What does Qin Shi Huang mean?

Huhai () was the personal name of the Second Emperor. Its Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as *"Ga-gə′". Although his parentage was questioned by many historians including Sima Qian, they accepted Qin Er Shi as a member of the Kingdom of Qin's House of Ying. Huhai is the eighteenth son of Qin Shi Huang. As the youngest son, he was doted on by his father. It is not clear who his mother was, although some said that she is Lady Hu (胡姬). The clan name of their branch of the dynasty was Zhao (). Although he is sometimes known as "Ying Huhai" according to the practice of modern Chinese names, the ancient custom was not to combine the names in this way: his personal name never appears in combination with Ying, Zhao, or Qin. From an early age, Huhai was apprenticed to the minister Zhao Gao to learn Legalism, by the decree of Qin Shi Huang.

Qin Er Shi

Qin Er Shi (; ; 229 – October 207 BCE) was the son of Qin Shi Huang and the second emperor of China's Qin dynasty. He ruled from 210 to 207 BCE.

The First Emperor Qin Shi Huang died during one of his tours of Eastern China, on September 10, 210 BCE (Julian Calendar) at the palace in Shaqiu prefecture (沙丘平台). The announcement of his death was withheld until the entourage, which was accompanied by Premier Li Si and the imperial court, returned to the capital Xianyang two months later. Nevertheless, Huhai and Zhao Gao were aware of Qin Shi Huang's death and began plotting an internal intrigue.

The eldest son Fusu was supposed to be elected as the next emperor. However, Premier Li Si and the Chief Eunuch Zhao Gao conspired to kill Fusu in order to get rid of Fusu's favorite General Meng Tian, who was their court rival. They were afraid that if Fusu was enthroned, they would lose their power. Li Si and Zhao Gao forged a fake edict by Qin Shi Huang ordering both Fusu and General Meng to commit suicide. Their plan worked, and the younger son Huhai acceded the throne to become the Second Emperor later known as Qin Er Shi (秦二世). Although, recent findings of bamboo strips dating from the time of the intrigue note that Huhai wouldn't wait and killed his brother. This would indicate that the fake edict, in the case of Fusu, was an imperial cover story.

In the first year of reign in 210 BCE, Huhai was made the Second Emperor of Qin at the age of 21 years. His regnal name Qin Er Shi () means "Second Generation of the Qin". It is a contraction of Qin Ershi Huangdi (), the "Second-Generation Emperor of the Qin". The name followed the nomenclature established by the First Emperor, who envisioned an empire that would last for ten thousand generations and for his successors to bear the aspiration in their reign names. The practice ended abruptly with the third emperor Ziying (子婴), when Qin dynasty was overturned by Chu and Han.

Qin Er Shi depended on eunuch Zhao Gao so much so that he acted as a puppet emperor, with the eunuch as puppeteer. Zhao Gao was made the Prime Minister of the Qin empire during Qin Er Shi's reign. His reign was cruel and brought much suffering to the people. From his reign onwards, the Qin empire slid to a decline.

After one of the tours, Zhao Gao suggested he examine the governors and military commandants and punish those who are guilty of some crime. By doing so he can do away with those who disapprove of the emperor's actions. Six imperial princes were killed at Tu (杜). The emperor then went on further to punish people for petty crimes. The emperor's brother Jianglu (將閭) and two other brothers were imprisoned. A messenger was then sent to read them a death sentence. Jianglu looked to the heavens, and cried out loud three times that he did not commit any crime (天乎！吾無罪！). All three brothers cried and drew their own swords to commit suicide. Zhao Gao said that the Second Emperor was young, and as the Son of Heaven, his own voice must never be heard and his face must never be shown. Accordingly, the emperor remained in the inner palaces, and consulted only with Zhao Gao. Because of this, the high ministers rarely had the opportunity to see the emperor in court.

Bandits and brigands grew in numbers from different directions to attack the Qin. Military leaders such as Chen Sheng de-legitimized the rule of Qin Er Shi by claiming Fusu should have been the one made ruler. One of the immediate revolt attempts was the 209 BCE Dazexiang Uprising. They rebelled in the territory that was formerly Chu state, claiming they were restoring Chu to greatness.

Overall Qin Er Shi was not able to contend with nationwide rebels. He was not as capable as his father. Many revolts against him quickly erupted. His reign was a time of extreme civil unrest, and everything that worked for the First Emperor had crumbled away within a short period. Later an envoy reported about the rebellion in court. The emperor was enraged, and the envoy was punished. After this, all other envoys reporting about uprisings would later say the bandits were being pursued and captured. Without any need to worry, the emperor was pleased.

The bandits and brigands continued to grow in numbers. Chancellor Feng Quqi, Li Si and general Feng Jie came forward to complain that the Qin military could not hold off the increasing number of revolts. They suggested the construction of Epang palace (阿房宫) be suspended and that the burden of tax was too heavy. The emperor then questioned their loyalty. All three of them were handed to law officials who subjected them to examinations to see if they were guilty of other crimes. Feng Quqi and Feng Jie committed suicide so they would not have to endure the disgrace. Li Si was put in prison, and then killed via the five pains punishment. Zhao Gao continued to push the emperor to find associates with loyalty and punish those who show disloyalty with more severe penalties. Meng Yi and other chief ministers were executed. Twelve of the princes were executed in a market place in Xianyang. Ten princesses in Du were executed and their bodies were torn apart.

On 27 September 207 BC, eunuch Zhao Gao tested his power against the emperor's. He presented a deer to the Second Emperor, but called it a horse. The emperor laughed and said "Is the chancellor perhaps mistaken, calling a deer a horse?" Then the emperor questioned those around him. Some remained silent, some aligned with Zhao Gao, and said it was a horse. Zhao Gao executed every official who called the deer a deer. This incident provides the modern Chinese "chengyu" (idiomatic expression) "point to a deer and call it a horse" ( "zhǐlù-wéimǎ"); see Zhao Gao § Calling a deer a horse for further information.

Although Qin was able to suppress most of the nationwide rebellions, they still caused serious damage. Qin's manpower and supplies were greatly reduced. Finally Qin was decisively defeated in the Battle of Julu. Qin Er Shi foolishly tried to have the Qin general responsible Zhang Han killed, which led to the surrender and later live burial of 200,000 Qin troops. In total, Qin lost over 300,000 men. Even then, Qin Er Shi didn't take the defeat seriously, as he thought Qin had many more spare troops. Finally, a daring and loyal eunuch told Qin Er Shi the truth. In shock, Qin Er Shi tried to capture Zhao Gao and hold him responsible.

Zhao Gao however had expected that Qin Er Shi would ask him to take the blame. Therefore, Zhao Gao conspired with his loyal soldiers to force the emperor to commit suicide. Surrounded and with no means of escape, Qin Er Shi asked the loyal eunuch why he didn't speak the truth earlier. The eunuch replied that it was Qin Er Shi himself who decided to execute anyone who would tell him the truth.

In 207 BC, the Qin dynasty collapsed fifteen years after its establishment. A son of Fusu (allegedly; there is no firm consensus on what his relationship to the Qin royal family really is), Ziying (子婴), was made "king of Qin state", a reduced title. Ziying soon killed Zhao Gao and surrendered to Liu Bang one year later.

Qin Er Shi reigned only for three years and was forced to commit suicide eventually by his most trusted minister Zhao Gao at the age of 24. Qin Er Shi was condemned by the Eunuch Chancellor Zhao Gao after his death and was denied a royal burial. He was buried in today's Xi'an, near the Wild Goose Pagoda. Compared to his father, his tomb is much less elaborate and does not have a terracotta army. Qin Er Shi did not have a temple name.

The name of the emperor, Er Shi (二世), is included in the popular Cantonese term, Ji6 Sai3 Zou2 (二世祖). The phrase is a negative term describing spoiled children raised by wealthy parents, growing up with little or no moral values, or any forms of necessary daily life skills.

The incident of the horse-deer has been cited as the etymology of the Japanese word "baka", "fool".

Qin Shi Huang (, ; 18 February 25910 September 210) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and was the first emperor of a unified China. He was born Ying Zheng () or Zhao Zheng (), a prince of the state of Qin. He became Zheng, the King of Qin () when he was thirteen, then China's first emperor when he was 38 after the Qin had conquered all of the other Warring States and unified all of China in 221 BC. Rather than maintain the title of "king" ( "wáng") borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor () of the Qin dynasty from 220 to 210 BC. His self-invented title "emperor" ( ""), as indicated by his use of the word "First", would continue to be borne by Chinese rulers for the next two millennia.

Qin Shi Huang

During his reign, his generals greatly expanded the size of the Chinese state: campaigns south of Chu permanently added the Yue lands of Hunan and Guangdong to the Chinese cultural orbit; campaigns in Central Asia conquered the Ordos Loop from the nomad Xiongnu, although eventually it would also lead to their confederation under Modu Chanyu. Qin Shi Huang also worked with his minister Li Si to enact major economic and political reforms aimed at the standardization of the diverse practices of the earlier Chinese states. He is traditionally said to have banned and burned many books and executed scholars, though a closer examination renders the account doubtful. His public works projects included the unification of diverse state walls into a single Great Wall of China and a massive new national road system, as well as the city-sized mausoleum guarded by the life-sized Terracotta Army. He ruled until his death in 210 BC during his fourth tour of Eastern China. His achievements made him one of the most respected and influential individuals in world history, and a legacy among the Chinese.

Modern Chinese sources often give the personal name of Qin Shi Huang as Ying Zheng, with Ying () taken as the surname and Zheng () the given name. In ancient China however the naming convention differed, and Zhao () may be used as the surname. Unlike modern Chinese names, the nobles of ancient China had two distinct surnames: the ancestral name () comprised a larger group descended from a prominent ancestor, usually said to have lived during the time of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors of Chinese legend, and the clan name () comprised a smaller group that showed a branch's current fief or recent title. (This is remarkably similar to the practice of contemporary Romans for naming men, such as M. Tullius Cicero and C. Julius Caesar.) The ancient practice was to list men's names separatelySima Qian's "Basic Annals of the First Emperor of Qin" introduces him as "given the name Zheng and the surname Zhao"or to combine the clan surname with the personal name: Sima's account of Chu describes the sixteenth year of the reign of King Kaolie as "the time when Zhao Zheng was enthroned as King of Qin". However, since modern Chinese surnames (despite usually descending from clan names) use the same character as the old "ancestral" names, it is much more common in modern Chinese sources to see the emperor's personal name written as Ying Zheng, using the ancestral name of the Ying family.

The rulers of Qin had styled themselves kings from the time of King Huiwen in 325 BC. Upon his ascension, Zheng became known as the King of Qin or King Zheng of Qin. This title made him the nominal equal of the rulers of Shang and of Zhou, the last of whose kings had been deposed by King Zhaoxiang of Qin in 256 BC.

Following the surrender of Qi in 221 BC, King Zheng had reunited all of the lands of the former Kingdom of Zhou. Rather than maintain his rank as king, however, he created a new title of "huángdì" (emperor) for himself. This new title combined two titles"huáng" of the mythical Three Sovereigns (, "Sān Huáng") and the "dì" of the legendary Five Emperors (, "Wŭ Dì") of Chinese prehistory. The title was intended to appropriate some of the prestige of the Yellow Emperor, whose cult was popular in the later Warring States period and who was considered to be a founder of the Chinese people. King Zheng chose the new regnal name of First Emperor ("Shǐ Huángdì", formerly transcribed as Shih Huang-ti) on the understanding that his successors would be successively titled the "Second Emperor", "Third Emperor", and so on through the generations. (In fact, the scheme lasted only as long as his immediate heir, the Second Emperor.) The new title carried religious overtones. For that reason, Sinologistsstarting with Peter Boodberg or Edward Schafersometimes translate it as "thearch" and the First Emperor as the First Thearch.

The First Emperor intended that his realm would remain intact through the ages but, following its overthrow and replacement by Han after his death, it became customary to prefix his title with Qin. Thus:

As early as Sima Qian, it was common to shorten the resulting four-character Qin Shi Huangdi to, variously transcribed as Qin Shihuang or Qin Shi Huang.

