A Witty Dwarf Was Said To Have Advised The Qin Emperors Of China

According to the sources of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), a certain dwarf named Actor Zhan served in the courts of the First (r. 221-210 BCE) and Second (r. 210-207 BCE) Qin Emperors of China. Zhan’s job description was something akin to the Western idea of a court jester—he navigated a fine line with his humor, joking about the emperor’s poor ideas, while staying respectful enough to keep his head intact. His goal was not only to make the emperors laugh, but to also inform them of their mistakes so that these could be corrected.

Sima Qian recorded a few tales in which Actor Zhan played a prominent role. One of the stories was set on a cold, rainy day when the First Emperor was holding a banquet in his palace. While the emperor was hearing toasts and receiving cheers to his health from the important guests, all of the guardsmen were shivering in their soaked uniforms out on the palace steps. Taking pity on the guards, Actor Zhan made a quip about how blessed a dwarf he was to be able to lounge in the comfort of the palace while brave and valiant soldiers were left to freeze in the cold downpour. Enlightened to the situation, the First Emperor directed the guards to split into shifts, so that they were not all in the rain at the same time.

In another story, the First Emperor supposedly had the bizarre idea of converting most of the land around the capital city of Xianyang into one huge royal hunting park, even to the extent of displacing military garrisons and defenses. Actor Zhan was said to have gleefully agreed with the idea, but also suggested that animal trainers would need to be brought in to teach the wildlife how to fight rebel armies. Warned that turning the whole capital region into a hunting reserve could leave Xianyang open to attack, the First Emperor decided to no longer pursue the idea.

Actor Zhan still had influence in the imperial court even after the Second Emperor seized the throne in the aftermath of the First Emperor’s death. Sometime in 210 BCE, the first year of the Second Emperor’s reign, the new emperor allegedly decided that the capital city needed some renovations. He proclaimed that he wanted all of the capital’s walls to be lacquered. Actor Zhan apparently proclaimed that it was a splendid idea. He energetically envisioned rebels slipping and sliding down the slick, shiny lacquered walls of the city. Surely the enormous manpower and expenses required to apply lacquer to the whole city would be worth such a sight. He ended his witty outburst with a joke about the gargantuan drying shed that would be needed to finish the project. After listening to Actor Zhan’s veiled criticisms, the Second Emperor decided to spruce up the city by different means.

According to Sima Qian, Actor Zhan eventually became disillusioned with the Qin emperors. Following the suicide or execution of the Second Emperor of Qin in 207 BCE, Zhan defected to the growing rebel movements. By the end of the same year, rebels executed the Third Emperor and the Qin Dynasty collapsed. Not long after the downfall of the Qin Dynasty, Actor Zhan died, presumably from natural causes.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Chinese dwarf, Chung Mow. Wood engraving, via Welcome Images, on top of A mural painting from Cave 61 at the Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, Gansu province, China, Public Domain via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

China’s First Emperor Of The Qin Dynasty Was Said To Have Been Almost Assassinated By A Blind Musician

According to the Grand Historian, Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), and the various sources he had access to, a truly great musician lived in the kingdom of Yan during the decades leading up to the creation of the Qin Dynasty, founded in 221 BCE by Qin Shihuangdi, the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty. The musician’s name was Gao Jianli and his instrument of choice was the lute. In the city of Ji, the capital of Yan, Gao Jianli could frequently be found in the city’s marketplace, drinking with his friends. Once the wine was flowing, the musician would take out his lute and strum whatever notes or tunes came to mind. One of Gao Jianli’s friends, a wandering swordsman named Jing Ke, would often join in by singing along with the music.

Sometime around 227 BCE, Jing Ke no longer showed up in the market to sing along with the sounds of the lute. Unfortunately, Crown Prince Dan, the heir to the Kingdom of Yan, had sent the swordsman on an ill-fated mission. Armed with the sharpest blade in the realm, and poison to coat its deadly edge, Jing Ke left Yan in order to assassinate King Zheng of Qin, the future First Emperor. Gao Jianli may have had an inkling of what had been put in motion. He was a loyal man of the kingdom of Yan, and he was even said to have been at the city’s gate, playing encouraging music on his lute, as Jing Ke departed the capital.

As King Zheng would eventually become the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Jing Ke’s mission obviously failed. After supposedly chasing the king for a few laps around his throne room, Jing Ke was eventually disarmed and executed. When King Zheng found out that the Crown Prince of Yan had organized the attack, Qin retaliated and, by 226 BCE, captured the Yan capital of Ji. In the next few years, Yan and all of the other rival kingdoms of ancient China were systematically subjugated by King Zheng, who ended his conquests in 221 BCE, marking the beginning of the Qin Dynasty.

