Hello everyone, welcome to historically accurate
Have you ever noticed that both ancient Europe and ancient China
were composed of many small countries
yet It had been difficult for ancient Europe to
form a unified country since the Roman Empire
although ancient China was often split into small countries
there was always a magical power pushing these small countries
to reunify into a single country
Where did this magical power come from
In this video
we will try to answer this question by understanding
the first emperor in Chinese history, Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang
named Ying Zheng, was born in 259 BC
His father was the Qin prince Yiren
Even though Yiren was a prince
he and his mother were disfavored by his father
he was sent to the Zhao state as a political hostage
during the negotiation between the Qin and Zhao states
Later on
there was some military friction between the Qin and Zhao states
which made Yiren suffer a lot
During that time
an influential merchant, Lü Buwei, heard about Yiren's situation
and thought that Yiren was “a rare piece of merchandise
that should be saved for later”
Lü Buwei managed to become friend with Yiren
He also presented his most beautiful “dancing girl”
Lady Zhao, to Yiren as wife
Lady Zhao and Yiren had a son who eventually became Qin Shi Huang
There is a rumor about Yiren, Lady Zhao and Lü Buwei
widely believed throughout Chinese history
We will talk about it soon
After Yiren's father
Lord Anguo
succeeded to the throne
he promoted his favourite concubine
Lady Huayang, to Queen
However,
Lady Huayang was childless
Lü Buwei spent a lot of money to reach out to
her younger brother, Lord Yangquan
and asked him to persuade Lady Huayang to
adopt Yiren as her son
thereby making Yiren the heir apparent to Lord Anguo
Every time I read this
I can't help thinking that Lü Buwei might not become friends with Yiren
on a whim
He might have known that Lady Huayang was childless
and was Lord Anguo’s favourite concubine
The purpose of him becoming friends with Yiren
was to make Lady Huayang help Yiren succeed to the throne
If my guess is correct
then LüBuwei's
previous business network should be fairly large
and his ability to obtain information should also be very strong
Only in this way could he collect information from
various sources and designed such a sophisticated plan
The big rumor I mentioned earlier is a paragraph documented in
Shi Ji (Records of the Grand Historian)
Simply put, before LüBuwei gave Lady Zhao to Yiren
Lady Zhao had already got pregnant
So Qin Shi Huang was actually the son of Lü Buwei
This rumor is quite popular among Chinese folks because
it seems to explain why Lü Buwei invested so much money
and effort in a miserable prince
But I personally don’t believe it
There is a flaw in this story:
Shi Ji said that Lady Zhao didn't deliver Qin Shi Huang
until 12 months after she got pregnant
Also
in my personal opinion
LüBuwei initially placed his bet on Yiren
not the son of Yiren
Because according to the information collected by Lü Buwei
the old King should be in his 70s at that time
Yiren’s father was about 50 and Yiren was in his 20s
It is certainly a more reasonable choice to invest in this
miserable prince in his 20s and wait for
him to succeed to the throne in his 30s
While Yiren's son
who was taken care of by his parents
won’t necessarily treat Lü Buwei as a great benefactor
like what Yiren did
So we don’t need to take this rumor seriously
Let's get back to our main topic here
With his bribes and machinations
Lü Buwei successfully persuaded Lady Huayang
to adopt Yiren as her son
When Ying Zheng was three years old
Qin state sent a large army to attack the capital of Zhao state
Han Dan
Zhao state wanted to kill their hostage, Yiren
Lü Buwei then spent about 600 pounds of gold
to bribe the city guardians and helped Yiren escape from
Zhao state and return to Qin state
Zhao state could only turn to hunt down Yiren's son and wife
after his escape
Ying Zheng hid in different places with his mother
and lived in fear for as long as he could remember
Fortunately, his mother's family was relatively wealthy
and was able to help them escape the hunt
When Ying Zheng turned 8 years old
Yiren's father
Lord Anguo, succeeded to the throne
and the Queen was Lady Huayang
With the persuasion of Lady Huayang
Yiren was soon made the heir apparent to Lord Anguo
Ying Zheng and his mother were finally able to return to Qin state
Yiren, the “IPO stock”
that Lü Buwei had invested in was finally listed with a high valuation
After “going public”
Yiren's value went up by a million times in a year!
Why?
Because his father
Lord Anguo passed away
and he became the new King of Qin state!
The new King named Lady Huayang as queen mother
and named his biological mother, Lady Xia, as queen mother Xia
As for Lü Buwei
he was directly appointed as chancellor and was enfeoffed
as Marquis of Wenxin
Lü Buwei finally “cashed his investment at the highest point”
You may want to ask, after talking so much
why has our Qin Shi Huang, Ying Zheng
always been like a supporting character?