Following his elevation as emperor, both Zheng's personal name and possibly its homophone became taboo. The First Emperor also arrogated the first-person Chinese pronoun ( *"lrəm’",  "zhèn") for his exclusive use and in 212 BC began calling himself The Immortal  *"Tin-niŋ",  "Zhēnrén",  "True Man"). Others were to address him as "Your Majesty"  "Bìxià",  "Beneath the Palace Steps") in person and "Your Highness" () in writing.

According to the "Records of the Grand Historian", written by Sima Qian during the Han dynasty, the first emperor was the eldest son of the Qin prince Yiren, who later became King Zhuangxiang of Qin. Prince Yiren at that time was residing at the court of Zhao, serving as a hostage to guarantee the armistice between the Qin and Zhao states. Prince Yiren had fallen in love at first sight with a concubine of Lü Buwei, a rich merchant from the State of Wey. Lü consented for her to be Yiren's wife, who then became known as Lady Zhao (Zhao Ji) after the state of Zhao. Lady Zhao gave birth to the child on 18 February; and he was given the name Zhao Zheng—the name Zheng () came from his month of birth "Zhengyue", the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar; the clan name of Zhao came from his father's lineage and was unrelated to either his mother's name or the location of his birth. Lü Buwei's machinations later helped Yiren become King Zhuangxiang of Qin in 250 BC.

However, the "Records of the Grand Historian" also claimed that the first emperor was not the actual son of Prince Yiren but that of Lü Buwei. According to this account, when Lü Buwei introduced the dancing girl to the prince, she was Lü Buwei's concubine and had already become pregnant by him, and the baby was born after an unusually long period of pregnancy. According to translations of the Annals of Lü Buwei, Zhao Ji gave birth to the future emperor in the city of Handan in 259 BC, the first month of the 48th year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin.

The idea that the emperor was an illegitimate child, widely believed throughout Chinese history, contributed to the generally negative view of the First Emperor. However, a number of modern scholars have doubted this account of his birth. Sinologist Derk Bodde wrote: "There is good reason for believing that the sentence describing this unusual pregnancy is an interpolation added to the "Shih-chi" by an unknown person in order to slander the First Emperor and indicate his political as well as natal illegitimacy". John Knoblock and Jeffrey Riegel, in their translation of Lü Buwei's "Spring and Autumn Annals", call the story "patently false, meant both to libel Lü and to cast aspersions on the First Emperor". Claiming Lü Buwei—a merchant—as the First Emperor's biological father was meant to be especially disparaging, since later Confucian society regarded merchants as the lowest of all social classes.

In 246 BC, when King Zhuangxiang died after a short reign of just three years, he was succeeded on the throne by his 13-year-old son. At the time, Zhao Zheng was still young, so Lü Buwei acted as the regent prime minister of the State of Qin, which was still waging war against the other six states. Nine years later, in 235 BC, Zhao Zheng assumed full power after Lü Buwei was banished for his involvement in a scandal with Queen Dowager Zhao.

Zhao Chengjiao, the Lord Chang'an (长安君), was Zhao Zheng's legitimate half-brother, by the same father but from a different mother. After Zhao Zheng inherited the throne, Chengjiao rebelled at Tunliu and surrendered to the state of Zhao. Chengjiao's remaining retainers and families were executed by Zhao Zheng.

As King Zheng grew older, Lü Buwei became fearful that the boy king would discover his liaison with his mother Lady Zhao. He decided to distance himself and look for a replacement for the queen dowager. He found a man named Lao Ai. According to "The Record of Grand Historian", Lao Ai was disguised as a eunuch by plucking his beard. Later Lao Ai and queen Zhao Ji got along so well they secretly had two sons together. Lao Ai then became ennobled as Marquis Lào Ǎi, and was showered with riches. Lao Ai's plot was supposed to replace King Zheng with one of the hidden sons. But during a dinner party drunken Lào Ǎi was heard bragging about being the young king's step father. In 238 BC the king was travelling to the ancient capital of Yōng (雍). Lao Ai seized the queen mother's seal and mobilized an army in an attempt to start a coup and rebel. When King Zheng found out this fact, he ordered Lü Buwei to let Lord Changping and Lord Changwen attack Lao Ai and their army killed hundreds of the rebels at the capital, although Lao Ai succeeded in fleeing from this battle.

A price of 1 million copper coins was placed on Lao Ai's head if he was taken alive or half a million if dead. Lao Ai's supporters were captured and beheaded; then Lao Ai was tied up and torn to five pieces by horse carriages, while his entire family was executed to the third degree. The two hidden sons were also killed, while mother Zhao Ji was placed under house arrest until her death many years later. Lü Buwei drank a cup of poison wine and committed suicide in 235 BC. Ying Zheng then assumed full power as the King of the Qin state. Replacing Lü Buwei, Li Si became the new chancellor.

King Zheng and his troops continued to take over different states. The state of Yan was small, weak and frequently harassed by soldiers. It was no match for the Qin state. So Crown Prince Dan of Yan plotted an assassination attempt to get rid of King Zheng, begging Jing Ke to go on the mission in 227 BC. Jing Ke was accompanied by Qin Wuyang in the plot. Each was supposed to present a gift to King Zheng: a map of Dukang and the severed head of Fan Wuji.

Qin Wuyang first tried to present the map case gift, but trembled in fear and moved no further towards the king. Jing Ke continued to advance toward the king, while explaining that his partner "has never set eyes on the Son of Heaven", which is why he is trembling. Jing Ke had to present both gifts by himself. While unrolling the map, a dagger was revealed. The king drew back, stood on his feet, but struggled to draw the sword to defend himself. At the time, other palace officials were not allowed to carry weapons. Jing Ke pursued the king, attempting to stab him, but missed. King Zheng drew out his sword and cut Jing Ke's thigh. Jing Ke then threw the dagger, but missed again. Suffering eight wounds from the king's sword, Jing Ke realized his attempt had failed and knew that both of them would be killed afterwards. The Yan state was conquered by the Qin state five years later.

Gao Jianli was a close friend of Jing Ke, who wanted to avenge his death. As a famous lute player, one day he was summoned by King Zheng to play the instrument. Someone in the palace who had known him in the past exclaimed, "This is Gao Jianli". Unable to bring himself to kill such a skilled musician, the emperor ordered his eyes put out. But the king allowed Gao Jianli to play in his presence. He praised the playing and even allowed Gao Jianli to get closer. As part of the plot, the lute was fastened with a heavy piece of lead. He raised the lute and struck at the king. He missed, and his assassination attempt failed. Gao Jianli was later executed.

In 230 BC, King Zheng unleashed the final campaigns of the Warring States period, setting out to conquer the remaining independent kingdoms, one by one.

The first state to fall was Hán (韓; sometimes called Hann to distinguish it from the Hàn 漢 of Han dynasty), in 230 BC. Then Qin took advantage of natural disasters in 229 BC to invade and conquer Zhào, where Qin Shi Huang had been born. He now avenged his poor treatment as a child hostage there, seeking out and killing his enemies.

Qin armies conquered the state of Zhao in 228 BC, the northern country of Yan in 226 BC, the small state of Wei in 225 BC, and the largest state and greatest challenge, Chu, in 223 BC.

In 222 BC, the last remnants of Yan and the royal family were captured in Liaodong in the northeast. The only independent country left was now state of Qi, in the far east, what is now the Shandong peninsula. Terrified, the young king of Qi sent 200,000 people to defend his western borders. In 221 BC, the Qin armies invaded from the north, captured the king, and annexed Qi. Some of the strategies Qin used to unify China were to standardize the trade and communication, currency and language.

For the first time, all Chinese lands were unified under one powerful ruler. In that same year, King Zheng proclaimed himself the "First Emperor" (始皇帝, "Shǐ Huángdì"), no longer a king in the old sense and now far surpassing the achievements of the old Zhou Dynasty rulers. The emperor made the He Shi Bi into the Imperial Seal, known as the "Heirloom Seal of the Realm". The words, "Having received the Mandate from Heaven, may (the emperor) lead a long and prosperous life." (受命於天，既壽永昌) were written by Prime Minister Li Si, and carved onto the seal by Sun Shou. The Seal was later passed from emperor to emperor for generations to come.

In the South, military expansion in the form of campaigns against the Yue tribes continued during his reign, with various regions being annexed to what is now Guangdong province and part of today's Vietnam.

In an attempt to avoid a recurrence of the political chaos of the Warring States period, Qin Shi Huang and his prime minister Li Si completely abolished feudalism. The empire was then divided into 36 commanderies (郡, "Jùn"), later more than 40 commanderies. The whole of China was thus divided into administrative units: first commanderies, then counties (縣, "Xiàn"), townships (鄉, "Xiāng") and hundred-family units (里, "Li", which roughly corresponds to the modern-day subdistricts and communities). This system was different from the previous dynasties, which had loose alliances and federations. People could no longer be identified by their native region or former feudal state, as when a person from Chu was called "Chu person" (楚人, "Chu rén"). Appointments were subsequently based on merit instead of hereditary rights.

Qin Shi Huang and Li Si unified China economically by standardizing the Chinese units of measurements such as weights and measures, the currency, and the length of the axles of carts to facilitate transport on the road system. The emperor also developed an extensive network of roads and canals connecting the provinces to improve trade between them. The currencies of the different states were also standardized to the Ban liang coin (半兩, "Bàn Liǎng"). Perhaps most importantly, the Chinese script was unified. Under Li Si, the seal script of the state of Qin was standardized through removal of variant forms within the Qin script itself. This newly standardized script was then made official throughout all the conquered regions, thus doing away with all the regional scripts to form one language, one communication system for all of China.

Qin Shi Huang also followed the school of the five elements, earth, wood, metal, fire and water. () Zhao Zheng's birth element is water, which is connected with the colour black. It was also believed that the royal house of the previous dynasty Zhou had ruled by the power of fire, which was the colour red. The new Qin dynasty must be ruled by the next element on the list, which is water, represented by the colour black. Black became the colour for garments, flags, pennants. Other associations include north as the cardinal direction, winter season and the number six. Tallies and official hats were long, carriages wide, one pace () was.

While the previous Warring States era was one of constant warfare, it was also considered the golden age of free thought. Qin Shi Huang eliminated the Hundred Schools of Thought which incorporated Confucianism and other philosophies. After the unification of China, with all other schools of thought banned, legalism became the endorsed ideology of the Qin dynasty, which was basically a system that required the people to follow the laws or be punished accordingly.

Beginning in 213 BC, at the instigation of Li Si and to avoid scholars' comparisons of his reign with the past, Qin Shi Huang ordered most existing books to be burned with the exception of those on astrology, agriculture, medicine, divination, and the history of the State of Qin. This would also serve the purpose of furthering the ongoing reformation of the writing system by removing examples of obsolete scripts. Owning the "Book of Songs" or the "Classic of History" was to be punished especially severely. According to the later "Records of the Grand Historian", the following year Qin Shi Huang had some 460 scholars buried alive for owning the forbidden books. The emperor's oldest son Fusu criticised him for this act.

Recent research suggests that the "burying of the Confucian scholars alive" is a Confucian martyrs' legend; rather, the emperor ordered the killing (坑 "kēng") of a group of alchemists after having found that they had fooled him. In Han times, the Confucian scholars, who had served the Qin loyally, used that incident to distance themselves from the failed dynasty. Kong Anguo (孔安國 c. 165 – c. 74 BC), a descendant of Confucius, turned the alchemists (方士 "fāngshì") into Confucianists (儒 "rú") and entwined the martyrs' legend with the strange story of the rediscovery of the lost Confucian books behind a demolished wall in the house of his ancestors. The emperor's own library still had copies of the forbidden books but most of these were destroyed later when Xiang Yu burned the palaces of Xianyang in 206 BC.

