，武王都鎬，豐鎬之閒，帝王之都也。乃營作朝宮渭南上林苑中。先作前殿阿房，東西五百步，南北五十丈，上可以坐萬人，下可以建五丈旗。周馳為閣道，自殿下直抵南山。表南山之顛以為闕。為復道，自阿房渡渭，屬之咸陽，以象天極閣道絕漢抵營室也。阿房宮未成；成，欲更擇令名名之。作宮阿房，故天下謂之阿房宮。隱宮徒刑者七十餘萬人，乃分作阿房宮，或作麗山。發北山石槨，乃寫蜀、荊地材皆至。關中計宮三百，關外四百餘。於是立石東海上朐界中，以為秦東門。因徙三萬家麗邑，五萬家雲陽，皆復不事十歲。

盧生說始皇曰：「臣等求芝奇藥僊者常弗遇，類物有害之者。方中，人主時為微行以辟惡鬼，惡鬼辟，真人至。人主所居而人臣知之，則害於神。真人者，入水不濡，入火不爇，陵雲氣，與天地久長。今上治天下，未能恬倓。願上所居宮毋令人知，然後不死之藥殆可得也。」於是始皇曰：「吾慕真人，自謂『真人』，不稱『朕』。」乃令咸陽之旁二百里內宮觀二百七十復道甬道相連，帷帳鐘鼓美人充之，各案署不移徙。行所幸，有言其處者，罪死。始皇帝幸梁山宮，從山上見丞相車騎眾，弗善也。中人或告丞相，丞相後損車騎。始皇怒曰：「此中人泄吾語。」案問莫服。當是時，詔捕諸時在旁者，皆殺之。自是後莫知行之所在。聽事，群臣受決事，悉於咸陽宮。

侯生盧生相與謀曰：「始皇為人，天性剛戾自用，起諸侯，并天下，意得欲從，以為自古莫及己。專任獄吏，獄吏得親幸。博士雖七十人，特備員弗用。丞相諸大臣皆受成事，倚辨於上。上樂以刑殺為威，天下畏罪持祿，莫敢盡忠。上不聞過而日驕，下懾伏謾欺以取容。秦法，不得兼方不驗，輒死。然候星氣者至三百人，皆良士，畏忌諱諛，不敢端言其過。天下之事無小大皆決於上，上至以衡石量書，日夜有呈，不中呈不得休息。貪於權勢至如此，未可為求僊藥。」於是乃亡去。始皇聞亡，乃大怒曰：「吾前收天下書不中用者盡去之。悉召文學方術士甚眾，欲以興太平，方士欲練以求奇藥。今聞韓眾去不報，徐巿等費以巨萬計，終不得藥，徒姦利相告日聞。盧生等吾尊賜之甚厚，今乃誹謗我，以重吾不德也。諸生在咸陽者，吾使人廉問，或為訞言以亂黔首。」於是使御史悉案問諸生，諸生傳相告引，乃自除犯禁者四百六十餘人，皆阬之咸陽，使天下知之，以懲後。益發謫徙邊。始皇長子扶蘇諫曰：「天下初定，遠方黔首未集，諸生皆誦法孔子，今上皆重法繩之，臣恐天下不安。唯上察之。」始皇怒，使扶蘇北監蒙恬於上郡。

三十六年，熒惑守心。有墜星下東郡，至地為石，黔首或刻其石曰「始皇帝死而地分」。始皇聞之，遣御史逐問，莫服，盡取石旁居人誅之，因燔銷其石。始皇不樂，使博士為僊真人詩，及行所游天下，傳令樂人歌弦之。秋，使者從關東夜過華陰平舒道，有人持璧遮使者曰：「為吾遺滈池君。」因言曰：「今年祖龍死。」使者問其故，因忽不見，置其璧去。使者奉璧具以聞。始皇默然良久，曰：「山鬼固不過知一歲事也。」退言曰：「祖龍者，人之先也。」使御府視璧，乃二十八年行渡江所沈璧也。於是始皇卜之，卦得游徙吉。遷北河榆中三萬家。拜爵一級。

### The Last Journey and the Death of the First Emperor (210 BCE)

三十七年十月癸丑，始皇出游。左丞相斯從，右丞相去疾守。少子胡亥愛慕請從，上許之。十一月，行至雲夢，望祀虞舜於九疑山。浮江下，觀籍柯，渡海渚。過丹陽，至錢唐。臨浙江，水波惡，乃西百二十里從狹中渡。上會稽，祭大禹，望于南海，而立石刻頌秦德。其文曰：

皇帝休烈，平一宇內，德惠修長。三十有七年，親巡天下，周覽遠方。遂登會稽，宣省習俗，黔首齋莊。群臣誦功，本原事跡，追首高明。秦聖臨國，始定刑名，顯陳舊章。初平法式，審別職任，以立恒常。六王專倍，貪戾傲猛，率眾自彊。暴虐恣行，負力而驕，數動甲兵。陰通閒使，以事合從，行為辟方。內飾詐謀，外來侵邊，遂起禍殃。義威誅之，殄熄暴悖，亂賊滅亡。聖德廣密，六合之中，被澤無疆。皇帝并宇，兼聽萬事，遠近畢清。運理群物，考驗事實，各載其名。貴賤并通，善否陳前，靡有隱情。飾省宣義，有子而嫁，倍死不貞。防隔內外，禁止淫泆，男女絜誠。夫為寄豭，殺之無罪，男秉義程。妻為逃嫁，子不得母，咸化廉清。大治濯俗，天下承風，蒙被休經。皆遵度軌，和安敦勉，莫不順令。黔首修絜，人樂同則，嘉保太平。後敬奉法，常治無極，輿舟不傾。從臣誦烈，請刻此石，光垂休銘。

還過吳，從江乘渡。并海上，北至瑯邪。方士徐巿等入海求神藥，數歲不得，費多，恐譴，乃詐曰：「蓬萊藥可得，然常為大鮫魚所苦，故不得至，願請善射與俱，見則以連弩射之。」始皇夢與海神戰，如人狀。問占夢，博士曰：「水神不可見，以大魚蛟龍為候。今上禱祠備謹，而有此惡神，當除去，而善神可致。」乃令入海者齎捕巨魚具，而自以連弩候大魚出射之。自瑯邪北至榮成山，弗見。至之罘，見巨魚，射殺一魚。遂并海西。

至平原津而病。始皇惡言死，群臣莫敢言死事。上病益甚，乃為璽書賜公子扶蘇曰：「與喪會咸陽而葬。」書已封，在中車府令趙高行符璽事所，未授使者。七月丙寅，始皇崩於沙丘平臺。丞相斯為上崩在外，恐諸公子及天下有變，乃祕之，不發喪。棺載輼涼車中，故幸宦者參乘，所至上食。百官奏事如故，宦者輒從輼涼車中可其奏事。獨子胡亥、趙高及所幸宦者五六人知上死。趙高故嘗教胡亥書及獄律令法事，胡亥私幸之。高乃與公子胡亥、丞相斯陰謀破去始皇所封書賜公子扶蘇者，而更詐為丞相斯受始皇遺詔沙丘，立子胡亥為太子。更為書賜公子扶蘇、蒙恬，數以罪，（其）賜死。語具在李斯傳中。行，遂從井陘抵九原。會暑，上輼車臭，乃詔從官令車載一石鮑魚，以亂其臭。

行從直道至咸陽，發喪。太子胡亥襲位，為二世皇帝。九月，葬始皇酈山。始皇初即位，穿治酈山，及并天下，天下徒送詣七十餘萬人，穿三泉，下銅而致槨，宮觀百官奇器珍怪徙臧滿之。令匠作機弩矢，有所穿近者輒射之。以水銀為百川江河大海，機相灌輸，上具天文，下具地理。以人魚膏為燭，度不滅者久之。二世曰：「先帝後宮非有子者，出焉不宜。」皆令從死，死者甚眾。葬既已下，或言工匠為機，臧皆知之，臧重即泄。大事畢，已臧，閉中羨，下外羨門，盡閉工匠臧者，無復出者。樹草木以象山。

### The Second Emperor (209–207 BCE)

二世皇帝元年，年二十一。趙高為郎中令，任用事。二世下詔，增始皇寢廟犧牲及山川百祀之禮。令群臣議尊始皇廟。群臣皆頓首言曰：「古者天子七廟，諸侯五，大夫三，雖萬世世不軼毀。今始皇為極廟，四海之內皆獻貢職，增犧牲，禮咸備，毋以加。先王廟或在西雍，或在咸陽。天子儀當獨奉酌祠始皇廟。自襄公已下軼毀。所置凡七廟。群臣以禮進祠，以尊始皇廟為帝者祖廟。皇帝復自稱『朕』。」

二世與趙高謀曰：「朕年少，初即位，黔首未集附。先帝巡行郡縣，以示彊，威服海內。今晏然不巡行，即見弱，毋以臣畜天下。」春，二世東行郡縣，李斯從。到碣石，并海，南至會稽，而盡刻始皇所立刻石，石旁著大臣從者名，以章先帝成功盛德焉：

皇帝曰：「金石刻盡始皇帝所為也。今襲號而金石刻辭不稱始皇帝，其於久遠也如後嗣為之者，不稱成功盛德。」丞相臣斯、臣去疾、御史大夫臣德昧死言：「臣請具刻詔書刻石，因明白矣。臣昧死請。」制曰：「可。」

遂至遼東而還。

於是二世乃遵用趙高，申法令。乃陰與趙高謀曰：「大臣不服，官吏尚彊，及諸公子必與我爭，為之柰何？」高曰：「臣固願言而未敢也。先帝之大臣，皆天下累世名貴人也，積功勞世以相傳久矣。今高素小賤，陛下幸稱舉，令在上位，管中事。大臣鞅鞅，特以貌從臣，其心實不服。今上出，不因此時案郡縣守尉有罪者誅之，上以振威天下，下以除去上生平所不可者。今時不師文而決於武力，願陛下遂從時毋疑，即群臣不及謀。明主收舉餘民，賤者貴之，貧者富之，遠者近之，則上下集而國安矣。」二世曰：「善。」乃行誅大臣及諸公子，以罪過連逮少近官三郎，無得立者，而六公子戮死於杜。公子將閭昆弟三人囚於內宮，議其罪獨後。二世使使令將閭曰：「公子不臣，罪當死，吏致法焉。」將閭曰：「闕廷之禮，吾未嘗敢不從賓贊也；廊廟之位，吾未嘗敢失節也；受命應對，吾未嘗敢失辭也。何謂不臣？願聞罪而死。」使者曰：「臣不得與謀，奉書從事。」將閭乃仰天大呼天者三，曰：「天乎！吾無罪！」昆弟三人皆流涕拔劍自殺。宗室振恐。群臣諫者以為誹謗，大吏持祿取容，黔首振恐。

四月，二世還至咸陽，曰：「先帝為咸陽朝廷小，故營阿房宮為室堂。未就，會上崩，罷其作者，復土酈山。酈山事大畢，今釋阿房宮弗就，則是章先帝舉事過也。」復作阿房宮。外撫四夷，如始皇計。盡徵其材士五萬人為屯衛咸陽，令教射狗馬禽獸。當食者多，度不足，下調郡縣轉輸菽粟芻稿，皆令自齎糧食，咸陽三百里內不得食其穀。用法益刻深。

七月，戍卒陳勝等反故荊地，為「張楚」。勝自立為楚王，居陳，遣諸將徇地。山東郡縣少年苦秦吏，皆殺其守尉令丞反，以應陳涉，相立為侯王，合從西鄉，名為伐秦，不可勝數也。謁者使東方來，以反者聞二世。二世怒，下吏。後使者至，上問，對曰：「群盜，郡守尉方逐捕，今盡得，不足憂。」上悅。武臣自立為趙王，魏咎為魏王，田儋為齊王。沛公起沛。項梁舉兵會稽郡。

二年冬，陳涉所遣周章等將西至戲，兵數十萬。二世大驚，與群臣謀曰：「柰何？」少府章邯曰：「盜已至，眾彊，今發近縣不及矣。酈山徒多，請赦之，授兵以擊之。」二世乃大赦天下，使章邯將，擊破周章軍而走，遂殺章曹陽。二世益遣長史司馬欣、董翳佐章邯擊盜，殺陳勝城父，破項梁定陶，滅魏咎臨濟。楚地盜名將已死，章邯乃北渡河，擊趙王歇等於鉅鹿。

趙高說二世曰：「先帝臨制天下久，故群臣不敢為非，進邪說。今陛下富於春秋，初即位，柰何與公卿廷決事？事即有誤，示群臣短也。天子稱朕，固不聞聲。」於是二世常居禁中，與高決諸事。其後公卿希得朝見，盜賊益多，而關中卒發東擊盜者毋已。右丞相去疾、左丞相斯、將軍馮劫進諫曰：「關東群盜并起，秦發兵誅擊，所殺亡甚眾，然猶不止。盜多，皆以戌漕轉作事苦，賦稅大也。請且止阿房宮作者，減省四邊戍轉。」二世曰：「吾聞之韓子曰：『堯舜采椽不刮，茅茨不翦，飯土塯，啜土形，雖監門之養，不觳於此。禹鑿龍門，通大夏，決河亭水，放之海，身自持筑臿，脛毋毛，臣虜之勞不烈於此矣。』凡所為貴有天下者，得肆意極欲，主重明法，下不敢為非，以制御海內矣。夫虞、夏之主，貴為天子，親處窮苦之實，以徇百姓，尚何於法？朕尊萬乘，毋其實，吾欲造千乘之駕，萬乘之屬，充吾號名。且先帝起諸侯，兼天下，天下已定，外攘四夷以安邊竟，作宮室以章得意，而君觀先帝功業有緒。今朕即位二年之閒，群盜并起，君不能禁，又欲罷先帝之所為，是上毋以報先帝，次不為朕盡忠力，何以在位？」下去疾、斯、劫吏，案責他罪。去疾、劫曰：「將相不辱。」自殺。斯卒囚，就五刑。

三年，章邯等將其卒圍鉅鹿，楚上將軍項羽將楚卒往救鉅鹿。冬，趙高為丞相，竟案李斯殺之。夏，章邯等戰數卻，二世使人讓邯，邯恐，使長史欣請事。趙高弗見，又弗信。欣恐，亡去，高使人捕追不及。欣見邯曰：「趙高用事於中，將軍有功亦誅，無功亦誅。」項羽急擊秦軍，虜王離，邯等遂以兵降諸侯。八月己亥，趙高欲為亂，恐群臣不聽，乃先設驗，持鹿獻於二世，曰：「馬也。」二世笑曰：「丞相誤邪？謂鹿為馬。」問左右，左右或默，或言馬以阿順趙高。或言鹿（者），高因陰中諸言鹿者以法。後群臣皆畏高。

高前數言「關東盜毋能為也」，及項羽虜秦將王離等鉅鹿下而前，章邯等軍數卻，上書請益助，燕、趙、齊、楚、韓、魏皆立為王，自關以東，大氐盡畔秦吏應諸侯，諸侯咸率其眾西鄉。沛公將數萬人已屠武關，使人私於高，高恐二世怒，誅及其身，乃謝病不朝見。二世夢白虎齧其左驂馬，殺之，心不樂，怪問占夢。卜曰：「涇水為祟。」二世乃齋於望夷宮，欲祠涇，沈四白馬。使使責讓高以盜賊事。高懼，乃陰與其婿咸陽令閻樂、其弟趙成謀曰：「上不聽諫，今事急，欲歸禍於吾宗。吾欲易置上，更立公子嬰。子嬰仁儉，百姓皆載其言。」使郎中令為內應，詐為有大賊，令樂召吏發卒，追劫樂母置高舍。遣樂將吏卒千餘人至望夷宮殿門，縛衛令仆射，曰：「賊入此，何不止？」衛令曰：「周廬設卒甚謹，安得賊敢入宮？」樂遂斬衛令，直將吏入，行射，郎宦者大驚，或走或格，格者輒死，死者數十人。郎中令與樂俱入，射上幄坐幃。二世怒，召左右，左右皆惶擾不鬬。旁有宦者一人，侍不敢去。二世入內，謂曰：「公何不蚤告我？乃至於此！」宦者曰：「臣不敢言，故得全。使臣蚤言，皆已誅，安得至今？」閻樂前即二世數曰：「足下驕恣，誅殺無道，天下共畔足下，足下其自為計。」二世曰：「丞相可得見否？」樂曰：「不可。」二世曰：「吾願得一郡為王。」弗許。又曰：「願為萬戶侯。」弗許。曰：「願與妻子為黔首，比諸公子。」閻樂曰：「臣受命於丞相，為天下誅足下，足下雖多言，臣不敢報。」麾其兵進。二世自殺。

### Ziying and the Fall of Qin (207 BCE)

閻樂歸報趙高，趙高乃悉召諸大臣公子，告以誅二世之狀。曰：「秦故王國，始皇君天下，故稱帝。今六國復自立，秦地益小，乃以空名為帝，不可。宜為王如故，便。」立二世之兄子公子嬰為秦王。以黔首葬二世杜南宜春苑中。令子嬰齋，當廟見，受王璽。齋五日，子嬰與其子二人謀曰：「丞相高殺二世望夷宮，恐群臣誅之，乃詳以義立我。我聞趙高乃與楚約，滅秦宗室而王關中。今使我齋見廟，此欲因廟中殺我。我稱病不行，丞相必自來，來則殺之。」高使人請子嬰數輩，子嬰不行，高果自往，曰：「宗廟重事，王柰何不行？」子嬰遂刺殺高於齋宮，三族高家以徇咸陽。子嬰為秦王四十六日，楚將沛公破秦軍入武關，遂至霸上，使人約降子嬰。子嬰即系頸以組，白馬素車，奉天子璽符，降軹道旁。沛公遂入咸陽，封宮室府庫，還軍霸上。居月餘，諸侯兵至，項籍為從長，殺子嬰及秦諸公子宗族。遂屠咸陽，燒其宮室，虜其子女，收其珍寶貨財，諸侯共分之。滅秦之後，各分其地為三，名曰雍王、塞王、翟王，號曰三秦。項羽為西楚霸王，主命分天下王諸侯，秦竟滅矣。後五年，天下定於漢。

### The Grand Historian’s Judgment and Jia Yi’s “Faults of Qin”

太史公曰：秦之先伯翳，嘗有勳於唐虞之際，受土賜姓。及殷夏之閒微散。至周之衰，秦興，邑于西垂。自繆公以來，稍蠶食諸侯，竟成始皇。始皇自以為功過五帝，地廣三王，而羞與之侔。善哉乎賈生推言之也！曰：

秦并兼諸侯山東三十餘郡，繕津關，據險塞，修甲兵而守之。然陳涉以戍卒散亂之眾數百，奮臂大呼，不用弓戟之兵，鉏櫌白梃，望屋而食，橫行天下。秦人阻險不守，關梁不闔，長戟不刺，彊弩不射。楚師深入，戰於鴻門，曾無藩籬之艱。於是山東大擾，諸侯并起，豪俊相立。秦使章邯將而東征，章邯因以三軍之眾要市於外，以謀其上。群臣之不信，可見於此矣。子嬰立，遂不寤。藉使子嬰有庸主之材，僅得中佐，山東雖亂，秦之地可全而有，宗廟之祀未當絕也。

秦地被山帶河以為固，四塞之國也。自繆公以來，至於秦王，二十餘君，常為諸侯雄。豈世世賢哉？其勢居然也。且天下嘗同心并力而攻秦矣。當此之世，賢智并列，良將行其師，賢相通其謀，然困於阻險而不能進，秦乃延入戰而為之開關，百萬之徒逃北而遂壞。豈勇力智慧不足哉？形不利，勢不便也。秦小邑并大城，守險塞而軍，高壘毋戰，閉關據阨，荷戟而守之。諸侯起於匹夫，以利合，非有素王之行也。其交未親，其下未附，名為亡秦，其實利之也。彼見秦阻之難犯也，必退師。安土息民，以待其敝，收弱扶罷，以令大國之君，不患不得意於海內。貴為天子，富有天下，而身為禽者，其救敗非也。

秦王足己不問，遂過而不變。二世受之，因而不改，暴虐以重禍。子嬰孤立無親，危弱無輔。三主惑而終身不悟，亡，不亦宜乎？當此時也，世非無深慮知化之士也，然所以不敢盡忠拂過者，秦俗多忌諱之禁，忠言未卒於口而身為戮沒矣。故使天下之士，傾耳而聽，重足而立，拑口而不言。是以三主失道，忠臣不敢諫，智士不敢謀，天下已亂，姦不上聞，豈不哀哉！先王知雍蔽之傷國也，故置公卿大夫士，以飾法設刑，而天下治。其彊也，禁暴誅亂而天下服。其弱也，五伯征而諸侯從。其削也，內守外附而社稷存。故秦之盛也，繁法嚴刑而天下振；及其衰也，百姓怨望而海內畔矣。故周五序得其道，而千餘歲不絕。秦本末并失，故不長久。由此觀之，安危之統相去遠矣。野諺曰「前事之不忘，後事之師也」。是以君子為國，觀之上古，驗之當世，參以人事，察盛衰之理，審權勢之宜，去就有序，變化有時，故曠日長久而社稷安矣。

秦孝公據殽函之固，擁雍州之地，君臣固守而窺周室，有席卷天下，包舉宇內，囊括四海之意，并吞八荒之心。當是時，商君佐之，內立法度，務耕織，修守戰之備，外連衡而鬬諸侯，於是秦人拱手而取西河之外。

孝公既沒，惠王、武王蒙故業，因遺冊，南兼漢中，西舉巴、蜀，東割膏腴之地，收要害之郡。諸侯恐懼，會盟而謀弱秦，不愛珍器重寶肥美之地，以致天下之士，合從締交，相與為一。當是時，齊有孟嘗，趙有平原，楚有春申，魏有信陵。此四君者，皆明知而忠信，寬厚而愛人，尊賢重士，約從離衡，并韓、魏、燕、楚、齊、趙、宋、衛、中山之眾。於是六國之士有寧越、徐尚、蘇秦、杜赫之屬為之謀，齊明、周最、陳軫、昭滑、樓緩、翟景、蘇厲、樂毅之徒通其意，吳起、孫臏、帶佗、兒良、王廖、田忌、廉頗、趙奢之朋制其兵。常以十倍之地，百萬之眾，叩關而攻秦。秦人開關延敵，九國之師逡巡遁逃而不敢進。秦無亡矢遺鏃之費，而天下諸侯已困矣。於是從散約解，爭割地而奉秦。秦有餘力而制其敝，追亡逐北，伏尸百萬，流血漂櫓。因利乘便，宰割天下，分裂河山，彊國請服，弱國入朝。延及孝文王、莊襄王，享國日淺，國家無事。

及至秦王，續六世之餘烈，振長策而御宇內，吞二周而亡諸侯，履至尊而制六合，執棰拊以鞭笞天下，威振四海。南取百越之地，以為桂林、象郡，百越之君俛首系頸，委命下吏。乃使蒙恬北筑長城而守藩籬，卻匈奴七百餘里，胡人不敢南下而牧馬，士不敢彎弓而報怨。於是廢先王之道，焚百家之言，以愚黔首。墮名城，殺豪俊，收天下之兵聚之咸陽，銷鋒鑄鐻，以為金人十二，以弱黔首之民。然後斬華為城，因河為津，據億丈之城，臨不測之谿以為固。良將勁弩守要害之處，信臣精卒陳利兵而誰何，天下以定。秦王之心，自以為關中之固，金城千里，子孫帝王萬世之業也。

秦王既沒，餘威振於殊俗。陳涉，罋牖繩樞之子，甿隸之人，而遷徙之徒，才能不及中人，非有仲尼、墨翟之賢，陶朱、猗頓之富，躡足行伍之閒，而倔起什伯之中，率罷散之卒，將數百之眾，而轉攻秦。斬木為兵，揭竿為旗，天下雲集響應，贏糧而景從，山東豪俊遂并起而亡秦族矣。

且夫天下非小弱也，雍州之地，殽函之固自若也。陳涉之位，非尊於齊、楚、燕、趙、韓、魏、宋、衛、中山之君；鉏櫌棘矜，非錟於句戟長鎩也；適戍之眾，非抗於九國之師；深謀遠慮，行軍用兵之道，非及鄉時之士也。然而成敗異變，功業相反也。試使山東之國與陳涉度長絜大，比權量力，則不可同年而語矣。然秦以區區之地，千乘之權，招八州而朝同列，百有餘年矣。然後以六合為家，殽函為宮，一夫作難而七廟墮，身死人手，為天下笑者，何也？仁義不施而攻守之勢異也。

