Qin Shihuang Benji — Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian, chapter 6

Sima Qian (c. 145–c. 86 BCE) completed the Shiji, the Records of the Grand Historian, under Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty, as the first comprehensive history of China. Its twelve Basic Annals open the work, and this is the sixth of them.

This chapter follows Zheng, king of Qin, from his accession as a boy under the regency of Lü Buwei through the year-by-year campaigns that extinguish Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan, and Qi, and his adoption of the title August Emperor after unification. It records his standardization of laws, weights, script, and axle gauge; his tours of the empire and the stone inscriptions set up at Mount Yi, Mount Tai, Langya, Zhifu, and Kuaiji; the burning of books and the burying of scholars; his search for immortality through Xu Fu and other masters of recipes; and his death at Shaqiu on tour. It then follows Zhao Gao and Li Si's forged succession that sets aside the heir Fusu for Huhai, the Second Emperor's short and violent reign, Chen Sheng's revolt and the rising of the six states, Zhao Gao's manipulation of the court — including the episode of calling a deer a horse — the killing of the Second Emperor, and Ziying's brief reign and surrender to the Duke of Pei. The chapter closes with the Grand Historian's judgment, which quotes at length the Han essayist Jia Yi's analysis of why Qin fell so quickly after conquering the empire, and with a terse king-by-king register of Qin rulers' burial places and reign lengths going back to Duke Xiang.

The section headings inside the chapter are editorial conveniences added by the Chinese Wikisource transcription, not divisions original to Sima Qian, and the Sanjia commentary carried by that transcription is kept in the source text below but not translated. Names and titles are given in Hanyu pinyin without tone marks, with Chinese characters at first appearance for major figures.

Translated for the Good Works Library directly from the classical Chinese printed in full below. Prior English translations of the Shiji's Basic Annals exist — Burton Watson's Records of the Grand Historian and the Nienhauser team's The Grand Scribe's Records — and are named here as controls-in-existence, not consulted in preparing this translation; no claim of firstness is made, and no live search for other prior translations could be carried out when this file was prepared.

Contents

• Annals of the First Emperor of Qin (秦始皇本紀)
  • The First Emperor (始皇帝)
  • The Grand Historian's Judgment (太史公曰)

Translation

Annals of the First Emperor of Qin (秦始皇本紀)

The First Emperor (始皇帝)

The First Emperor of Qin (秦始皇帝) was the son of King Zhuangxiang of Qin. King Zhuangxiang had been Qin's hostage prince in Zhao; he saw a concubine of Lü Buwei (呂不韋), was pleased with her, and took her, and she bore the First Emperor. He was born in the first month of the forty-eighth year of King Zhao of Qin, at Handan. When he was born he was named Zheng, and his surname was Zhao. In his thirteenth year King Zhuangxiang died, and Zheng succeeded him as king of Qin. At that time the territory of Qin had already annexed Ba, Shu, and Hanzhong; it had passed beyond Wan and held Ying, where the commandery of Nan had been set up; to the north it had taken Shangjun and the lands east of it, holding the commanderies of Hedong, Taiyuan, and Shangdang; to the east it reached Xingyang, had extinguished the two Zhou, and set up the commandery of Sanchuan. Lü Buwei was chancellor, enfeoffed with a hundred thousand households and styled Marquis Wenxin. He gathered retainers and wandering scholars, wishing by them to annex the empire. Li Si (李斯) was a house retainer. Meng Ao, Wang Yi, Biao Gong, and others were generals. The king was young and had newly come to the throne, and he entrusted the affairs of state to his great ministers. Jinyang revolted.

In the first year of the First Emperor of Qin, the general Meng Ao attacked and settled it.

In the second year Biao Gong led troops to attack Juan, beheading thirty thousand.

In the third year Meng Ao attacked Han and took thirteen cities. Wang Yi died. In the tenth month the general Meng Ao attacked Chang and Yougui of the Wei clan. That year there was a great famine.

In the fourth year Chang and Yougui were taken. In the third month the army was disbanded. Qin's hostage prince returned from Zhao, and the heir apparent of Zhao left and returned to his own state. On the gengyin day of the tenth month locusts came from the east and darkened the sky. There was pestilence throughout the empire. Commoners who brought in a thousand piculs of grain were granted one degree of noble rank.