In 230 BC, the state of Qin had defeated the state of Han. A Han aristocrat named Zhang Liang swore revenge on the Qin emperor. He sold all his valuables and in 218 BC, he hired a strongman assassin and built him a heavy metal cone weighing 120 jin (roughly 160 lb or 97 kg). The two men hid among the bushes along the emperor's route over a mountain. At a signal, the muscular assassin hurled the cone at the first carriage and shattered it. However, the emperor was actually in the second carriage, as he was travelling with two identical carriages for this very reason. Thus the attempt failed. Both men were able to escape in spite of a huge manhunt.

The Qin fought nomadic tribes to the north and north-west. The Xiongnu tribes were not defeated and subdued, thus the campaign was tiring and unsuccessful, and to prevent the Xiongnu from encroaching on the northern frontier any longer, the emperor ordered the construction of an immense defensive wall. This wall, for whose construction hundreds of thousands of men were mobilized, and an unknown number died, is a precursor to the current Great Wall of China. It connected numerous state walls which had been built during the previous four centuries, a network of small walls linking river defences to impassable cliffs.

A famous South China quotation was "In the North there is the Great wall, in the South there is the Lingqu canal" (北有長城、南有靈渠, "Běiyǒu chángchéng, nányǒu língqú"). In 214 BC the Emperor began the project of a major canal to transport supplies to the army. The canal allows water transport between north and south China. The canal, 34 kilometres in length, links the Xiang River which flows into the Yangtze and the Li Jiang, which flows into the Pearl River. The canal connected two of China's major waterways and aided Qin's expansion into the south-west. The construction is considered one of the three great feats of Ancient Chinese engineering, the others being the Great Wall and the Sichuan Dujiangyan Irrigation System.

Later in his life, Qin Shi Huang feared death and desperately sought the fabled elixir of life, which would supposedly allow him to live forever. He was obsessed with acquiring immortality and fell prey to many who offered him supposed elixirs. He visited Zhifu Island three times in order to achieve immortality.

In one case he sent Xu Fu, a Zhifu islander, with ships carrying hundreds of young men and women in search of the mystical Penglai mountain. They were sent to find Anqi Sheng, a 1,000-year-old magician whom Qin Shi Huang had supposedly met in his travels and who had invited him to seek him there. These people never returned, perhaps because they knew that if they returned without the promised elixir, they would surely be executed. Legends claim that they reached Japan and colonized it. It is also possible that the book burning, a purge on what could be seen as wasteful and useless literature, was, in part, an attempt to focus the minds of the Emperor's best scholars on the alchemical quest. Some of the executed scholars were those who had been unable to offer any evidence of their supernatural schemes. This may have been the ultimate means of testing their abilities: if any of them had magic powers, then they would surely come back to life when they were let out again. Since the great emperor was afraid of death and "evil spirits", he had workers build a series of tunnels and passageways to each of his palaces (he owned over 200), because traveling unseen would supposedly keep him safe from the evil spirits.

In 211 BC a large meteor is said to have fallen in Dōngjùn (東郡) in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. On it, an unknown person inscribed the words "The First Emperor will die and his land will be divided" (始皇死而地分). When the emperor heard of this, he sent an imperial secretary to investigate this prophecy. No one would confess to the deed, so all the people living nearby were put to death. The stone was then burned and pulverized.

During his fourth tour of Eastern China, the Emperor became seriously ill after he arrived in Pingyuanjin (Pingyuan County, Shandong), and died on 10 September 210 BC (Julian Calendar) at the palace in Shaqiu prefecture (沙丘平台, "Shāqiū Píngtái"), about two months away by road from the capital Xianyang.

The cause of Qin Shi Huang's death is still largely unknown, reportedly, he died from Chinese alchemical elixir poisoning due to ingesting mercury pills, made by his alchemists and court physicians, believing it to be an elixir of immortality.

After the Emperor's death, Prime Minister Li Si, who accompanied him, became extremely worried that the news of his death could trigger a general uprising in the Empire. It would take two months for the entourage to reach the capital, and it would not be possible to stop the uprising. Li Si decided to hide the death of the Emperor, and return to Xianyang. Most of the Imperial entourage accompanying the Emperor were left ignorant of the Emperor's death; only a younger son, Ying Huhai, who was travelling with his father, the eunuch Zhao Gao, Li Si, and five or six favourite eunuchs knew of the death. Li Si also ordered that two carts containing rotten fish be carried immediately before and after the wagon of the Emperor. The idea behind this was to prevent people from noticing the foul smell emanating from the wagon of the Emperor, where his body was starting to decompose severely as it was summertime. They also pulled down the shade so no one could see his face, changed his clothes daily, brought food and when he had to have important conversations, they would act as if he wanted to send them a message.

Eventually, after about two months, Li Si and the imperial court reached Xianyang, where the news of the death of the emperor was announced. Qin Shi Huang did not like to talk about his own death and he had never written a will. After his death, the eldest son Fusu would normally become the next emperor.

Li Si and the chief eunuch Zhao Gao conspired to kill Fusu because Fusu's favorite general was Meng Tian, whom they disliked and feared; Meng Tian's brother, a senior minister, had once punished Zhao Gao. They believed that if Fusu was enthroned, they would lose their power. Li Si and Zhao Gao forged a letter from Qin Shi Huang saying that both Fusu and General Meng must commit suicide. The plan worked, and the younger son Hu Hai became the Second Emperor, later known as Qin Er Shi or "Second Generation Qin".

Qin Er Shi, however, was not as capable as his father. Revolts quickly erupted. His reign was a time of extreme civil unrest, and everything built by the First Emperor crumbled away within a short period. One of the immediate revolt attempts was the 209 BC Daze Village Uprising led by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang.

The following are some family members of Qin Shi Huang:

Qin Shi Huang had about 50 children (about 30 sons and 15 daughters), but most of their names are unknown. He had numerous concubines but appeared to have never named an empress.

The Chinese historian Sima Qian, writing a century after the First Emperor's death, wrote that it took 700,000 men to construct the emperor's mausoleum. British historian John Man points out that this figure is larger than the population of any city in the world at that time and he calculates that the foundations could have been built by 16,000 men in two years. While Sima Qian never mentioned the terracotta army, the statues were discovered by a group of farmers digging wells on March 29, 1974. The soldiers were created with a series of mix-and-match clay molds and then further individualized by the artists' hand. Han Purple was also used on some of the warriors.
There are around 6,000 Terracotta Warriors and their purpose was to protect the Emperor in the afterlife from evil spirits. Also among the army are chariots and 40,000 real bronze weapons.

One of the first projects which the young king accomplished while he was alive was the construction of his own tomb. In 215 BC Qin Shi Huang ordered General Meng Tian to begin its construction with the assistance of 300,000 men. Other sources suggest that he ordered 720,000 unpaid laborers to build his tomb according to his specifications. Again, given John Man's observation regarding populations at the time (see paragraph above), these historical estimates are debatable. The main tomb (located at ) containing the emperor has yet to be opened and there is evidence suggesting that it remains relatively intact. Sima Qian's description of the tomb includes replicas of palaces and scenic towers, "rare utensils and wonderful objects", 100 rivers made with mercury, representations of "the heavenly bodies", and crossbows rigged to shoot anyone who tried to break in. The tomb was built at the foot of Mount Li, 30 kilometers away from Xi'an. Modern archaeologists have located the tomb, and have inserted probes deep into it. The probes revealed abnormally high quantities of mercury, some 100 times the naturally occurring rate, suggesting that some parts of the legend are credible. Secrets were maintained, as most of the workmen who built the tomb were killed.

Traditional Chinese historiography almost always portrayed the First Emperor of the Chinese unified states as a brutal tyrant who had an obsessive fear of assassination. Ideological antipathy towards the Legalist State of Qin was established as early as 266 BC, when Confucian philosopher Xunzi disparaged it. Later Confucian historians condemned the emperor who had burned the classics and had buried Confucian scholars alive. They eventually compiled a list of the "Ten Crimes of Qin" to highlight his tyrannical actions.

The famous Han poet and statesman Jia Yi concluded his essay "The Faults of Qin" (過秦論, "Guò Qín Lùn") with what was to become the standard Confucian judgment of the reasons for Qin's collapse. Jia Yi's essay, admired as a masterpiece of rhetoric and reasoning, was copied into two great Han histories and has had a far-reaching influence on Chinese political thought as a classic illustration of Confucian theory. He attributed Qin's disintegration to its internal failures. Jia Yi wrote that:

In more modern times, historical assessment of the First Emperor different from traditional Chinese historiography began to emerge. The reassessment was spurred on by the weakness of China in the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century. At that time some began to regard Confucian traditions as an impediment to China's entry into the modern world, opening the way for changing perspectives.

At a time when foreign nations encroached upon Chinese territory, leading Kuomintang historian Xiao Yishan emphasized the role of Qin Shi Huang in repulsing the northern barbarians, particularly in the construction of the Great Wall.

Another historian, Ma Feibai (馬非百), published in 1941 a full-length revisionist biography of the First Emperor entitled "Qín Shǐ Huángdì Zhuàn" (秦始皇帝傳), calling him "one of the great heroes of Chinese history". Ma compared him with the contemporary leader Chiang Kai-shek and saw many parallels in the careers and policies of the two men, both of whom he admired. Chiang's Northern Expedition of the late 1920s, which directly preceded the new Nationalist government at Nanjing was compared to the unification brought about by Qin Shi Huang.

With the coming of the Communist Revolution and the establishment of a new, revolutionary regime in 1949, another re-evaluation of the First Emperor emerged as a Marxist critique. This new interpretation of Qin Shi Huang was generally a combination of traditional and modern views, but essentially critical. This is exemplified in the "Complete History of China", which was compiled in September 1955 as an official survey of Chinese history. The work described the First Emperor's major steps toward unification and standardisation as corresponding to the interests of the ruling group and the merchant class, not of the nation or the people, and the subsequent fall of his dynasty as a manifestation of the class struggle. The perennial debate about the fall of the Qin Dynasty was also explained in Marxist terms, the peasant rebellions being a revolt against oppression—a revolt which undermined the dynasty, but which was bound to fail because of a compromise with "landlord class elements".

Since 1972, however, a radically different official view of Qin Shi Huang in accordance with Maoist thought has been given prominence throughout China. Hong Shidi's biography "Qin Shi Huang" initiated the re-evaluation. The work was published by the state press as a mass popular history, and it sold 1.85 million copies within two years. In the new era, Qin Shi Huang was seen as a far-sighted ruler who destroyed the forces of division and established the first unified, centralized state in Chinese history by rejecting the past. Personal attributes, such as his quest for immortality, so emphasized in traditional historiography, were scarcely mentioned. The new evaluations described approvingly how, in his time (an era of great political and social change), he had no compunctions against using violent methods to crush counter-revolutionaries, such as the "industrial and commercial slave owner" chancellor Lü Buwei. However, he was criticized for not being as thorough as he should have been, and as a result, after his death, hidden subversives under the leadership of the chief eunuch Zhao Gao were able to seize power and use it to restore the old feudal order.

To round out this re-evaluation, Luo Siding put forward a new interpretation of the precipitous collapse of the Qin Dynasty in an article entitled "On the Class Struggle During the Period Between Qin and Han" in a 1974 issue of "Red Flag", to replace the old explanation. The new theory claimed that the cause of the fall of Qin lay in the lack of thoroughness of Qin Shi Huang's "dictatorship over the reactionaries, even to the extent of permitting them to worm their way into organs of political authority and usurp important posts."

Mao Zedong, chairman of the People's Republic of China, was reviled for his persecution of intellectuals. On being compared to the First Emperor, Mao responded: "He buried 460 scholars alive; we have buried forty-six thousand scholars alive... You [intellectuals] revile us for being Qin Shi Huangs. You are wrong. We have surpassed Qin Shi Huang a hundredfold. When you berate us for imitating his despotism, we are happy to agree! Your mistake was that you did not say so enough."
Tom Ambrose characterises Qin Shi Huang as the founder of "the first police state in history".