秦并海內，兼諸侯，南面稱帝，以養四海，天下之士斐然鄉風，若是者何也？曰：近古之無王者久矣。周室卑微，五霸既歿，令不行於天下，是以諸侯力政，彊侵弱，眾暴寡，兵革不休，士民罷敝。今秦南面而王天下，是上有天子也。既元元之民冀得安其性命，莫不虛心而仰上，當此之時，守威定功，安危之本在於此矣。

秦王懷貪鄙之心，行自奮之智，不信功臣，不親士民，廢王道，立私權，禁文書而酷刑法，先詐力而後仁義，以暴虐為天下始。夫并兼者高詐力，安定者貴順權，此言取與守不同術也。秦離戰國而王天下，其道不易，其政不改，是其所以取之守之者［無］異也。孤獨而有之，故其亡可立而待。借使秦王計上世之事，并殷周之跡，以制御其政，後雖有淫驕之主而未有傾危之患也。故三王之建天下，名號顯美，功業長久。

今秦二世立，天下莫不引領而觀其政。夫寒者利裋褐而饑者甘糟糠，天下之嗷嗷，新主之資也。此言勞民之易為仁也。鄉使二世有庸主之行，而任忠賢，臣主一心而憂海內之患，縞素而正先帝之過，裂地分民以封功臣之後，建國立君以禮天下，虛囹圉而免刑戮，除去收帑汙穢之罪，使各反其鄉里，發倉廩，散財幣，以振孤獨窮困之士，輕賦少事，以佐百姓之急，約法省刑以持其後，使天下之人皆得自新，更節修行，各慎其身，塞萬民之望，而以威德與天下，天下集矣。即四海之內，皆讙各自安樂其處，唯恐有變，雖有狡猾之民，無離上之心，則不軌之臣無以飾其智，而暴亂之姦止矣。二世不行此術，而重之以無道，壞宗廟與民，更始作阿房宮，繁刑嚴誅，吏治刻深，賞罰不當，賦斂無度，天下多事，吏弗能紀，百姓困窮而主弗收恤。然後姦偽并起，而上下相遁，蒙罪者眾，刑戮相望於道，而天下苦之。自君卿以下至于眾庶，人懷自危之心，親處窮苦之實，咸不安其位，故易動也。是以陳涉不用湯武之賢，不藉公侯之尊，奮臂於大澤而天下響應者，其民危也。故先王見始終之變，知存亡之機，是以牧民之道，務在安之而已。天下雖有逆行之臣，必無響應之助矣。故曰「安民可與行義，而危民易與為非」，此之謂也。貴為天子，富有天下，身不免於戮殺者，正傾非也。是二世之過也。

### The Rulers of Qin: A Chronicle

襄公立，享國十二年。初為西畤。葬西垂。生文公。

文公立，居西垂宮。五十年死，葬西垂。生靜公。

靜公不享國而死。生憲公。

憲公享國十二年，居西新邑。死，葬衙。生武公、德公、出子。

出子享國六年，居西陵。庶長弗忌、威累、參父三人，率賊賊出子鄙衍，葬衙。武公立。

武公享國二十年。居平陽封宮。葬宣陽聚東南。三庶長伏其罪。德公立。

德公享國二年。居雍大鄭宮。生宣公、成公、繆公。葬陽。初伏，以御蠱。

宣公享國十二年。居陽宮。葬陽。初志閏月。

成公享國四年，居雍之宮。葬陽。齊伐山戎、孤竹。

繆公享國三十九年。天子致霸。葬雍。繆公學著人。生康公。

康公享國十二年。居雍高寢。葬竘社。生共公。

共公享國五年，居雍高寢。葬康公南。生桓公。

桓公享國二十七年。居雍太寢。葬義裏丘北。生景公。

景公享國四十年。居雍高寢，葬丘裏南。生畢公。

畢公享國三十六年。葬車裏北。生夷公。

夷公不享國。死，葬左宮。生惠公。

惠公享國十年。葬車里（康景）。生悼公。

悼公享國十五年。葬僖公西。城雍。生剌龔公。

剌龔公享國三十四年。葬入里。生躁公、懷公。其十年，彗星見。

躁公享國十四年。居受寢。葬悼公南。其元年，彗星見。

懷公從晉來。享國四年。葬櫟圉氏。生靈公。諸臣圍懷公，懷公自殺。

肅靈公，昭子子也。居涇陽。享國十年。葬悼公西。生簡公。

簡公從晉來。享國十五年。葬僖公西。生惠公。其七年。百姓初帶劍。

惠公享國十三年。葬陵圉。生出公。

出公享國二年。出公自殺，葬雍。

獻公享國二十三年。葬囂圉。生孝公。

孝公享國二十四年。葬弟圉。生惠文王。其十三年，始都咸陽。

惠文王享國二十七年。葬公陵。生悼武王。

悼武王享國四年，葬永陵。

昭襄王享國五十六年。葬茝陽。生孝文王。

孝文王享國一年。葬壽陵。生莊襄王。

莊襄王享國三年。葬茝陽。生始皇帝。呂不韋相。

獻公立七年，初行為市。十年，為戶籍相伍。

孝公立十六年。時桃李冬華。

惠文王生十九年而立。立二年，初行錢。有新生嬰兒曰「秦且王」。

悼武王生十九年而立。立三年，渭水赤三日。

昭襄王生十九年而立。立四年，初為田開阡陌。

孝文王生五十三年而立。

莊襄王生三十二年而立。立二年，取太原地。莊襄王元年，大赦，修先王功臣，施德厚骨肉，布惠於民。東周與諸侯謀秦，秦使相國不韋誅之，盡入其國。秦不絕其祀，以陽人地賜周君，奉其祭祀。

始皇享國三十七年。葬酈邑。生二世皇帝。始皇生十三年而立。

二世皇帝享國三年。葬宜春。趙高為丞相安武侯。二世生十二年而立。

右秦襄公至二世，六百一十歲。

### Ban Gu’s Afterword

孝明皇帝十七年十月十五日乙丑，曰：

周歷已移，仁不代母。秦直其位，呂政殘虐。然以諸侯十三，并兼天下，極情縱欲，養育宗親。三十七年，兵無所不加，制作政令，施於後王。蓋得聖人之威，河神授圖，據狼、狐，蹈參、伐，佐政驅除，距之稱始皇。

始皇既歿，胡亥極愚，酈山未畢，復作阿房，以遂前策。云「凡所為貴有天下者，肆意極欲，大臣至欲罷先君所為」。誅斯、去疾，任用趙高。痛哉言乎！人頭畜鳴。不威不伐惡，不篤不虛亡，距之不得留，殘虐以促期，雖居形便之國，猶不得存。

子嬰度次得嗣，冠玉冠，佩華紱，車黃屋，從百司，謁七廟。小人乘非位，莫不怳忽失守，偷安日日，獨能長念卻慮，父子作權，近取於戶牖之閒，竟誅猾臣，為君討賊。高死之後，賓婚未得盡相勞，餐未及下咽，酒未及濡脣，楚兵已屠關中，真人翔霸上，素車嬰組，奉其符璽，以歸帝者。鄭伯茅旌鸞刀，嚴王退舍。河決不可復壅，魚爛不可復全。賈誼、司馬遷曰：「向使嬰有庸主之才，僅得中佐，山東雖亂，秦之地可全而有，宗廟之祀未當絕也。」秦之積衰，天下土崩瓦解，雖有周旦之材，無所復陳其巧，而以責一日之孤，誤哉！俗傳秦始皇起罪惡，胡亥極，得其理矣。復責小子，云秦地可全，所謂不通時變者也。紀季以酅，春秋不名。吾讀秦紀，至於子嬰車裂趙高，未嘗不健其決，憐其志。嬰死生之義備矣。

## Translation — Mouseia

> Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from the classical Chinese, passage for passage, covering the whole of chapter 6 of the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), 126 paragraphs, including the Grand Historian’s judgment, Jia Yi’s “Faults of Qin”, the chronicle of the Qin rulers and Ban Gu’s afterword.

### King Zheng of Qin (247–222 BCE)

The First Emperor of Qin was the son of King Zhuangxiang of Qin. While Zhuangxiang was a hostage in Zhao, he saw a woman of Lü Buwei’s household, took a liking to her, and married her; she bore the First Emperor. He was born in Handan in the first month of the forty-eighth year of King Zhao of Qin. At birth he was named Zheng, and bore the surname Zhao. When he was thirteen, King Zhuangxiang died, and Zheng succeeded him as King of Qin. At that time Qin had already annexed Ba, Shu, and Hanzhong; across the Wan River it held Ying and had established Nanjun Commandery. In the north it had taken the territory east of Shangjun, holding Hedong, Taiyuan, and Shangdang commanderies; in the east it reached Xingyang, had destroyed the two Zhou states, and had established Sanchuan Commandery. Lü Buwei was chancellor, enfeoffed with ten thousand times ten households and styled Lord Wenxin. He gathered guests and wandering scholars, seeking to unite all under heaven. Li Si served in his household. Meng Ao, Wang Yi, Duke Biao, and others were generals. The king was young and had just ascended the throne, so he entrusted affairs of state to his senior ministers. Jinyang rebelled.

In the First Emperor’s first year, General Meng Ao attacked and pacified it.

In the second year, Duke Biao led soldiers against Juan and took thirty thousand heads.

In the third year, Meng Ao attacked Han and took thirteen cities. Wang Yi died. In the tenth month General Meng Ao attacked Chang and Yougui in Wei. The year brought a great famine.

In the fourth year, Chang and Yougui were captured. In the third month the army was disbanded. Qin’s hostage prince returned from Zhao, and Zhao’s crown prince departed for his own country. On the day gengyin in the tenth month, locusts came from the east and covered the sky. Pestilence spread throughout the realm. Commoners who delivered a thousand shi of grain were awarded one rank of nobility.

In the fifth year, General Ao attacked Wei, subdued Suanzao, Yan, Xu, Changping, Yongqiu, and Shanyang, and captured them all: twenty cities in total. Dongjun Commandery was first established. Thunder sounded in winter.

In the sixth year, Han, Wei, Zhao, Wey, and Chu jointly attacked Qin and took Shouling. Qin sent out troops, and the five states withdrew their forces. Qin captured Wey and pressed toward Dongjun; its lord Jiao led his relatives to settle at Yewang, relying on the mountains to defend Wei’s Henei territory.

In the seventh year, a comet first appeared in the east, was seen in the north, and in the fifth month appeared in the west. General Ao died. Qin attacked Long, Gu, and Qingdu, then turned its troops against Ji. The comet appeared again in the west for sixteen days. The Queen Dowager Xia died.

In the eighth year, the king’s younger brother Chengjiao, Lord of Chang’an, led troops against Zhao, rebelled, and died at Tunliu. His officers were all beheaded and its people moved to Lintao. General Bi died; the soldiers at Tunliu and Puhe rebelled, and his corpse was mutilated. Great numbers of river fish swam upstream; light carts and heavily laden horses went east in search of food.

Lao Ai was enfeoffed as Lord Changxin and given the lands of Shanyang to inhabit. Palaces, carriages, horses, clothes, parks, and hunting were at Ai’s disposal. Every matter, great or small, was decided by him. The commanderies of Hexi and Taiyuan were further made his domain. In the ninth year a comet appeared, at times spanning the sky. Qin attacked Yuan and Puyang in Wei. In the fourth month the king lodged at Yong. On the day jiyou he donned his crown and sword. Lord Changxin, Lao Ai, plotted rebellion and was discovered. He forged the king’s and the queen dowager’s seals to levy county soldiers, guards, palace cavalry, Rong and Di chiefs, and retainers, intending to attack Qinian Palace in revolt. When the king learned of this, he ordered the chief ministers Lords Changping and Changwen to raise troops against Ai. They fought in Xianyang and took several hundred heads; all received noble rank, even the eunuchs who took part in the battle, who each received one rank. Ai and his followers fled in defeat. An order went out across the country: whoever captured Ai alive would receive a million coins; whoever killed him, half a million. Ai and his followers were all caught. Jie, commandant of the guards; Si, chief clerk of the capital; Jie, assistant director of archers; Ling Qi, grandee of the palace; and twenty others had their heads displayed on poles. Ai was torn apart by chariots as a public warning, and his clan was exterminated. Of his retainers, those with lesser offenses were condemned to gather firewood for the ancestral temples. More than four thousand families were stripped of rank and moved to Shu, to live at Fangling. In that month there was deadly freezing weather. Yang Duanhe attacked Yanshi. A comet appeared in the west and again in the north, extending south from the Dipper for eighty days. In the tenth year, Chancellor Lü Buwei was dismissed for his involvement in Lao Ai’s affair. Huan Yi became a general. Envoys from Qi and Zhao came for a banquet. Mao Jiao of Qi advised the King of Qin: “Qin is now making all under heaven its business; yet Your Majesty has acquired a reputation for exiling your mother, the queen dowager. I fear that when the lords hear of this, they will turn against Qin.” The king brought the queen dowager back from Yong to Xianyang, where she again lived at Ganquan Palace.

A great search was made and an order issued to expel foreign guests. Li Si submitted a memorial of persuasion, and the order was rescinded. He then urged the king to take Han first, to frighten the other states, and was sent to bring Han to submission. The King of Han was alarmed and consulted Han Fei about weakening Qin. Wei Liao of Daliang came and told the King of Qin: “Given Qin’s strength, the feudal lords are like mere governors of commanderies and counties. I fear only that they will form an alliance and suddenly strike together. That is how Zhibo, Fuchai, and King Min came to ruin. I beg Your Majesty not to begrudge your treasures: bribe their powerful ministers and disrupt their plans. At a cost of no more than three hundred thousand gold pieces, all the lords can be brought to an end.” The king followed his plan and received Wei Liao as an equal, wearing the same clothes and sharing his food and drink. Wei Liao said: “The King of Qin has a wasp-like nose, long eyes, the chest of a bird of prey, and the voice of a jackal. He shows little kindness and has the heart of a tiger or wolf. When restrained, he readily humbles himself before others; when he gets his way, he will readily devour them. I am a commoner, yet whenever he sees me, he personally lowers himself before me. If the King of Qin truly gets his way under heaven, all under heaven will be his captives. I cannot remain in his company.” So he fled. The king discovered this and firmly detained him, making him commander of Qin; in the end he adopted his plans. Li Si rose to power.

In the eleventh year, Wang Jian, Huan Yi, and Yang Duanhe attacked Ye and took nine cities. Wang Jian attacked Eyu and Liaoyang, combining all the forces into one army. After commanding for eighteen days, Jian sent home the officers who received rations of one dou or less; from each ten men he selected two to join the campaign against Ye and Anyang, under Huan Yi’s command. In the twelfth year Lord Wenxin, Lü Buwei, died and was buried secretly. Of his retainers who attended his funeral, those from Jin were expelled; those from Qin with stipends of six hundred shi or more lost their ranks and were exiled; those with stipends of five hundred shi or less who had not attended were exiled without loss of rank. Henceforth, those who conduct state affairs wickedly like Lao Ai and Lü Buwei shall have their households confiscated, in accordance with these precedents. In autumn, the retainers of Lao Ai who had been exiled to Shu were restored. There was a great drought throughout the realm; rain did not fall until between the sixth and eighth months.

In the thirteenth year, Huan Yi attacked Pingyang in Zhao, killed the Zhao general Hu Zhe, and took a hundred thousand heads. The king traveled south of the Yellow River. In the first month a comet appeared in the east. In the tenth month Huan Yi attacked Zhao. In the fourteenth year Qin attacked the Zhao army at Pingyang, took Yi’an, routed it, and killed its general. Huan Yi pacified Pingyang and Wucheng. Han Fei came on a mission to Qin; Qin followed Li Si’s counsel and detained him, and he died at Yunyang. The King of Han asked to become a subject.

In the fifteenth year, great armies were raised: one reached Ye, another Taiyuan, and Langmeng was taken. The earth shook. In the ninth month of the sixteenth year, soldiers were sent to receive the territory of Nanyang in Han from acting governor Teng. For the first time, men were ordered to register their ages. Wei offered land to Qin. Qin established Liyi. In the seventeenth year, Teng, chief clerk of the capital, attacked Han and captured its king An, annexing all his lands and making them into a commandery named Yingchuan. The earth shook. The Queen Dowager Huayang died. The people suffered a great famine.

In the eighteenth year, a great army was raised against Zhao. Wang Jian led the troops from Shangdi down through Jingxing, Yang Duanhe led those from Henei, and Qiang Hui attacked Zhao; Duanhe surrounded Handan. In the nineteenth year Wang Jian and Qiang Hui fully subdued Dongyang in Zhao and captured the King of Zhao. They drew up their forces to attack Yan and camped at Zhongshan. The King of Qin traveled to Handan, and buried alive all who had harbored grudges against his mother’s family when he was born in Zhao. He returned by way of Taiyuan and Shangjun. The First Emperor’s mother, the queen dowager, died. Prince Jia of Zhao led several hundred members of his clan to Dai, proclaimed himself King of Dai, joined forces in the east with Yan, and camped at Shanggu. There was a great famine.

In the twentieth year, Crown Prince Dan of Yan, anxious that Qin troops were approaching his country, sent Jing Ke to assassinate the King of Qin. The king discovered the plot, had Ke dismembered and displayed, and sent Wang Jian and Xin Sheng against Yan. Yan and Dai raised troops against Qin; the Qin army defeated Yan west of the Yi River. In the twenty-first year Wang Ben attacked Jing. Additional troops were then dispatched to Wang Jian’s army, which defeated the crown prince’s army, captured Ji, the capital of Yan, and took Crown Prince Dan’s head. The King of Yan gathered forces in Liaodong in the east and ruled there. Wang Jian pleaded old age and illness and retired. Xinzheng rebelled. Lord Changping was moved to Ying. Heavy snow fell to a depth of two feet five inches.

In the twenty-second year Wang Ben attacked Wei and diverted the river canals to flood Daliang. Its walls collapsed, its king asked to surrender, and Qin took all its territory.

In the twenty-third year the King of Qin summoned Wang Jian again, compelled him out of retirement, and put him in command against Jing. He took the land from Chen south to Pingyu and captured the King of Jing. The King of Qin traveled as far as Ying and Chen. Xiang Yan, a general of Jing, made Lord Changping King of Jing and rebelled against Qin south of the Huai River. In the twenty-fourth year Wang Jian and Meng Wu attacked Jing and defeated its army. Lord Changping died, and Xiang Yan took his own life.

In the twenty-fifth year a great army was raised under Wang Ben. He attacked Liaodong in Yan and captured its king Xi; turning against Dai, he captured its king Jia. Wang Jian then subdued the lands south of the Yangtze in Jing, brought the lords of Yue into submission, and established Kuaiji Commandery. In the fifth month there was a great feast throughout the realm.

### The First Emperor (221 BCE)

In the twenty-sixth year, King Jian of Qi and his chancellor Hou Sheng sent troops to guard their western border and cut off relations with Qin. Qin sent General Wang Ben south from Yan to attack Qi, and captured King Jian.

When the King of Qin had first united all under heaven, he ordered the chancellor and Imperial Counselor: “Formerly the King of Han surrendered his lands and presented his seal, asking to be our vassal. Then he broke his agreement, joined Zhao and Wei in an alliance, and rebelled against Qin. Therefore I sent troops to punish him and captured him. I thought this good, hoping at last to lay down arms. The King of Zhao sent his chancellor Li Mu to conclude an alliance, so I returned his hostage prince. Then he broke the alliance and rebelled in Taiyuan, and I raised troops to punish him and captured him. Prince Jia of Zhao proclaimed himself King of Dai, so I sent an army to destroy him. The King of Wei first agreed to submit to Qin, but then plotted with Han and Zhao to ambush us. Our officers and soldiers punished him and defeated him. The King of Jing offered the lands west of Qingyang, then broke his agreement and attacked Nanjun. I therefore sent troops to punish him, captured him, and subdued Jing. The King of Yan was deluded and disordered; his crown prince Dan secretly sent Jing Ke as an assassin. Our troops punished him and destroyed his state. The King of Qi followed Hou Sheng’s counsel, severed contact with Qin’s envoys, and planned rebellion. Our forces punished him, captured him, and pacified Qi. With my insignificant person I raised armies to punish violence and rebellion; through the power of our ancestral temple all six kings have answered for their crimes, and the realm is at last settled. Unless my title is changed, it cannot express this achievement or transmit it to posterity. Deliberate on an imperial title.” Chancellor Wan, Imperial Counselor Jie, Commandant of Justice Li Si, and the others all said: “In ancient times the five emperors each held a thousand li of land. Outside it, the lords of the outer and foreign domains came to court or did not; the Son of Heaven could not control them. Your Majesty has raised righteous armies, punished cruel rebels, and pacified all under heaven. All within the seas is now made into commanderies and counties, with law and decree issuing from a single authority. Nothing like it has happened since highest antiquity; the five emperors did not attain it. We have respectfully consulted with the Erudites: ‘In antiquity there was the Heavenly Sovereign, the Earthly Sovereign, and the Great Sovereign, of whom the Great Sovereign was noblest.’ At the risk of our lives we propose the honorable title ‘Great Sovereign’ for the king. Let his commands be called ‘imperial ordinances,’ his orders ‘imperial edicts,’ and let the Son of Heaven call himself ‘We.’” The king said: “Remove ‘Great,’ retain ‘Sovereign,’ and adopt the ancient title ‘Emperor’: let my title be ‘Sovereign Emperor.’ Let the rest be as proposed.” His ordinance said: “Approved.” He posthumously honored King Zhuangxiang as Supreme Sovereign. He issued an ordinance: “I have heard that in highest antiquity rulers had titles but no posthumous names; in middle antiquity they had titles and, after death, received names based on their conduct. That lets a son judge his father and a minister judge his lord. It is wholly improper; I will not accept it. From now on abolish the practice of posthumous names. I am the First Emperor. My successors shall be numbered the Second Emperor, the Third Emperor, down to the ten-thousandth generation, in endless succession.”

The First Emperor considered the succession of the five powers and held that Zhou had obtained the power of fire, while Qin, replacing Zhou, followed the power that overcame it. Now was the beginning of the power of water: he changed the beginning of the year, so court congratulations began on the first day of the tenth month. Clothes, yak-tail standards, pennants, tallies, and banners all favored black. The number six became the standard: tally tokens and ceremonial caps measured six inches; carriages measured six feet; six feet made a pace; and carriages were drawn by six horses. He renamed the Yellow River the River of Virtue, seeing in it the beginning of the power of water. Resolute, harsh, and severe, he decided every affair according to law, stripped away benevolence, kindness, harmony, and righteousness, and thus conformed to the reckoning of the five powers. Laws grew stringent and long-serving offenders received no pardon.

Chancellor Wan and the others said: “The lords have only just been conquered. Yan, Qi, and Jing are far away: unless kings are appointed there, they cannot be secured. We ask that your sons be installed, if Your Majesty graciously permits.” The First Emperor submitted the proposal to his ministers, who all found it expedient. Commandant of Justice Li Si argued: “Kings Wen and Wu of Zhou enfeoffed many sons, brothers, and clansmen. Yet their descendants grew distant, attacked one another like enemies, and waged wars that the Zhou Son of Heaven could not prevent. Now, through Your Majesty’s divine power, all within the seas is unified and made into commanderies and counties. Your sons and meritorious ministers can be richly rewarded from public taxes; they will be easy to govern. When no one in the realm harbors divided loyalties, peace will be assured. Appointing feudal lords is inadvisable.” The First Emperor said: “The whole realm has suffered from ceaseless war precisely because of kings and lords. Through the ancestors’ aid the realm has only just been pacified. To establish states anew would be to plant the seeds of war; how could we then hope for peace? The Commandant of Justice is right.”

He divided the realm into thirty-six commanderies, each with a governor, a military commandant, and an inspector. He renamed the people “black-haired subjects.” A great feast was held. The weapons of the realm were gathered at Xianyang and melted into bells and their frames, and twelve bronze figures weighing a thousand shi each, set in the palace courtyard. Measures of capacity, weight, and length were unified. Carts had a common axle width and writing a common script. The realm stretched east to the sea and Korea, west to Lintao and Qiang territory, south to the lands of the north-facing households, and north to the Yellow River as its frontier, including the Yin Mountains and extending to Liaodong. One hundred twenty thousand rich and powerful households from across the realm were moved to Xianyang. All the ancestral temples, as well as Zhangtai and Shanglin, lay south of the Wei River. Each time Qin conquered a lord, it copied his palaces and built them on the northern slopes of Xianyang overlooking the Wei River, from Yong Gate eastward to the Jing and Wei rivers. Halls, elevated passages, and encircling galleries connected them. The beauties, bells, and drums taken from the lords filled them.