After his homeland was defeated, Gao Jianli went into hiding. He was a known associate of Jing Ke and rightly suspected that the emperor would show little mercy to an assassin’s acquaintance. Therefore, Gao Jianli stopped playing the lute and became a laborer and a servant in the city of Songzi. Though he strictly did not play his lute in public, the musician could not stop from openly critiquing the music played by other people. Impressed by the knowledgeable criticisms, many of Gao Jiangli’s coworkers began to suspect that he had a background in music.

The mumblings of the workers eventually reached the owner of the house in which Gao Jianli was employed. One day, when the master of the house was entertaining guests, he summoned the musician to where everyone had congregated. Handing the man a spare lute, he asked Gao Jianli to play for the crowd. Unable to resist the temptation of strumming a few chords, Gao Jianli hesitantly plucked at the strings. Even though it was his first public performance in years, the musician impressed the audience. Praising Gao Jianli’s ability, the crowd cheered and poured him rounds of wine. The musician, touched by their applause, went back to his trunk, took out his personal lute and donned garments left over from his heyday in the kingdom of Yan. When he returned to the guests in his fashionable clothes and his well-used lute, he put on a masterful encore, which was moving enough to leave tears in eyes of every listener.

After that performance, Gao Jianli’s fame grew exponentially. He toured from house to house in Songzi, playing concerts for wealthy patrons who wanted to hear his music. Each successful recital increased the musician’s renown, causing Gao Jiangli’s popularity to overflow out of the city and into the surrounding provinces. Eventually, word of the musician’s skill even reached Xianyang, the capital city of the Qin Dynasty.

Impressed by the rumors, the First Emperor summoned the mysterious musician to play before the imperial court. Instead of withdrawing back into hiding, Gao Jianli decided to try his luck, hoping that his past life was either forgotten or forgiven. There is also the possibility that he was tired after years of living in the shadows and decided to stop running. Whatever the motivation, Gao Jianli packed his belongings and traveled to meet with the emperor. Unfortunately, the musician was immediately recognized by one of the emperor’s courtiers. When the First Emperor heard that the man was an associate of the assassin, Jing Ke, he ordered that Gao Jianli’s eyes be removed as punishment. The musician’s life, however, was spared because the emperor still wanted to hear the man perform.

The emperor was apparently very fond of Gao Jianli’s music and was said to have let the musician come remarkably close when he played. Although Gao Jianli had been blinded, he still could sense how near the emperor let him approach. Still bitter about the downfall of his homeland—not to mention the loss of his eyes—the blind lutist began planning his revenge. The musician was able to scavenge a heavy piece of lead and secretly attached it to the inside of his lute. With the cumbersome instrument in hand, Gao Jianli approached the emperor and, listening intently, tried to pinpoint the monarch’s exact location. When he thought the emperor was near, the blind musician swung the heavy lute with all of his might, hoping to bludgeon the tyrant to death. Unfortunately, Gao Jainli misjudged the distance and hit nothing but air. Outraged by the incident, the First Emperor had the bold musician immediately executed.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Musician statue from a Matsuoka Museum of Art in front of a 3rd-century depiction of Jing Ke's attack on King Zheng, both [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.  

The Child Who Became A Minister In The Kingdom Of Qin

Ancient China gave birth to countless intellectuals, philosophers and strategists who found employment under the rival kings leading the numerous warring Chinese states. Among the long list of advisors, bureaucrats, generals and statesmen who thrived in that war-torn time, one particular name stands out from the others—Gan Luo.

Not all that much is known about the life of Gan Luo. He can be roughly dated as living during the reign of King Zheng (the future First Emperor of China), who ascended the throne of Qin around 247 or 246 BCE. He also studied under the Qin minister, Lü Buwei, who was said to have committed suicide around 235 BCE. Therefore, Gan Luo’s entry into the Qin government can be placed loosely between those dates.

According to the sources of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian (145-90 BCE), Gan Luo was only 12 years old when he began to serve the kingdom of Qin. Despite his young age, Gan Luo displayed a mind of wisdom and cunning. When Lü Buwei could not convince a man named Zhang Tang to become the next (pro-Qin) prime minister of the kingdom of Yan, the young Gan Luo succeeded where his master had failed. The child followed up that feat by traveling to the kingdom of Zhao, where he impressively convinced King Xiang to cede five cities to the kingdom of Qin. Gan Luo also worked out a deal where the kingdom of Qin would support Zhao in an upcoming war with the kingdom of Yan. In that conflict, Sima Qian claimed that Zhao seized thirty cities from Yan, of which eleven of the captured cities were then handed over to the kingdom of Qin.