In the fifth year the general Ao attacked Wei and subdued Suanzao, Yan, Xu, Changping, Yongqiu, and the city of Shanyang, taking them all — twenty cities in all. The commandery of Dong was set up for the first time. There was thunder in winter.

In the sixth year Han, Wei, Zhao, Wey (衛), and Chu joined in striking Qin and took Shouling. Qin sent out its troops, and the armies of the five states withdrew. Qin took Wey and pressed upon the commandery of Dong; its ruler Jiao led his collateral kin to move and dwell at Yewang, holding the mountains there as a barrier so as to keep Wei's territory of Henei.

In the seventh year a comet first appeared in the east, then was seen in the north, and in the fifth month was seen in the west. The general Ao died. He had attacked Long, Gu, and Qingdu, and had brought his troops back to attack Ji. The comet was seen again in the west for sixteen days. The Dowager Xia died.

In the eighth year the king's younger brother Chengjiao, Lord of Chang'an, attacked Zhao as general; he revolted and died at Tunliu. His army officers were all beheaded, and the people there were removed to Lintao. The general died at his ramparts; the soldiers of Tunliu and Puhe revolted, and his corpse was mutilated. Fish of the Yellow River came up in great numbers, and with light carts and heavily laden horses the people went east in search of food.

Lao Ai (嫪毐) was enfeoffed as Marquis Changxin. He was given the land of Shanyang and ordered to dwell there. Palaces and chambers, carriages and horses, clothing, parks and preserves, galloping and hunting were all his to enjoy as he pleased. Affairs great and small were all decided by Ai. Furthermore the commandery of Taiyuan west of the Yellow River was renamed the state of Ai.

In the ninth year a comet appeared, at times stretching across the whole sky. Qin attacked Yuan and Puyang of Wei. In the fourth month the king lodged at Yong. On the jiyou day the king was capped and girt with the sword. Marquis Changxin, Ai, made a revolt, and it was discovered. He counterfeited the king's seal of office and the queen dowager's seal in order to call out the county troops, the guard troops, the official cavalry, the lords of the Rong and Di, and his own retainers, intending to attack the Qinian Palace and make a revolt. The king learned of it and ordered the chancellor of state the Lord of Changping and the Lord of Changwen to call out troops and attack Ai. They fought at Xianyang, beheading several hundred; all were granted noble rank, and even the eunuchs who took part in the fighting were likewise granted one degree of rank. Ai and his party were defeated and fled. An order was at once issued throughout the state: whoever took Ai alive would be given a million cash, and whoever killed him five hundred thousand. Ai and all his party were taken. The commandant of the guard Jie, the metropolitan governor Si, the assistant of the fowling bows Jie, the director of the palace grandees Qi, and twenty men in all had their heads exposed on stakes. Ai was torn apart by chariots and paraded, and his clan was extinguished. As for his retainers, the less guilty were made gatherers of firewood for the spirits. Beyond these, more than four thousand households were stripped of rank and removed to Shu and settled at Fangling. In that month there was bitter cold and freezing, and some died. Yang Duanhe attacked Yanshi. A comet was seen in the west and again in the north, moving south from the Dipper for eighty days. In the tenth year the chancellor of state Lü Buwei was implicated in the affair of Lao Ai and dismissed. Huan Yi was made general. Qi and Zhao came and set out wine. Mao Jiao, a man of Qi, urged the king of Qin: "Qin is making the empire its business, yet Your Majesty bears the name of having banished his mother the queen dowager. I fear that when the feudal lords hear of it they will on this account turn away from Qin." The king of Qin then went to Yong to receive the queen dowager and brought her into Xianyang, and she dwelt again in the Ganquan Palace.

There was a great search, and guests from other states were expelled. Li Si submitted a memorial and argued the matter, and the order expelling guests was stopped. Li Si then urged the king of Qin, asking that Han be taken first in order to terrify the other states; accordingly Si was sent to bring Han down. The king of Han was troubled by this and plotted with Han Fei (韓非) how to weaken Qin. Wei Liao (尉繚), a man of Daliang, came and urged the king of Qin: "With the strength of Qin, the feudal lords are like the heads of its commanderies and counties. My only fear is that the lords will unite in a north-south alliance, come together, and strike unexpectedly — this is how Zhi Bo, Fuchai, and King Min perished. I would have Your Majesty not begrudge goods and wealth, but bribe their powerful ministers so as to throw their plans into confusion. It would cost no more than three hundred thousand in gold, and the feudal lords could be finished off entirely." The king of Qin followed his plan. He received Wei Liao with the ceremony of an equal, and his clothing, food, and drink were the same as Liao's. Liao said, "The king of Qin is a man with a waspish nose, long eyes, the breast of a bird of prey, and the voice of a jackal. He is sparing in kindness and has the heart of a tiger or a wolf. In straitened times he readily puts himself below other men; once he has his will, he as readily devours men. I am a commoner in cloth, yet when he sees me he always humbles himself before me. If the king of Qin truly gets his will over the empire, all the empire will be his captives. One cannot travel long in his company." Then he fled away. The king of Qin discovered it, firmly detained him, made him state commandant of Qin, and in the end used his plans and stratagems. And Li Si managed affairs.