In the twenty-seventh year the First Emperor toured Longxi and Beidi, went out through Jitou Mountain, and passed through Huizhong. He built Xin Palace south of the Wei River, then renamed it the Pole Temple, modeled on the celestial pole. A road from the Pole Temple led to Mount Li, and he built the front hall at Ganquan. He built a covered way connecting it to Xianyang. That year he granted everyone one rank of nobility and constructed imperial highways.

### Tours and Inscriptions (219–215 BCE)

In the twenty-eighth year the First Emperor traveled east through the commanderies and counties and climbed Mount Yi in Zou. He erected a stone and consulted the scholars of Lu about inscribing it to praise Qin’s virtue, and about the rites of sealing and sacrifice to mountains and rivers. He then ascended Mount Tai, erected a stone, performed the sealing rite, and offered sacrifices. On the way down, wind and rain suddenly struck; he sheltered beneath a tree and conferred on it the rank of grandee of the fifth order. He performed the sacrifice at Liangfu. The stone he erected was inscribed with these words:

The emperor ascended his throne, established ordinances and clarified the laws; his subjects kept good order. In the twenty-sixth year he first united all under heaven, and none failed to submit. He personally visited the people in distant lands, climbed this Mount Tai, and surveyed the eastern limit. His attending ministers considered his deeds, traced his achievements to their source, and reverently celebrated his merit and virtue. The way of government operates; all enterprises prosper in their season, each according to its proper rule. His great righteousness shines gloriously, bequeathed to later ages; follow and preserve it unchanged. The emperor is a sage in his own person. Having pacified the realm, he does not slacken in governing. Rising early and sleeping late, he establishes lasting benefits and diligently advances instruction. His teachings are proclaimed and spread, and far and near all is well ordered, all complying with his sacred will. Noble and humble have their distinct places; men and women observe proper conduct and diligently perform their duties. The boundaries between inner and outer are made clear; all is pure and undefiled and so shall remain for our descendants. His transforming influence extends without end: honor the commands he leaves behind, and forever heed his solemn warnings.

He then went along the eastern coast of the Bohai Sea, passed Huang and Chui, reached the far end of Chengshan, and climbed Zhifu. There he raised a stone praising Qin’s virtue and departed.

Traveling south, he climbed Langya, delighted in it, and stayed three months. He moved thirty thousand households of black-haired subjects below Langya Terrace and exempted them from taxes and labor for twelve years. He built Langya Terrace and raised an inscribed stone praising Qin’s virtue and proclaiming his triumph. It said:

In the twenty-eighth year the emperor made a new beginning, rectified and leveled laws and measures, and established order for all things. He clarified human affairs and brought father and son into accord. Wise, discerning, humane, and righteous, he made the principles of the Way shine plain. He journeyed east to console the eastern lands and inspect the troops. With his great work accomplished, he came to the sea. The emperor’s achievement is to encourage labor in its essential pursuits: to exalt farming, restrain lesser trades, and enrich the black-haired people. Beneath the whole sky all have united their minds and yielded their wills. Tools and measures are uniform; written characters are the same. All whom sun and moon illuminate, all whom boat and cart can carry, live out their appointed span, none without fulfillment. To act when the time demands: this is the emperor. He sets divergent customs right, crossing waters and traversing lands; caring for the people, he never rests, morning or night. He dispels doubt and establishes law, so all know what to avoid. Regional governors divide their duties; government everywhere is simple and ordered. Every appointment and dismissal is fitting, all as if drawn to a plan. The emperor’s clear sight surveys the four quarters. High and low, noble and humble, none transgress their station. No corruption is tolerated at Langya; all strive for integrity and goodness. Great and small exert all their strength; none dare grow idle or negligent. In far and near, in open and hidden places, all devote themselves to solemn discipline. Upright and loyal, they pursue enduring work. The emperor’s virtue sustains and steadies the four limits. He punishes disorder, removes harm, promotes benefit, and brings good fortune. Work is regulated by the seasons, and every kind of production flourishes. The black-haired people live in peace, without recourse to arms. Their six kinds of kin protect one another; at last there are no marauders or thieves. Gladly they obey his teachings and know the laws in full. All within the six directions is the emperor’s land: west across the shifting sands, south to the north-facing households; east to the Eastern Sea, north beyond Daxia. Wherever human footsteps reach, none fail to be his subjects. His achievement surpasses the five emperors, his bounty reaches even oxen and horses. All receive his virtue and dwell secure in their homes.

When the King of Qin had united the realm and taken the title Emperor, he pacified the eastern lands and reached Langya. The attendant lords were Wang Li, Lord of Wucheng; Wang Ben, Lord of Tongwu; Zhao Hai, Lord of Jiancheng, and Cheng, Lord of Changwu, both lords of the second class; Feng Wuze, Lord of Wuxin of the second class; Chancellors Kui Lin and Wang Wan; high ministers Li Si and Wang Wu; and Zhao Ying and Yang Jiu, grandees of the fifth order. They conferred beside the sea and said: “The ancient emperors held no more than a thousand li of territory. Their lords each kept their own domains, attending court or not, attacking each other and causing turmoil, with slaughter and warfare unceasing. Yet those emperors engraved bronze and stone to leave records of themselves. The five emperors and three kings of old differed in their teachings and left laws and measures unclear. They borrowed the authority of spirits to deceive distant lands; their deeds did not live up to their names, and their rule did not last. Before their deaths the lords had turned traitor and their laws went unenforced. Now the emperor has united all within the seas, made it into commanderies and counties, and brought peace to the realm. He has brought glory to the ancestral temple, embodied the Way and practiced virtue, and fully earned his august title. Together we ministers celebrate the emperor’s merit and virtue, inscribing them on bronze and stone as an enduring standard.”

After this, Xu Shi and others from Qi submitted a memorial saying that three sacred mountains in the sea, Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou, were inhabited by immortals. They requested permission to purify themselves and seek them with boys and girls. The emperor dispatched Xu Shi with several thousand boys and girls into the sea in search of immortals.

On his return, the First Emperor passed Pengcheng, purified himself, and offered prayers and sacrifices, wishing to recover the Zhou tripod from the Si River. He sent a thousand men diving into the water, but they did not find it. He then crossed the Huai River to the southwest, going to Hengshan and Nanjun. He sailed on the Yangtze and came to the shrine on Mount Xiang. A fierce wind arose, and he nearly failed to cross. He asked the Erudites: “What sort of spirit is Lord Xiang?” They answered: “We hear she was a daughter of Yao and wife of Shun, buried here.” The First Emperor was furious. He sent three thousand convicts to cut down all the trees on Mount Xiang and expose its red soil. He returned from Nanjun through Wu Pass.

In the twenty-ninth year the First Emperor traveled east. At Bolangsha near Yangwu, he was startled by an assassin. The culprit could not be found, so he ordered a great search throughout the realm for ten days.

He climbed Zhifu and inscribed a stone. Its words were:

In the twenty-ninth year, in mid-spring as the warmth of the sun began to rise, the emperor traveled east, toured Zhifu and climbed it, looking out upon the sea. His attending ministers rejoiced in the sight, pondered his glorious exploits, and recounted their beginnings. The great sage established government, fixed the laws and measures, and made the principles of rule manifest. Abroad he instructed the lords, spread the light of civil kindness, and illuminated the principles of righteousness. The six states were perverse, grasping and insatiable, their violence and slaughter unending. The emperor pitied the people and raised an army of chastisement, displaying his martial virtue. His just punishment and trustworthy action carried his awe far and wide; none failed to submit. He destroyed the cruel and mighty, rescued the black-haired people, and settled all four quarters. He spread enlightened law everywhere, ordering the realm for all time as an enduring model. How great indeed! All in the world comply with his sacred will. His ministers celebrate his works and ask to carve them in stone as a lasting standard.

The inscription on the eastern lookout said:

In the twenty-ninth year, the emperor traveled in spring to survey distant lands. Reaching the edge of the sea, he climbed Zhifu to look out upon the morning sun. The view was vast and splendid; all his attending ministers reflected on the source of his most enlightened Way. When his sacred laws first arose, they purged and ordered the country within its borders and punished violent powers beyond them. His martial awe spread in every direction, shook the four limits, and captured and destroyed the six kings. By openly uniting the realm he ended calamity and danger and stilled the weapons of war forever. The emperor’s radiant virtue governs all within the world, never weary of watching and listening. He establishes great principles; his clearly arrayed equipment and vessels all bear distinctive emblems and banners. His officers keep their assigned duties, each knowing what he must do; nothing remains uncertain. The black-haired people are transformed; far and near follow the same standards, excelling all past ages. Duties now firmly established, descendants will pursue the work and preserve the sage’s rule for generations. His ministers rejoice in his virtue, reverently celebrate his sacred achievements, and request this inscription at Zhifu.

He turned back, went to Langya, and returned by way of Shangdang.

In the thirtieth year, nothing happened.

In the twelfth month of the thirty-first year, he renamed the winter sacrifice “Jiap’ing.” He gave each community of black-haired subjects six shi of rice and two sheep. Traveling incognito in Xianyang with four warriors, the First Emperor encountered bandits by night at Orchid Pool and was cornered. The warriors killed the bandits. A great search was carried out in Guanzhong for twenty days. A shi of rice cost sixteen hundred coins.

In the thirty-second year the First Emperor went to Jieshi and sent Lu Sheng of Yan to seek Xianmen and Gao Shi. He carved an inscription at the Jieshi Gate, demolished city walls, and broke through the dikes. Its words were:

Then he raised armies to punish the lawless, and rebellion perished. With arms he destroyed violent traitors; with civil rule he restored the innocent, and all the people gave him their hearts. He graciously assessed merit and service, granted rewards even to oxen and horses, and lavished kindness on the land. The emperor displayed his might, joined the lords through his virtue, and first brought universal peace. He tore down walls, opened rivers and dikes, and leveled dangerous barriers. Once the land was settled, the people no longer suffered forced labor, and the whole realm received his care. Men took joy in their fields, women cultivated their crafts, and every task had its order. His kindness extended to every kind of production; those long settled and those newly come to farm were all secure in their places. His ministers celebrate his achievements and ask to carve this stone, leaving a manifest rule and model.

He sent Han Zhong, Hou Gong, and Shi Sheng in search of immortals and the medicine of deathlessness. The First Emperor toured the northern frontier and came back through Shangjun. Lu Sheng of Yan returned from his mission at sea and, invoking spirits and gods, presented an oracular text saying, “The one who will destroy Qin is Hu.” The First Emperor sent General Meng Tian to lead three hundred thousand soldiers north against the Hu and seize the land south of the Yellow River.

In the thirty-third year, he mobilized escaped fugitives, sons-in-law living with their wives’ families, and merchants to seize the lands of Luliang, establishing Guilin, Xiangjun, and Nanhai commanderies and sending convicts to garrison them. In the northwest he drove back the Xiongnu. From Yuzhong east along the Yellow River to the Yin Mountains he established thirty-four counties, fortifying the river as a frontier. He also sent Meng Tian across the river to take Gaoque, Yangshan, and Beijia, and build outposts and barriers to drive away the Rong. Exiles were moved to fill the new counties. Sacrificial worship was forbidden. A bright star appeared in the west.

### The Burning of the Books and the Scholars (213–211 BCE)

In the thirty-fourth year he sentenced judicial officers who had judged unfairly to build the Great Wall and work in South Yue.

The First Emperor held a banquet at Xianyang Palace; seventy Erudites came forward to wish him long life. Their director Zhou Qingchen offered praise: “Formerly Qin’s land extended no more than a thousand li. Through Your Majesty’s divine wisdom you have pacified all within the seas and driven back the barbarians; wherever sun and moon shine, all submit. You have made the feudal states into commanderies and counties, so that everyone enjoys peace without fear of war, for ten thousand generations. Since remotest antiquity none has equaled Your Majesty’s power and virtue.” The First Emperor was pleased. Chunyu Yue, an Erudite from Qi, stepped forward: “I have heard that the Yin and Zhou dynasties ruled for over a thousand years by enfeoffing their sons, brothers, and meritorious ministers as branches to support the trunk. Now Your Majesty possesses the realm, but your sons and brothers are commoners. If ministers like Tian Chang or the six ministers should suddenly appear, without supporting lords how could you protect yourself? I have never heard of a state enduring without following the past. Qingchen flatters you to your face, compounding Your Majesty’s errors; he is no loyal minister.” The emperor submitted this for discussion. Chancellor Li Si said: “The five emperors did not repeat one another, nor did the three dynasties imitate each other. Each governed in its own way, not out of contrariness, but because times had changed. Your Majesty has founded a great enterprise and established achievements for ten thousand generations, beyond the understanding of foolish scholars. Yue speaks of the three dynasties: why take them as our model? Formerly the rival lords competed to attract wandering scholars. Now the realm is settled and laws and decrees issue from one source. At home the common people should work at farming and crafts; men of learning should study the laws and prohibitions. Instead these students study antiquity rather than the present and use it to denounce our age and confuse the people. I, your chancellor Li Si, speak at the risk of my life: in antiquity the realm was divided and no one could unite it. The lords arose together; in conversation men cited the past to injure the present, adorning empty claims to confuse reality. Each praised his own private learning and condemned what the ruler had established. Now the emperor has united the realm, distinguished black from white, and fixed a single authority. Private scholars join in condemning the laws and teachings; when an order is issued, each discusses it according to his school. At court they reject it in their hearts; outside they debate it in the streets. They disparage the ruler to make a name for themselves, prize dissent as distinction, and lead their followers into slander. Unless this is forbidden, the ruler’s authority will fall from above and factions grow below. A ban is expedient. I propose that the historians burn all records except those of Qin. Throughout the realm, anyone other than an Erudite officially charged with their custody who keeps the Songs, the Documents, or the writings of the hundred schools must bring them to the governor and commandant to be burned together. Anyone who dares discuss the Songs or Documents with another shall be executed in the marketplace; those who use antiquity to criticize the present shall have their clans destroyed. Officials who know of violations and fail to report them shall suffer the same penalty. Anyone who does not burn these writings within thirty days of the order shall be tattooed and sentenced to labor on the walls. Exempt are books on medicine, divination, and cultivating trees. Those wishing to study the laws and decrees shall take officials as their teachers.” The imperial ordinance said: “Approved.”

In the thirty-fifth year he cleared a road from Jiuyuan to Yunyang, cutting through mountains and filling valleys to make it straight. The First Emperor thought the population of Xianyang numerous and the former kings’ palace too small. “I have heard that King Wen of Zhou made Feng his capital and King Wu made Hao his. The space between Feng and Hao is a fitting capital for an emperor.” So he planned an audience palace in Shanglin Park south of the Wei River. He first built the front hall at Epang Palace: five hundred paces east to west and fifty zhang north to south, with room above to seat ten thousand people and below to erect a fifty-foot banner. A covered gallery ran around it, leading from beneath the hall straight to the Southern Mountains. He marked their summit as a ceremonial gate. An elevated passage from Epang crossed the Wei River to Xianyang, in imitation of the celestial gallery that crosses the Milky Way from the pole star to the constellation Yingshi. Epang Palace was not yet finished; once complete, he meant to choose it a fine name. Because the palace was built at Epang, the realm called it Epang Palace. Over seven hundred thousand castrated men and convicts were assigned to build Epang Palace or work on Mount Li. Stone coffins were brought from the northern mountains and timber was transported from Shu and Jing. In Guanzhong there were altogether three hundred palaces, beyond the passes more than four hundred. He erected a stone on the coast of the Eastern Sea in the territory of Qu to mark Qin’s eastern gate. He moved thirty thousand families to Liyi and fifty thousand to Yunyang, exempting them from service for ten years.

Lu Sheng told the First Emperor: “We seek the magic mushrooms, wondrous medicines, and immortals, but never encounter them; some harmful presence appears to obstruct us. According to our art, the sovereign should sometimes travel unseen to avoid evil spirits; when they depart, the perfected ones will come. If ministers know where the sovereign dwells, it impairs his divine power. A perfected one enters water without becoming wet and fire without burning, rides the clouds, and lives as long as heaven and earth. Your Majesty governs all under heaven but cannot yet find stillness. May no one know which palace you inhabit: then the medicine of immortality may be found.” The First Emperor said: “I admire the perfected ones; I shall call myself ‘the Perfected One,’ not ‘We.’” He ordered that the 270 palaces and pavilions within two hundred li of Xianyang be linked by elevated and covered passages, and furnished with curtains, bells, drums, and beautiful women, each remaining in its appointed place. Whoever disclosed the location of a place he visited was put to death. Visiting Liangshan Palace, the emperor saw from the mountain the numerous chariots and riders of the chancellor, which displeased him. Someone inside the palace told the chancellor, who afterward reduced his retinue. The emperor said angrily: “Someone inside has betrayed my words.” On investigation no one confessed. He ordered the arrest and execution of everyone who had been nearby at the time. After that no one knew where he traveled. At Xianyang Palace he heard state business and his ministers received his decisions.

Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng plotted together: “The First Emperor is by nature stern, cruel, and self-willed. Starting as one lord among many, he united the realm, achieved all his desires, and believes no one since antiquity has equaled him. He relies exclusively on judicial officials, who alone enjoy his favor. Though he has seventy Erudites, they merely fill posts and go unused. The chancellor and great ministers accept finished decisions, depending on the emperor for their resolution. He delights in using punishment and death to show his power. All fear punishment and cling to their salaries; none dare serve him with complete honesty. Never hearing of his faults, he grows prouder daily, while those below, intimidated, deceive him to win favor. Qin law decrees that anyone who offers conflicting arts whose predictions fail is put to death. There are as many as three hundred diviners of stars and vapors, all worthy men, yet they fear taboos and flatter him, not daring to speak plainly of his faults. Every affair under heaven, small or great, is decided by the emperor. He even weighs his documents by the shi, setting a daily quota by day and night; until he meets it he will not rest. So greedy is he for power. We cannot seek the medicine of immortality for him.” They fled. Hearing this, the emperor grew furious: “Formerly I collected and removed all books in the realm that were of no use. I summoned many learned men and masters of occult arts, intending to create an age of peace, and the adepts were to refine wondrous medicines. Now I hear that Han Zhong left without reporting back, while Xu Shi and the others have spent tens of thousands upon tens of thousands and found no medicine; every day I hear reports of their illicit schemes for profit. I honored and richly rewarded Lu Sheng and his fellows, and now they slander me and magnify my faults. I shall send men to investigate the students in Xianyang, some of whom spread monstrous stories to disturb the people.” He ordered the imperial counselors to investigate all the students. As they implicated one another, more than 460 judged to have broken the prohibitions were buried alive in Xianyang, and the news was spread across the realm as a warning to others. More convicts were exiled to the frontiers. Fusu, the emperor’s eldest son, protested: “The realm has only recently been settled; the people of distant regions have not yet become loyal. All these students recite the teachings of Confucius. If Your Majesty subjects them all to harsh law, I fear the realm will not be at peace. I beg Your Majesty to consider.” The emperor angrily sent Fusu north to supervise Meng Tian in Shangjun.

In the thirty-sixth year Mars stood in the Heart constellation. A falling star struck Dongjun and turned to stone on the ground. Someone among the people carved upon it: “When the First Emperor dies, the land will be divided.” Hearing of it, the emperor sent an imperial counselor to investigate. No one confessed, so he executed all who lived near the stone and burned and pulverized it. Distressed, he had the Erudites compose songs about immortals and perfected beings, and about his travels throughout the realm, ordering musicians to perform them with song and strings. In autumn, an envoy traveling from east of the passes at night on the Pingshu road near Huayin was stopped by a man holding a jade disk, who said: “Give this for me to the Lord of Haochi.” He added: “This year the Ancestral Dragon dies.” When the envoy asked why, the man vanished, leaving the disk behind. The envoy presented it with a full report. The emperor was silent for a long while, then said: “A mountain spirit knows no more than the events of a single year.” Later he said: “The Ancestral Dragon means the first ancestor of men.” He had the treasury examine the disk: it was the one he had cast into the Yangtze during his crossing in the twenty-eighth year. The emperor consulted divination, receiving the omen that travel and resettlement would be auspicious. He moved thirty thousand families to Yuzhong on the northern Yellow River and awarded them one rank of nobility.

### The Last Journey and the Death of the First Emperor (210 BCE)

On the day guichou in the tenth month of the thirty-seventh year, the First Emperor set out on tour. Li Si, Chancellor of the Left, accompanied him; Feng Quji, Chancellor of the Right, remained to govern. His beloved youngest son Huhai asked to join him, and the emperor agreed. In the eleventh month they reached Yunmeng and sacrificed from afar to Yu Shun at the Nine Doubts Mountains. They sailed down the Yangtze, viewed Jike, and crossed the sea inlet. They passed Danyang and reached Qiantang. At the Zhejiang River the waves were fierce, so they went 120 li west and crossed at a narrow place. The emperor climbed Kuaiji, sacrificed to Great Yu, gazed south toward the sea, and erected a stone with an inscription praising Qin’s virtue. Its text read:

The emperor’s glorious achievements have pacified and united the whole world; his virtue and kindness endure. In the thirty-seventh year he personally tours the realm, surveying distant places. He has climbed Kuaiji to proclaim and examine its customs; the black-haired people are pure and reverent. His ministers celebrate his deeds, trace his achievements to their beginnings, and recall the first days of his lofty brilliance. The sage of Qin took command of the land, first settled the names and laws of punishments, and clearly displayed the established rules. He first made measures uniform, carefully distinguished official responsibilities, and founded enduring order. The six kings willfully broke faith, greedy, violent, proud, and fierce, and led their people to assert their power. They gave free rein to cruelty, grew arrogant in their might, and repeatedly raised arms. Secretly sending envoys to one another, they plotted alliances and acted perversely. Within they contrived deceit; from without they invaded our borders and brought disaster. His righteous might punished them, extinguished their violence and rebellion, and destroyed the rebels. His sacred virtue extends far and close throughout the six directions, bestowing boundless grace. The emperor united the world, heard all matters alike, and brought clarity to both near and far. He managed all things, examined the facts, and recorded each by name. Noble and humble alike can approach him; good and bad are presented before him, nothing concealed. He set matters right, made justice clear: a woman with a son who marries again betrays the dead and lacks fidelity. He established boundaries between inner and outer and forbade sexual excess; men and women are pure and sincere. A husband who behaves like a breeding boar in another’s house may be killed without guilt; men uphold righteous standards. When a wife runs away to remarry, her children no longer acknowledge her as mother; all are transformed to purity and probity. His great government cleanses custom; the realm follows its influence and receives its excellent laws. All observe its measures and rules, live in harmony and peace, and diligently obey its commands. The black-haired people cultivate purity, delight in shared standards, and gladly preserve great peace. Let later generations honor and obey the laws; let enduring government have no limit, let cart and boat never overturn. His attending ministers celebrate his works and ask to carve this stone, so its glorious inscription shines for all time.

On his return he passed through Wu and crossed at Jiangcheng. Following the seacoast, he traveled north to Langya. Xu Shi and the other adepts had sought divine medicine at sea for several years without finding it. Having spent much and fearing punishment, they lied: “The medicine at Penglai is within reach, but great sharks have repeatedly prevented us from reaching it. Send skilled archers with us, we pray, to shoot them with repeating crossbows when they appear.” The First Emperor dreamed he fought a sea god shaped like a man. He asked for a reading of the dream, and an Erudite answered: “The water god cannot be seen, but great fish and sea dragons announce his coming. Though Your Majesty has been meticulous in prayer and sacrifice, this evil spirit must be driven off before the good spirit can arrive.” The emperor ordered those going to sea to carry equipment for catching great fish, while he himself watched for them with a repeating crossbow. From Langya north to Mount Rongcheng he saw none. At Zhifu he saw a great fish and shot it dead. He then went west along the coast.