After returning home from his successful mission in Zhao, King Zheng of Qin gave the boy great wealth and promoted him to a high ministerial rank. After that, Gan Luo seemingly vanished from history. Perhaps, he died shortly after returning to Qin. Or, more hopefully, he quit politics and lived a happy life of luxury, ignoring the chaotic world he lived within.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (One Hundred Children in the Long Spring, by Su Hanchen (1101–1161), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. 
• http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Diverse/zonghengjia.html  

The Ancient Royal Blunder Of Crown Prince Dan of Yan

In 227 BCE, the Kingdom of Qin was well on its way to becoming the sole ruling power in ancient China. In fact, the Qin leader at that time, King Zheng (r. 246-210 BCE), was only about six years away from decisively subjugating all of his rival kings and declaring himself the First Emperor of China. Consequently, King Zheng would have been seen by his contemporaries as the most threatening king, in charge of the most powerful state of the age. As such, the kings who had not already submitted to Qin rule were desperate to remove King Zheng from power.

Crown Prince Dan, son of the King of Yan, decided to take matters into his own hands and sent an assassin by the name of Jing Ke to kill the powerful monarch of Qin. Nevertheless, King Zheng was a paranoid man who benefitted from a tough network of personal security. Jing Ke, like several future assassins, did not accomplish his mission and was instead captured by the Qin. According to the first major historian of China, Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), Jing Ke was gruesomely executed by being pulled apart, his limbs torn from his body. Yet, before the execution was over, King Zheng learned that it was none other than the Crown Prince of Yan who had hired the assassin.

King Zheng of Qin, like the vast majority of kings from the Warring States Period in which he lived and would eventually end, was a wrathful king who rarely forgave insults or attacks. Therefore, before the year (227 BCE) was over, King Zheng placed two of his most accomplished generals, Wang Jiang and Xia Sheng, in charge of an army meant to invade the Kingdom of Yan. When the king of Yan heard of the approaching army, he mobilized his forces and marched out to meet the approaching Qin. The state of Dai also contributed its forces to the Yan army, as the Dai also felt threatened by the ever-expanding Qin. In the end, King Zheng’s forces clashed with the armies of Yan and Dai near the Yi River and won a decisive victory.

The next year, in 226 BCE, the Qin forces were free to move about in the Kingdom of Yan. They besieged the kingdom’s capital of Ji, and once reinforcements arrived, they stormed the city. During or after the battle for the capital, the Qin general, Wang Jiang, captured Crown Prince Dan and executed him by beheading. And so, while the earlier assassin sent by the Crown Prince had failed in his mission, the army dispatched by King Zheng proved more than capable of seeking vengeance against the Kingdom of Yan.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Rubbing of a 3rd century stone thought to depict Jin Ke's attempted assassination of Emperor Shihuangdi, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Basic Annals of Qin in the Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.  

The Secret Funeral Procession Of The First Qin Emperor of China

The conqueror of the warring states in ancient China, Qin Shi Huang Di (often abbreviated to Shihuangdi, or simply First Emperor), died in 210 BCE. According to Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), the First Emperor supposedly fell ill while traveling through his empire in pursuit of herbs that he thought would make him immortal. Whether or not this was true, or if he was simply on tour, the emperor did indeed die away from the Qin capital city of Xianyang. The First Emperor reportedly breathed his last at the Ping Terrace in either Shaqiu or Sand Hill. Li Si, the chancellor at the time, rightly feared that if word of the emperor’s death leaked out, then regions throughout the empire might be tempted to rebel. Therefore, the chancellor decided it was best to pretend that the emperor had never died, at least until the party had returned to Xianyang.

Prior to his death, the First Emperor had been notoriously reclusive in his final years, limiting his personal contact to a small number of select officials. As a result, the chancellor was apparently able to keep knowledge of the emperor’s death suppressed to all except a privileged few. One of these men was the emperor’s son, Prince Huhai. The prince’s friend and mentor, Zhao Gao was also brought in on the secret. The only other people who knew of the emperor’s death were five or six senior eunuchs in the royal entourage.

As if nothing had happened, the Qin officials placed the emperor’s body in a royal carriage and headed for the city of Xianyang in a calm and normal manner. No information regarding the health of the monarch was sent out and no calls for mourning were issued—they wanted the rest of China to think that the emperor was still alive. While they were on the road, the eunuchs and officials who were in the know delivered meals to the carriage, as well as documents and orders that needed the emperor’s approval. Once inside, they would dispose of the plates and forge the documents to look as if the emperor was still actively running the empire.