For the first time, all Chinese lands were unified under one powerful ruler. In that same year, King Zheng proclaimed himself the "First Emperor" (始皇帝, "Shǐ Huángdì"), no longer a king in the old sense and now far surpassing the achievements of the old Zhou Dynasty rulers. The emperor made the He Shi Bi into the Imperial Seal, known as the "Heirloom Seal of the Realm". The words, "Having received the Mandate from Heaven, may (the emperor) lead a long and prosperous life." (受命於天，既壽永昌) were written by Prime Minister Li Si, and carved onto the seal by Sun Shou. The Seal was later passed from emperor to emperor for generations to come.

Qin Shi Huang

Qin Shi Huang (, ; 18 February 25910 September 210) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and was the first emperor of a unified China. He was born Ying Zheng () or Zhao Zheng (), a prince of the state of Qin. He became Zheng, the King of Qin () when he was thirteen, then China's first emperor when he was 38 after the Qin had conquered all of the other Warring States and unified all of China in 221 BC. Rather than maintain the title of "king" ( "wáng") borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor () of the Qin dynasty from 220 to 210 BC. His self-invented title "emperor" ( ""), as indicated by his use of the word "First", would continue to be borne by Chinese rulers for the next two millennia.

The rulers of Qin had styled themselves kings from the time of King Huiwen in 325 BC. Upon his ascension, Zheng became known as the King of Qin or King Zheng of Qin. This title made him the nominal equal of the rulers of Shang and of Zhou, the last of whose kings had been deposed by King Zhaoxiang of Qin in 256 BC.

The First Emperor intended that his realm would remain intact through the ages but, following its overthrow and replacement by Han after his death, it became customary to prefix his title with Qin. Thus:

As early as Sima Qian, it was common to shorten the resulting four-character Qin Shi Huangdi to, variously transcribed as Qin Shihuang or Qin Shi Huang.

Following his elevation as emperor, both Zheng's personal name and possibly its homophone became taboo. The First Emperor also arrogated the first-person Chinese pronoun ( *"lrəm’",  "zhèn") for his exclusive use and in 212 BC began calling himself The Immortal  *"Tin-niŋ",  "Zhēnrén",  "True Man"). Others were to address him as "Your Majesty"  "Bìxià",  "Beneath the Palace Steps") in person and "Your Highness" () in writing.

However, the "Records of the Grand Historian" also claimed that the first emperor was not the actual son of Prince Yiren but that of Lü Buwei. According to this account, when Lü Buwei introduced the dancing girl to the prince, she was Lü Buwei's concubine and had already become pregnant by him, and the baby was born after an unusually long period of pregnancy. According to translations of the Annals of Lü Buwei, Zhao Ji gave birth to the future emperor in the city of Handan in 259 BC, the first month of the 48th year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin.

In 246 BC, when King Zhuangxiang died after a short reign of just three years, he was succeeded on the throne by his 13-year-old son. At the time, Zhao Zheng was still young, so Lü Buwei acted as the regent prime minister of the State of Qin, which was still waging war against the other six states. Nine years later, in 235 BC, Zhao Zheng assumed full power after Lü Buwei was banished for his involvement in a scandal with Queen Dowager Zhao.

Zhao Chengjiao, the Lord Chang'an (长安君), was Zhao Zheng's legitimate half-brother, by the same father but from a different mother. After Zhao Zheng inherited the throne, Chengjiao rebelled at Tunliu and surrendered to the state of Zhao. Chengjiao's remaining retainers and families were executed by Zhao Zheng.

A price of 1 million copper coins was placed on Lao Ai's head if he was taken alive or half a million if dead. Lao Ai's supporters were captured and beheaded; then Lao Ai was tied up and torn to five pieces by horse carriages, while his entire family was executed to the third degree. The two hidden sons were also killed, while mother Zhao Ji was placed under house arrest until her death many years later. Lü Buwei drank a cup of poison wine and committed suicide in 235 BC. Ying Zheng then assumed full power as the King of the Qin state. Replacing Lü Buwei, Li Si became the new chancellor.

King Zheng and his troops continued to take over different states. The state of Yan was small, weak and frequently harassed by soldiers. It was no match for the Qin state. So Crown Prince Dan of Yan plotted an assassination attempt to get rid of King Zheng, begging Jing Ke to go on the mission in 227 BC. Jing Ke was accompanied by Qin Wuyang in the plot. Each was supposed to present a gift to King Zheng: a map of Dukang and the severed head of Fan Wuji.

Gao Jianli was a close friend of Jing Ke, who wanted to avenge his death. As a famous lute player, one day he was summoned by King Zheng to play the instrument. Someone in the palace who had known him in the past exclaimed, "This is Gao Jianli". Unable to bring himself to kill such a skilled musician, the emperor ordered his eyes put out. But the king allowed Gao Jianli to play in his presence. He praised the playing and even allowed Gao Jianli to get closer. As part of the plot, the lute was fastened with a heavy piece of lead. He raised the lute and struck at the king. He missed, and his assassination attempt failed. Gao Jianli was later executed.

In 230 BC, King Zheng unleashed the final campaigns of the Warring States period, setting out to conquer the remaining independent kingdoms, one by one.

The first state to fall was Hán (韓; sometimes called Hann to distinguish it from the Hàn 漢 of Han dynasty), in 230 BC. Then Qin took advantage of natural disasters in 229 BC to invade and conquer Zhào, where Qin Shi Huang had been born. He now avenged his poor treatment as a child hostage there, seeking out and killing his enemies.

Qin armies conquered the state of Zhao in 228 BC, the northern country of Yan in 226 BC, the small state of Wei in 225 BC, and the largest state and greatest challenge, Chu, in 223 BC.

In 222 BC, the last remnants of Yan and the royal family were captured in Liaodong in the northeast. The only independent country left was now state of Qi, in the far east, what is now the Shandong peninsula. Terrified, the young king of Qi sent 200,000 people to defend his western borders. In 221 BC, the Qin armies invaded from the north, captured the king, and annexed Qi. Some of the strategies Qin used to unify China were to standardize the trade and communication, currency and language.

For the first time, all Chinese lands were unified under one powerful ruler. In that same year, King Zheng proclaimed himself the "First Emperor" (始皇帝, "Shǐ Huángdì"), no longer a king in the old sense and now far surpassing the achievements of the old Zhou Dynasty rulers. The emperor made the He Shi Bi into the Imperial Seal, known as the "Heirloom Seal of the Realm". The words, "Having received the Mandate from Heaven, may (the emperor) lead a long and prosperous life." (受命於天，既壽永昌) were written by Prime Minister Li Si, and carved onto the seal by Sun Shou. The Seal was later passed from emperor to emperor for generations to come.

In the South, military expansion in the form of campaigns against the Yue tribes continued during his reign, with various regions being annexed to what is now Guangdong province and part of today's Vietnam.

Qin Shi Huang also followed the school of the five elements, earth, wood, metal, fire and water. () Zhao Zheng's birth element is water, which is connected with the colour black. It was also believed that the royal house of the previous dynasty Zhou had ruled by the power of fire, which was the colour red. The new Qin dynasty must be ruled by the next element on the list, which is water, represented by the colour black. Black became the colour for garments, flags, pennants. Other associations include north as the cardinal direction, winter season and the number six. Tallies and official hats were long, carriages wide, one pace () was.

While the previous Warring States era was one of constant warfare, it was also considered the golden age of free thought. Qin Shi Huang eliminated the Hundred Schools of Thought which incorporated Confucianism and other philosophies. After the unification of China, with all other schools of thought banned, legalism became the endorsed ideology of the Qin dynasty, which was basically a system that required the people to follow the laws or be punished accordingly.

Beginning in 213 BC, at the instigation of Li Si and to avoid scholars' comparisons of his reign with the past, Qin Shi Huang ordered most existing books to be burned with the exception of those on astrology, agriculture, medicine, divination, and the history of the State of Qin. This would also serve the purpose of furthering the ongoing reformation of the writing system by removing examples of obsolete scripts. Owning the "Book of Songs" or the "Classic of History" was to be punished especially severely. According to the later "Records of the Grand Historian", the following year Qin Shi Huang had some 460 scholars buried alive for owning the forbidden books. The emperor's oldest son Fusu criticised him for this act.

In 230 BC, the state of Qin had defeated the state of Han. A Han aristocrat named Zhang Liang swore revenge on the Qin emperor. He sold all his valuables and in 218 BC, he hired a strongman assassin and built him a heavy metal cone weighing 120 jin (roughly 160 lb or 97 kg). The two men hid among the bushes along the emperor's route over a mountain. At a signal, the muscular assassin hurled the cone at the first carriage and shattered it. However, the emperor was actually in the second carriage, as he was travelling with two identical carriages for this very reason. Thus the attempt failed. Both men were able to escape in spite of a huge manhunt.

The Qin fought nomadic tribes to the north and north-west. The Xiongnu tribes were not defeated and subdued, thus the campaign was tiring and unsuccessful, and to prevent the Xiongnu from encroaching on the northern frontier any longer, the emperor ordered the construction of an immense defensive wall. This wall, for whose construction hundreds of thousands of men were mobilized, and an unknown number died, is a precursor to the current Great Wall of China. It connected numerous state walls which had been built during the previous four centuries, a network of small walls linking river defences to impassable cliffs.

A famous South China quotation was "In the North there is the Great wall, in the South there is the Lingqu canal" (北有長城、南有靈渠, "Běiyǒu chángchéng, nányǒu língqú"). In 214 BC the Emperor began the project of a major canal to transport supplies to the army. The canal allows water transport between north and south China. The canal, 34 kilometres in length, links the Xiang River which flows into the Yangtze and the Li Jiang, which flows into the Pearl River. The canal connected two of China's major waterways and aided Qin's expansion into the south-west. The construction is considered one of the three great feats of Ancient Chinese engineering, the others being the Great Wall and the Sichuan Dujiangyan Irrigation System.

Later in his life, Qin Shi Huang feared death and desperately sought the fabled elixir of life, which would supposedly allow him to live forever. He was obsessed with acquiring immortality and fell prey to many who offered him supposed elixirs. He visited Zhifu Island three times in order to achieve immortality.

In 211 BC a large meteor is said to have fallen in Dōngjùn (東郡) in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. On it, an unknown person inscribed the words "The First Emperor will die and his land will be divided" (始皇死而地分). When the emperor heard of this, he sent an imperial secretary to investigate this prophecy. No one would confess to the deed, so all the people living nearby were put to death. The stone was then burned and pulverized.

During his fourth tour of Eastern China, the Emperor became seriously ill after he arrived in Pingyuanjin (Pingyuan County, Shandong), and died on 10 September 210 BC (Julian Calendar) at the palace in Shaqiu prefecture (沙丘平台, "Shāqiū Píngtái"), about two months away by road from the capital Xianyang.

The cause of Qin Shi Huang's death is still largely unknown, reportedly, he died from Chinese alchemical elixir poisoning due to ingesting mercury pills, made by his alchemists and court physicians, believing it to be an elixir of immortality.

Eventually, after about two months, Li Si and the imperial court reached Xianyang, where the news of the death of the emperor was announced. Qin Shi Huang did not like to talk about his own death and he had never written a will. After his death, the eldest son Fusu would normally become the next emperor.

Li Si and the chief eunuch Zhao Gao conspired to kill Fusu because Fusu's favorite general was Meng Tian, whom they disliked and feared; Meng Tian's brother, a senior minister, had once punished Zhao Gao. They believed that if Fusu was enthroned, they would lose their power. Li Si and Zhao Gao forged a letter from Qin Shi Huang saying that both Fusu and General Meng must commit suicide. The plan worked, and the younger son Hu Hai became the Second Emperor, later known as Qin Er Shi or "Second Generation Qin".

Qin Er Shi, however, was not as capable as his father. Revolts quickly erupted. His reign was a time of extreme civil unrest, and everything built by the First Emperor crumbled away within a short period. One of the immediate revolt attempts was the 209 BC Daze Village Uprising led by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang.

The following are some family members of Qin Shi Huang:

Qin Shi Huang had about 50 children (about 30 sons and 15 daughters), but most of their names are unknown. He had numerous concubines but appeared to have never named an empress.