At Pingyuan Ford he fell ill. The First Emperor hated mention of death, and his ministers dared not speak of it. When his illness worsened, he wrote and sealed a letter to his son Fusu: “Meet the funeral procession at Xianyang and bury me.” The sealed letter remained with Zhao Gao, director of the imperial carriage bureau, who was acting keeper of the seals; it had not yet been given to a messenger. On the day bingyin in the seventh month, the emperor died on the terrace at Shaqiu. Chancellor Li Si feared that news of his death away from the capital would cause unrest among the princes and across the realm, so he kept it secret and did not announce mourning. The coffin was placed in his enclosed cooling carriage. Favored eunuchs rode beside it, and meals were presented for the emperor wherever it went. Officials submitted business as before, and the eunuchs approved it from inside the carriage. Only his son Huhai, Zhao Gao, and five or six favored eunuchs knew he was dead. Zhao Gao had once taught Huhai writing, criminal law, and decrees, and Huhai privately favored him. Zhao Gao, Prince Huhai, and Chancellor Li Si secretly conspired to destroy the First Emperor’s sealed letter to Fusu. They forged a testamentary edict supposedly received by Li Si at Shaqiu, appointing Huhai crown prince. They composed another letter to Fusu and Meng Tian, charging them with crimes and ordering them to die. The full account is in the biography of Li Si. The procession continued through Jingxing to Jiuyuan. It was summer and the imperial carriage began to smell, so an order was issued for accompanying officials to carry a shi of salted fish in their carts to mask the odor.

They traveled along the Straight Road to Xianyang and announced his death. Crown Prince Huhai succeeded as the Second Emperor. In the ninth month they buried the First Emperor at Mount Li. From the beginning of his reign he had excavated the site; after uniting the realm, more than seven hundred thousand convicts from across the country were sent there. They dug through three underground streams, poured in bronze to seal the burial chamber, and filled it with palaces, halls, officials, wondrous vessels, and rare treasures. Artisans made mechanical crossbows to shoot anyone who tunneled near. Mercury formed the hundred streams, the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, and the great seas, mechanically flowing into one another. Above were images of the heavens and below a map of the earth. Lamps were fueled with mermaid oil, calculated to burn a very long time without going out. The Second Emperor said: “It is not fitting for the late emperor’s childless concubines to leave.” He ordered them all to follow him in death; very many died. Once the burial chamber was filled, someone observed that the artisans who had made its devices knew all about the treasures: with such riches, secrets would escape. After the funeral work was done and the treasures laid away, they sealed the inner passage, lowered the outer passage gate, and trapped all the artisans and those who had deposited the treasures inside. None came out. Trees and grass were planted to make the mound look like a mountain.

### The Second Emperor (209–207 BCE)

In the first year of the Second Emperor, he was twenty-one years old. Zhao Gao became Chamberlain of the Palace and took charge of affairs. The Second Emperor decreed that sacrifices in the First Emperor’s tomb-shrine and rites at the shrines of mountains and rivers be enlarged. He ordered the ministers to deliberate how to honor the First Emperor’s temple. All bowed their heads and said: “In antiquity the Son of Heaven had seven temples, a lord five, and a grandee three, which were not abolished even after ten thousand generations. Now the First Emperor has his supreme temple; all within the four seas present tribute and service there. The offerings have been increased, and the rites are complete; nothing can be added. The temples of earlier kings are at West Yong or Xianyang. By imperial ceremonial rule the emperor alone should pour the offering at the First Emperor’s temple. The temples from Duke Xiang onward should be abolished in turn, leaving seven altogether. The ministers should make their offerings according to rite, honoring the First Emperor’s shrine as the ancestral temple of the imperial line. The emperor shall again call himself ‘We.’”

The Second Emperor plotted with Zhao Gao: “I am young, newly enthroned, and the black-haired people have not yet rallied to me. The late emperor toured commanderies and counties to display his power, bringing all within the seas to submission through awe. If I remain at ease without touring, I shall appear weak and be unable to govern the realm as my subjects.” In spring he traveled east through the commanderies and counties, accompanied by Li Si. He reached Jieshi, followed the coast south to Kuaiji, and added inscriptions to all the stones erected by the First Emperor. Beside each original inscription he carved the names of the accompanying ministers, to make clear the late emperor’s achievements and abundant virtue:

The emperor said: “The inscriptions in bronze and stone all concern the First Emperor’s works. Now I have inherited his title, but if these inscriptions do not name the First Emperor, in distant ages they might seem to refer to a successor and fail to honor his achievements and abundant virtue.” Chancellors Li Si and Feng Quji and Imperial Counselor De said, at the risk of their lives: “We ask permission to carve the full text of your edict beside these inscriptions, to make it clear. We beg this at the risk of our lives.” The ordinance said: “Approved.”

He continued to Liaodong and returned.

The Second Emperor then followed Zhao Gao’s counsel and tightened the laws. Secretly he asked Gao: “The great ministers refuse to submit, officials remain powerful, and the princes are bound to contest my rule. What can be done?” Gao replied: “I have long wished to speak, but dared not. The late emperor’s great ministers come from distinguished families whose prestige and merit have passed down for generations. I am by origin a humble man of low station; through Your Majesty’s favor I have been raised to high office and entrusted with affairs within the palace. The great ministers resent me; they obey me in appearance only, never in their hearts. Now that Your Majesty is away, investigate the governors and military commandants of the commanderies and counties and execute those guilty of crimes. Above, you will display your power to the realm; below, remove those you have always disliked. These are times to decide by force rather than imitate civil government. Act with the times and do not hesitate, before the ministers can plot. An enlightened sovereign promotes men from the common people, makes the lowly noble, the poor wealthy, and the distant close to him. Then high and low come together, and the state is secure.” The emperor said: “Good.” He began executing great ministers and princes, implicating even lesser officials of the palace guards on charges that left none fit to serve. Six princes were slaughtered at Du. Prince Jianglü and his two brothers were imprisoned in the inner palace, their trials alone postponed. The Second Emperor sent an envoy to Jianglü: “The prince has failed in his duty as a subject. His crime deserves death. The officials will apply the law.” Jianglü said: “In court ceremonies I have always followed the instructions of the ushers; in the palace and temple I have never broken protocol; in receiving orders and replying I have never spoken improperly. How have I failed as a subject? Tell me my crime before I die.” The envoy said: “I was not party to the deliberations. I carry out the written order.” Jianglü raised his face to heaven and cried out three times: “Heaven! I am innocent!” The three brothers wept, drew their swords, and killed themselves. The imperial clan trembled with fear. Ministers who protested were charged with slander; high officials protected their stipends by seeking favor; the people lived in terror.

In the fourth month the Second Emperor returned to Xianyang and said: “The late emperor found the court at Xianyang too small and therefore began Epang Palace. Before it was finished he died, and the workers were sent to cover his tomb at Mount Li. Now that work on Mount Li is essentially done, to abandon Epang unfinished would proclaim that the late emperor was wrong to begin it.” Construction resumed. Abroad he sought to pacify the four barbarian peoples according to the First Emperor’s plan. He conscripted fifty thousand able-bodied men to garrison Xianyang and train with bows, dogs, horses, and wild animals. Since so many needed food and supplies seemed insufficient, he ordered the commanderies and counties to transport beans, grain, fodder, and straw. The conscripts were to carry their own provisions, and grain grown within three hundred li of Xianyang was not to be consumed by them. Enforcement of the law grew increasingly cruel.

In the seventh month Chen She and other frontier garrison soldiers rebelled in the former territory of Jing, calling their movement “Rising Chu.” Chen proclaimed himself King of Chu at Chen and sent his generals to seize territory. Young men in the commanderies and counties east of the mountains, suffering under Qin officials, killed their governors, commandants, magistrates, and deputies and rebelled in response to Chen She. They installed one another as kings and lords, formed alliances facing west, and declared war on Qin, too many to count. An imperial envoy came from the east to report the rebellion. The Second Emperor angrily handed him over to the officials. When another envoy arrived, the emperor questioned him, and he answered: “A band of thieves. The governors and commandants are pursuing and arresting them, and almost all have been caught. There is no cause for concern.” The emperor was delighted. Wu Chen proclaimed himself King of Zhao, Wei Jiu King of Wei, and Tian Dan King of Qi. The Lord of Pei rose at Pei; Xiang Liang raised troops in Kuaiji Commandery.

In the winter of the second year, Zhou Zhang and others sent by Chen She led several hundred thousand soldiers west to Xi. The Second Emperor, greatly alarmed, asked his ministers: “What shall we do?” Zhang Han, superintendent of the imperial household, said: “The rebels are already here in strength. There is no time to levy troops in nearby counties. There are many convicts at Mount Li; pardon them, arm them, and send them against the rebels.” The emperor proclaimed a general amnesty and placed Zhang Han in command. He routed Zhou Zhang’s army and drove it off, then killed Zhang at Caoyang. The emperor sent senior officials Sima Xin and Dong Yi to help Zhang Han against the rebels. They killed Chen She at Chengfu, defeated Xiang Liang at Dingtao, and destroyed Wei Jiu at Linji. With the famed rebel generals in Chu dead, Zhang Han crossed the Yellow River northward to attack King Xie of Zhao and the others at Julu.

Zhao Gao told the Second Emperor: “The late emperor ruled the realm for so long that his ministers never dared do wrong or offer corrupt advice. Your Majesty is young and has just ascended the throne: why decide affairs in court with your high ministers? Should a mistake occur, you would reveal a weakness to them. The Son of Heaven calls himself ‘We’ because his voice is not heard.” So the Second Emperor remained in the inner palace, deciding matters with Gao. Afterward the high ministers seldom saw him at court, the rebels multiplied, and troops from Guanzhong were dispatched east against them without respite. Chancellor of the Right Feng Quji, Chancellor of the Left Li Si, and General Feng Jie remonstrated: “Rebel bands are rising everywhere east of the passes. Qin has dispatched forces against them and killed great numbers, yet the uprisings do not stop. They multiply because garrison service, canal transport, and construction labor are grueling and taxes are high. Please suspend work on Epang Palace and reduce frontier garrisons and transport levies.” The emperor answered: “I have heard Han Fei say: ‘Yao and Shun did not trim the rafters they felled or cut the thatch of their roofs; they ate and drank from earthenware. Even a gatekeeper would have no poorer fare. Yu cut through Dragon Gate, opened the Daxia passage, breached the Yellow River’s obstruction, and released its waters into the sea. He himself carried rammer and spade until no hair remained on his shins: even the labor of a slave was no harder.’ The value of possessing the realm is to be able to indulge one’s desires fully, uphold strict laws, and keep inferiors from doing wrong, thereby controlling all within the seas. The rulers of Yu and Xia, though Son of Heaven, personally endured poverty for the sake of commoners: what use was their rank? I have the dignity of a ruler of ten thousand chariots without its substance. I wish to equip a procession of a thousand chariots and the retinue of a ruler of ten thousand, to match my title. The late emperor began as one lord among many and united the world; with it pacified, he repelled the foreign peoples to secure its frontiers and built palaces to proclaim his triumph. You can see the purpose in his works. Yet within the two years since I took the throne, rebels have risen everywhere and you cannot stop them; now you wish to end the late emperor’s enterprise. Thus you neither repay him above nor serve me loyally below. How can you hold office?” He handed Quji, Si, and Jie over to the officials to investigate other crimes. Quji and Jie said: “A general and a chancellor shall not be humiliated,” and killed themselves. Si remained imprisoned and suffered the five punishments.

In the third year Zhang Han and his commanders besieged Julu, and Xiang Yu, supreme general of Chu, led Chu forces to its relief. In winter Zhao Gao became chancellor and completed his prosecution of Li Si, killing him. In summer Zhang Han’s forces were repeatedly driven back. The Second Emperor sent a messenger to reprimand him. Fearing for his life, Zhang sent his senior official Sima Xin to explain matters. Zhao Gao refused to see him and would not trust him. Xin fled in fear; Gao’s men pursued him but failed to catch him. Xin told Zhang Han: “Zhao Gao rules at court. Whether you win or lose, General, you will be executed.” Xiang Yu pressed the attack, captured Wang Li, and Zhang Han surrendered his army to the allied lords. On the day jihai in the eighth month, Zhao Gao, plotting rebellion but fearing that the ministers would not obey him, staged a test. He presented a deer to the Second Emperor, saying: “Here is a horse.” The emperor laughed: “Is the chancellor mistaken, calling a deer a horse?” Asked for their opinions, some courtiers remained silent, others called it a horse to flatter Gao. Those who called it a deer were secretly incriminated under the law by Gao. Thereafter the ministers all feared him.

Gao had repeatedly said: “The rebels east of the passes can do nothing.” But Xiang Yu captured the Qin general Wang Li and others at Julu and advanced, while Zhang Han’s forces retreated again and again and requested reinforcements. Kings had been established in Yan, Zhao, Qi, Chu, Han, and Wei. Almost everyone east of the passes had rebelled against Qin officials and sided with the lords, whose armies all faced west. The Lord of Pei, leading tens of thousands, had already overrun Wu Pass and secretly contacted Gao. Fearing the emperor’s anger and execution, Gao claimed illness and stopped attending court. The Second Emperor dreamed a white tiger bit the horse harnessed on his left. He killed the horse but remained troubled and sought an interpretation. The diviner said: “The Jing River spirit is causing trouble.” The emperor purified himself at Wangyi Palace to sacrifice to the Jing River, intending to sink four white horses in it. He sent an envoy to rebuke Gao for the rebel troubles. Afraid, Gao secretly plotted with his son-in-law Yan Le, magistrate of Xianyang, and his younger brother Zhao Cheng: “The emperor will not listen to advice. Now danger approaches, and he wants to lay the blame on my family. I will replace him with Prince Ziying. Ziying is humane and frugal; the people all praise his words.” Gao arranged for the Chamberlain of the Palace to assist from within. Pretending that great rebels had appeared, he ordered Le to muster officials and soldiers, then seized Le’s mother as a hostage in his own house. Le took more than a thousand men to the gate of Wangyi Palace, bound the guard commander, and said: “Rebels have entered here. Why did you not stop them?” The commander said: “Guards have been carefully stationed all around. How could any rebel enter?” Le beheaded him and led his men directly inside, firing their bows as they went. Palace attendants and eunuchs panicked; some fled and some resisted, and those who fought were killed, several dozen in all. The Chamberlain entered with Le, and they shot at the curtain surrounding the emperor’s seat. Furious, the Second Emperor called his guards, but all were terrified and would not fight. One eunuch beside him stayed, not daring to leave. Retreating inside, the emperor asked him: “Why did you not tell me sooner, before it came to this?” The eunuch answered: “I dared not speak, and so survived. Had I spoken earlier, I would have been killed with all the others. How could I be here now?” Yan Le advanced and recited the emperor’s crimes: “You are arrogant and willful, killing without justice; the realm has united against you. Decide now what you will do.” The emperor asked: “May I see the chancellor?” “No.” “Then let me rule one commandery as king.” Le refused. “Then let me be lord of ten thousand households.” Again he refused. “Then let me live with my wife and children as a commoner, like the other princes.” Yan Le said: “The chancellor ordered me to execute you for the sake of the realm. However much you say, I cannot report back.” He signaled his soldiers to advance. The Second Emperor killed himself.

### Ziying and the Fall of Qin (207 BCE)

Yan Le returned and reported to Zhao Gao, who summoned all the great ministers and princes and told them how the Second Emperor had been killed. He said: “Qin was once a kingdom. The First Emperor ruled all under heaven, so he took the title Emperor. Now the six states have reestablished themselves, Qin’s territory has shrunk, and to retain the empty name of emperor will not do. It is better to return to the title King.” He installed Ziying, a son of the Second Emperor’s elder brother, as King of Qin. The Second Emperor was buried as a commoner in Yichun Park south of Du. Ziying was ordered to purify himself before appearing at the ancestral temple to receive the royal seal. After five days of purification, Ziying plotted with his two sons: “Chancellor Gao killed the Second Emperor at Wangyi Palace. Fearing that the ministers will execute him, he pretends to enthrone me out of justice. I hear that Zhao Gao has made a pact with Chu to destroy the Qin imperial family and become king of Guanzhong. Now he has sent me to purify myself before visiting the temple because he means to kill me there. I shall claim illness and refuse to go. The chancellor will surely come himself; when he comes, we will kill him.” Gao sent men repeatedly to summon Ziying, but he refused. Gao indeed came himself and said: “The ancestral temple rites are of the greatest importance. Why will Your Majesty not go?” Ziying then had him stabbed to death in the purification palace, exterminated the three branches of Gao’s family, and displayed their bodies throughout Xianyang. Ziying had been King of Qin for forty-six days when the Chu general known as the Lord of Pei defeated Qin’s army, entered Wu Pass, advanced to Bashang, and sent envoys to arrange Ziying’s surrender. Ziying bound his neck with a silk cord, rode in a plain cart drawn by white horses, and presented the imperial seals and tallies as he surrendered beside the Zhidao road. The Lord of Pei entered Xianyang, sealed its palaces, treasuries, and storehouses, and returned to camp at Bashang. Just over a month later, the armies of the lords arrived. Xiang Ji, commander of the allied forces, killed Ziying and the Qin princes and their kin. He sacked Xianyang, burned its palaces, took its sons and daughters captive, gathered up its treasures and wealth, and divided them among the lords. After destroying Qin, they divided its territory into three kingdoms, Yong, Sai, and Di, called the Three Qin. Xiang Yu became Hegemon-King of Western Chu and presided over the division of the realm among the kings and lords. Thus Qin came to an end. Five years later the realm was pacified under Han.

### The Grand Historian’s Judgment and Jia Yi’s “Faults of Qin”

The Grand Historian says: Qin’s ancestor Bo Yi rendered meritorious service in the age of Tang Yao and Yu Shun, receiving land and a clan name. Between the Xia and Yin dynasties his descendants grew weak and scattered. As Zhou declined, Qin rose, settling on the western frontier. From Duke Mu onward it gradually swallowed the feudal lords, until the First Emperor completed the work. He considered his achievements greater than those of the five emperors and his lands wider than those of the three kings, and thought it beneath him to rank alongside them. How well Master Jia reasoned about this! He wrote:

Qin annexed more than thirty commanderies of the lords east of the mountains, repaired the ferries and passes, occupied the strongholds, and armed its soldiers to defend them. Yet Chen She, with only a few hundred disorderly garrison troops, raised his arm and shouted. With no bows or halberds but hoes, wooden mallets, and bare staves, feeding wherever houses appeared, they swept across the realm. Qin’s defenders failed to hold their strongholds; the passes and bridges did not close; its long halberds did not strike and its powerful crossbows did not fire. Chu forces penetrated deep and fought at Hongmen, encountering not even the resistance of a hedge. The east erupted in turmoil. The lords rose together and outstanding men installed one another in power. Qin sent Zhang Han on an eastern campaign, but with three armies behind him, Zhang Han bargained outside the court to undermine his sovereign. This reveals the ministers’ disloyalty. Ziying succeeded, yet still failed to understand. Had he possessed even the abilities of an ordinary ruler and obtained a few middling advisers, Qin might have held its territory even amid eastern unrest, and its ancestral sacrifices need not have ended.

Qin’s land is girdled by mountains and rivers and protected on all four sides. From Duke Mu to the King of Qin, more than twenty rulers, it was consistently the mightiest of the feudal states. Were all its rulers wise? No: its position gave it that strength. Once the realm united its efforts against Qin. Wise men assembled, skilled generals led the armies, able chancellors coordinated their plans, yet the strongholds blocked their advance. Qin opened its passes and drew them into battle, and their million-man army fled and collapsed. Was it because they lacked courage, strength, or intelligence? The terrain was against them and their position unfavorable. Qin absorbed the great cities into its smaller fortified settlements, defended its passes, kept its ramparts high and avoided battle, closed the gates, and held the narrow ways with halberds. The lords, risen from private station, united for gain, without the conduct of true kings. Their bonds were weak and their subjects uncommitted. They claimed to seek Qin’s destruction but really sought its wealth. Faced with Qin’s impregnable barriers they would have withdrawn. If Qin had secured its land, given its people rest, awaited the enemy’s exhaustion, rallied the weak and aided the weary, it could have commanded the lords of the great states and achieved its aims within the seas. Yet a man honored as Son of Heaven and wealthy in all the realm was captured: his remedy for defeat was wrong.

The King of Qin trusted himself alone and asked no advice; he made mistakes and never changed. The Second Emperor inherited his course and did not alter it; his cruelty deepened the disaster. Ziying stood alone without family, in danger and weakness without help. All three rulers were blind and remained so to the end. Is their fall surprising? This age was not without men capable of deep reflection and knowledge of change, but they dared not speak their loyalty fully or correct the ruler’s faults. Qin’s customs were full of prohibitions and taboos: before loyal words were finished, the speaker was executed. Thus all the realm’s men listened intently, stood frozen in fear, and kept their mouths closed. The three rulers lost their way, loyal ministers dared not protest, and wise men dared not offer counsel; when the realm was in revolt, news of rebellion failed to reach the throne. How tragic! The former kings knew that isolation and ignorance injured the state; they appointed high ministers, grandees, and officers, refined laws, established punishments, and governed the realm. When strong they forbade violence and punished disorder, and the realm submitted. When weak, the five hegemons campaigned on their behalf, and the lords followed. Even when reduced, they maintained defenses within and allies without, preserving their altars of state. At Qin’s height its elaborate laws and stern punishments terrified the realm. In decline the common people resented it, and all within the seas rebelled. Zhou’s five ranks maintained the right way, and its line lasted over a thousand years. Qin lost both foundation and consequence, and so did not endure. The principles of safety and peril are very far apart. A country saying goes, “Remembering what came before is a teacher for what follows.” Thus the noble man who governs a state looks back to high antiquity, tests his judgments against the present, compares them with human affairs, examines the reasons for rise and fall, considers the proper use of power, follows an orderly course of advance and retreat, and changes with the times. In this way he preserves his state for generations.

Duke Xiao of Qin held the strongholds of Xiao and Hangu and possessed Yongzhou. Ruler and ministers defended them firmly while eyeing the Zhou royal house, aspiring to sweep up the realm, embrace all within the world, encompass the four seas, and swallow the eight wildernesses. Lord Shang assisted him. At home he established laws and standards, promoted farming and weaving, and prepared for defense and war; abroad he formed cross-state alliances to turn the lords against one another. Thus the men of Qin took the lands beyond the Western River without even lifting a hand.

After Duke Xiao died, King Hui and King Wu inherited his enterprise and followed the plans he left. Southward they annexed Hanzhong, westward they captured Ba and Shu, and eastward they seized fertile lands and key commanderies. The lords were afraid, convened in alliance, and plotted to weaken Qin. They spared no rare vessels, precious treasures, or fertile lands to attract the realm’s talented men; they forged a united alliance. At that time Qi had Lord Mengchang, Zhao Lord Pingyuan, Chu Lord Chunshen, and Wei Lord Xinling. These four were discerning, wise, loyal, and trustworthy; they were generous and loved people, honored the worthy and esteemed scholars, and united an alliance against Qin’s divisive leagues. They joined the forces of Han, Wei, Yan, Chu, Qi, Zhao, Song, Wey, and Zhongshan. Among the six states’ scholars, Ning Yue, Xu Shang, Su Qin, Du He, and their fellows devised plans; Qi Ming, Zhou Zui, Chen Zhen, Zhao Hua, Lou Huan, Zhai Jing, Su Li, Yue Yi, and others coordinated intentions; Wu Qi, Sun Bin, Dai Tuo, Ni Liang, Wang Liao, Tian Ji, Lian Po, Zhao She, and their peers commanded armies. With ten times Qin’s land and a million soldiers they repeatedly attacked its passes. Qin opened the gates to welcome its foes, yet the armies of the nine states hesitated, retreated, and dared not advance. Qin did not spend a single arrow or arrowhead; already the lords were exhausted. Their alliance broke apart, and each strove to cede territory to Qin. With strength to spare, Qin took advantage of their weakness, chased the fleeing and routed them: a million bodies lay fallen, and blood flowed deep enough to float shields. Qin pressed its advantage, carved up the realm, and divided its rivers and mountains. Strong states asked to submit; weak states came to court. Through the reigns of King Xiaowen and King Zhuangxiang, both short, the state remained free of trouble.

