Qin Shi Huang
3 min readQin Shi Huang（November or December 260 B.C.-September，210 B.C.），personal name Zheng，was king of the State of Qin from 247 B.C.to 221 BC，and then the first emperor of a unified China from 221 B.C.to 210 B.C.，ruling under the name First Emperor.
Having unified China，he and his prime minister Li Si passed a series of ma jor reforms aimed at cementing the unification，and they undertook some Herculean construction projects，most notably the precursor version of the current Great Wall of China.For all the tyranny of his autocratic rule，Qin Shi Huang is still regarded today as some sort of a colossal founding father in Chinese history whoseunification of China has endured for more than two millennia（with interruptions）.
Naming Conventions
Qin Shi Huang was born in the Chinese month zheng yue，the first month of the year in the Chinese calendar（in the 3rd century BC the Chinese year started before the Winter solstice，and not after as it does today），and so he received the name Zheng，both characters being used interchangeably in ancient China.In ancient China，people never joined family name and given name together as is customary today，so it is anachronistic to refer to Qin Shi Huang as“Ying Zheng”.The given name was never used except by close relatives，therefore it is also incorrect to refer to the young Qin Shi Huang as”Prince Zheng”，or as“King Zheng of Qin”.As a king，he was referred to as“King of Qin”only.Had he received a posthumous name after his death like his father，he would have been known by historians as”King NN.（posthumous name）of Qin”，but this never happened.
After conquering the last independent Chinese state in 221 BC，Qin Shi Huang was now the king of a state of Qin ruling over the whole of China，which was unprecedented.Wishing to show that he was no more a simple king like the kings of old during the Warring States Period，he created a new title，huangdi，combining the word huang which was used to call the legendary Three Huang who ruled at the dawn of Chinese history，and the word di which was used to call the legendary Five Di who ruled immediately after the Three Huang.These Three Huang and Five Di were considered perfect rulers，of immense powers，and very long lives.
The word huang also meant“big”，“great”.The word di also referred to the Supreme God in Heaven，creator of the world.Thus，by joining these two words，which no one had ever done before，Qin Shi Huang created a title on par with his feat of uniting the seemingly endless Chinese realm，in fact uniting the world（people at that time believed their empire encompassed the whole world，a concept referred to as all under heaven）.
This word huangdi was rendered in most Western languages as“emperor”，a word with also a long history going back to Roman Empire，and which Europeans deemed superior to the word“king”.Qin Shi Huang adopted the name First Emperor（Shi Huangdi，literally“commencing emperor”）.He abolished posthumous names，by which former kings were known after their death，judging them inappropriate and contrary to filial piety，and decided that future generations would refer to him as the First Emperor（Shi Huangdi），his successor would be referred to as the Second Emperor（Er Shi Huangdi，literally“second generation emperor”），the successor of his successor as the Third Emperor（San Shi Huangdi，literally“third generation emperor”），and so on，for ten thousand generations，as the imperial house was supposed to rule China for ten thousand generations（“Ten thousand years”is equivalent to“forever”in Chinese，and it also means“good fortune”）.