Traditional Chinese historiography almost always portrayed the First Emperor of the Chinese unified states as a brutal tyrant who had an obsessive fear of assassination. Ideological antipathy towards the Legalist State of Qin was established as early as 266 BC, when Confucian philosopher Xunzi disparaged it. Later Confucian historians condemned the emperor who had burned the classics and had buried Confucian scholars alive. They eventually compiled a list of the "Ten Crimes of Qin" to highlight his tyrannical actions.

The famous Han poet and statesman Jia Yi concluded his essay "The Faults of Qin" (過秦論, "Guò Qín Lùn") with what was to become the standard Confucian judgment of the reasons for Qin's collapse. Jia Yi's essay, admired as a masterpiece of rhetoric and reasoning, was copied into two great Han histories and has had a far-reaching influence on Chinese political thought as a classic illustration of Confucian theory. He attributed Qin's disintegration to its internal failures. Jia Yi wrote that:

In more modern times, historical assessment of the First Emperor different from traditional Chinese historiography began to emerge. The reassessment was spurred on by the weakness of China in the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century. At that time some began to regard Confucian traditions as an impediment to China's entry into the modern world, opening the way for changing perspectives.

At a time when foreign nations encroached upon Chinese territory, leading Kuomintang historian Xiao Yishan emphasized the role of Qin Shi Huang in repulsing the northern barbarians, particularly in the construction of the Great Wall.

Another historian, Ma Feibai (馬非百), published in 1941 a full-length revisionist biography of the First Emperor entitled "Qín Shǐ Huángdì Zhuàn" (秦始皇帝傳), calling him "one of the great heroes of Chinese history". Ma compared him with the contemporary leader Chiang Kai-shek and saw many parallels in the careers and policies of the two men, both of whom he admired. Chiang's Northern Expedition of the late 1920s, which directly preceded the new Nationalist government at Nanjing was compared to the unification brought about by Qin Shi Huang.

To round out this re-evaluation, Luo Siding put forward a new interpretation of the precipitous collapse of the Qin Dynasty in an article entitled "On the Class Struggle During the Period Between Qin and Han" in a 1974 issue of "Red Flag", to replace the old explanation. The new theory claimed that the cause of the fall of Qin lay in the lack of thoroughness of Qin Shi Huang's "dictatorship over the reactionaries, even to the extent of permitting them to worm their way into organs of political authority and usurp important posts."

Mao Zedong, chairman of the People's Republic of China, was reviled for his persecution of intellectuals. On being compared to the First Emperor, Mao responded: "He buried 460 scholars alive; we have buried forty-six thousand scholars alive... You [intellectuals] revile us for being Qin Shi Huangs. You are wrong. We have surpassed Qin Shi Huang a hundredfold. When you berate us for imitating his despotism, we are happy to agree! Your mistake was that you did not say so enough."
Tom Ambrose characterises Qin Shi Huang as the founder of "the first police state in history".

The Qin dynasty (秦朝) was established in 221 BCE after Qin Shi Huang, King of Qin, conquered his final independent neighbour, the state of Qi. It is now recognised as the first Chinese imperial dynasty in the modern sense of the term; in recognition of this, its rulers were for the first time titled "Emperor" (皇帝), a title of which the components are drawn from legend, higher than the previous title "King" (王). The ancestral name of the family was Ying (嬴), although it is anachronistic to regard this as a family name in the modern sense: it would not have been used together with a given name. The titles of the Qin emperors were literally regnal numbers: "Qin Shi Huang" (秦始皇), in full "Qin Shi Huangdi" (秦始皇帝) means literally "the first Emperor of Qin", "Qin Er Shi" (秦二世), in full "Qin Er Shi Huangdi" (秦二世皇帝) means "the second Emperor of Qin", and so forth.

Chinese emperors family tree (early)

This is a family tree of Chinese emperors from the foundation of the Qin dynasty in 221 BC (by Qin Shihuangdi), till the end of the Sixteen Kingdoms period, in the first half of the fifth century AD.

Chinese emperors family tree (ancient) → "Chinese emperors family tree (early)" → Chinese emperors family tree (middle) → Chinese emperors family tree (late)

Emperor Xian, the last emperor of the Han dynasty, was a descendant of the first emperor Liu Bang. Lasting for over 400 years (the first to last for more than a century), the Han Dynasty is regarded as one of the golden ages of Chinese history. The Han Dynasty was interrupted by the reign of the usurper Wang Mang, who declared the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD); on this basis, the Han Dynasty is generally divided into the Western Han (206 BC – 9 AD and 23–25 AD) and the Eastern Han (25–220 AD). The rulers of the Shu Han, one of the three successor states to the Han Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period, were descended from the Han imperial family, and considered themselves a continuation of the Han Dynasty; they are included below.

- - - - - = The dashed line denotes an adoption

The following is a family tree for the Jin dynasty, which ruled a unified China during the Western Jin Dynasty (265–316 AD). Although greatly weakened by the War of the Eight Princes during the reign of the developmentally disabled Emperor Hui, when members of the clan fought among themselves for imperial control, and forced Eastwards after the conquest of their capital in 316 AD, the dynasty nonetheless continued in the form of the Eastern Jin Dynasty until 420 AD.

In 221 BC, Ying Zheng, who was king of Qin at the time, proclaimed himself "Shi Huangdi" (始皇帝), which translates as "first emperor". "Huangdi" is composed of "huang" ("august one", 皇) and "di" ("sage-king", 帝), and referred to legendary/mythological sage-emperors living several millennia earlier, of which three were "huang" and five were "di". Thus Zheng became Qin Shi Huang, abolishing the system where the "huang"/"di" titles were reserved to dead and/or mythological rulers. Since then, the title "king" became a lower ranked title, and later divided into two grades. Although not as popular, the title 王 "wang" (king or prince) was still used by many monarchs and dynasties in China up to the Taipings in the 19th century. 王 is pronounced "vương" in Vietnamese, "ō" in Japanese, and "wang" in Korean.

Emperor

An emperor (through Old French "empereor" from Latin "imperator") is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother (empress dowager), or a woman who rules in her own right (empress regnant). Emperors are generally recognized to be of a higher honour and rank than kings. In Europe, the title of Emperor has been used since the Middle Ages, considered in those times equal or almost equal in dignity to that of Pope due to the latter's position as visible head of the Church and spiritual leader of the Catholic part of Western Europe. The Emperor of Japan is the only currently reigning monarch whose title is translated into English as Emperor.

Both emperors and kings are monarchs, but emperor and empress are considered the higher monarchical titles. In as much as there is a strict definition of emperor, it is that an emperor has no relations implying the superiority of any other ruler and typically rules over more than one nation, therefore a king might be obliged to pay tribute to another ruler, or be restrained in his actions in some unequal fashion, but an emperor should in theory be completely free of such restraints. However, monarchs heading empires have not always used the title in all contexts—the British sovereign did not assume the title Empress of the British Empire even during the incorporation of India, though she was declared Empress of India.

In Western Europe, the title of Emperor was used exclusively by the Holy Roman Emperor, whose imperial authority was derived from the concept of "", i.e. they claimed succession to the authority of the Western Roman Emperors, thus linking themselves to Roman institutions and traditions as part of state ideology. Although initially ruling much of Central Europe and northern Italy, by the 19th century the Emperor exercised little power beyond the German-speaking states. Although technically an elective title, by the late 16th century the imperial title had in practice come to be inherited by the Habsburg Archdukes of Austria and following the Thirty Years' War their control over the states (outside the Habsburg Monarchy, i.e. Austria, Bohemia and various territories outside the empire) had become nearly non-existent. However, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of the French in 1804 and was shortly followed by Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, who declared himself Emperor of Austria in the same year. The position of Holy Roman Emperor nonetheless continued until Francis II abdicated that position in 1806. In Eastern Europe, the monarchs of Russia also used "translatio imperii" to wield imperial authority as successors to the Eastern Roman Empire. Their status was officially recognised by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1514, although not officially used by the Russian monarchs until 1547. However, the Russian emperors are better known by their Russian-language title of Tsar even after Peter the Great adopted the title of Emperor of All Russia in 1721.

Historians have liberally used emperor and empire anachronistically and out of its Roman and European context to describe any large state from the past or the present. Such pre-Roman titles as Great King or King of Kings, used by the Kings of Persia and others, are often considered as the equivalent. Sometimes this reference has even extended to non-monarchically ruled states and their spheres of influence such as the Athenian Empire of the late 5th century BC, the Angevin Empire of the Plantagenets and the Soviet and American "empires" of the Cold War era. However, such "empires" did not need to be headed by an "emperor". Empire became identified instead with vast territorial holdings rather than the title of its ruler by the mid-18th century.

For purposes of protocol, emperors were once given precedence over kings in international diplomatic relations, but currently precedence amongst heads of state who are sovereigns—whether they be kings, queens, emperors, empresses, princes, princesses and to a lesser degree presidents—is determined by the duration of time that each one has been continuously in office. Outside the European context, emperor was the translation given to holders of titles who were accorded the same precedence as European emperors in diplomatic terms. In reciprocity, these rulers might accredit equal titles in their native languages to their European peers. Through centuries of international convention, this has become the dominant rule to identifying an emperor in the modern era.

In the Roman tradition a large variety in the meaning and importance of the imperial form of monarchy developed: in "intention" it was always the highest office, but it could as well fall down to a redundant title for nobility that had never been near to the "Empire" they were supposed to be reigning. Also the "name" of the position split in several branches of Western tradition, see below.

The importance and meaning of coronation ceremonies and regalia also varied within the tradition: for instance Holy Roman Emperors could only be crowned emperor by the Pope, which meant the coronation ceremony usually took place in Rome, often several years after these emperors had ascended to the throne (as "king") in their home country. The first Latin Emperors of Constantinople on the other hand had to be present in the newly conquered capital of their empire, because that was the only place where they could be granted to become emperor.

Early Roman Emperors avoided any type of ceremony or regalia different from what was already usual for republican offices in the Roman Republic: the most intrusive change had been changing the color of their robe to purple. Later new symbols of worldly and/or spiritual power, like the orb, became an essential part of the imperial accessories.

Rules for indicating successors also varied: there was a tendency towards "male" "inheritance" of the supreme office, but as well election by noblemen, as ruling empresses are known (for empires not too strictly under salic law). Ruling monarchs could additionally steer the succession by adoption, as often occurred in the two first centuries of Imperial Rome. Of course, intrigue, murder and military force could also mingle in for appointing successors; the Roman imperial tradition made no exception to other monarchical traditions in this respect. Probably the epoch best known for this part of the imperial tradition is Rome's third century rule.

When Republican Rome turned into a "de facto" monarchy in the second half of the 1st century BC, at first there was no name for the title of the new type of monarch. Ancient Romans abhorred the name Rex ("king"), and it was critical to the political order to maintain the forms and pretenses of republican rule. Julius Caesar had been Dictator, an acknowledged and traditional office in Republican Rome. Caesar was not the first to hold it, but following his assassination the term was abhorred in Rome.
Augustus, considered the first Roman emperor, established his hegemony by collecting on himself offices, titles, and honours of Republican Rome that had traditionally been distributed to different people, concentrating what had been distributed power in one man. One of these offices was "princeps senatus", ("first man of the Senate") and became changed into Augustus' chief honorific, "princeps civitatis" ("first citizen") from which the modern English word and title prince is descended. The first period of the Roman Empire, from 27 BC – 284 AD, is called the "principate" for this reason. However, it was the informal descriptive of "Imperator" ("commander") that became the title increasingly favored by his successors. Previously bestowed on high officials and military commanders who had "imperium", Augustus reserved it exclusively to himself as the ultimate holder of all "imperium". ("Imperium" is Latin for the authority to command, one of a various types of authority delineated in Roman political thought.)