Then came the King of Qin. He carried on the achievements of six generations, raised his long whip to govern the world, swallowed the two Zhou states and destroyed the lords, assumed supreme power and ruled the six directions, wielding the rod to scourge the realm and shaking the four seas with his might. In the south he took the territory of the hundred Yue peoples and made it Guilin and Xiangjun commanderies; the Yue lords bowed their heads, cords around their necks, and entrusted their lives to his lesser officials. He sent Meng Tian north to build the Great Wall and defend the frontier, driving the Xiongnu back more than seven hundred li, so that Hu horsemen dared not pasture in the south, nor their warriors draw bows in revenge. He abolished the former kings’ Way and burned the writings of the hundred schools to keep the people ignorant. He tore down famous cities, killed the eminent, collected the realm’s weapons at Xianyang, melted down blades and cast twelve bronze men to weaken the people. He cut through Mount Hua to make a wall and used the Yellow River as a moat, holding a rampart ten thousand fathoms high above unfathomable ravines. Able generals with powerful crossbows guarded the vital points; trusted ministers and elite troops displayed sharp weapons and challenged all comers. The realm was settled. The King of Qin thought his fortified Guanzhong and thousand-li walls of bronze would sustain his descendants’ imperial rule for ten thousand generations.

After the King of Qin died, the fear of his power still reached distant peoples. Chen She was a man whose family had jars for windows and ropes for door hinges, a common laborer and deported convict. His abilities were below the ordinary; he had neither the wisdom of Confucius and Mozi nor the wealth of Tao Zhu and Yi Dun. He sprang up among the ranks, rose from a squad of ten or a company of a hundred, rallied weary scattered soldiers, and led several hundred men against Qin. They cut branches for weapons and raised poles for banners. The realm gathered like clouds and responded like an echo, bearing provisions and following him like shadows. The outstanding men east of the mountains all rose and destroyed Qin’s clan.

The realm had not grown smaller or weaker; Yongzhou and the strongholds of Xiao and Hangu remained as before. Chen She’s station was not higher than that of the rulers of Qi, Chu, Yan, Zhao, Han, Wei, Song, Wey, and Zhongshan. Hoes, mallets, and thornwood shafts were no sharper than hooked halberds and long spears. His garrison convicts were no match for the armies of the nine states. In planning ahead, commanding an army, and deploying troops, he did not equal the scholars of earlier days. Yet success and defeat reversed themselves, and achievements were opposite. Compare the lands, power, and strength of the eastern states with Chen She’s: they are not even comparable. Yet Qin rose from a small tract of land and the might of a thousand chariots to bring the eight regions to court and make its peers bow for over a hundred years. It then made the six directions its home and the Xiao and Hangu passes its palace. One man raised a revolt, its seven ancestral temples fell, and its ruler was killed by another’s hand and mocked by the realm. Why? Because it failed to practice humanity and justice, though the conditions for conquest differ from those for defense.

Qin united all within the seas, absorbed the feudal lords, and faced south as emperor to nurture the four seas. Scholars everywhere turned toward it eagerly. Why? For a long time there had been no king. The Zhou house was weak and the five hegemons dead; commands no longer ran across the realm. The lords governed by force: the strong invaded the weak, the many oppressed the few, wars never ceased, and soldiers and civilians were exhausted. Now Qin faced south and ruled the realm: there was a Son of Heaven above. The common people longed for security of life; all looked up to the throne in hope. At that moment the foundation of safety or peril lay in preserving authority and securing achievement.

But the King of Qin cherished greed and meanness and relied on his own stubborn cleverness. He distrusted meritorious ministers and was distant from scholars and people; he discarded the kingly Way, established his own authority, banned writings, and imposed cruel laws. He put deceit and force before humanity and justice and made tyranny the beginning of his rule. To conquer one prizes stratagem and force; to secure a realm one prizes timely accommodation. Conquest and preservation require different methods. Qin left the Warring States behind to rule the world, but did not change its ways or government; it made no distinction between how it won the realm and how it should keep it. Possessing it in isolation, Qin could expect immediate ruin. Had the King of Qin considered earlier ages and the history of Yin and Zhou in fashioning his government, even if later rulers had been wanton and arrogant, the state would not have fallen. Thus the three kings established realms whose illustrious names and achievements endured.

When the Second Emperor came to power, everyone waited expectantly to see how he would govern. To one who shivers a short rough coat is welcome; to the hungry even chaff tastes sweet. The realm’s suffering was an opportunity for its new ruler: a distressed people are easy to win through humanity. Had the Second Emperor acted even like an ordinary ruler, employed loyal and worthy men, and joined his ministers in concern for the realm; had he dressed in mourning and corrected his predecessor’s faults, divided lands and people among descendants of deserving ministers, established states and rulers in accordance with ritual, emptied the prisons and pardoned the condemned, abolished the shameful punishment of confiscating wives and children and sent them home, opened the granaries and distributed wealth to aid the solitary and poor, eased taxes and labor service to relieve the people, simplified law and reduced punishments to support them thereafter, and allowed everyone a new beginning, a changed manner of life, and the chance to cultivate their conduct and guard themselves, meeting the hopes of the people and bestowing power and virtue across the realm: then the world would have rallied to him. Throughout the four seas all would gladly have lived content in their homes and feared any change; even cunning men would not have wished to leave their sovereign, treacherous ministers would have had no place to exercise their craft, and violent rebellion would have ceased. Instead the Second Emperor rejected this course and compounded injustice. He damaged both ancestral shrines and people, resumed work on Epang Palace, multiplied harsh punishments and cruel executions, allowed officials to govern brutally, rewarded and punished without justice, levied taxes without limit, plunged the realm into turmoil beyond his officials’ control, and ignored the people’s poverty and distress. Fraud and wickedness multiplied; high and low evaded one another. So many were condemned that executions lined the roads, and the realm suffered. From ruler and high minister to commoner, each feared for his own safety and endured hardship; none felt secure in his place, and all were easily stirred to revolt. Thus Chen She, though possessing neither the wisdom of Tang and King Wu nor a lord’s rank, raised his arm in the marshlands and the realm responded, because its people lived in fear. The former kings understood how beginnings become endings and what determines survival or destruction: their way of shepherding the people was simply to make them secure. Then even when there are rebellious ministers they find no support. As the saying goes, “Secure people can be led to do right; endangered people are easily led to do wrong.” This is what it means. The Second Emperor was honored as Son of Heaven and possessed the wealth of the realm, yet could not escape a violent death because he failed to right a state on the brink. This was the Second Emperor’s fault.

### The Rulers of Qin: A Chronicle

Duke Xiang succeeded and reigned twelve years. He first established the western altar. He was buried at Xichui and fathered Duke Wen.

Duke Wen succeeded and lived in Xichui Palace. He died after fifty years and was buried at Xichui. He fathered Duke Jing.

Duke Jing died without reigning. He fathered Duke Xian.

Duke Xian reigned twelve years and lived in the new western city. He died and was buried at Ya. He fathered Duke Wu, Duke De, and Chuzi.

Chuzi reigned six years and lived at Xiling. The three senior ministers Fuji, Weilei, and Canfu led assassins to murder Chuzi at Biyan. He was buried at Ya. Duke Wu succeeded.

Duke Wu reigned twenty years and lived at Feng Palace in Pingyang. He was buried southeast of Xuanyang village. The three senior ministers were punished for their crime. Duke De succeeded.

Duke De reigned two years and lived at Dazheng Palace in Yong. He fathered Dukes Xuan, Cheng, and Mu, and was buried at Yang. He first established the summer sacrifice to ward off evil influences.

Duke Xuan reigned twelve years, lived at Yang Palace, and was buried at Yang. He first recorded intercalary months.

Duke Cheng reigned four years, lived in a palace at Yong, and was buried at Yang. Qi attacked the Mountain Rong and Guzhu.

Duke Mu reigned thirty-nine years. The Son of Heaven acknowledged his hegemony. He was buried at Yong. Duke Mu studied under the man named Zhu. He fathered Duke Kang.

Duke Kang reigned twelve years, lived at the High Residence in Yong, and was buried at Qushe. He fathered Duke Gong.

Duke Gong reigned five years and lived at the High Residence in Yong. He was buried south of Duke Kang and fathered Duke Huan.

Duke Huan reigned twenty-seven years, lived at the Great Residence in Yong, and was buried north of Yili hill. He fathered Duke Jing.

Duke Jing reigned forty years, lived at the High Residence in Yong, and was buried south of Qiuli. He fathered Duke Bi.

Duke Bi reigned thirty-six years and was buried north of Cheli. He fathered Duke Yi.

Duke Yi died without reigning and was buried at the Left Palace. He fathered Duke Hui.

Duke Hui reigned ten years and was buried at Cheli beside Kang and Jing. He fathered Duke Dao.

Duke Dao reigned fifteen years and was buried west of Duke Xi. He fortified Yong and fathered Duke Ligong.

Duke Ligong reigned thirty-four years and was buried at Ruli. He fathered Dukes Zao and Huai. In his tenth year a comet appeared.

Duke Zao reigned fourteen years, lived at Shou Residence, and was buried south of Duke Dao. In his first year a comet appeared.

Duke Huai returned from Jin and reigned four years. He was buried at Liyushi and fathered Duke Ling. His ministers surrounded him, and he killed himself.

Duke Suling was the son of Zhaozi. He lived in Jingyang, reigned ten years, was buried west of Duke Dao, and fathered Duke Jian.

Duke Jian returned from Jin, reigned fifteen years, and was buried west of Duke Xi. He fathered Duke Hui. In his seventh year common people first wore swords.

Duke Hui reigned thirteen years and was buried at Lingyu. He fathered Duke Chu.

Duke Chu reigned two years. He killed himself and was buried at Yong.

Duke Xian reigned twenty-three years and was buried at Xiaoyu. He fathered Duke Xiao.

Duke Xiao reigned twenty-four years and was buried at Diyu. He fathered King Huiwen. In his thirteenth year he first made Xianyang the capital.

King Huiwen reigned twenty-seven years and was buried at Gongling. He fathered King Daowu.

King Daowu reigned four years and was buried at Yongling.

King Zhaoxiang reigned fifty-six years and was buried at Zhiyang. He fathered King Xiaowen.

King Xiaowen reigned one year, was buried at Shouling, and fathered King Zhuangxiang.

King Zhuangxiang reigned three years and was buried at Zhiyang. He fathered the First Emperor. Lü Buwei was his chancellor.

In the seventh year of Duke Xian’s reign, markets were first established. In his tenth year, households were registered in groups of five.

In the sixteenth year of Duke Xiao’s reign, peach and plum trees blossomed in winter.

King Huiwen was nineteen years old when he took the throne. In his second year, coinage was first instituted. A newborn infant said: “Qin will be king.”

King Daowu was nineteen years old when he took the throne. In his third year the Wei River ran red for three days.

King Zhaoxiang was nineteen years old when he took the throne. In his fourth year field boundaries were first laid out.

King Xiaowen was fifty-three years old when he took the throne.

King Zhuangxiang was thirty-two years old when he took the throne. In his second year he took Taiyuan territory. In his first year he proclaimed a general amnesty, honored meritorious servants of former kings, showed abundant kindness to his kin, and bestowed favors upon the people. Eastern Zhou plotted with the lords against Qin; Qin sent Chancellor Lü Buwei to destroy it and annex all its territory. Qin did not end its sacrifices, but granted the Zhou lord the land of Yangren to continue them.

The First Emperor reigned thirty-seven years and was buried at Liyi. He fathered the Second Emperor and was thirteen years old when he took the throne.

The Second Emperor reigned three years and was buried at Yichun. Zhao Gao was chancellor and Lord of Anwu. The Second Emperor was twelve years old when he took the throne.

From Duke Xiang of Qin to the Second Emperor spans six hundred and ten years.

### Ban Gu’s Afterword

On the day yichou, the fifteenth day of the tenth month in the seventeenth year of Emperor Xiaoming, Ban Gu wrote:

The Zhou mandate had passed on; a son’s humanity did not supersede his mother’s claim. Qin came rightly to its place, but Zheng of the Lü family was cruel and violent. Nevertheless, becoming a feudal lord at thirteen, he united the realm, indulged his passions and desires, and cared for his kin. For thirty-seven years his armies reached everywhere, and the institutions and decrees he made served later kings. He seems to have wielded a sage’s power: the River God granted him a chart; he occupied the stars Wolf and Fox and trod upon the constellations Three Stars and Punisher. These helped Zheng clear his path, until he styled himself the First Emperor.

After the First Emperor died, Huhai, in his supreme folly, resumed work on Epang before the tomb at Mount Li was finished, following his father’s former design. He declared: “The value of possessing the realm is to indulge one’s every desire; now great ministers would even stop what my father began.” He executed Li Si and Feng Quji and put Zhao Gao in power. What painful words! A human head uttering the cries of a beast. Had he not displayed his might or punished evil, had he not made reckless promises or vainly brought on ruin, he still could not have held back the inevitable. His cruelty hastened the end. Though occupying a state naturally protected, he could not survive.

Ziying inherited the throne according to his place in the succession. He put on a jade crown and splendid sash, rode beneath a yellow canopy, attended by all the officials, and visited the seven ancestral temples. When a small man occupies a station not his own, he loses his bearings, living for each day’s brief peace. Yet Ziying alone could think beyond the moment. Father and sons contrived a stratagem close to home, within their own doors and windows, and at last killed the treacherous minister, punishing a rebel on behalf of his ruler. After Zhao Gao’s death, before guests and relatives could finish congratulating one another, before food had passed their throats or wine touched their lips, Chu troops had already sacked Guanzhong, and the true sovereign soared at Bashang. Ziying came in a plain cart with a cord around his neck and presented his seals and tallies, submitting to the future emperor. When the Earl of Zheng carried thatch standards and the sacrificial knife, King Zhuang withdrew his troops. A breached river cannot be dammed again; rotten fish cannot be made whole. Jia Yi and Sima Qian said: “Had Ziying possessed even the abilities of an ordinary ruler and found a few middling advisers, Qin could have held its territory despite the turmoil east of the mountains, and its ancestral sacrifices need not have ended.” But Qin’s decline was long in the making; the realm was collapsing like earth and tiles. Even a man of the Duke of Zhou’s gifts would have had no chance to display his skill. To blame this solitary ruler of a single day is mistaken! Tradition rightly says that the First Emperor began Qin’s crimes and Huhai carried them to the extreme. To blame the young man as well, claiming he could have preserved Qin’s lands, is to misunderstand the course of events. The Spring and Autumn Annals did not name Ji of Ji for preserving Xi. Whenever I read the Qin Annals and reach Ziying’s execution of Zhao Gao by dismemberment with chariots, I cannot help admiring his resolve and pitying his purpose. Ziying fulfilled the duty of a man whether in life or death.

## Translation — Mouseia

> Mouseia’s complete Plain English edition, made independently and directly from the classical Chinese, covering the whole of chapter 6 of the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), 126 paragraphs, including the Grand Historian’s judgment, Jia Yi’s “Faults of Qin”, the chronicle of the Qin rulers and Ban Gu’s afterword.

### King Zheng of Qin (247–222 BCE)

The First Emperor of Qin was the son of King Zhuangxiang of Qin. When King Zhuangxiang was a hostage from Qin in Zhao, he saw a woman belonging to Lü Buwei, liked her, and married her. She gave birth to the First Emperor. He was born in Handan in the first month of the forty-eighth year of King Zhao of Qin. At birth he was named Zheng and given the surname Zhao. When he was thirteen, King Zhuangxiang died, and Zheng succeeded him as King of Qin. By then Qin had annexed Ba, Shu, and Hanzhong. Beyond Wan it held Ying and had established Nanjun Commandery. In the north it had taken the land east of Shangjun and held the commanderies of Hedong, Taiyuan, and Shangdang. In the east it reached Xingyang; it had destroyed the two Zhou states and established Sanchuan Commandery. Lü Buwei was Chancellor. He was given a fief of a hundred thousand households and the title Lord Wenxin. He recruited guests and traveling scholars, hoping to use them to unite the world. Li Si was one of his retainers. Meng Ao, Wang Yi, and Lord Biao were generals. The king was young when he first took the throne, so he entrusted state affairs to his senior ministers. Jinyang rebelled.

In the first year of the First Emperor of Qin, General Meng Ao attacked and pacified Jinyang.

In the second year, Lord Biao led soldiers against Juan and cut off thirty thousand heads.

In the third year, Meng Ao attacked Han and took thirteen cities. Wang Yi died. In the tenth month, General Meng Ao attacked the Wei towns of Chang and Yougui. There was a severe famine that year.

In the fourth year, Qin captured Chang and Yougui. In the third month the army was disbanded. Qin hostages came home from Zhao, and the crown prince of Zhao left Qin and returned to his country. On the day gengyin in the tenth month, locusts came from the east and covered the sky. Disease spread across the land. Common people who turned in one thousand shi of grain were awarded one rank of nobility.

In the fifth year, General Meng Ao attacked Wei and took the cities of Suanzao, Yan, Xu, Changping, Yongqiu, and Shanyang. In all he captured twenty cities. Qin established Dongjun Commandery for the first time. There was thunder in winter.

In the sixth year, Han, Wei, Zhao, Wei, and Chu joined in attacking Qin and took Shouling. Qin sent out troops and the five states withdrew theirs. Qin took Wei and pressed toward Dongjun. Its ruler Jiao led his relatives to settle in Yewang, where they relied on the mountains to hold Wei's Henei region.

In the seventh year, a comet first appeared in the east, then was seen in the north, and in the fifth month was seen in the west. General Meng Ao died. Qin attacked Long, Gu, and Qingdu, then turned its troops against Ji. A comet appeared again in the west for sixteen days. The Queen Dowager Xia died.

In the eighth year, the king's younger brother Chengjiao, Lord Chang'an, led an army against Zhao but rebelled and died at Tunliu. All the army officers were beheaded, and the local people were moved to Lintao. General Bi died. The soldiers at Tunliu and Puhe rebelled, and his corpse was put on public display. Large numbers of fish came up the Yellow River. Light carts and heavily laden horses went east in search of food.

Lao Ai was made Lord Changxin. The territory of Shanyang was given to him for his residence. He was allowed free use of palaces, carriages, horses, clothing, parks, and hunting grounds. He decided every matter, great or small. The Henei and Taiyuan commanderies were also changed into Lao Ai's domain. In the ninth year a comet appeared, at times stretching across the sky. Qin attacked Yuan and Puyang in Wei. In the fourth month the king stayed at Yong. On the day jiyou he came of age, put on the cap, and took up a sword. Lord Changxin, Lao Ai, plotted a revolt and was discovered. He had forged the king's imperial seal and the queen dowager's seal to call out county soldiers, guards, official cavalry, Rong and Di chiefs and nobles, and his own retainers. He intended to attack Qinian Palace and start a rebellion. When the king learned of it, he ordered the Chancellor, Lord Changping, and Lord Changwen to call out troops against Lao Ai. They fought at Xianyang and cut off several hundred heads. All the fighters were granted noble rank, including the eunuchs who took part; they too received one rank. Lao Ai and his men were defeated and fled. The king immediately proclaimed throughout the state: whoever captured Lao Ai alive would receive one million coins; whoever killed him, five hundred thousand. Lao Ai and all his men were caught. The Guard Commander Jie, the Interior Scribe Si, the Assistant Archer Jie, the Grandee Ling Qi, and twenty others had their heads displayed on poles. Lao Ai was torn apart by carts and his remains displayed publicly; his entire family was wiped out. Among his retainers, those with lighter sentences were sentenced to hard labor gathering firewood for the shrines. More than four thousand families were stripped of noble rank and exiled to Shu, to settle at Fangling. In that month there was freezing cold, and some people died. Yang Duanhe attacked Yanshi. A comet appeared in the west and then in the north, extending south from the Dipper for eighty days. In the tenth year, Chancellor Lü Buwei was removed from office for his involvement in Lao Ai's case. Huan Yi became a general. Envoys from Qi and Zhao came and held a banquet. Mao Jiao of Qi advised the King of Qin: “Qin is now seeking to rule the whole world, but Your Majesty has gained a reputation for exiling your mother, the queen dowager. I fear that when the other rulers hear of it, they will turn against Qin.” The King of Qin then went to Yong to bring the queen dowager back to Xianyang, where she again lived in Ganquan Palace.

A major search was carried out, and an order went out expelling foreign guests. Li Si submitted an argument against the order, and it was withdrawn. Li Si then advised the King of Qin to take Han first in order to frighten the other states. The king sent him to Han. The King of Han was alarmed and discussed with Han Fei how to weaken Qin. Wei Liao of Daliang came to the King of Qin and said: “With Qin's strength, the other rulers are like the heads of commanderies and counties. I only fear that they may form an alliance and join forces to strike unexpectedly. That was how Zhibo, Fuchai, and King Min were destroyed. Your Majesty should not be stingy with money and goods. Bribe their powerful ministers to disrupt their plans. It will cost no more than three hundred thousand pieces of gold, and all the other states can be brought under your control.” The King of Qin followed his plan. He received Wei Liao with the courtesy due to an equal and wore the same clothes and ate and drank the same things as he did. Wei Liao said: “The King of Qin has a wasp-like nose, long eyes, a bird of prey's chest, and a jackal's voice. He has little kindness and the heart of a tiger or wolf. When pressed, he can easily humble himself before others, but when he gets what he wants he will just as easily devour them. I am a commoner, yet when he meets me he always lowers himself before me. If the King of Qin really gets his way in the world, everyone will become his captive. I cannot stay with him long.” He fled. The King of Qin noticed and insisted that he stay. He made Wei Liao Qin's chief military officer and ultimately followed his plans. Li Si also gained power.

In the eleventh year, Wang Jian, Huan Yi, and Yang Duanhe attacked Ye and took nine cities. Wang Jian attacked Eyu and Liaoyang, combining all his troops into one army. After eighteen days in command, Jian sent home the soldiers of the lowest pay grade and below; from every ten men he selected two to continue with the army in taking Ye and Anyang. Huan Yi commanded them. In the twelfth year, Lord Wenxin, Lü Buwei, died and was buried in secret. His retainers who attended his funeral were treated as follows: those from Jin were expelled; those from Qin with a salary of six hundred shi or more lost their noble rank and were exiled; those with a salary of five hundred shi or less who had not attended were exiled without losing their rank. An order declared: “From now on, anyone who handles state affairs as unlawfully as Lao Ai or Lü Buwei will have his entire household registered and dealt with in this way.” In autumn, the retainers of Lao Ai who had been exiled to Shu were allowed to return. At this time there was a severe drought across the land; rain finally fell between the sixth and eighth months.

In the thirteenth year, Huan Yi attacked Pingyang in Zhao, killed the Zhao general Hu Zhe, and cut off a hundred thousand heads. The king went to Henan. In the first month a comet appeared in the east. In the tenth month Huan Yi attacked Zhao. In the fourteenth year he attacked the Zhao army at Pingyang, took Yi'an, defeated the army, and killed its general. Huan Yi secured Pingyang and Wucheng. Han Fei came as an envoy to Qin. On Li Si's advice, Qin detained him, and he died at Yunyang. The King of Han asked to become Qin's subject.

In the fifteenth year, Qin called up a large army. One force went to Ye and another to Taiyuan, where it took Langmeng. There was an earthquake. In the ninth month of the sixteenth year, troops were sent to accept the territory of Nanyang in Han from its acting governor Teng. For the first time men were required to register their ages. Wei ceded land to Qin. Qin established Liyi. In the seventeenth year, Interior Scribe Teng attacked Han, captured its king An, and took all its territory. Qin made it a commandery named Yingchuan. There was an earthquake. The Queen Dowager Huayang died. The people suffered a severe famine.

In the eighteenth year, Qin mobilized a large army against Zhao. Wang Jian led forces from Shangdi down through Jingxing, while Yang Duanhe led forces from Henei. Qiang Hui attacked Zhao, and Yang Duanhe surrounded Handan. In the nineteenth year, Wang Jian and Qiang Hui finished conquering Zhao's Dongyang territory and captured the King of Zhao. They moved their troops toward Yan and camped at Zhongshan. The King of Qin went to Handan and had buried alive all those who had feuded with his mother's family when he was born in Zhao. On his return he traveled through Taiyuan and Shangjun. The First Emperor's mother, the queen dowager, died. Prince Jia of Zhao led several hundred members of his clan to Dai and made himself King of Dai. In the east he joined his forces with Yan and camped at Shanggu. There was a severe famine.