In the eleventh year Wang Jian (王翦), Huan Yi, and Yang Duanhe attacked Ye and took nine cities. Wang Jian attacked Eyu and Liaoyang and joined them all into one army. Jian was in command for eighteen days; he sent home from the army those on rations of a dou or less, and of every ten men had two chosen to follow the army. He took Ye and Anyang, with Huan Yi in command. In the twelfth year Marquis Wenxin, Buwei, died and was buried in secret. Of his retainers who came to mourn him: those who were men of Jin were driven out; those who were men of Qin ranking at six hundred piculs or above were stripped of rank and removed; those of five hundred piculs or below who had not come to mourn were removed but not stripped of rank. "From this time on, whoever handles the affairs of state without the Way, as Lao Ai and Buwei did, shall have his household entered for confiscation. Let this be the precedent." In autumn the retainers of Lao Ai who had been removed to Shu were restored. At this time there was a great drought in the empire; from the sixth month to the eighth month, and only then did it rain.

In the thirteenth year Huan Yi attacked Pingyang in Zhao, killed the Zhao general Hu Zhe, and beheaded a hundred thousand. The king went to Henan. In the first month a comet was seen in the east. In the tenth month Huan Yi attacked Zhao. In the fourteenth year he attacked the Zhao army at Pingyang, took Yi'an, broke them, and killed their general. Huan Yi subdued Pingyang and Wucheng. Han Fei came as envoy to Qin; Qin used Li Si's plan and detained Fei, and Fei died at Yunyang. The king of Han asked to become a vassal.

In the fifteenth year troops were raised in great force: one army reached Ye, one army reached Taiyuan and took Langmeng. There was an earthquake. In the ninth month of the sixteenth year troops were sent out to receive the ceded territory of Nanyang in Han, with Teng as acting governor. Men were ordered for the first time to register their years. Wei presented territory to Qin. Qin set up the town of Liyi. In the seventeenth year the metropolitan governor Teng attacked Han and captured An, king of Han, taking in all his territory and making of it a commandery, named Yingchuan. There was an earthquake. The Dowager Huayang died. The people suffered great famine.

In the eighteenth year troops were raised in great force to attack Zhao. Wang Jian commanded the upper districts and came down through Jingxing; Duanhe commanded Henei; Qiang Hui attacked Zhao; and Duanhe besieged the city of Handan. In the nineteenth year Wang Jian and Qiang Hui completely subdued and took Dongyang, the territory of Zhao, and captured the king of Zhao. They led their troops off, intending to attack Yan, and encamped at Zhongshan. The king of Qin went to Handan, and all those of his mother's family's enemies from the time when the king was born in Zhao were buried alive. The king of Qin returned by way of Taiyuan and Shangjun. The queen dowager, mother of the First Emperor, passed away. Jia, a noble son of Zhao, led several hundred of his clan to Dai and set himself up as king of Dai, joining troops with Yan to the east and encamping at Shanggu. There was a great famine.

In the twentieth year Dan, heir apparent of Yan, troubled and afraid that the Qin troops would reach his state, sent Jing Ke (荊軻) to stab the king of Qin. The king of Qin discovered it, had Ke dismembered and his body paraded, and sent Wang Jian and Xin Sheng to attack Yan. Yan and Dai sent out troops to strike the Qin army, and the Qin army broke Yan west of the Yi River. In the twenty-first year Wang Ben attacked Jing (荊, that is, Chu). More troops were then sent to Wang Jian's army; it broke the army of the heir apparent of Yan, took Ji, the city of Yan, and obtained the head of the heir apparent Dan. The king of Yan withdrew eastward, gathered Liaodong, and ruled there as king. Wang Jian pleaded illness and age and went home. Xinzheng revolted. The Lord of Changping was moved to Ying. There was a great snowfall, two chi five cun deep.