Beginning with Augustus, "Imperator" appeared in the title of all Roman monarchs through the extinction of the Empire in 1453. After the reign of Augustus' immediate successor Tiberius, being proclaimed "imperator" was transformed into the act of accession to the head of state. Other honorifics used by the Roman Emperors have also come to be synonyms for Emperor:After the turbulent Year of the four emperors in 69, the Flavian Dynasty reigned for three decades. The succeeding Nervan-Antonian Dynasty, ruling for most of the 2nd century, stabilised the Empire. This epoch became known as the era of the "Five Good Emperors", and was followed by the short-lived Severan Dynasty.

During the Crisis of the 3rd century, Barracks Emperors succeeded one another at short intervals. Three short lived secessionist attempts had their own emperors: the Gallic Empire, the Britannic Empire, and the Palmyrene Empire though the latter used "rex" more regularly.

The Principate (27 BC – 284 AD) period was succeeded by what is known as the Dominate (284 AD – 527 AD), during which Emperor Diocletian tried to put the Empire on a more formal footing. Diocletian sought to address the challenges of the Empire's now vast geography and the instability caused by the informality of succession by the creation of co-emperors and junior emperors. At one point, there were as many as five sharers of the "imperium" (see: Tetrarchy). In 325 AD Constantine I defeated his rivals and restored single emperor rule, but following his death the empire was divided among his sons. For a time the concept was of one empire ruled by multiple emperors with varying territory under their control, however following the death of Theodosius I the rule was divided between his two sons and increasingly became separate entities. The areas administered from Rome are referred to by historians the Western Roman Empire and those under the immediate authority of Constantinople called the Eastern Roman Empire or (after the Battle of Yarmouk in 636 AD) the Later Roman or Byzantine Empire. The subdivisions and co-emperor system were formally abolished by Emperor Zeno in 480 AD following the death of Julius Nepos last Western Emperor and the ascension of Odoacer as the "de facto" King of Italy in 476 AD.

Historians generally refer to the continuing Roman Empire in the east as the Byzantine Empire after Byzantium, the original name of the town that Constantine I would elevate to the Imperial capital as New Rome in AD 330. (The city is more commonly called Constantinople and is today named Istanbul). Although the empire was again subdivided and a co-emperor sent to Italy at the end of the fourth century, the office became unitary again only 95 years later at the request of the Roman Senate and following the death of Julius Nepos, last Western Emperor. This change was a recognition of the reality that little remained of Imperial authority in the areas that had been the Western Empire, with even Rome and Italy itself now ruled by the essentially autonomous Odoacer.

These Later Roman "Byzantine" Emperors completed the transition from the idea of the Emperor as a semi-republican official to the Emperor as an absolute monarch. Of particular note was the translation of the Latin "Imperator" into the Greek "Basileus", after Emperor Heraclius changed the official language of the empire from Latin to Greek in AD 620. Basileus, a title which had long been used for Alexander the Great was already in common usage as the Greek word for the Roman emperor, but its definition and sense was "King" in Greek, essentially equivalent with the Latin "Rex". Byzantine period emperors also used the Greek word "autokrator", meaning "one who rules himself", or "monarch", which was traditionally used by Greek writers to translate the Latin "dictator". Essentially, the Greek language did not incorporate the nuances of the Ancient Roman concepts that distinguished "imperium" from other forms of political power.

In general usage, the Byzantine imperial title evolved from simply "emperor" ("basileus"), to "emperor of the Romans" ("basileus tōn Rōmaiōn") in the 9th century, to "emperor and autocrat of the Romans" ("basileus kai autokratōr tōn Rōmaiōn") in the 10th. In fact, none of these (and other) additional epithets and titles had ever been completely discarded.

One important distinction between the post Constantine I (reigned AD 306–337) emperors and their pagan predecessors was cesaropapism, the assertion that the Emperor (or other head of state) is also the head of the Church. Although this principle was held by all emperors after Constantine, it met with increasing resistance and ultimately rejection by bishops in the west after the effective end of Imperial power there. This concept became a key element of the meaning of "emperor" in the Byzantine and Orthodox east, but went out of favor in the west with the rise of Roman Catholicism.

The Byzantine empire also produced three women who effectively governed the state: the Empress Irene and the Empresses Zoe and Theodora.

In 1204 Constantinople fell to the Venetians and the Franks in the Fourth Crusade. Following the tragedy of the horrific sacking of the city, the conquerors declared a new "Empire of Romania", known to historians as the Latin Empire of Constantinople, installing Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders, as Emperor. However, Byzantine resistance to the new empire meant that it was in constant struggle to establish itself. Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos succeeded in recapturing Constantinople in 1261. The Principality of Achaea, a vassal state the empire had created in Morea (Greece) intermittently continued to recognize the authority of the crusader emperors for another half century. Pretenders to the title continued among the European nobility until circa 1383.

With Constantinople occupied, claimants to the imperial succession styled themselves as emperor in the chief centers of resistance: The Laskarid dynasty in the Empire of Nicaea, the Komnenid dynasty in the Empire of Trebizond and the Doukid dynasty in the Despotate of Epirus. In 1248, the Epirus recognized the Nicaean Emperors, who then recaptured Constantinople in 1261. The Trebizond emperor formally submitted in Constantinople in 1281, but frequently flouted convention by styling themselves emperor back in Trebizond thereafter.

Ottoman rulers held several titles denoting their Imperial status. These included: Sultan, Khan, Sovereign of the Imperial House of Osman, Sultan of Sultans, Khan of Khans, Commander of the Faithful and Successor of the Prophet of the Lord of the Universe, Protector of the Holy Cities of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, Emperor of The Three Cities of Constantinople, Adrianopole and Bursa as well as many other cities and countries.

After the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman sultans began to style themselves Kaysar-i Rum (Emperor of the Romans) as they asserted themselves to be the heirs to the Roman empire by right of conquest. The title was of such importance to them that it led them to eliminate the various Byzantine successor states — and therefore rival claimants — over the next eight years. Though the term "emperor" was rarely used by Westerners of the Ottoman sultan, it was generally accepted by Westerners that he had imperial status.

The "Emperor" of the Romans' title was a reflection of the "translatio imperii" ("transfer of rule") principle that regarded the Holy Roman Emperors as the inheritors of the title of Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, despite the continued existence of the Roman Empire in the east.

From the time of Otto the Great onward, much of the former Carolingian kingdom of Eastern Francia became the Holy Roman Empire. The prince-electors elected one of their peers as King of the Romans and King of Italy before being crowned by the Pope. The Emperor could also pursue the election of his heir (usually a son) as King, who would then succeed him after his death. This junior King then bore the title of Roman King (King of the Romans). Although technically already ruling, after the election he would be crowned as emperor by the Pope. The last emperor to be crowned by the pope was Charles V; all emperors after him were technically "emperors-elect", but were universally referred to as "Emperor".

The first Austrian Emperor was the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II. In the face of aggressions by Napoleon, Francis feared for the future of the Holy Roman Empire. He wished to maintain his and his family's Imperial status in the event that the Holy Roman Empire should be dissolved, as it indeed was in 1806 when an Austrian-led army suffered a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz. After which, the victorious Napoleon proceeded to dismantle the old "Reich" by severing a good portion from the empire and turning it into a separate Confederation of the Rhine. With the size of his imperial realm significantly reduced, Francis II, "Holy Roman Emperor" became Francis I, "Emperor of Austria". The new imperial title may have sounded less prestigious than the old one, but Francis' dynasty continued to rule from Austria and a Habsburg monarch was still an emperor ("Kaiser"), and not just merely a king ("König"), in name.

The title lasted just a little over one century until 1918, but it was never clear what territory constituted the "Empire of Austria". When Francis took the title in 1804, the Habsburg lands as a whole were dubbed the "Kaisertum Österreich". "Kaisertum" might literally be translated as "emperordom" (on analogy with "kingdom") or "emperor-ship"; the term denotes specifically "the territory ruled by an emperor", and is thus somewhat more general than Reich, which in 1804 carried connotations of universal rule. Austria proper (as opposed to the complex of Habsburg lands as a whole) had been an Archduchy since the 15th century, and most of the other territories of the Empire had their own institutions and territorial history, although there were some attempts at centralization, especially during the reign of Marie Therese and her son Joseph II and then finalized in the early 19th century. When Hungary was given self-government in 1867, the non-Hungarian portions were called the Empire of Austria and were officially known as the "Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council ("Reichsrat")". The title of Emperor of Austria and the associated Empire were both abolished at the end of the First World War in 1918, when German Austria became a republic and the other kingdoms and lands represented in the Imperial Council established their independence or adhesion to other states.

Byzantium's close cultural and political interaction with its Balkan neighbors Bulgaria and Serbia, and with Russia (Kievan Rus', then Muscovy) led to the adoption of Byzantine imperial traditions in all of these countries.

In 913, Simeon I of Bulgaria was crowned Emperor (Tsar) by the Patriarch of Constantinople and imperial regent Nicholas Mystikos outside the Byzantine capital. In its final simplified form, the title read "Emperor and Autocrat of all Bulgarians and Romans" ("Tsar i samodarzhets na vsichki balgari i gartsi" in the modern vernacular). The Roman component in the Bulgarian imperial title indicated both rulership over Greek speakers and the derivation of the imperial tradition from the Romans, however this component was never recognised by the Byzantine court.

Byzantine recognition of Simeon's imperial title was revoked by the succeeding Byzantine government. The decade 914–924 was spent in destructive warfare between Byzantium and Bulgaria over this and other matters of conflict. The Bulgarian monarch, who had further irritated his Byzantine counterpart by claiming the title "Emperor of the Romans" ("basileus tōn Rōmaiōn"), was eventually recognized, as "Emperor of the Bulgarians" ("basileus tōn Boulgarōn") by the Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lakapenos in 924. Byzantine recognition of the imperial dignity of the Bulgarian monarch and the patriarchal dignity of the Bulgarian patriarch was again confirmed at the conclusion of permanent peace and a Bulgarian-Byzantine dynastic marriage in 927. In the meantime, the Bulgarian imperial title may have been also confirmed by the pope. The Bulgarian imperial title "tsar" was adopted by all Bulgarian monarchs up to the fall of Bulgaria under Ottoman rule. 14th-century Bulgarian literary compositions clearly denote the Bulgarian capital (Tarnovo) as a successor of Rome and Constantinople, in effect, the "Third Rome".

After Bulgaria obtained full independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1908, its monarch, who was previously styled "Knyaz", [prince], took the traditional title of "Tsar" [king] and was recognized internationally as such.

The kings of the "Ancien Régime" and the July Monarchy used the title "Empereur de France" in diplomatic correspondence and treaties with the Ottoman emperor from at least 1673 onwards. The Ottomans insisted on this elevated style while refusing to recognize the Holy Roman Emperors or the Russian tsars because of their rival claims of the Roman crown. In short, it was an indirect insult by the Ottomans to the HRE and the Russians. The French kings also used it for Morocco (1682) and Persia (1715).

Napoleon Bonaparte, who was already First Consul of the French Republic ("Premier Consul de la République française") for life, declared himself Emperor of the French ("Empereur des Français") on 18 May 1804, thus creating the French Empire ("Empire Français").

Napoleon relinquished the title of Emperor of the French on 6 April and again on 11 April 1814.
Napoleon's infant son, Napoleon II, was recognized by the Council of Peers, as Emperor from the moment of his father's abdication, and therefore reigned (as opposed to ruled) as Emperor for fifteen days, 22 June to 7 July 1815.

Since 3 May 1814, the Sovereign Principality of Elba was created a miniature non-hereditary Monarchy under the exiled French Emperor Napoleon I. Napoleon I was allowed, by the treaty of Fontainebleau with (27 April), to enjoy, for life, the imperial title. The islands were "not" restyled an empire.

On 26 February 1815, Napoleon abandoned Elba for France, reviving the French Empire for a Hundred Days; the Allies declared an end to Napoleon's sovereignty over Elba on 25 March 1815, and on 31 March 1815 Elba was ceded to the restored Grand Duchy of Tuscany by the Congress of Vienna. After his final defeat, Napoleon was treated as a general by the British authorities during his second exile to Atlantic Isle of St. Helena. His title was a matter of dispute with the governor of St Helena, who insisted on addressing him as "General Bonaparte", despite the "historical reality that he had been an emperor" and therefore retained the title.