In the twentieth year, Crown Prince Dan of Yan was worried that Qin's army would reach his country. He was afraid and sent Jing Ke to assassinate the King of Qin. The king discovered the plot, had Jing Ke's body cut into pieces and displayed publicly, and sent Wang Jian and Xin Sheng against Yan. Yan and Dai raised troops against the Qin army, but Qin defeated Yan west of the Yi River. In the twenty-first year, Wang Ben attacked Jing. More soldiers were sent to Wang Jian's army; he defeated the crown prince's army, took Ji, the capital of Yan, and obtained Crown Prince Dan's head. The King of Yan withdrew east to Liaodong and ruled there. Wang Jian pleaded illness and old age and returned home. Xinzheng rebelled. Lord Changping was moved to Ying. Heavy snow fell, two feet and five inches deep.

In the twenty-second year, Wang Ben attacked Wei, channeling the waters of the Yellow River to flood Daliang. The city's walls collapsed, its king asked to surrender, and Qin took all its territory.

In the twenty-third year, the King of Qin summoned Wang Jian again and pressed him to come out of retirement and lead an attack on Jing. He took the land from Chen south to Pingyu and captured the King of Jing. The King of Qin traveled to Ying and Chen. Xiang Yan, a Jing general, made Lord Changping King of Jing and rebelled against Qin south of the Huai River. In the twenty-fourth year, Wang Jian and Meng Wu attacked Jing and defeated its army. Lord Changping died, and Xiang Yan killed himself.

In the twenty-fifth year, Qin mobilized a large army under Wang Ben. He attacked Yan in Liaodong and captured its king Xi. He returned to attack Dai and captured its king Jia. Wang Jian finished conquering Jing's lands south of the Yangtze. He subdued the Yue rulers and established Kuaiji Commandery. In the fifth month, there were great public feasts throughout the land.

### The First Emperor (221 BCE)

In the twenty-sixth year, King Jian of Qi and his Chancellor Hou Sheng sent troops to guard their western border and cut off contact with Qin. Qin sent General Wang Ben south from Yan to attack Qi, and he captured King Jian.

When the King of Qin first united the lands under his rule, he ordered the Chancellor and Imperial Counselor to consider this statement: “The King of Han once handed over his lands and presented his seal, asking to become a dependent ruler. Then he broke the agreement and joined Zhao and Wei in an alliance against Qin. So we raised troops to punish him and captured their king. I thought this was good and hoped the fighting would stop. The King of Zhao sent his Chancellor Li Mu to make a treaty with us, so I sent back his hostage son. Then he broke the treaty and rebelled against us in Taiyuan. We raised troops to punish him and captured his king. Prince Jia of Zhao then declared himself King of Dai, so we sent troops to destroy him. The King of Wei first agreed to submit to Qin, but then planned an attack with Han and Zhao. Our troops punished him and defeated him. The King of Jing offered us the lands west of Qingyang, but then broke the agreement and attacked our Nanjun Commandery. So we sent troops to punish him, captured his king, and secured all his land. The King of Yan was confused and disorderly. His crown prince Dan secretly sent Jing Ke to commit murder. Our troops punished him and destroyed his state. The King of Qi followed Hou Sheng's advice, cut off Qin's envoys, and planned a rebellion. Our troops punished him, captured the king, and pacified Qi. Though I am only one insignificant man, I raised troops to punish violence and rebellion. Thanks to the spirits of my ancestors, all six kings have paid for their crimes, and the world is at peace. But unless the titles are changed, there is no way to honor this success and hand its memory down to later generations. Discuss a title for the emperor.” Chancellor Wang, Imperial Counselor Jie, Commandant of Justice Li Si, and the others said: “In the past, each of the Five Emperors ruled a territory a thousand li across. Beyond it were lords of the outer and foreign territories. Some came to court and others did not; the Son of Heaven could not control them. Now Your Majesty has raised an army for a just cause, punished cruel criminals, and pacified the whole world. All the lands within the seas have become commanderies and counties, and laws and orders come from one ruler. This has never happened since earliest times, and the Five Emperors did not achieve it. We have respectfully consulted with the Erudites, who say: ‘In ancient times there was a Heavenly Sovereign, an Earthly Sovereign, and a Great Sovereign. The Great Sovereign was the most honored.’ At the risk of our lives, we propose that the king take the honored title ‘Great Sovereign’; that his commands be called ‘decrees,’ his orders ‘edicts,’ and that the Son of Heaven call himself ‘We.’” The king said: “Leave out ‘Great’ and keep ‘Sovereign.’ Add the ancient title ‘Emperor,’ making the title ‘Sovereign Emperor.’ The rest can be as you propose.” His decree said: “Approved.” He gave King Zhuangxiang the posthumous title Supreme Sovereign. He issued this decree: “I have heard that in remote antiquity rulers had titles but no posthumous names. In later antiquity they had titles and after death were given names based on their conduct. That lets a son judge his father and a minister judge his ruler. It makes no sense, and I will not accept it. From now on, end the practice of posthumous names. I am the First Emperor. Later rulers will be numbered the Second, the Third, up to the ten-thousandth generation, passing the rule on without end.”

The First Emperor applied the theory that the five powers succeed one another. He held that Zhou had the power of fire and that Qin was replacing Zhou with the power that conquers it. This was the beginning of the power of water. He changed the start of the year, making court celebrations begin on the first day of the tenth month. Clothes, horsehair standards, emblems, and flags all favored black. Six became the standard number: tallies and ceremonial caps were six inches long, carriages were six feet long, a pace was six feet, and six horses drew a carriage. He renamed the Yellow River the Virtuous Water, seeing it as a sign that the power of water had begun. He was stern, determined, and severe. Every matter was settled by law, with harsh penalties and no kindness, compassion, moderation, or justice. In this way he followed the reckoning of the five powers. He tightened the laws and did not pardon people whose sentences had been long in force.

Chancellor Wang and others said: “The other states have only just been defeated. Yan, Qi, and Jing are far away. Unless we appoint kings there, we cannot keep them under control. We ask that your sons be made kings, if Your Majesty will approve.” The First Emperor put this proposal to the ministers, who all thought it wise. Commandant of Justice Li Si said: “Kings Wen and Wu of Zhou gave fiefs to many sons, brothers, and men of the same clan. Later their descendants grew distant and attacked one another like enemies. The feudal lords killed and fought each other, and the Zhou Son of Heaven could not stop them. Now all the lands within the seas have been united thanks to Your Majesty's divine power and made into commanderies and counties. Your sons and deserving ministers can be richly rewarded from public taxes. That is enough and makes them easy to control. If no one has reason to oppose the government, the world will be peaceful. Appointing feudal lords is unwise.” The First Emperor said: “Everyone has suffered from endless war because there were lords and kings. Thanks to our ancestors, the world has just been pacified. If we establish kingdoms again, we plant the seeds of war. How could we then expect peace? The Commandant of Justice is right.”

He divided the world into thirty-six commanderies, each with a governor, a military commander, and an inspector. He renamed the common people “black-haired people.” Great public feasts were held. He collected weapons from across the land and gathered them at Xianyang, where they were melted down to make bells and their stands, and twelve bronze figures, each weighing one thousand shi. These were placed in the palace court. He standardized laws, measuring vessels, weights, and lengths. Carriage axles were set at a uniform width. Writing used the same characters everywhere. The territory reached east to the sea and Korea, west to Lintao and the lands of the Qiang, south to the land where doors face north, and north to the Yellow River, which served as a border barrier. It included the Yin Mountains and extended to Liaodong. He moved a hundred and twenty thousand wealthy and powerful households from across the land to Xianyang. All the ancestral shrines, as well as Zhangtai and Shanglin, stood south of the Wei River. Whenever Qin defeated another state, it made a copy of its palaces on the northern slope of Xianyang overlooking the Wei to the south. From Yong Gate east to the Jing and Wei rivers, the halls, covered walkways, and surrounding galleries joined one another. The beautiful women, bells, and drums taken from the other rulers filled them.

In the twenty-seventh year, the First Emperor toured Longxi and Beidi, went out to Mount Jitou, and passed through Huizhong. He then built Xin Palace south of the Wei River, renaming it the Pole Temple to represent the pole of heaven. A road was opened from the Pole Temple to Mount Li, and a front hall was built at Ganquan. A covered passageway connected it to Xianyang. That year everyone was awarded one rank of nobility. Highways were built.

### Tours and Inscriptions (219–215 BCE)

In the twenty-eighth year, the First Emperor traveled east through the commanderies and counties and climbed Mount Yi near Zou. He set up a stone monument and discussed with scholars from Lu the words to be carved on it praising Qin's achievements. He also discussed sacrifices to heaven and earth and offerings to mountains and rivers. Then he climbed Mount Tai, set up a stone, performed the feng sacrifice, and offered worship. On his way down a sudden storm broke. He took shelter under a tree and awarded it the rank of Fifth Grandee. He performed the shan sacrifice at Liangfu. The inscription carved on the stone said:

When the emperor came to the throne, he made decrees and clarified laws, and his ministers set their affairs in order. In the twenty-sixth year he first united the world, and everyone submitted. He went in person to inspect the people in distant places, climbed this Mount Tai, and surveyed the far eastern horizon. His accompanying ministers reflected on his deeds, considered the beginnings of his work, and respectfully praised his achievements. The principles of government are in operation; all kinds of production follow their proper course, each according to a set pattern. Great justice shines clearly and is handed down to future generations, who must follow it without change. The emperor himself is wise. Once he had pacified the world, he did not relax his efforts at governing. He rose early and went to sleep late, established lasting benefits, and devoted himself to promoting instruction. His teachings and principles are spread abroad. Far and near, everyone is properly governed and follows his wise will. The difference between high and low ranks is clear; men and women observe their proper conduct and carefully fulfill their duties. The division between the household and the outside world is plain; all is pure and orderly, and this will reach later generations. His transforming influence will continue without end. They will obey his final decrees and always heed his solemn warnings.

Then he traveled along the coast east of the Bohai Sea, passed Huang and Chui, reached the end of Chengshan, and climbed Mount Zhifu. There he erected a stone praising Qin's achievements and went on.

He climbed Langya in the south, liked it greatly, and stayed three months. He moved thirty thousand households of common people to the foot of Langya Terrace and exempted them from taxes and labor duties for twelve years. He built Langya Terrace and erected a carved stone praising Qin's achievements and setting out his intentions. It said:

In the twenty-eighth year the emperor began his work. He set laws and measures straight as the standard for everything. He clarified human affairs and united fathers and sons. With wisdom, understanding, kindness, and justice he made the principles clear. He traveled east to care for the eastern lands and inspect the soldiers. Once his great work was complete, he came to the sea. The emperor's achievement is to encourage hard work in the essential occupations. He promotes farming and removes unproductive pursuits, making the common people prosperous. Beneath the whole sky, people unite their hearts and direct their wills toward him. Tools and measures are uniform; written characters are the same. Everywhere the sun and moon shine, everywhere boats and carts can carry people, everyone lives out a full life and gets what they desire. The emperor acts at the right time. He corrects and orders different customs, crossing rivers and traveling across the land. He cares for the common people and never rests, morning or evening. He removes doubts and establishes laws, so all know what to avoid. Regional officials have separate duties and the workings of government are simple. Every action is appropriate; everything goes as planned. With the emperor's clear sight he examines all four directions. The honored and humble, the high and low, do not step beyond their proper rank. Langya does not tolerate wrongdoing; all strive to be honest and good. All, great and small, work with all their strength; no one dares to be lazy or neglectful. Far and near, open and hidden places, all are devoted to serious and orderly conduct. They are upright, sincere, and loyal; their work follows a steady pattern. The emperor's power keeps the four farthest regions secure. He punishes disorder and removes harm; he promotes benefits and brings good fortune. Work is arranged to suit the seasons, and all products increase. The common people live in peace and have no need for weapons. Relatives protect one another, and there are no more raiders or thieves. They gladly follow his teaching and all know the laws and standards. Everything within the six directions is the emperor's land. In the west it crosses the moving sands; in the south it reaches the lands where doors face north. In the east is the Eastern Sea, and in the north it extends beyond Daxia. Wherever people have set foot, all are his subjects. His achievements exceed those of the Five Emperors. His kindness even reaches cattle and horses; all receive its benefits and live securely in their homes.

When the King of Qin had united the world and taken the title of emperor, he traveled east to care for the eastern lands and reached Langya. The nobles Wang Li, Lord Wucheng, and Wang Ben, Lord Tongwu; the nobles of another rank Zhao Hai, Lord Jiancheng, Cheng, Lord Changwu, and Feng Wuze, Lord Wuxin; Chancellors Kui Lin and Wang Wan; ministers Li Si and Wang Wu; and the Fifth Grandees Zhao Ying and Yang Jiu accompanied him and discussed matters with him by the sea. They said: “The emperors of antiquity held no more than a thousand li of land. The other lords each guarded his own fief. Some came to court and others did not. They attacked one another and spread disorder, and their cruel wars never stopped; still they carved inscriptions on metal and stone as records of themselves. The Five Emperors and Three Kings of ancient times had different ideas about instruction and unclear laws and standards. They borrowed the authority of spirits to deceive distant peoples. Their deeds did not live up to their names, so their rule did not last. Before they died, other rulers broke away and rebelled, and their laws and orders went unenforced. Now the emperor has united all the lands within the seas, made them into commanderies and counties, and brought peace to the world. He has honored and brought glory to the ancestral temples, followed the right way and practiced virtue, and fully earned his exalted title. We ministers together praise the emperor's achievements and carve them in metal and stone as a public standard.”

Afterward, Xu Fu and others from Qi submitted a memorial. They said that three sacred mountains stood in the sea, named Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou, where immortals lived. They asked permission to purify themselves and seek the mountains with boys and girls. Xu Fu was therefore sent out to recruit several thousand boys and girls and sail into the sea in search of immortals.

On his return, the First Emperor passed through Pengcheng. He purified himself and offered prayers and sacrifices, hoping to retrieve the Zhou ritual cauldron from the Si River. He sent a thousand men to dive for it, but they did not find it. He then crossed the Huai River to the southwest and went to Hengshan and Nanjun Commandery. He sailed down the Yangtze to the shrine at Mount Xiang. A strong wind nearly prevented him from crossing. The emperor asked an Erudite: “Who is the spirit Lord Xiang?” The Erudite answered: “I have heard that she was Yao's daughter and Shun's wife, and that she is buried here.” The First Emperor became very angry and ordered three thousand convicts to cut down all the trees on Mount Xiang, leaving its soil bare and red. The emperor returned from Nanjun through Wuguan Pass.

In the twenty-ninth year, the First Emperor toured the east. At Bolangsha in Yangwu he was startled by an attacker. The attacker could not be found, so he ordered a wide search across the land for ten days.

He climbed Mount Zhifu and carved a stone. Its inscription said:

In the twenty-ninth year, in the middle of spring, warmth was just beginning. The emperor traveled east, climbed Mount Zhifu on his tour, and looked out across the sea. His accompanying ministers praised the sight, reflected on his fine achievements, and recalled the start of his work. This great sage established government and fixed laws and standards, making the rules of order clear. He instructed the other rulers, spread enlightened kindness, and made justice and reason plain. The six states were crooked and corrupt, endlessly greedy and violent, and never stopped their cruel killing. The emperor pitied the people and sent out an army to punish them, showing the strength of his forces and his virtue. He punished them justly and kept his word; his power spread far and wide, and all submitted. He destroyed the strong and violent, rescued the common people, and secured the four farthest regions. He spread clear laws everywhere and ordered the whole world by them as a lasting standard. How great he is! Throughout the world, people follow his wise will. His ministers praise his achievements and ask to carve them on stone as a permanent record of his standards.

The inscription on the eastern overlook said:

In the twenty-ninth year the emperor toured in spring and inspected distant regions. When he reached the edge of the sea he climbed Mount Zhifu and stood in the light of the morning sun. His ministers surveyed the broad and beautiful view. They all reflected on the principles of his government and its perfect clarity. When his wise laws were first put in place, they settled the territory within the borders and punished powerful oppressors outside them. His military power spread far and shook the four farthest regions; he captured and destroyed the six kings. He united the world openly, ended disasters and harm, and put weapons away forever. The emperor's clear virtue puts all the lands in order, and he never tires of watching and listening. He established great principles and made equipment and tools clear, all with regulated signs and banners. Officials keep to their assigned duties and each knows what to do, so nothing is left uncertain. The common people have changed their ways; near and far they follow the same standards, surpassing all earlier ages. With regular duties established, his successors will continue his work and uphold his wise rule for a long time. His ministers praise his virtue and respectfully recount his great deeds, and ask to carve them on Mount Zhifu.

He turned back, went on to Langya, and returned by way of Shangdang.

In the thirtieth year, nothing happened.

In the twelfth month of the thirty-first year, the year-end sacrifice was renamed “Jia Ping,” or Auspicious Peace. Each community of commoners received six shi of rice and two sheep. The First Emperor traveled around Xianyang in disguise with four armed men. At night they met robbers at Lanchi and were cornered. His guards killed the robbers, and a wide search was conducted in the Guanzhong region for twenty days. Rice cost sixteen hundred coins per shi.

In the thirty-second year, the First Emperor went to Jieshi and sent Lu Sheng, a man from Yan, to look for Xianmen and Gaoshi. He carved an inscription at Jieshi Gate. He demolished city walls and broke open embankments. The inscription said:

He raised armies to punish and kill the lawless and end rebellion. By force he destroyed violent rebels; by civil rule he restored the innocent, and all the people willingly submitted. He kindly recognized service and rewarded even cattle and horses; his generosity enriched the land. The emperor exerted his power and brought the other rulers under his rule. For the first time all were united in great peace. He tore down city walls, opened up waterways and their barriers, and cleared away obstacles. Once the land was secured, the people no longer had to serve in forced labor, and everyone lived under his protection. Men enjoyed their fields and women worked at their trades; each occupation had its proper order. His kindness reached every kind of production; long-established fields and newly opened farmland alike were secure. His ministers praised his great deeds and asked to carve them on this stone, to pass down his standards.

He sent Han Zhong, Hou Gong, and Shi Sheng to seek the immortals and their medicine for eternal life. The First Emperor toured the northern border and returned by way of Shangjun. Lu Sheng came back from his voyage into the sea. On the subject of spirits, he presented records and diagrams that said, “The Hu will destroy Qin.” The First Emperor then ordered General Meng Tian to raise three hundred thousand men and attack the Hu in the north, taking the lands south of the Yellow River.

In the thirty-third year, he called up people who had once fled from justice, men living with their wives' families, and merchants to seize the lands of Luliang. He established Guilin, Xiang, and Nanhai commanderies and sent convicts to garrison them. In the northwest he drove back the Xiongnu. Along the Yellow River eastward from Yuzhong to the Yin Mountains he established thirty-four counties and built fortified settlements beside the river as a barrier. He also sent Meng Tian across the Yellow River to take Gaoque, Yangshan, and Beijiazhong. He built lookout posts and defenses to drive out the Rong people. He moved exiles to populate the newly founded counties. Worship at shrines was forbidden. A bright star appeared in the west.

### The Burning of the Books and the Scholars (213–211 BCE)

In the thirty-fourth year, officials who had handled trials unfairly were sentenced to work on the Great Wall and in the Southern Yue region.

The First Emperor held a banquet at Xianyang Palace. Seventy Erudites stepped forward to wish him long life. Zhou Qingchen, the director of the palace attendants, praised him: “In the past Qin's territory was no more than a thousand li across. Thanks to Your Majesty's divine wisdom, you have pacified all the lands within the seas and driven out the foreign peoples. Everywhere the sun and moon shine, all submit to you. You have turned the other states into commanderies and counties, so everyone lives in peace and happiness without fearing war. This will last ten thousand generations. Since earliest times, no one has equaled Your Majesty's power and achievements.” The First Emperor was pleased. Chunyu Yue, an Erudite from Qi, stepped forward and said: “I have heard that the Yin and Zhou kings ruled for over a thousand years because they gave fiefs to their sons, brothers, and deserving ministers, who served as their supporting branches. Your Majesty now possesses the whole world, yet your sons and brothers are commoners. If ministers like Tian Chang or the Six Ministers should suddenly appear, how could you save yourself without any supporters? I have never heard that anyone who fails to learn from the past can last long. Qingchen now flatters you to your face, making your errors worse. He is not a loyal minister.” The First Emperor referred the proposal to his ministers. Chancellor Li Si said: “The Five Emperors did not copy one another, nor did the Three Dynasties. Each governed in its own way, not because they opposed one another, but because times had changed. Your Majesty has begun a great work and established achievements that will last ten thousand generations. A foolish scholar like Yue cannot understand them. Besides, Yue is talking about the Three Dynasties. Why should we follow their example? Formerly the states fought one another and eagerly recruited traveling scholars. Now the world is settled and all laws and orders come from one government. Common people should apply their strength at home to farming and crafts, and officials should study the laws and prohibitions. Instead, these scholars study the past rather than the present. They criticize our age and confuse the common people. I, your Chancellor Li Si, speak at the risk of my life: In ancient times the world was divided and no one could unite it. The other rulers arose everywhere. People talked of the past to attack the present, dressing up empty words to confuse reality. Each praised his private school of thought to criticize what the ruler had established. Now the emperor has united the world, distinguished right from wrong, and fixed a single authority. But people privately study together and criticize the laws and teachings. When an order is issued, each discusses it according to his own school. At court they privately disagree; outside they criticize it in the streets. They seek fame by showing off to the ruler, take pride in unusual views, and lead the people below them to spread slander. Unless we prohibit this, the ruler's authority will decline at the top and factions will form below. It is best to forbid it. I ask that the records kept by historians, other than those of Qin, all be burned. Except for the books in the charge of the Erudites, anyone in the world who keeps the Songs, the Documents, or the writings of the various schools must bring them to the governors and military commanders to be burned together. Anyone who dares discuss the Songs and Documents with another person is to be executed in the marketplace. Anyone who uses the past to criticize the present is to have his family killed. An official who knows of this and does not report it will receive the same punishment. Anyone who has not burned his books thirty days after the order is issued will be branded on the face and sentenced to labor on the walls. Books on medicine, divination, and growing trees will not be destroyed. Anyone who wants to learn the laws and orders should take officials as his teachers.” The emperor's decree said: “Approved.”

In the thirty-fifth year, a road was cleared from Jiuyuan to Yunyang, cutting through mountains and filling valleys to make it straight. The First Emperor felt that Xianyang had too many people and the palaces of earlier kings were too small. He said: “I have heard that King Wen of Zhou made his capital at Feng and King Wu at Hao. The land between Feng and Hao is the proper site for an emperor's capital.” He began building a palace for court audiences in Shanglin Park, south of the Wei River. The first building was the front hall of Epang Palace. It was five hundred paces from east to west and fifty zhang from north to south. Its upper floor could seat ten thousand people, and a flag five zhang tall could stand underneath. Elevated walkways ran around it, and one led directly from beneath the hall to the Southern Mountains. The summit of the mountains was marked out to serve as a gate tower. He built a covered walkway across the Wei River from Epang to Xianyang, representing the sky's elevated passage across the Milky Way from the pole star to the constellation Yingshi. Epang Palace was not yet finished. Once it was finished, he intended to choose a better name for it. Because it was being built at Epang, people throughout the world called it Epang Palace. More than seven hundred thousand castrated men and convicts sentenced to hard labor were divided between work on Epang Palace and Mount Li. Stone for the burial chambers was brought from the northern mountains, and timber was shipped in from Shu and Jing. There were altogether three hundred palaces within the passes and more than four hundred outside. He erected a stone at Qu on the shore of the Eastern Sea to mark Qin's eastern gate. He moved thirty thousand families to Liyi and fifty thousand to Yunyang; all were exempted from taxes and service for ten years.

Lu Sheng told the First Emperor: “We have searched for the magic herbs, strange medicines, and immortals but never found them. It appears that some force is keeping them away. According to the methods of our craft, a ruler should sometimes travel in disguise to avoid evil spirits. When the evil spirits are driven off, a true immortal will come. If the ruler's ministers know where he lives, this interferes with his spiritual power. A true immortal can go into water without getting wet or into fire without burning, ride above the clouds, and live as long as heaven and earth. Now Your Majesty governs the world but has not yet achieved calm detachment. I ask that you keep your residence secret. Then you may be able to obtain the medicine of eternal life.” The First Emperor said: “I admire the true immortals. I shall call myself ‘True Immortal’ instead of ‘We.’” He then ordered the 270 palaces and towers within two hundred li of Xianyang to be connected by raised and enclosed passageways. Curtains, bells, drums, and beautiful women filled them, each kept in its assigned place without being moved. Anyone who revealed where the emperor went would be put to death. When the First Emperor visited Liangshan Palace, he looked down from the mountain and saw that the Chancellor had many carriages and riders. He disliked it. Someone in the palace told the Chancellor, who afterward reduced the size of his escort. The First Emperor was angry and said: “Someone in the palace has leaked my words.” An investigation was held, but no one confessed. He ordered everyone who had been nearby at the time arrested and killed. From then on nobody knew where he was traveling. He conducted government business and gave his ministers decisions on all matters at Xianyang Palace.

Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng discussed the emperor together: “The First Emperor is naturally harsh, stubborn, and determined to do things his own way. He rose from among the other rulers and united the world. Now that he has got his wish, he thinks that no one in history has ever equaled him. He relies entirely on the officials who handle criminal cases and gives them his favor. The seventy Erudites are only there to fill positions; he does not use them. The Chancellor and other senior ministers receive decisions already made and depend on the emperor to settle questions. The emperor enjoys using punishments and executions to show his power. Everyone fears punishment and clings to a salary, so no one dares to speak honestly. The emperor does not hear about his errors and grows more arrogant every day. His subjects cower and deceive him to win his favor. Qin law says that anyone who practices more than one magical method and fails to get results must be put to death. Yet as many as three hundred men observe the stars and heavenly vapors. They are all capable men, but they fear breaking taboos and flatter him instead of telling him frankly where he is wrong. Every affair in the world, great or small, is decided by the emperor. He even weighs the documents he reads by the shi. There is a daily quota, and until he meets it he cannot rest, day or night. He is so greedy for power. We cannot search for the medicine of immortality for him.” They fled. On learning of their escape, the First Emperor grew furious and said: “Earlier I collected all the books in the world that were of no use and destroyed them. I summoned very many scholars and practitioners of magical arts, hoping to bring about peace. The magicians were to refine substances in search of strange medicines. Now I hear that Han Zhong left without reporting back. Xu Fu and the others have spent tens of millions, yet have found no medicine; every day I hear fresh reports of their dishonest schemes for profit. I honored Lu Sheng and the others and gave them generous rewards, but now they slander me and add to my bad reputation. As for the scholars in Xianyang, I have sent people to investigate them in secret. Some are spreading wild stories to confuse the common people.” He sent the Imperial Counselors to question all the scholars. The scholars implicated one another, and more than 460 who had broken the prohibitions were identified. They were all buried alive at Xianyang. He made this known throughout the land as a warning to others. He sent even more convicted people into exile on the border. Fusu, the First Emperor's eldest son, advised him: “The world has only recently been pacified, and people in distant regions are not yet settled. These scholars all study and recite Confucius's teachings. If Your Majesty punishes them severely under the law, I fear the world will become unsettled. Please consider this.” The First Emperor was angry and sent Fusu north to oversee Meng Tian in Shangjun.

In the thirty-sixth year, Mars stayed in the constellation Heart. A falling star landed in Dongjun and became a stone. Someone among the common people carved on it: “The First Emperor will die and the land will be divided.” When the emperor heard, he sent an Imperial Counselor to investigate, but no one confessed. He had everyone living near the stone arrested and killed, and had the stone burned and broken down. The First Emperor was unhappy. He had the Erudites compose poems about immortals and true immortals and the places he had visited in his travels, and ordered musicians to sing and play them. In autumn, an envoy returning from east of the passes passed along the Pingshu Road at Huayin by night. Someone blocked his way, holding a jade disk, and said: “Deliver this to the Lord of Haochi for me.” The person added: “The ancestral dragon will die this year.” The envoy asked why, but the person suddenly vanished, leaving the disk behind. The envoy presented it with a full report. The First Emperor was silent for a long while, then said: “A mountain spirit knows only about the coming year's events.” Later he said: “The ancestral dragon means the first of men.” He had the imperial treasury inspect the disk. It proved to be the one he had dropped into the river when crossing it in the twenty-eighth year. He then consulted the diviners and received a sign that travel and resettlement would be fortunate. He moved thirty thousand families to Yuzhong on the northern Yellow River and awarded them one rank of nobility.

### The Last Journey and the Death of the First Emperor (210 BCE)

On the day guichou in the tenth month of the thirty-seventh year, the First Emperor set out on a tour. Li Si, the Left Chancellor, went with him; Quji, the Right Chancellor, stayed behind. His youngest son Huhai loved and admired him and asked to come; the emperor agreed. In the eleventh month they reached Yunmeng and made offerings from a distance to Yu Shun at Mount Jiuyi. They sailed down the Yangtze, looked at Jike, and crossed Haizhu. They passed Danyang and reached Qiantang. At the Zhe River they found rough water, so they went 120 li west and crossed at a narrow place. He climbed Mount Kuaiji, offered a sacrifice to Great Yu, and made offerings toward the Southern Sea. He set up a stone with an inscription praising Qin's achievements. It read:

The emperor's great achievements have pacified and united the whole world, and his kindness will last a long time. In the thirty-seventh year he traveled in person throughout the land and surveyed distant places. He climbed Mount Kuaiji to make his inspection and announce his teachings about local customs, and the common people behaved with solemn care. His ministers praised his achievements, reviewed his deeds from their beginnings, and recalled his brilliant first acts. When Qin's wise ruler took control, he first fixed the names of punishments and made the former statutes clear. He set the laws and standards in order and assigned offices and duties carefully, establishing lasting rules. The six kings acted alone and broke their word. Greedy, harsh, arrogant, and fierce, they relied on their peoples to make themselves strong. They acted cruelly at will and, proud of their power, repeatedly raised armies. They secretly exchanged envoys to form an alliance, and their actions were crooked and improper. At home they planned deceitful schemes; abroad they came to invade the border, starting disaster. The emperor's just power punished them and put an end to their violent rebellion, destroying the troublemakers. His wise power is broad and thorough; his benefits reach without limit throughout the six directions. The emperor has united the world and hears every matter; all is clear, near and far. He governs everything, examines the facts, and gives each thing its proper name. High and low alike have access to him; good and bad are presented openly, and nothing is hidden. He examines and proclaims what is right. If a woman marries while she has a son, she betrays her dead husband and is unfaithful. He keeps men and women apart and forbids sexual misconduct so they live faithfully and honestly. If a husband has sex in another household like a breeding boar, killing him is no crime; men must follow the rules of justice. If a wife runs off and remarries, her son no longer regards her as his mother. All are transformed into honest, pure people. His great government washes away bad customs; the whole world follows his example and benefits from his fine rules. All obey the standards, living in peace and working diligently, and no one disobeys an order. The common people behave properly and take pleasure in sharing one set of rules; they gladly preserve great peace. Later generations will respectfully follow the laws; their rule will last without end, and carriages and boats will not overturn. His accompanying ministers praise his great deeds and ask to carve this stone and leave a brilliant, honored inscription for the future.

On his return he passed through Wu and crossed the river at Jiangcheng. He followed the seacoast north to Langya. Xu Fu and other magicians had gone out to sea to look for the medicine of immortality. Years had passed without success, and they had spent a great deal. Fearing punishment, they lied: “We could obtain the medicine on Penglai, but huge sharks keep troubling us, and we cannot reach it. Please let expert archers come with us to shoot them with repeating crossbows when they appear.” The First Emperor dreamed that he fought a sea spirit in human form. When he asked an Erudite to interpret the dream, the man said: “Water spirits cannot be seen; large fish and dragons are their signs. Your Majesty has been careful in your prayers and sacrifices, but this evil spirit should be driven off. Then good spirits may come.” So he ordered the men going out to sea to bring gear for catching huge fish, while he himself waited with a repeating crossbow to shoot any large fish that appeared. Traveling north from Langya to Mount Rongcheng, he saw none. At Mount Zhifu he saw a huge fish and shot one dead. He continued west along the coast.

He reached Pingyuan Ford and fell ill. The First Emperor disliked talk of death, so none of his ministers dared discuss it. As his illness grew worse, he wrote a sealed letter to his son Fusu: “Come to Xianyang to meet my funeral procession and bury me.” The letter was sealed and kept by Zhao Gao, director of the imperial carriage office, who was serving as keeper of the seals and tallies. It had not yet been given to a messenger. On the day bingyin in the seventh month, the First Emperor died at the Sand Hill Terrace. Chancellor Li Si feared that if the emperor's death became known away from the capital, the princes and the whole country might rise in rebellion. He kept it secret and made no announcement of mourning. The coffin was placed in the emperor's enclosed carriage. The favored eunuchs continued to ride beside it and serve meals at every stop. Officials submitted business as usual, and the eunuchs issued approval from inside the carriage. Only Huhai, Zhao Gao, and five or six favored eunuchs knew the emperor had died. Zhao Gao had earlier taught Huhai writing and the laws and regulations concerning criminal cases, and Huhai privately favored him. Gao then conspired in secret with Huhai and Chancellor Li Si to destroy the First Emperor's sealed letter to Fusu. They instead falsely claimed that Li Si had received a final decree from the emperor at Sand Hill appointing Huhai crown prince. They forged another letter to Fusu and Meng Tian, listing their crimes and ordering them to kill themselves. The details appear in Li Si's biography. The party traveled by way of Jingxing to Jiuyuan. The weather was hot and the emperor's carriage began to smell, so an order was given for the attendants to load a shi of salted fish on each carriage to hide the smell.

They followed the Straight Road to Xianyang, where the death was announced. Crown Prince Huhai took the throne as the Second Emperor. In the ninth month, the First Emperor was buried at Mount Li. When he first took the throne he had begun digging at Mount Li. After he united the world, more than seven hundred thousand laborers were sent there from across the land. They dug down to the third underground spring, poured bronze to enclose the burial chamber, and filled it with copies of palaces, towers, officials, rare utensils, and precious and strange objects. Craftsmen were ordered to make mechanical crossbows that would shoot anyone who broke in and approached. They used mercury to represent the hundred streams, the great rivers, and the sea, with mechanisms to make it flow between them. Above were representations of the heavens, and below a map of the earth. They used oil from sea creatures for lamps, expecting them to burn for a long time. The Second Emperor said: “It would not be right to let the women in the former emperor's harem who have no children leave.” He ordered all of them to die with him; many died. Once the burial was complete, someone said that the craftsmen who had made the mechanisms knew about the buried treasures and might reveal them, since the treasures were so valuable. When the main ceremony was over and the treasures were placed inside, they closed the inner passageway and lowered the outer gate, sealing all the craftsmen inside. None came out again. Trees and grass were planted to make the tomb look like a mountain.

### The Second Emperor (209–207 BCE)

In the first year of his reign, the Second Emperor was twenty-one years old. Zhao Gao became Chamberlain of the Palace and was put in charge of affairs. The Second Emperor issued an edict increasing the offerings at the First Emperor's resting place and temple and the rites for sacrifices to mountains, rivers, and the hundred spirits. He ordered the ministers to discuss how to honor the First Emperor's temple. They all bowed their heads and said: “In antiquity the Son of Heaven had seven temples, a feudal lord five, and a grandee three. Even after ten thousand generations they were not to be removed or destroyed. Now the First Emperor's temple is the highest. All lands within the four seas bring tribute; the offerings have been increased and the rites are complete. Nothing more can be added. Some of the earlier kings' temples are in Yong in the west, others in Xianyang. According to the rites, the Son of Heaven alone should pour offerings and sacrifice at the First Emperor's temple. The temples from Duke Xiang onward should be removed. Seven temples will remain in all. The ministers will present sacrifices according to the rites, honoring the First Emperor's temple as the ancestral temple of the imperial line.” The emperor once more called himself “We.”

The Second Emperor discussed his plans with Zhao Gao: “I am young and have only just taken the throne. The common people have not yet gathered around me. The former emperor traveled through the commanderies and counties to show his strength and bring all the lands under his control through fear. If I sit quietly and do not tour them, I will appear weak and cannot rule the world as my subjects.” In spring the Second Emperor traveled east through the commanderies and counties, with Li Si accompanying him. He reached Jieshi, followed the coast south to Kuaiji, and had additions cut into every inscription stone set up by the First Emperor. Beside the inscriptions he placed the names of the great ministers who had accompanied him, to make clear the former emperor's great achievements and fine qualities:

The emperor said: “All the inscriptions on metal and stone describe what the First Emperor did. I have now inherited his title, but the inscriptions do not call him ‘the First Emperor.’ In the distant future they may look as though his successor made them. This does not properly honor his great achievements and fine qualities.” Chancellors Li Si and Quji, and Imperial Counselor De, said at the risk of their lives: “We ask to carve the text of this edict in full on the stones, so it will be clear. We make this request at the risk of our lives.” The emperor's decree said: “Approved.”

He went as far as Liaodong and then returned.

The Second Emperor followed Zhao Gao's advice and made the laws and orders stricter. He secretly told Gao: “The great ministers do not obey me, the officials are still powerful, and the princes will certainly fight me. What should I do?” Gao answered: “I have long wanted to speak of this but did not dare. The former emperor's senior ministers all come from families renowned and honored for generations across the land. Their achievements have been passed down for a long time. I was originally lowly and insignificant. By Your Majesty's favor I was raised to high office and put in charge of palace affairs. The great ministers are dissatisfied. They obey me only in appearance; in their hearts they do not accept me. Now that Your Majesty is away, use the opportunity to investigate wrongdoing by commandery governors and military commanders and execute the guilty. This will show your power to the whole world and remove those whom you have always disliked. This is no time to take scholars as your models; decisions must be made by force. Please act now without hesitation, before the ministers can plan together. An enlightened ruler raises up ordinary people, gives high rank to the humble and wealth to the poor, and brings those far away close. Then his officials and people will rally around him and his state will be secure.” The Second Emperor said: “Good.” He began executing great ministers and princes. Officials and their relatives, even those close to the ruler in the three palace offices, were implicated in crimes; none was left able to take a stand. Six princes were executed at Du. Prince Jianglü and his two brothers were imprisoned in the inner palace; judgment of their crimes was delayed. The Second Emperor sent a messenger to Jianglü: “The prince has failed in his duty to his ruler. His crime deserves death; the officials will carry out the law.” Jianglü said: “At court I have never dared fail to follow the directions of the ceremonial attendants. In the palace and temples I have never acted against the rites. When given orders and asked to answer, I have never dared use the wrong words. How have I failed in my duty? Let me hear my crime before I die.” The messenger said: “I did not take part in the decision. I only carry out the written order.” Jianglü looked up at heaven and cried out “Heaven!” three times. “I have committed no crime!” The three brothers wept, drew their swords, and killed themselves. The imperial clan trembled with fear. Ministers who protested were accused of slander; senior officials clung to their salaries and sought favor. The common people too were terrified.

In the fourth month the Second Emperor returned to Xianyang and said: “The former emperor thought the court at Xianyang too small, so he began Epang Palace with its halls and chambers. Before it was finished, he died, and the workers were sent to restore the earth at Mount Li. Now that the work at Mount Li is mostly finished, abandoning Epang Palace unfinished would suggest that the former emperor was wrong to begin it.” He resumed construction on Epang Palace. He kept the foreign peoples on all four sides in check, following the First Emperor's plan. He called up all fifty thousand able men to garrison Xianyang and had them train dogs, horses, and other animals in archery exercises. So many needed feeding that supplies appeared insufficient. He ordered commanderies and counties to transport beans, grain, fodder, and straw. The men had to bring their own food, and they were forbidden to eat any grain grown within three hundred li of Xianyang. The laws were enforced ever more harshly.

In the seventh month, Chen She and other garrison soldiers rebelled in the former Jing territory and called their state “Rising Chu.” Chen made himself King of Chu, settled at Chen, and sent generals to win over the land. Young men in the commanderies and counties east of the mountains had suffered under Qin officials. They killed their governors, military commanders, magistrates, and deputies, and rebelled in support of Chen She. They appointed one another lords and kings, joined forces, and headed west, calling their movement a campaign against Qin. Their numbers were beyond counting. An envoy returned from the east and reported the rebellion to the Second Emperor. He became angry and handed the envoy to the judicial officials. When the next envoy arrived, the emperor asked him about it. He replied: “They are just bands of robbers. The commandery governors and commanders are hunting them down, and now they have caught them all. There is no need for concern.” The emperor was pleased. Wu Chen made himself King of Zhao, Wei Jiu became King of Wei, and Tian Dan became King of Qi. The Lord of Pei rose up in Pei. Xiang Liang raised troops in Kuaiji Commandery.

In the winter of the second year, Zhou Zhang and others whom Chen She had sent led hundreds of thousands of soldiers west as far as Xi. The Second Emperor was alarmed and asked his ministers: “What shall we do?” Zhang Han, the director of the imperial treasury, said: “The rebels have reached us and are numerous and strong. There is not enough time to call up soldiers from nearby counties. There are many convicts at Mount Li. I ask you to pardon them and give them weapons to fight the rebels.” The Second Emperor proclaimed a general pardon and sent Zhang Han to command the men. Zhang defeated Zhou Zhang's army and put it to flight, then killed Zhang at Caoyang. The Second Emperor sent Chief Secretaries Sima Xin and Dong Yi to help Zhang Han fight the rebels. They killed Chen She at Chengfu, defeated Xiang Liang at Dingtao, and destroyed Wei Jiu's forces at Linji. Now that the famous rebel generals of Chu were dead, Zhang Han crossed the Yellow River north and attacked King Xie of Zhao and his men at Julu.

Zhao Gao advised the Second Emperor: “The former emperor ruled the world for a long time, so his ministers did not dare behave wrongly or offer dishonest advice. Your Majesty is young and has only just taken the throne. Why settle matters with the high officials in open court? If there is a mistake, you will show your weakness to your ministers. The Son of Heaven calls himself ‘We’ precisely because his voice should not be heard.” The Second Emperor therefore stayed in the private palace and made decisions with Gao. After that, senior officials rarely got to see him at court. Meanwhile rebels increased in number, and troops continued to be sent east from the Guanzhong region to fight them. Right Chancellor Quji, Left Chancellor Li Si, and General Feng Jie protested: “Rebel bands are rising all over the east. Qin has sent troops against them and killed very many, yet they are still not stopped. There are so many rebels because border garrisons, canal transport, hauling supplies, and forced labor are hard, and taxes are heavy. Please stop the work on Epang Palace for now and reduce the garrisons and transport duties at the four borders.” The Second Emperor said: “I have heard the words of Master Han: ‘Yao and Shun used untrimmed rafters and thatched roofs that were not clipped. They ate from earthen bowls and drank from earthen cups. Even a gatekeeper's provisions could not be more meager. Yu dug through Dragon Gate, opened a passage to Daxia, cut channels for the Yellow River's waters, and sent them to the sea. He held shovel and rammer himself, until his shins lost their hair. Even a slave's labor could hardly be worse.’ The point of ruling the whole world is to be able to do as one pleases and satisfy one's desires. The ruler must enforce the law strictly so that no one below dares to do wrong and he can control all the lands within the seas. The rulers of Yu and Xia held the lofty position of Son of Heaven but personally lived in hardship to please the common people. What use did they make of the law? I command ten thousand chariots but do not enjoy the reality of my position. I want to build a carriage escort of a thousand chariots, with the full equipment of a ruler of ten thousand, to match my title. Besides, the former emperor rose from among the other rulers and united the world. Once the land was settled, he drove out foreign peoples to secure the borders and built palaces to display his achievement. You can see that his work was properly planned. Yet in the two years since I took the throne, rebels have risen everywhere. You cannot stop them, and now you want to end what the former emperor began. In this way you fail to honor him and also fail to serve me loyally. Why should you hold office?” He handed Quji, Li Si, and Feng Jie over to the judicial officials to investigate other alleged crimes. Quji and Feng Jie said: “Generals and chancellors cannot accept such humiliation.” They killed themselves. Li Si was imprisoned and subjected to the five punishments.

In the third year, Zhang Han and his officers surrounded Julu with their soldiers. Xiang Yu, commander in chief of Chu, led Chu troops to its aid. In winter Zhao Gao became Chancellor and finished his case against Li Si, having him killed. In summer Zhang Han lost several battles. The Second Emperor sent someone to rebuke him. Afraid, Zhang sent Chief Secretary Sima Xin to ask for instructions. Zhao Gao would not see him and did not trust him. Xin fled in fear; Gao sent men to catch him, but they failed. Xin told Zhang Han: “Zhao Gao controls affairs at court. If you succeed, General, he will kill you, and if you fail, he will also kill you.” Xiang Yu attacked Qin's army fiercely and captured Wang Li. Zhang Han and the others surrendered their troops to the other states. On the day jihai in the eighth month, Zhao Gao wanted to rebel but feared the ministers would not obey him. First he tested them. He presented a deer to the Second Emperor and said: “Here is a horse.” The emperor laughed: “Is the Chancellor mistaken? You call a deer a horse.” He asked the attendants. Some said nothing; others called it a horse to please Zhao Gao. Some said it was a deer, and Gao secretly had all who said so brought up on charges. After that the ministers all feared him.

Zhao Gao had often said before that the rebels east of the passes could do nothing. But now Xiang Yu had captured Qin's general Wang Li and others at Julu and was advancing. Zhang Han's forces had been pushed back repeatedly, and he had written asking for more help. Kings had been installed in Yan, Zhao, Qi, Chu, Han, and Wei. Nearly all the lands east of the passes had rebelled against Qin's officials and joined the other states, and their forces were all marching west. The Lord of Pei had led tens of thousands of men to seize Wuguan Pass and had sent someone privately to contact Gao. Afraid the Second Emperor would be angry and have him executed, Gao claimed to be ill and stopped coming to court. The Second Emperor dreamed that a white tiger bit the left-hand horse of his carriage, and he killed it. Troubled by the dream, he asked a diviner what it meant. The diviner said: “The Jing River is causing trouble.” The Second Emperor went to Wangyi Palace to purify himself, intending to sacrifice four white horses by sinking them in the Jing River. He sent a messenger to blame Zhao Gao for the rebels. Gao was afraid. He secretly plotted with his son-in-law Yan Le, the magistrate of Xianyang, and his brother Zhao Cheng: “The emperor will not listen to advice. Now trouble is near and he wants to blame my family. I want to replace him and install Prince Ziying. Ziying is kind and frugal; the common people all respect what he says.” Gao had the Chamberlain of the Palace act as an inside accomplice. Pretending that a large gang of rebels had appeared, he ordered Yan Le to summon officials and gather soldiers. He had Le's mother seized and kept at his house as a hostage. He sent Le with more than a thousand officers and soldiers to the palace gate at Wangyi. They bound the commander of the guards and said: “Rebels have entered here! Why didn't you stop them?” The commander said: “Soldiers are posted carefully all around the palace. How could rebels dare to enter?” Le beheaded him, led the officers straight inside, and began shooting. The palace attendants and eunuchs were terrified. Some fled; others fought back, and those who fought were killed. Several dozen died. The Chamberlain of the Palace and Le entered together and shot at the curtains around the emperor's seat. The Second Emperor, furious, summoned his attendants, but they were all too frightened and confused to fight. One eunuch stood nearby, serving him, too afraid to leave. The emperor went inside and said to him: “Why did you not tell me earlier? Now it has come to this!” The eunuch said: “I did not dare speak, and that is why I am still alive. If I had spoken sooner, I would have been killed. How could I have lived until now?” Yan Le came forward and accused the Second Emperor: “You have been arrogant and reckless, killing people without justice. The whole world has risen against you. Decide now what you will do.” The Second Emperor said: “May I see the Chancellor?” Le said: “No.” The emperor said: “Let me rule one commandery as its king.” Le refused. He said: “Let me be a lord with ten thousand households.” Le refused again. He said: “Let me live as a commoner with my wife and children, like the other princes.” Yan Le said: “The Chancellor has ordered me to execute you on behalf of the whole world. Say as much as you like; I cannot report back to him with another answer.” He signaled his men to advance. The Second Emperor killed himself.

