It has been said that Qin Shi Huang, China’s self-proclaimed first emperor, was driven mad by an unquenchable thirst for power. He is considered a tyrannical ruler, who unified the seven warring kingdoms of ancient China and founded the Qin dynasty.
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Born Ying Zheng, Shi Huang had taken over the kingdom of Qin after his father died. At the time, he was only 13 years old, but brazen and aggressive, he conquered the other six kingdoms and created a strong centralized government which was responsible for connecting the various fragmented state walls into the Great Wall of China as well as the construction of the Terra Cotta Army.
Researchers found documents which stated that Shi Huang believed that his reign will last 10,000 generations. And so, to see his vision come to life, he had his administrators look for the elixir of life said to give immortality to any who would drink it.
Unfortunately, none of them were able to find the elixir, and had to send awkward replies about their failed quests. Furthermore, his Confucian scholars denounced the quest as charlatanry. However, what these documents do show is how efficient his government was and how it attests to the strength of Shi Huang’s leadership.
His quest to immortality actually inspired the creation of the Terra Cotta Army as he believed that the stone guards will guide him through the afterlife.
(Image credit: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)
Source: neatorama