Napoleon I's nephew, Napoleon III, resurrected the title of emperor on 2 December 1852, after establishing the Second French Empire in a presidential coup, subsequently approved by a plebiscite. His reign was marked by large scale public works, the development of social policy, and the extension of France's influence throughout the world. During his reign, he also set about creating the Second Mexican Empire (headed by his choice of Maximilian I of Mexico, a member of the House of Habsburg), to regain France's hold in the Americas and to achieve greatness for the 'Latin' race. Napoleon III was deposed on 4 September 1870, after France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. The Third Republic followed and after the death of his son Napoleon (IV), in 1879 during the Zulu War, the Bonapartist movement split, and the Third Republic was to last until 1940.

The origin of the title "Imperator totius Hispaniae" (Latin for "Emperor of All Spain") is murky. It was associated with the Leonese monarchy perhaps as far back as Alfonso the Great ("r." 866–910). The last two kings of its Astur-Leonese dynasty were called emperors in a contemporary source.

King Sancho III of Navarre conquered Leon in 1034 and began using it. His son, Ferdinand I of Castile also took the title in 1039. Ferdinand's son, Alfonso VI of León and Castile took the title in 1077. It then passed to his son-in-law, Alfonso I of Aragon in 1109. His stepson and Alfonso VI's grandson, Alfonso VII was the only one who actually had an imperial coronation in 1135.

The title was not exactly hereditary but self-proclaimed by those who had, wholly or partially, united the Christian northern part of the Iberian Peninsula, often at the expense of killing rival siblings. The popes and Holy Roman emperors protested at the usage of the imperial title as a usurpation of leadership in western Christendom. After Alfonso VII's death in 1157, the title was abandoned, and the kings who used it are not commonly mentioned as having been "emperors", in Spanish or other historiography.

After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the legitimate heir to the throne, Andreas Palaiologos, willed away his claim to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1503.

After the independence and proclamation of the Empire of Brazil from the Kingdom of Portugal by Prince Pedro, who became Emperor, in 1822, his father, King John VI of Portugal briefly held the honorific style of Titular Emperor of Brazil and the treatment of "His Imperial and Royal Majesty" under the 1825 Treaty of Rio de Janeiro, by which Portugal recognized the independence of Brazil. The style of Titular Emperor was a life title, and became extinct upon the holder's demise. John VI held the imperial title for a few months only, from the ratification of the Treaty in November 1825 until his death in March 1826. During those months, however, as John's imperial title was purely honorific while his son, Pedro I, remained the sole monarch of the Brazilian Empire.

In the late 3rd century, by the end of the epoch of the "barracks emperors" in Rome, there were two Britannic Emperors, reigning for about a decade. After the end of Roman rule in Britain, the Imperator Cunedda forged the Kingdom of Gwynedd in northern Wales, but all his successors were titled kings and princes.

There was no consistent title for the king of England before 1066, and monarchs chose to style themselves as they pleased. Imperial titles were used inconsistently, beginning with Athelstan in 930 and ended with the Norman conquest of England. Empress Matilda (1102–1167) is the only English monarch commonly referred to as "emperor" or "empress", but she acquired her title through her marriage to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor.

During the rule of Henry VIII the Statute in Restraint of Appeals declared that 'this realm of England is an Empire...governed by one Supreme Head and King having the dignity and royal estate of the imperial Crown of the same'. This was in the context of the divorce of Catherine of Aragon and the English Reformation, to emphasize that England had never accepted the quasi-imperial claims of the papacy. Hence England and, by extension its modern successor state, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is according to English law an Empire ruled by a King endowed with the imperial dignity. However, this has not led to the creation of the "title" of Emperor in England, nor in Great Britain, nor in the United Kingdom.

In 1801, George III rejected the title of Emperor when offered. The only period when British monarchs held the title of "Emperor" in a dynastic succession started when the title Empress of India was created for Queen Victoria. The government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, conferred the additional title upon her by an Act of Parliament, reputedly to assuage the monarch's irritation at being, as a mere Queen, notionally inferior to her own daughter (Princess Victoria, who was the wife of the reigning German Emperor); the Indian Imperial designation was also formally justified as the expression of Britain succeeding the former Mughal Emperor as suzerain over hundreds of princely states. The Indian Independence Act 1947 provided for the abolition of the use of the title "Emperor of India" by the British monarch, but this was not executed by King George VI until a royal proclamation on 22 June 1948. Despite this, George VI continued as king of India until 1950 and as king of Pakistan until his death in 1952.

The last Empress of India was George VI's wife, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

Under the guise of idealism giving way to realism, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848 to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck's authoritarian "Realpolitik". Bismarck wanted to unify the rival German states to achieve his aim of a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany. Three wars led to military successes and helped to convince German people to do this: the Second war of Schleswig against Denmark in 1864, the Austro-Prussian War against Austria in 1866, and the Franco-Prussian War against the Second French Empire in 1870–71. During the Siege of Paris in 1871, the North German Confederation, supported by its allies from southern Germany, formed the German Empire with the proclamation of the Prussian king Wilhelm I as German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, to the humiliation of the French, who ceased to resist only days later.

After his death he was succeeded by his son Frederick III who was only emperor for 99 days. In the same year his son Wilhelm II became the third emperor within a year. He was the last German emperor. After the empire's defeat in World War I the empire, called in German "Reich", had a president as head of state instead of an emperor. The use of the word "Reich" was abandoned after the Second World War.

In 1472, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, Sophia Palaiologina, married Ivan III, grand prince of Moscow, who began championing the idea of Russia being the successor to the Byzantine Empire. This idea was represented more emphatically in the composition the monk Filofej addressed to their son Vasili III. After ending Muscovy's dependence on its Mongol overlords in 1480, Ivan III began the usage of the titles Tsar and Autocrat ("samoderzhets"). His insistence on recognition as such by the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire since 1489 resulted in the granting of this recognition in 1514 by Emperor Maximilian I to Vasili III. His son Ivan IV emphatically crowned himself Tsar of Russia on 16 January 1547. The word "Tsar" derives from Latin Caesar, but this title was used in Russia as equivalent to "King"; the error occurred when medieval Russian clerics referred to the biblical Jewish kings with the same title that was used to designate Roman and Byzantine rulers — "Caesar".

On 31 October 1721, Peter I was proclaimed Emperor by the Senate. The title used was Latin ""Imperator"", which is a westernizing form equivalent to the traditional Slavic title ""Tsar"". He based his claim partially upon a letter discovered in 1717 written in 1514 from Maximilian I to Vasili III, in which the Holy Roman Emperor used the term in referring to Vasili.

A formal address to the ruling Russian monarch adopted thereafter was 'Your Imperial Majesty'. The crown prince was addressed as 'Your Imperial Highness'.

The title has not been used in Russia since the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II on 15 March 1917.

Imperial Russia produced four reigning Empresses, all in the eighteenth century.

In 1345, the Serbian King Stefan Uroš IV Dušan proclaimed himself Emperor (Tsar) and was crowned as such at Skopje on Easter 1346 by the newly created Serbian Patriarch, and by the Patriarch of Bulgaria and the autocephalous Archbishop of Ohrid. His imperial title was recognized by Bulgaria and various other neighbors and trading partners but not by the Byzantine Empire. In its final simplified form, the Serbian imperial title read "Emperor of Serbs and Greeks" ("цар Срба и Грка" in modern Serbian). It was only employed by Stefan Uroš IV Dušan and his son Stefan Uroš V in Serbia (until his death in 1371), after which it became extinct. A half-brother of Dušan, Simeon Uroš, and then his son Jovan Uroš, claimed the same title, until the latter's abdication in 1373, while ruling as dynasts in Thessaly. The "Greek" component in the Serbian imperial title indicates both rulership over Greeks and the derivation of the imperial tradition from the Romans.

The Aztec and Inca traditions are unrelated to one another. Both were conquered under the reign of King Charles I of Spain who was simultaneously emperor-elect of the Holy Roman Empire during the fall of the Aztecs and fully emperor during the fall of the Incas. Incidentally by being king of Spain, he was also Roman (Byzantine) emperor in pretence through Andreas Palaiologos. The translations of their titles were provided by the Spanish.

The only pre-Columbian North American rulers to be commonly called emperors were the "Hueyi Tlatoani" of the Aztec Empire (1375–1521). It was an elected monarchy chosen by the elite. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés slew Emperor Cuauhtémoc and installed puppet rulers who became vassals for Spain.

The only pre-Columbian South American rulers to be commonly called emperors were the "Sapa Inca" of the Inca Empire (1438–1533). Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, conquered the Inca for Spain, killed Emperor Atahualpa, and installed puppets as well. Atahualpa may actually be considered a usurper as he had achieved power by killing his half-brother and he did not perform the required coronation with the imperial crown "mascaipacha" by the "Huillaq Uma" (high priest).

When Napoleon I ordered the invasion of Portugal in 1807 because it refused to join the Continental System, the Portuguese Braganzas moved their capital to Rio de Janeiro to avoid the fate of the Spanish Bourbons (Napoleon I arrested them and made his brother Joseph king). When the French general Jean-Andoche Junot arrived in Lisbon, the Portuguese fleet had already left with all the local elite.

In 1808, under a British naval escort, the fleet arrived in Brazil. Later, in 1815, the Portuguese Prince Regent (since 1816 King João VI) proclaimed the "United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves", as a union of three kingdoms, lifting Brazil from its colonial status.

After the fall of Napoleon I and the Liberal revolution in Portugal, the Portuguese royal family returned to Europe (1821). Prince Pedro of Braganza (King João's older son) stayed in South America acting as regent of the local kingdom, but, two years later in 1822, he proclaimed himself Pedro I, first Emperor of Brazil. He did, however, recognize his father, João VI, as "Titular Emperor of Brazil" —a purely honorific title—until João VI's death in 1826.

The empire came to an end in 1889, with the overthrow of Emperor Pedro II (Pedro I's son and successor), when the Brazilian republic was proclaimed.

Haiti was declared an empire by its ruler, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who made himself Jacques I, on 20 May 1805. He was assassinated the next year. Haiti again became an empire from 1849 to 1859 under Faustin Soulouque.

In Mexico, the First Mexican Empire was the first of two empires created. After the declaration of independence on September 15, 1821, it was the intention of the Mexican parliament to establish a commonwealth whereby the King of Spain, Ferdinand VII, would also be Emperor of Mexico, but in which both countries were to be governed by separate laws and with their own legislative offices. Should the king refuse the position, the law provided for a member of the House of Bourbon to accede to the Mexican throne.

Ferdinand VII, however, did not recognize the independence and said that Spain would not allow any other European prince to take the throne of Mexico. By request of Parliament, the president of the regency Agustín de Iturbide was proclaimed emperor of Mexico on 12 July 1822 as Agustín I. Agustín de Iturbide was the general who helped secure Mexican independence from Spanish rule, but was overthrown by the Plan of Casa Mata.

In 1863, the invading French, under Napoleon III (see above), in alliance with Mexican conservatives and nobility, helped create the Second Mexican Empire, and invited Archduke Maximilian, of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, younger brother of the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef I, to become emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. The childless Maximilian and his consort Empress Carlota of Mexico, daughter of Leopold I of Belgium, adopted Agustín's grandsons Agustin and Salvador as his heirs to bolster his claim to the throne of Mexico. Maximilian and Carlota made Chapultepec Castle their home, which has been the only palace in North America to house sovereigns. After the withdrawal of French protection in 1867, Maximilian was captured and executed by the liberal forces of Benito Juárez.

This empire led to French influence in the Mexican culture and also immigration from France, Belgium, and Switzerland to Mexico.

In Persia, from the time of Darius the Great, Persian rulers used the title "King of Kings" ("Shahanshah" in Persian) since they had dominion over peoples from the borders of India to the borders of Greece and Egypt. Alexander probably crowned himself "shahanshah" after conquering Persia, bringing the phrase "basileus ton basileon" to Greek. It is also known that Tigranes the Great, king of Armenia, was named as the king of kings when he made his empire after defeating the Parthians. Georgian title "mephet'mephe" has the same meaning.