### Ziying and the Fall of Qin (207 BCE)

Yan Le returned to report to Zhao Gao. Gao summoned all the great ministers and princes and told them how the Second Emperor had been killed. He said: “Qin was originally a kingdom. The First Emperor ruled the whole world, so he called himself emperor. Now the six states have declared themselves independent again, and Qin's territory is shrinking. We cannot keep an empty title like ‘emperor.’ It is better to return to calling our ruler ‘king.’” He installed Ziying, the son of the Second Emperor's elder brother, as King of Qin. The Second Emperor was buried as a commoner in Yichun Park south of Du. Ziying was ordered to purify himself before appearing in the ancestral temple and receiving the royal seal. After five days of purification, Ziying plotted with his two sons: “Chancellor Gao killed the Second Emperor at Wangyi Palace. Afraid the ministers would execute him, he has pretended it is right to make me king. I have heard that Zhao Gao has made an agreement with Chu to destroy Qin's ruling family and become King of Guanzhong. Now he tells me to purify myself and appear at the temple, intending to kill me there. I will claim to be ill and refuse to go. The Chancellor will surely come himself, and when he does, we will kill him.” Gao sent several groups of men to summon Ziying, but Ziying would not go. Gao came in person, as expected, and said: “The ancestral temple is a matter of great importance. Why will Your Majesty not go?” Ziying stabbed Gao to death at the purification palace, had three generations of Gao's family killed, and displayed their bodies in Xianyang. Ziying had been King of Qin for forty-six days when the Chu general, the Lord of Pei, defeated the Qin army, entered Wuguan Pass, and reached Bashang. He sent someone to arrange Ziying's surrender. Ziying tied a silk cord around his neck and came in a plain carriage drawn by white horses. Carrying the Son of Heaven's seals and tallies, he surrendered beside the Zhidao Road. The Lord of Pei entered Xianyang, sealed up its palaces, government storehouses, and treasuries, and withdrew his army to Bashang. After a little more than a month, the armies of the other states arrived. Xiang Ji was commander of their alliance. He killed Ziying and the princes and relatives of Qin's ruling family. He put Xianyang to the sword and burned its palaces, captured its women and children, and seized its treasures and valuables for the rulers to divide among themselves. After destroying Qin, they divided its land in three, appointing the Kings of Yong, Sai, and Di. These kingdoms were called the Three Qins. Xiang Yu became Hegemon-King of Western Chu and took charge of appointing rulers and dividing the world among them. Qin had come to an end. Five years later, the Han dynasty brought the world under its rule.

### The Grand Historian’s Judgment and Jia Yi’s “Faults of Qin”

The Grand Historian says: Qin's ancestor Bo Yi once rendered distinguished service in the time of Tang and Yu and was granted land and a family name. Between the Xia and Yin dynasties, his descendants became obscure and dispersed. As Zhou declined, Qin rose in the western borderlands. From Duke Mu onward, it gradually took territory from the other states, until the First Emperor completed the conquest. The First Emperor thought his achievements surpassed those of the Five Emperors, his territory exceeded that of the Three Kings, and comparison with them was beneath him. Jia Yi made an excellent argument on this subject. He said:

Qin annexed the other states and more than thirty commanderies east of the mountains. It repaired fords and passes, occupied strong defenses, and prepared weapons and armor to guard them. Yet Chen She raised his arm and shouted, leading a scattered band of a few hundred garrison soldiers. They had no bows or halberds, only hoes, farm tools, and plain wooden sticks. They lived off whatever homes they found and moved freely across the land. The Qin forces did not defend their strongholds, close their gates or bridges, thrust their long spears, or fire their powerful crossbows. Chu's army marched deep into Qin territory and fought at Hongmen without meeting even the difficulty of a fence. The lands east of the mountains then fell into turmoil. The other rulers rose, and prominent men appointed one another leaders. Qin sent Zhang Han east with an army, but Zhang used his troops to bargain with forces outside Qin and plot against his ruler. This shows how little the ministers could be trusted. When Ziying took power he still failed to see what was happening. Even if Ziying had been no more than an ordinary ruler, with only moderately capable aides, Qin could have kept all its own territory despite the disorder in the east. The sacrifices at its ancestral temples need not have ended.

Qin's land is protected by mountains and bordered by the Yellow River; it is a country enclosed by defenses on all four sides. From Duke Mu to the King of Qin, more than twenty rulers were consistently among the strongest of the other rulers. Were they all able men? No, their position made them strong. Once all the other states united their efforts to attack Qin. At that time they had wise advisers, skilled generals to lead their armies, and capable chancellors to coordinate their plans. Yet they were blocked by the difficult terrain and could not advance. Qin opened the passes to draw them in and fight, and their million soldiers fled in defeat. Was it because they lacked courage, strength, or intelligence? The terrain worked against them and their position was unfavorable. Qin could annex large cities with its small towns, station armies at fortified passes, raise strong walls without fighting, and close the gates and hold the narrow approaches with soldiers carrying halberds. The other rulers had risen from ordinary men and joined forces for profit. They did not have the standing of rightful kings from the beginning. Their alliances were not close and their followers were not loyal. They said they meant to destroy Qin, but they really sought to profit from it. When they saw how difficult Qin's defenses were to attack, they were bound to withdraw. By securing the land and letting its people rest while waiting for its enemies to weaken, and by bringing in the weak and supporting the exhausted, Qin could have given orders to the rulers of the great states and achieved whatever it wanted within the seas. But though Qin's ruler held the highest title of Son of Heaven and possessed the wealth of the world, he was captured. He had failed to respond properly to defeat.

The King of Qin trusted only himself and would not ask for advice. He made mistakes without changing his ways. The Second Emperor inherited his methods and did not correct them; his cruelty made the disaster worse. Ziying stood alone, without close allies; weak and in danger, he had no support. All three rulers were confused and never understood their errors. Is it surprising that Qin fell? There were people then who thought deeply and understood change, but they dared not speak honestly to correct the ruler's mistakes. Qin custom forbade discussion of many sensitive subjects. Before a loyal adviser could finish speaking, he might be executed. So men across the land strained their ears to listen, stood motionless in fear, and kept silent. The three rulers lost their way. Loyal ministers dared not advise them, able men dared not offer plans, and when the world fell into disorder, the ruler was not told of wrongdoing. How sad! Earlier kings knew that shutting a ruler off from the truth would harm a state. They appointed high ministers, grandees, and officials to improve the law and set punishments, and the world was governed. When they were strong, they stopped violence and punished rebellion, and the world submitted. When they were weaker, the Five Hegemons went to war and other rulers followed them. When their territory diminished, they defended their lands and sought allies abroad, and their state survived. At its height Qin used complicated laws and severe punishments, and the world trembled. As it declined, the common people grew resentful and all the lands within the seas rebelled. Zhou maintained the right order in five ranks and survived for over a thousand years. Qin went wrong at every level, and that is why it did not last. The ways that lead to safety and those that lead to danger are very different. A country saying goes: “Remember earlier events and use them to learn what to do next.” A ruler who governs well studies ancient times, tests their lessons against the present, weighs human affairs, observes why states rise and fall, and judges what suits his power and circumstances. He knows when to act and when to hold back, and changes course at the right time. Thus his state remains secure for a long time.

Duke Xiao of Qin held the strong positions of the Xiao Mountains and Hangu Pass and controlled Yongzhou. He and his ministers guarded it closely and watched the Zhou royal house. They intended to sweep up all the land, bring the world under their control, take in all the territory within the seas, and swallow the eight farthest regions. At the time Lord Shang assisted him. At home he established laws and standards, promoted farming and weaving, and prepared defenses and armies. Abroad he used separate alliances to turn the other rulers against one another. Qin thus easily took the lands beyond the West River.

After Duke Xiao died, King Hui and King Wu inherited his achievements and followed the policies he left. In the south they annexed Hanzhong, in the west they seized Ba and Shu, and in the east they cut off fertile lands and took strategically important commanderies. The other rulers were afraid. They met and formed a league to plan how to weaken Qin. They did not spare precious vessels, valuable treasures, or rich lands in their efforts to attract able men from everywhere. They made a united alliance and joined together. At that time Qi had Lord Mengchang, Zhao had Lord Pingyuan, Chu had Lord Chunshen, and Wei had Lord Xinling. All four were intelligent and trustworthy, generous and kind to people, and respectful of talented officials. They formed an alliance against Qin and broke up Qin's separate alliances, joining the forces of Han, Wei, Yan, Chu, Qi, Zhao, Song, Wei, and Zhongshan. Their advisers included Ning Yue, Xu Shang, Su Qin, and Du He. Qi Ming, Zhou Zui, Chen Zhen, Zhao Hua, Lou Huan, Zhai Jing, Su Li, and Yue Yi coordinated their plans. Wu Qi, Sun Bin, Dai Tuo, Er Liang, Wang Liao, Tian Ji, Lian Po, and Zhao She commanded their armies. More than once, with ten times Qin's territory and a million soldiers, they attacked its passes. The Qin forces opened the passes to invite them in, but the armies of the nine states hesitated, fell back, and dared not advance. Qin had not lost even an arrow or arrowhead, yet the other rulers were exhausted. Their alliance then broke up and their agreements ended. They competed to cede land to Qin. Qin used its remaining strength to exploit their weakness, pursued the fleeing armies, and left a million corpses and enough blood to float their shields. Seizing this advantage, it divided the world, carving up its mountains and rivers. Strong states asked to submit; weak states came to court. Under King Xiaowen and King Zhuangxiang, whose reigns were short, the state faced no trouble.

Then the King of Qin inherited the achievements of six generations. He took up their long policy of controlling the world. He swallowed the two Zhou states, destroyed the other rulers, took the highest title, and controlled all six directions. He used whip and club to drive the world, and his power shook all lands within the seas. In the south he took the lands of the Hundred Yue and made them Guilin and Xiang commanderies. The Yue rulers bowed their heads and tied cords around their necks, surrendering their lives to Qin's officials. He sent Meng Tian north to build the Great Wall and defend the border. Meng pushed the Xiongnu back over seven hundred li; their riders no longer dared come south to graze horses, and their soldiers dared not draw their bows to take revenge. The king rejected the ways of earlier rulers and burned the writings of the various schools to keep the common people ignorant. He demolished famous cities, killed prominent men, gathered weapons from all over the land at Xianyang, melted down their blades and cast their stands, and made twelve bronze figures, in order to weaken the people. He cut into Mount Hua to form a wall and used the Yellow River as a moat. From a wall countless yards high, above a bottomless ravine, he held a secure position. Skilled generals and powerful crossbowmen guarded the strategic points, and trusted officers with crack troops stood with sharpened weapons to challenge anyone approaching. The world was pacified. The King of Qin thought that Guanzhong's strength and its thousand-li-long defenses as solid as metal would allow his descendants to rule as emperors for ten thousand generations.

After the King of Qin died, the force of his reputation still reached distant peoples. Chen She came from a poor family whose window was a clay jar and whose door pivot was a rope. He was a farm worker, a servant, and a man sent into exile. His ability was below average. He had neither the wisdom of Confucius and Mo Di nor the wealth of Tao Zhu and Yi Dun. He took his place among the common soldiers and rose from a group of ten or a hundred men. He led exhausted, scattered troops, a few hundred people in all, and turned against Qin. They cut branches into weapons and raised poles for banners. People everywhere gathered like clouds and answered the call, carrying food and following him as closely as shadows. The leading men east of the mountains rose together and destroyed the Qin ruling family.

The Qin empire had not grown small or weak. Yongzhou and the strong defenses of the Xiao Mountains and Hangu Pass remained as before. Chen She's rank was not higher than that of the rulers of Qi, Chu, Yan, Zhao, Han, Wei, Song, Wei, and Zhongshan. His hoes, farm tools, and thornwood spears were not sharper than hooked halberds and long spears. His band of convicts sent to the border could not match the armies of the nine states. His plans and foresight, and his knowledge of marching and warfare, were no match for the advisers of former times. Yet their successes and failures turned out differently; they achieved opposite results. If we compare the states east of the mountains with Chen She in size and power, they cannot even be discussed as equals. Qin, however, started with its small territory and the power of a state with a thousand chariots. For over a hundred years it brought the eight regions under its control and made rulers of equal rank come to its court. Then it made the whole world its home and the Xiao Mountains and Hangu Pass its palace. But when one man began a rebellion, its seven ancestral temples fell, its ruler died at another's hands, and it became the laughingstock of the world. Why? Because it did not practice kindness and justice, and because the methods needed to conquer are different from those needed to hold power.

Qin united the lands within the seas, annexed the other states, faced south as emperor, and ruled over the four seas. People everywhere eagerly looked toward it. Why? For a long time in the recent past there had been no true king. The Zhou royal house was weak, and the Five Hegemons had died. No one's orders carried through the whole land. So the other rulers governed by force: the strong invaded the weak, and the many bullied the few. War never stopped, and officials and common people alike were worn out. Now Qin faced south and ruled the world, so there was a Son of Heaven over them. The ordinary people hoped to live safely. All looked toward the ruler with open hearts. This was the moment to preserve his power and secure his achievements; here lay the basis of safety or danger.

The King of Qin was greedy and mean. He followed his own aggressive ideas, distrusted ministers who had served him well, and kept officials and common people at a distance. He rejected the ways of good kings and established power for himself alone. He banned books and writings and imposed cruel laws and punishments. He put deception and force ahead of kindness and justice, beginning his rule over the world with violence. Deception and force may help a ruler annex lands; to keep them stable, he needs to use his authority in a way that wins consent. In other words, taking power and keeping it require different methods. Qin left the age of warring states behind and ruled the world, but it did not change its methods or government. It used the same methods to hold power as it had used to take it. Alone and isolated, it ruled the world, so its destruction could be expected at once. If the King of Qin had studied past events, followed the examples of the Yin and Zhou dynasties, and governed accordingly, later rulers could have been reckless and arrogant without putting the state in danger. That is why the Three Kings established their rule over the world, kept an honored and admired reputation, and left achievements that lasted.

When the Second Emperor took the throne, everyone watched eagerly to see how he would govern. Someone who is cold welcomes even a short rough coat; someone who is hungry enjoys even grain husks. The suffering people were an opportunity for the new ruler. It would have been easy to win their loyalty through kindness. Suppose the Second Emperor had behaved even as well as an ordinary ruler and employed loyal and capable ministers. Ruler and ministers could have worked together to address the world's troubles. While wearing mourning white he could have corrected the former emperor's mistakes, divided land and people into fiefs for the descendants of deserving ministers, established states and their rulers to honor the people of the world, emptied the prisons and ended executions, and abolished the shameful practice of arresting and punishing convicts' wives and children. He could have allowed everyone to return home, opened the government granaries, and distributed money and goods to aid orphans, the poor, and those in distress. He could have lowered taxes, reduced labor duties to meet the people's urgent needs, and simplified laws and punishments for the future. He could have allowed everyone a fresh start, a change in behavior, and a chance to live responsibly. By meeting the people's hopes and sharing his power and kindness with all, he would have won their support. Everyone throughout the four seas would have been happy and content where they lived and feared only a change in their circumstances. Even devious people would not have wanted to leave their ruler. Then disloyal ministers could not have disguised their schemes as clever plans, and violent rebellion would have stopped. The Second Emperor did none of this. He made matters worse with lawless conduct. He destroyed the ancestral temples and harmed the people, and began work on Epang Palace again. Punishments multiplied, executions became severe, and officials governed cruelly. Rewards and punishments were unfair, and taxes had no limit. Troubles filled the world, beyond the officials' ability to manage. The common people were poor and desperate, and the ruler offered them no care or relief. Dishonesty and fraud spread; rulers and subjects deceived one another. Many were found guilty, and the executed could be seen all along the roads. The whole world suffered. From the ruler and his senior ministers down to ordinary people, everyone feared for his own safety, lived in hardship, and felt insecure in his place. So they were easily stirred to action. Chen She was neither as wise as Tang and Wu nor a lord or marquis. Yet when he raised his arm in the Great Marsh, the world responded, because the people were in danger. Earlier kings saw how circumstances change from beginning to end and understood how states survive or fall. Their way of governing people was above all to keep them secure. Then even when treacherous ministers appear, they find no one to support them. That is what people mean when they say, “You can lead secure people to act justly, but it is easy to lead people in danger into wrongdoing.” The Second Emperor had the honor of being Son of Heaven and the wealth of the whole world, yet could not save himself from being killed. He failed to put right what was going wrong. That was the Second Emperor's mistake.

### The Rulers of Qin: A Chronicle

Duke Xiang took the throne and ruled for twelve years. He first established the western altar. He was buried at Xichui. His son was Duke Wen.

Duke Wen took the throne and lived in Xichui Palace. He died after fifty years and was buried at Xichui. His son was Duke Jing.

Duke Jing died without ruling. His son was Duke Xian.

Duke Xian ruled for twelve years and lived at the New Western City. He died and was buried at Ya. His sons were Duke Wu, Duke De, and Chuzi.

Chuzi ruled for six years and lived at Xiling. Three senior clan chiefs, Fuji, Weilei, and Canfu, led assassins to kill Chuzi at Biyan. He was buried at Ya. Duke Wu took the throne.

Duke Wu ruled for twenty years. He lived in the Feng Palace at Pingyang and was buried southeast of Xuanyangju. The three clan chiefs paid for their crime. Duke De took the throne.

Duke De ruled for two years. He lived at Dazheng Palace in Yong. His sons were Duke Xuan, Duke Cheng, and Duke Mu. He was buried at Yang. He first held the fu sacrifice to ward off harmful spirits.

Duke Xuan ruled for twelve years. He lived at Yang Palace and was buried at Yang. He first recorded the intercalary month.

Duke Cheng ruled for four years and lived in the palace at Yong. He was buried at Yang. Qi attacked the Mountain Rong and Guzhu.

Duke Mu ruled for thirty-nine years. The Son of Heaven recognized him as hegemon. He was buried at Yong. Duke Mu studied with the man named Zhu. His son was Duke Kang.

Duke Kang ruled for twelve years. He lived in the Upper Resting Palace at Yong and was buried at Qushe. His son was Duke Gong.

Duke Gong ruled for five years and lived in the Upper Resting Palace at Yong. He was buried south of Duke Kang. His son was Duke Huan.

Duke Huan ruled for twenty-seven years. He lived in the Great Resting Palace at Yong and was buried north of Yili Hill. His son was Duke Jing.

Duke Jing ruled for forty years. He lived in the Upper Resting Palace at Yong and was buried south of Qiuli. His son was Duke Bi.

Duke Bi ruled for thirty-six years. He was buried north of Cheli. His son was Duke Yi.

Duke Yi did not rule. He died and was buried at Zuogong. His son was Duke Hui.

Duke Hui ruled for ten years. He was buried at Cheli, near Kang and Jing. His son was Duke Dao.

Duke Dao ruled for fifteen years. He was buried west of Duke Xi and built the walls of Yong. His son was Duke Ligong.

Duke Ligong ruled for thirty-four years. He was buried at Ruli. His sons were Duke Zao and Duke Huai. In his tenth year a comet appeared.

Duke Zao ruled for fourteen years. He lived at Shouqin and was buried south of Duke Dao. In his first year a comet appeared.

Duke Huai came from Jin. He ruled for four years and was buried at Liyushi. His son was Duke Ling. His ministers surrounded him, and he killed himself.

Duke Suling was the son of Zhaozi. He lived at Jingyang, ruled for ten years, and was buried west of Duke Dao. His son was Duke Jian.

Duke Jian came from Jin. He ruled for fifteen years and was buried west of Duke Xi. His son was Duke Hui. In his seventh year, common people began wearing swords.

Duke Hui ruled for thirteen years. He was buried at Lingyu. His son was Duke Chu.

Duke Chu ruled for two years. He killed himself and was buried at Yong.

Duke Xian ruled for twenty-three years. He was buried at Xiaoyu. His son was Duke Xiao.

Duke Xiao ruled for twenty-four years. He was buried at Diyu. His son was King Huiwen. In his thirteenth year, Xianyang first became the capital.

King Huiwen ruled for twenty-seven years. He was buried at Gongling. His son was King Daowu.

King Daowu ruled for four years and was buried at Yongling.

King Zhaoxiang ruled for fifty-six years. He was buried at Zhiyang. His son was King Xiaowen.

King Xiaowen ruled for one year. He was buried at Shouling. His son was King Zhuangxiang.

King Zhuangxiang ruled for three years. He was buried at Zhiyang. His son was the First Emperor. Lü Buwei was his Chancellor.

In Duke Xian's seventh year on the throne, markets were first established. In his tenth year, households were registered in groups of five.

Duke Xiao took the throne at sixteen years of age. At that time, peach and plum trees flowered in winter.

King Huiwen took the throne at nineteen years of age. In his second year, he first issued coins. A newborn baby said: “Qin will be king.”

King Daowu took the throne at nineteen years of age. In his third year, the Wei River ran red for three days.

King Zhaoxiang took the throne at nineteen years of age. In his fourth year, the boundaries between fields were first opened up.

King Xiaowen took the throne at fifty-three years of age.

King Zhuangxiang took the throne at thirty-two years of age. In his second year he took the Taiyuan region. In the first year of his reign he issued a general pardon, honored the earlier kings' deserving ministers, treated his relatives generously, and gave benefits to the people. Eastern Zhou plotted with the other rulers against Qin. Qin sent Chancellor Lü Buwei to destroy it and absorbed all its territory. Qin did not end its ancestral sacrifices: it gave its ruler the land of Yangren, so he could continue to offer them.

The First Emperor ruled for thirty-seven years and was buried at Liyi. His son was the Second Emperor. The First Emperor took the throne at thirteen years of age.

The Second Emperor ruled for three years and was buried at Yichun. Zhao Gao was Chancellor and Lord Anwu. The Second Emperor took the throne at twelve years of age.

The rulers listed above, from Duke Xiang of Qin to the Second Emperor, span six hundred and ten years.

### Ban Gu’s Afterword

On the fifteenth day of the tenth month, the day yichou, in the seventeenth year of Emperor Xiaoming, Ban Gu said:

The Zhou dynasty's allotted time had already passed, but a kind son does not replace his mother. Qin claimed its rightful place, yet Zheng, born to the Lü family, was cruel and violent. He became a ruler at thirteen and united the world. He freely satisfied his desires and provided for his family. In thirty-seven years there was nowhere his armies did not reach. He established institutions, laws, and orders that later rulers used. Perhaps he had the power of a sage: the River Spirit handed down a chart, and the signs of the Wolf and Fox, and of Shen and Fa, guided his rise and cleared his path to rule. He rejected the title offered him and called himself the First Emperor.

After the First Emperor died, Huhai showed utter foolishness. Before the work at Mount Li was done, he resumed construction of Epang Palace to carry out the earlier plan. He said: “The point of ruling the whole world is to do whatever one likes and satisfy one's every desire, yet senior ministers even want to stop the work my father began.” He executed Li Si and Quji and put Zhao Gao in power. How painful to hear such words! He had a human head but made the sounds of a beast. He neither commanded respect nor struck down wrongdoers. He had neither steady character nor true humility; his ruin was unavoidable. He could not delay it. His cruelty hastened the end. Though he ruled a land naturally easy to defend, he could not preserve it.

Ziying was next in line to inherit. He wore a jade crown and fine ceremonial sash, rode in a carriage with a yellow canopy, was attended by a hundred officials, and paid respects at the seven ancestral temples. When lesser men take a position beyond their abilities, they generally lose their heads and fail in their duties, seeking only to get through each day safely. But Ziying could think ahead and consider past events. He and his sons made a plan, taking action within the rooms of their own house, and succeeded in killing the treacherous minister, punishing a rebel on behalf of the ruler. After Gao died, before guests and relatives had finished greeting one another, before anyone had swallowed a mouthful of food or moistened his lips with wine, Chu's army had already put Guanzhong to the sword. The true man appeared in triumph at Bashang. Ziying, riding in a plain carriage with a cord around his neck, handed over his tallies and seals and submitted to the man who would become emperor. When the ruler of Zheng offered a grass-wrapped banner and a sacrificial knife with bells, King Zhuang withdrew his troops. Once a river's banks have broken, it cannot be held back again; once a fish has rotted, it cannot be made whole again. Jia Yi and Sima Qian said: “If Ziying had had even the ability of an ordinary ruler and only moderately capable aides, Qin could have held its territory despite the disorder east of the mountains, and the sacrifices at its ancestral temples need not have ended.” But Qin had been weakening for so long, and the world was falling apart. Even a man as capable as the Duke of Zhou could not have shown his skill then. It is wrong to blame a ruler who stood alone for a single day! Tradition says the First Emperor began Qin's crimes and Huhai took them to their limit. That is a sound judgment. To blame the young Ziying as well and say Qin's land could have been saved shows no understanding of how times change. When Ji of Ji handed over Xi, the Spring and Autumn Annals did not record his name in blame. Whenever I read Qin's chronicle and reach Ziying's execution of Zhao Gao by tearing him apart with carts, I admire his resolve and sympathize with his intentions. Ziying did everything that duty required of him, whether it meant life or death.