In the twenty-second year Wang Ben attacked Wei and led the channel of the Yellow River to flood Daliang. The walls of Daliang collapsed, its king asked to surrender, and all his territory was taken.

In the twenty-third year the king of Qin summoned Wang Jian again and forcibly raised him up, sending him to command a strike against Jing. He took the land from Chen south to Pingyu and made the king of Jing captive. The king of Qin travelled as far as Yingchen. The Jing general Xiang Yan (項燕) set up the Lord of Changping as king of Jing and revolted against Qin south of the Huai. In the twenty-fourth year Wang Jian and Meng Wu attacked Jing and broke the Jing army. The Lord of Changping died, and Xiang Yan thereupon killed himself.

In the twenty-fifth year troops were raised in great force and Wang Ben was sent to command an attack on Liaodong in Yan; he captured Xi, king of Yan. Returning, he attacked Dai and took Jia, king of Dai, captive. Wang Jian then subdued the lands of Jing south of the Yangzi; the ruler of Yue surrendered, and the commandery of Kuaiji was set up. In the fifth month there was great feasting throughout the empire.

In the twenty-sixth year Jian, king of Qi, together with his chancellor Hou Sheng, sent out troops to guard his western border and cut off communication with Qin. Qin sent the general Wang Ben south from Yan to attack Qi, and he captured Jian, king of Qi.

When the king of Qin had first annexed the empire, he gave order to the chancellors and the imperial secretaries, saying: "In former days the king of Han offered up his territory and presented his seal, asking to become a vassal of the marches; then he broke the agreement, joined Zhao and Wei in a north-south alliance, and rebelled against Qin. Therefore I raised troops and punished him and took his king captive. I thought this good and hoped that arms and armor might be laid to rest. The king of Zhao sent his chancellor Li Mu to make a covenant, and therefore I returned his hostage prince. Then he broke the covenant and turned against us in Taiyuan; therefore I raised troops and punished him and obtained his king. Jia, a noble son of Zhao, then set himself up as king of Dai; therefore I raised troops, struck him, and destroyed him. The king of Wei at first agreed to submit and enter Qin's service, and then plotted with Han and Zhao to fall upon Qin by surprise; Qin's soldiers and officers punished him, and he was broken. The king of Jing presented the lands west of Qingyang, and then betrayed the agreement and struck our commandery of Nan; therefore troops were sent out to punish him, his king was obtained, and the land of Jing was settled. The king of Yan was benighted and disordered, and his heir apparent Dan secretly ordered Jing Ke to act as an assassin; the soldiers and officers punished him, and his state was extinguished. The king of Qi used the plan of Hou Sheng, cut off Qin's envoys, and wished to make disorder; the soldiers and officers punished him, took his king captive, and pacified the land of Qi. With this small and slight person of mine I raised troops and punished violence and disorder, and relying on the spiritual power of the ancestral temples, the six kings have all submitted to their guilt and the empire is greatly settled. Now, if the name and style are not changed, there is no way to proclaim what has been accomplished or to hand it down to later ages. Deliberate upon an imperial title."

The chancellor Wan, the imperial secretary Jie, the commandant of justice Si, and the others all said: "In former times the Five Emperors held land a thousand li square, and beyond it the feudal lords of the marquis zone and the barbarian zone came to court or did not, and the Son of Heaven could not control them. Now Your Majesty has raised righteous troops, punished the cruel and the predatory, pacified the empire, made all within the seas into commanderies and counties, and brought laws and ordinances under a single authority. Since high antiquity this has never been; the Five Emperors did not reach it. We your servants have respectfully deliberated with the erudites, who say: 'In antiquity there was the August of Heaven, the August of Earth, and the Grand August; the Grand August was the most honored.' We your servants, braving death, present the honorific title: let the king be 'Grand August.' Let his commands be called zhi, his orders zhao, and let the Son of Heaven call himself zhen."