The last "shahanshah" (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi) was ousted in 1979 following the Iranian Revolution. "Shahanshah" is usually translated as "king of kings" or simply "king" for ancient rulers of the Achaemenid, Arsacid, and Sassanid dynasties, and often shortened to "shah" for rulers since the Safavid dynasty in the 16th century. Iranian rulers were typically regarded in the West as emperors.

The Sanskrit word for emperor is "Samrāj" or Samraat or "Chakravartin". This word has been used as an epithet of various Vedic deities, like Varuna, and has been attested in the Rig-Veda, possibly the oldest compiled book among the Indo-Europeans. "Chakravarti" refers to the king of kings. A "Chakravarti" is not only a sovereign ruler but also has feudatories.

Typically, in the later Vedic age, a Hindu high king ("Maharajah") was only called "Samraaṭ" after performing the Vedic "Rajasuya" sacrifice, enabling him by religious tradition to claim superiority over the other kings and princes. Another word for emperor is "sārvabhaumā". The title of "Samraaṭ" has been used by many rulers of the Indian subcontinent as claimed by the Hindu mythologies. In proper history, most historians call Chandragupta Maurya the first "samraaṭ" (emperor) of the Indian subcontinent, because of the huge empire he ruled. The most famous emperor was his grandson Ashoka the Great. Other dynasties that are considered imperial by historians are the Kushanas, Guptas, Vijayanagara, Kakatiya, Hoysala and the Cholas.

Rudhramadevi (1259–1289) was one of the most prominent rulers of the Kakatiya dynasty on the Deccan Plateau, being one of the few ruling queens (empress) in Indian history.

After India was invaded by the Mongol Khans and Turkic Muslims, the rulers of their major states on the subcontinent were titled "Sultān", In this manner, the only empress-regnant ever to have actually sat on the throne of Delhi was Razia Sultan. The Mughal Emperors were the only Indian rulers for whom the term was consistently used by Western contemporaries. From 1877 to 1947 the monarch of the United Kingdom adopted the additional title of Emperor/Empress of India ("Kaisar-i-Hind").

From 1270 the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia used the title, literally "King of Kings". The use of the "king of kings" style began a millennium earlier in this region, however, with the title being used by the Kings of Aksum, beginning with Sembrouthes in the 3rd century.

Another title used by this dynasty was. translates as Empress, and was used by the only reigning Empress, Zauditu, along with the official title ("Queen of Kings").

In 1936, the Italian king Victor Emmanuel III claimed the title of Emperor of Ethiopia after Ethiopia was occupied by Italy during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. After the defeat of the Italians by the British and the Ethiopians in 1941, Haile Selassie was restored to the throne but Victor Emmanuel did not relinquish his claim to the title until 1943.

In 1976, President Jean-Bédel Bokassa of the Central African Republic, proclaimed the country to be an autocratic Central African Empire, and made himself Emperor as Bokassa I. The expenses of his coronation ceremony actually bankrupted the country. He was overthrown three years later and the republic was restored.

The rulers of China and (once Westerners became aware of the role) Japan were always accepted in the West as emperors, and referred to as such. The claims of other East Asian monarchies to the title may have been accepted for diplomatic purposes, but it was not necessarily used in more general contexts.

The East Asian tradition is different from the Roman tradition, having arisen separately. What links them together is the use of the Chinese logographs 皇 ("huáng") and 帝 ("dì") which together or individually are imperial. Because of the cultural influence of China, China's neighbors adopted these titles or had their native titles conform in "hanzi". Anyone who spoke to the emperor was to address himself as bìxià (陛下, lit. the "Bottom of the Steps"), corresponding to "Imperial Majesty"; shèngshàng (聖上, lit. Holy Highness); or wànsuì (萬歲, lit. "You, of Ten Thousand Years").

The imperial title continued in China until the Qing Dynasty was overthrown in 1912. The title was briefly revived from 12 December 1915 to 22 March 1916 by President Yuan Shikai and again in early July 1917 when General Zhang Xun attempted to restore last Qing emperor Puyi to the throne. Puyi retained the title and attributes of a foreign emperor, as a personal status, until 1924. After the Japanese occupied Manchuria in 1931, they proclaimed it to be the Empire of Manchukuo, and Puyi became emperor of Manchukuo. This empire ceased to exist when it was occupied by the Soviet Red Army in 1945.

In general, an emperor would have one empress ("Huanghou", 皇后) at one time, although posthumous entitlement to empress for a concubine was not uncommon. The earliest known usage of "huanghou" was in the Han Dynasty. The emperor would generally select the empress from his concubines. In subsequent dynasties, when the distinction between wife and concubine became more accentuated, the crown prince would have chosen an empress-designate before his reign. Imperial China produced only one reigning empress, Wu Zetian, and she used the same Chinese title as an emperor ("Huangdi", 皇帝). Wu Zetian then reigned for about 15 years (690–705 AD).

The earliest Emperor recorded in Kojiki and Nihon Shoki is Emperor Jimmu, who is said to be a descendant of Amaterasu's grandson Ninigi who descended from Heaven (Tenson kōrin). If one believes what is written in Nihon Shoki, the Emperors have an unbroken direct male lineage that goes back more than 2,600 years.

In ancient Japan, the earliest titles for the sovereign were either ヤマト大王/大君 ("yamato ōkimi", Grand King of Yamato), 倭王/倭国王 ("waō"/"wakokuō", King of Wa, used externally), or 治天下大王 ("amenoshita shiroshimesu ōkimi", Grand King who rules all under heaven, used internally). As early as the 7th century, the word 天皇 (which can be read either as "sumera no mikoto", divine order, or as "tennō", Heavenly Emperor, the latter being derived from a Tang Chinese term referring to the Pole star around which all other stars revolve) began to be used. The earliest use of this term is found on a wooden slat, or "mokkan", unearthed in Asuka-mura, Nara Prefecture in 1998. The slat dated back to the reign of Emperor Tenmu and Empress Jitō. The reading 'Tennō' has become the standard title for the Japanese sovereign up to the present age. The term 帝 ("mikado", Emperor) is also found in literary sources.

Japanese monarchs were given their official title by the Chinese emperor. The new Japanese monarch after coming into power would send a representative to China and receive the anointment. They would receive their official title on several golden plates of several meters tall. Since the Japanese monarchs changed their title to 天皇 (Heavenly Emperor) in 607, the Chinese emperor refused to anoint the Japanese king, thus, ending relations with Japan for the next few hundred years. Although the Japanese emperors used Chinese imperial titles, rarely was the Chinese-style "Son of Heaven" used. In the Japanese language, the word "tennō" is restricted to Japan's own monarch; "kōtei" (皇帝) is used for foreign emperors. Historically, retired emperors often kept power over a child-emperor as de facto regent. For a long time, a "shōgun" (formally the imperial generalissimo, but made hereditary) or an imperial regent wielded actual political power. In fact, through much of Japanese history, the emperor has been little more than a figurehead.

After World War II, all claims of divinity were dropped (see Ningen-sengen). The Diet acquired all prerogative powers of the Crown, reverting the latter to a ceremonial role. By the end of the 20th century, Japan was the only country with an emperor on the throne.

As of the early 21st century, Japan's succession law prohibits a female from ascending the throne. With the birth of a daughter as the first child of the current crown prince, Naruhito, Japan considered abandoning that rule. However, shortly after the announcement that Princess Kiko was pregnant with her third child, the proposal to alter the Imperial Household Law was suspended by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. On 3 January 2007, after the birth of her son, Prince Hisahito, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that he would drop the proposal.

Currently, many believe the new prince of Japan will ascend the throne, as the law defines. Historically, Japan has had eight reigning empresses who used the genderless title "Tennō", rather than the female consort title "kōgō" (皇后) or "chūgū" (中宮). There is ongoing discussion of the Japanese Imperial succession controversy.

Although current Japanese law prohibits female succession, all Japanese emperors claim to trace their lineage to "Amaterasu", the Sun Goddess of the Shintō religion. Thus, the Emperor is thought to be the highest authority of the Shinto religion, and one of his duties is to perform Shinto rituals for the people of Japan.

Some rulers of Goguryeo (37 BC–668 AD) used the title of "Taewang" (), literally translated as "Greatest King". The title of "Taewang" was also used by some rulers of Silla (57 BC–935 AD), including Beopheung and Jinheung.

The rulers of Balhae (698–926) internally called themselves "Seongwang" ().

The rulers of Goryeo (918–1392) used the titles of emperor and Son of Heaven. Goryeo's imperial system ended in 1270 with capitulation to the Mongol Empire.

In 1897, Gojong, the King of Joseon, proclaimed the founding of the Korean Empire (1897–1910), becoming the Emperor of Korea. He declared the era name of "Gwangmu" (), meaning "Bright and Martial". The Korean Empire lasted until 1910, when it was annexed by the Empire of Japan.

Pre-Mongol Kingdoms such as the Xiongnu used the title "Chanu" meaning "Ruler of all" in old Mongolian. However it was not until the Chanu name was dropped and instead replaced by "Khan" that the rulers of Mongolia claimed the divine right as the ruler of all under the blue sky, this rule was closely tied with the ancient religious beliefs of the people of Mongolia (Tengrism). The title Khagan (khan of khans or grand khan) was held by Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire in 1206. After 1271, the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty also took the Chinese title "huangdi", or Chinese emperor. Only the Khagans from Genghis Khan to the fall of the Yuan Dynasty in 1368 are normally referred to as Emperors in English.

Ngô Quyền, the first ruler of Đại Việt as an independent state, used the title "Vương" (王, "King"). However, after the death of Ngô Quyền, the country immersed in a civil war known as Chaos of the 12 Lords that lasted for over 20 years. In the end, Đinh Bộ Lĩnh unified the country after defeating all the warlords and became the first ruler of Đại Việt to use the title "Hoàng Đế" (皇帝, "Emperor") in 968. Succeeding rulers in Vietnam then continued to use this Emperor title until 1806 when this title was stopped being used for a century.

Đinh Bộ Lĩnh wasn't the first to claim the title of "Đế" (帝, "Emperor"). Before him, Lý Bí and Mai Thúc Loan also claimed this title. However, their rules were very short lived.

The Vietnamese emperors also gave this title to their ancestors who were lords or influence figures in the previous dynasty like the Chinese emperors. This practice is one of many indications of the idea "Vietnam's equality with China" which remained intact up to the twentieth century.

In 1802 the newly established Nguyễn dynasty requested canonization from Chinese Jiaqing Emperor and received the title "Quốc Vương" (國王, "King of a State)" and the name of the country as "An Nam" (安南) instead "Đại Việt" (大越). To avoid unnecessary armed conflicts, the Vietnamese rulers accepted this in diplomatic relation and use the title Emperor only domestically. However, Vietnamese rulers never accepted the vassalage relationship with China and always refused to come to Chinese courts to pay homage to Chinese rulers (a sign of vassalage acceptance). China waged a number of wars against Vietnam throughout history, and after each failure, settled for the tributary relationship. The Yuan dynasty under Kublai Khan waged three wars against Vietnam to force it into a vassalage relationship but after successive failures, Kublai Khan's successor, Temür Khan, finally settled for a tributary relationship with Vietnam. Vietnam sent tributary missions to China once in three years (with some periods of disruptions) until the 19th century, Sino-French War France replaced China in control of northern Vietnam.

The emperors of the last dynasty of Vietnam continued to hold this title until the French conquered Vietnam. The emperor, however, was then a puppet figure only and could easily be disposed of by the French for more pro-France figure. Japan took Vietnam from France and the Axis-occupied Vietnam was declared an empire by the Japanese in March 1945. The line of emperors came to an end with Bảo Đại, who was deposed after the war, although he later served as head of state of South Vietnam from 1949-55.

The lone holders of the imperial title in Oceania were the heads of the semi-mythical Tuʻi Tonga Empire.

There have been many fictional emperors in movies and books. To see a list of these emperors, see.