Death of Qin Shi Huang and the Qin Collapse
The first emperor of China died on tour in 210 BC, and his death was concealed with a cartload of rotting fish. He had unified the warring states by 221 BC, standardised the script, the currency, the axle width of carts and the law, abolished the feudal aristocracy in favour of appointed administrators, built roads and the linked northern walls, and buried an army of terracotta figures to guard his own tomb. He had also survived at least three assassination attempts, refused to name an heir, and spent his later years searching for an elixir of immortality — his physicians reportedly prescribed mercury, which may have killed him. He died at Shaqiu, a long way from the capital, in the summer. The chief eunuch Zhao Gao and the chancellor Li Si kept the death secret for two months to get the body home without a succession crisis, travelling with the imperial carriage sealed and meals delivered to it as usual, and had wagons of salted fish placed alongside to cover the smell. They then forged a letter ordering the heir and the general Meng Tian to kill themselves, which both did, and installed a younger son who was easier to control. The younger son was manipulated by Zhao Gao, who at one point brought a deer into court and called it a horse to see who would contradict him. Rebellion broke out within a year and the dynasty fell in 206 BC, four years after the emperor who had intended it to last ten thousand generations. The tomb itself has not been opened. The terracotta army was found by farmers digging a well in 1974, about a mile and a half from the burial mound, and the accounts describing rivers of mercury inside the mound are supported by soil tests showing anomalous mercury levels across it.
- Year: 210 BCE
- Category: Military