The king said, "Take away 'Grand,' keep 'August,' and take up from high antiquity the title of rank 'Emperor.' The style shall be 'August Emperor.' For the rest, as you have deliberated." The command read: "Approved." King Zhuangxiang was posthumously honored as the Grand Supreme August. The command read: "We have heard that in highest antiquity there were styles but no posthumous names; in middle antiquity there were styles, and at death a posthumous name was given according to conduct. In this way the son passes judgment on the father and the servant on the ruler, which is quite without sense; we do not take it up. From this time forward the law of posthumous names is abolished. We are the First August Emperor. Later generations shall be counted by number — Second Generation, Third Generation, on to the ten-thousandth generation — and it shall be handed down without end."

The First Emperor extended the doctrine of the cycle of the Five Powers in their ending and beginning, holding that Zhou had obtained the power of fire, and that Qin, replacing the power of Zhou, followed what fire could not overcome. Now was the beginning of the power of water. He changed the beginning of the year, so that court audiences and congratulations all began on the first day of the tenth month. In clothing, pennons, banners, tallies, and flags, black was made supreme. In numbers, six was made the standard: tallies and legal caps were six inches, chariot beds were six feet, six feet made a pace, and carriages were drawn by six horses. He renamed the Yellow River the Water of Power, taking it as the beginning of the power of water. Hard, resolute, harsh, and deep, he decided all affairs by law; cutting and severe, without benevolence, kindness, harmony, or right feeling — only so did it accord with the number of the Five Powers. Accordingly he pressed the laws hard, and those long in prison were not pardoned.

The chancellor Wan and the others said: "The feudal lords have only just been broken, and the lands of Yan, Qi, and Jing are distant. Unless kings are established there, there is no means of holding them steady. We ask that the imperial sons be enthroned there; may Your Majesty be pleased to grant it." The First Emperor sent the proposal down to his assembled ministers, and the ministers all held it expedient. The commandant of justice Li Si offered his judgment: "The sons, younger brothers, and men of the same surname enfeoffed by Kings Wen and Wu of Zhou were very many; but afterward their kinship grew distant, and they attacked one another like enemies. The feudal lords punished and campaigned against one another in turn, and the Zhou Son of Heaven could not stop them. Now, thanks to Your Majesty's divine power, all within the seas is unified and made into commanderies and counties. If the imperial sons and the meritorious servants are richly rewarded with the public taxes and revenues, that will be quite enough, and they will be easy to control. When the empire has no divided purpose, that is the art of peace and quiet. To set up feudal lords is not expedient." The First Emperor said: "The whole empire has suffered alike from unceasing war and fighting, and this because there have been marquises and kings. Thanks to the ancestral temples, the empire has only now been settled; to set up states again would be to plant war, and then to seek quiet and rest — would that not be hard indeed! The commandant of justice's judgment is right."

The empire was divided into thirty-six commanderies, and in each commandery were placed a governor, a commandant, and an inspector. The people were renamed "the black-headed ones." There was great feasting. The weapons of the empire were collected and gathered at Xianyang and melted down to make bells and their stands, and twelve human figures of metal, each weighing a thousand piculs, which were set up within the palace courts. Laws, measures, weights, the picul, the zhang, and the chi were made uniform. Carriages had one gauge of axle. Writing had one script. The land reached east to the sea and to Chaoxian; west to Lintao and the Qiang country; south to where the doors face north; and in the north it held the Yellow River as a barrier and ran along Yinshan to Liaodong. A hundred and twenty thousand households of the powerful and wealthy of the empire were moved to Xianyang. The ancestral temples, the Zhang Terrace, and the Shanglin Park were all south of the Wei. Whenever Qin broke one of the feudal lords, it copied the plan of his palaces and built the like on the northern slope at Xianyang, looking south over the Wei; from the Yong Gate eastward to the Jing and the Wei, halls and chambers, elevated walkways and encircling galleries stretched one into another. The beautiful women, bells, and drums taken from the feudal lords were brought in to fill them.

In the twenty-seventh year the First Emperor toured Longxi and Beidi, went out by Mount Jitou, and passed through Huizhong. He then built the Xin Palace south of the Wei, and later renamed the Xin Palace the Ji Temple, in the image of the pole of Heaven. From the Ji Temple a road ran through to Mount Li, and the front hall at Ganquan was built. A walled road was constructed and joined to it from Xianyang. In that year one degree of rank was granted. The speedways were laid out.

