Qin Shi Huang

First emperor of Qin Dynasty

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Lived -259–-210, aged 49China

China PoliticiansPolitician

Wikipedia
184 languages
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Global rank
#169
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Era
-259–-210
Aged 49

Summary

Updated 2026-07-17

He invented the title "emperor" and then became the first person to hold it, conquering six rival kingdoms by 221 BC to unify China under a single throne. The term he coined outlasted his dynasty by two thousand years.

Biography

About

Born Ying Zheng in Handan in 259 BC, son of the King of Qin and Lady Zhao, he took the Qin throne with help from the merchant Lü Buwei and spent his reign as King Zheng dismantling the warring states one by one. By 221 BC all of China answered to him, and he declared himself Qin Shi Huang—First Emperor—a title no king had used before. He and his minister Li Si standardized weights, currency, and script across former rivals; his generals pushed south into Hunan and Guangdong and west to the Ordos Plateau, beating back the Xiongnu. He burned books, executed scholars, joined old border walls into…

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