After multiple hot days on the road, as could be expected, the body of the First Emperor began to smell. This unpleasant odor became especially worrisome for Li Si and his accomplices when the party was traveling from Jingxing to Jiuyuan. After musing over possible solutions, the officials came up with an ingenious plan. They went into the carriage with the body and, after a convincing amount of time, they emerged from the vehicle with an imperial edict. The emperor, it seemed, suddenly had a craving for fish and directed all of his attendants to load their carts with heaps of dried fish. Thus, masked by the fumes of dehydrated seafood, the emperor’s body was successfully smuggled back to the capital in Xianyang.

Sometime while Prince Huhai, Li Si and Zhao Gao were orchestrating the secret movements of the emperor’s body, they also began to expand their conspiracy to encompass the succession of imperial rule. Shortly before the First Emperor had died, he had given a written statement to Zhao Gao, stating that Prince Huhai’s brother, Prince Fusu, would succeed to the throne upon the First Emperor’s death. Nevertheless, Zhao Gao, Li Si and especially Prince Huhai did not agree with the First Emperor’s decision, so they altered the emperor’s statement in favor of Huhai. They also cruelly sent a fake message to Prince Fusu, stating that the emperor believed him to be a traitor and that he should commit suicide for his crimes.

When the entourage arrived at Xianyang, the secret was finally revealed and the First Emperor was pronounced to have died. His body was entombed in a magnificent compound at Mt. Li that included replicas of palaces, officials, soldiers (the Terracotta Army) and livestock, among other things. The elaborate tomb even contained rivers of mercury that were constructed to look like they were constantly flowing. According to Sima Qian, Prince Huhai (who had now assumed the title of Second Emperor) had many of his father’s concubines killed and entombed with the deceased emperor. The craftsmen who had worked on the tomb were also allegedly locked away to die inside their creation. Although the validity of Sima Qian’s account of the tomb has been called into question, modern archaeologists have indeed found several ancient mass graves situated around the burial complex of the First Emperor.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Carriage from the Ming Dynasty Departure Herald, from the Jiajing reign period in China (1522-1566 AD), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. 
• https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/china-first-emperor-terra-cotta-warriors-tomb/ 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shihuangdi  

Destruction And Censorship Of Education In the Qin Dynasty

Over hundreds of years, the Chinese state of Qin grew more and more powerful under the loose, feudal and relatively weak rule of the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1046-256 BCE). As the Zhou decreased in power, and the states they lorded over increased in strength, the Warring States Period began, lasting from 426-221 BCE. It was a period during which the numerous kingdoms in China fought for supremacy. The Qin, under King Yeng Zheng, emerged victorious with the help of no-nonsense laws and merciless warfare. By 221 BCE, Yeng Zheng had risen to become the undisputed ruler of China. He then took the name Shihuangdi (Qin Shi Huang Di, “first emperor of Qin”) and founded the Qin Dynasty, the first true authoritarian empire in China.

The extreme legalist policies of the Qin Dynasty had some dramatic effects on China. Legalism in Shihuangdi’s empire elevated the rule of law above other sources of morality and ethics, including religion and Confucian philosophy. This coincided with the attempted censorship and possible eradication of any knowledge and education that did not align with the will of the Qin Dynasty.

In 213 BCE, Shihuangdi began the Burning of the Books, which saw to the destruction (or at least banning) of literature, history and records, often targeting works that referenced any state or dynasty other than the Qin. The burning was thorough enough to give the Han Dynasty historian, Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), a tough time gathering information on the Warring States Period. In the end, he had to rely heavily upon a highly fictionalized text that survived the Qin Dynasty, known as the Zhanguo ce, or The Intrigues of the Warring States Period. The Intrigues severely dramatized the lives of protagonists from the Warring States Period, but at least it preserved many of the important names that may have been otherwise lost. By 212 BCE, the censorship policies had become so drastic that numerous scholars were allegedly executed.

Thankfully, the Qin Dynasty was short-lived. The extreme legalism proved to be excellent for winning an empire during a time of perpetual war, yet it was much less effective at keeping the empire stable and happy after the war was won. When Shihuangdi died in 210 BCE, his dynasty began to immediately collapse. In the following years, Shihuangdi’s heir and advisors were defeated and replaced by the Han Dynasty, which used many of the policies utilized by the Qin, but watered them down for the longevity of their rule.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture attribution: (18th century depiction of the Qin Dynasty Burning of the Books, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. 
• https://www.ancient.eu/Qin_Dynasty/ 
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Qin-dynasty 
• http://www.history.com/topics/qin-dynasty