Don't worry
his speed of becoming main character is faster than anyone could imagine
When everyone was taking what they needed and felt that
they could start a new chapter in their lives
the new King, Yiren, passed away…
just three years after his succession
Ying Zheng
who was only 13 years old at that time
became the King of Qin
Since Ying Zheng was still young
he granted Lü Buwei
the title “Zhongfu”
which means “adoptive father”
As the chancellor and regent, Lü Buwei dominated
the Qin government and military
Lady Zhao became the queen mother
Lü Buwei, a civilian, had finally become the chancellor of the
Qin state by investing in Yiren
and Yiren's family in the past decade
During those years
he also recruited people with various knowledge and abilities
to live in his mansion as his retainers
The number of his retainers once reached three thousand
He ordered that his retainers write down all that they
had learned and assemble their theses into a work named
Lüshi Chunqiu (Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals)
He wrote the contents of the book on cloth and exhibited
the completed encyclopedic text
at the city gate for everyone to read
He also offered a thousand measures of gold to
anyone who could add or delete a word without devaluing the book
However
no one could do that
This is the origin of the idiom
“one word is worth a thousand in gold”
Lü Buwei became more and more influential in Qin state
Lü Buwei became more lawless
as his influence increased
He began to cheat with Ying Zheng's mother
Lady Zhao
As Ying Zheng grew older
Lü Buwei became fearful that Ying Zheng would discover his affair
with Lady Zhao and wanted to end this relationship
But he didn’t want Lady Zhao to resent him
so he sought a young guy named Lao Ai from his retainers
Lao Ai pretended to be a eunuch and went to Lady Zhao's palace
to cheat with her on behalf of Lü Buwei
In order to prevent other people from finding her secret
Lady Zhao found an excuse to leave Xianyang
the Qin capital, with Lao Ai and lived in Yongcheng
the old Qin capital
During this period
she even gave birth to two kids for Lao Ai
At the age of 20, Ying Zheng sent his younger paternal half-brother
Chengjiao, to attack Zhao state
What kind of person was his younger brother
who suddenly showed up?
Not much information was documented in
history books about this man
and we don't even know who his biological mother was
We only know that he was titled Lord of Chang'an
It is possible that Ying Zheng sent him to
attack Zhao state on purpose
because attacking Zhao state was a quite difficult task
If Chengjiao couldn't accomplish the task
Ying Zheng would have an excuse to punish Chengjiao
and weaken his influence
This can explain why Chengjiao suddenly rebelled
on the way to Zhao and surrendered to Zhao
Ying Zheng quickly dispatched troops to destroy the rebels
and Chengjiao was also killed
This demonstrated Ying Zheng's own means before he completely
took over the control of Qin state
In the same year
Lao Ai was enfeoffed
as Marquis of Changxin
with the help of the queen mother, Lady Zhao
He followed what Lü Buwei did
recruited more than a thousand retainers
and grew his own influence
However, Lao Ai was too arrogant
When he had a party with the ministers
drunken Lao Ai bragged about
being the young king's step father
and was heard by Ying Zheng
Ying Zheng was furious
He decided to get rid of Lao Ai after a secret investigation
After discovering that Ying Zheng found out about his scandal
Lao Ai decided to launch a rebellion on the day of Ying Zheng's
coming of age ceremony when Ying Zheng became
22 years old
however
Ying Zheng was well prepared, and soon sent troops to kill
hundreds of the rebels and captured Lao Ai
alive as a gift for his coming of age ceremony
Lao Ai's whole family were killed
including the king's two half-brothers
and all other relatives to the third degree
uncles
aunts
cousins
While queen mother, Lady Zhao, was placed
under house arrest in Yongcheng
After the coming of age ceremony
the first thing that Ying Zheng needed to do was to
eliminate the power of the chancellor, Lü Buwei
so he could assume full command over the Qin state
Lü Buwei was implicated in the rebellion of Lao Ai
which gave Ying Zheng an excuse to punish Lü Buwei
But Ying Zheng didn't kill Lü Buwei
After all
Lü Buwei was the one who helped his father succeed to the throne
and many of Lü Buwei's retainers also pleaded for him
In the end
Lü Buwei was only stripped of his position as chancellor
and his family were banished to the remote Shu region
Lü Buwei may feel sad on the road
or he may feel that Ying Zheng won't just let him go
so he committed suicide by consuming poison
Since then
Ying Zheng had wiped out all his political enemies
and completely took control of Qin state
In my next episode
I will talk about how our young king, Ying Zheng
led Qin to defeat the other six states within a decade
and became the first emperor in Chinese history
See you next time!