In the twenty-eighth year the First Emperor travelled east through the commanderies and counties and ascended Mount Yi at Zou. He set up a stone, and with the classicists of Lu deliberated and had a stone carved in praise of the power of Qin, and discussed the matter of the feng and shan sacrifices and the sacrifices of distant view to the mountains and rivers. He then ascended Mount Tai, set up a stone, performed the feng, and made offering. As he came down, wind and rain came on violently and he rested under a tree, and on that account he enfeoffed the tree as a Grandee of the Fifth Order. He performed the shan sacrifice at Liangfu. On the stone he had set up he had this text carved:

The August Emperor came to the throne; he made ordinances and clarified the laws, and those below him ordered and corrected themselves.
In the twenty-sixth year he first annexed the empire, and there was none that did not submit as guest.
He toured in person the common folk of distant regions, climbed this Mount Tai, and surveyed all around to the eastern limit.
His attendant ministers, pondering his traces and tracing his work to its source, reverently recite his merit and power.
The way of government moves in its course; all that is produced finds its fitness; everything has its rule and pattern.
The great rightness is glorious and bright, handed down to later ages, to be obediently received and never altered.
The August Emperor is a sage in his own person; having pacified the empire, he does not slacken in governing.
Rising early and sleeping late, he establishes lasting benefits and gives all his care to exalting instruction.
His teachings and canons are proclaimed and reach afar; far and near, all is put in order; all receive the sage's will.
Noble and base are clearly distinguished; men and women are compliant in rites; each carefully attends to his duties.
Inner and outer are made clearly separate; nothing is not pure and clean; and this extends to his heirs.
His transforming influence reaches without end; his bequeathed commands are honored and obeyed; forever shall his weighty admonitions be received.

Thereupon he went along the Bohai eastward, passed Huang and Chui, reached the far end of Mount Cheng, ascended Zhifu, set up a stone in praise of the power of Qin, and departed.

Going south he ascended Langya, was greatly delighted with it, and stayed three months. He then moved thirty thousand households of the black-headed people to the foot of the Langya Terrace and exempted them for twelve years. He built the Langya Terrace and set up an inscribed stone in praise of the power of Qin, making clear that he had attained his will. It read:

In the twenty-eighth year the August Emperor made a beginning.
He made straight and level the laws and measures, the ordering thread of the ten thousand things,
so as to clarify the affairs of men and bring father and son into accord.
With sagely wisdom, benevolence, and righteousness he displayed plainly the Way and its principles.
Eastward he soothed the eastern lands and inspected the soldiers and officers.
The work being fully completed, he came down to the sea.
The merit of the August Emperor: he urges on and toils at the root occupation.
He exalts agriculture and abolishes the branch trades, and the black-headed people are thereby made rich.
Under all Heaven, hearts are gathered into one and wills brought together.
Implements and tools have one measure; the written script is made the same.
Wherever sun and moon shine, wherever boats and carriages carry,
all complete their allotted span; there is none who does not attain his desire.
To act in season and set affairs in motion — this is the August Emperor.
He corrects and orders divergent customs, crosses the waters and passes through the land.
He grieves and cares for the black-headed people, morning and evening without slackening.
He removes doubt and fixes the law, so that all know what to shun.
The regional chiefs have their divided offices, and all administration is regular and easy.
Whatever he raises up or sets aside is surely fitting; nothing is not as if drawn to a plan.
The brightness of the August Emperor looks down and examines the four quarters.
High and low, noble and base, do not overstep their ranks.
The crooked and depraved find no shelter; all strive to be upright and good.
Small and great alike exhaust their strength; none dares be idle or negligent.
Far and near, in remote and hidden places, all devote themselves to gravity and dignity.
Upright, straight, sincere, and loyal, their work has constancy.
The power of the August Emperor preserves and settles the four extremities.
He punishes disorder and removes harm, raises up benefit and brings about good fortune.
He regulates undertakings by the seasons, and all that is produced multiplies.
The black-headed people are at peace, and arms and armor are not used.
The six degrees of kin protect one another, and in the end there are no bandits or robbers.
Joyfully they receive his teaching, and all know the rules and patterns.
Within the six directions is the land of the August Emperor.
Westward it crosses the shifting sands; southward it reaches the limit of the north-facing doors.
In the east it holds the Eastern Sea; in the north it passes Daxia.
Wherever the footsteps of men have reached, there is none who is not his subject.
His merit covers over the Five Emperors; his bounty extends to oxen and horses.
There is none who does not receive his power; each rests secure under his own roof.

When the king of Qin had brought the whole empire together and taken the name of August Emperor, he soothed the eastern lands and came to Langya. The ranked marquis Wang Li, Marquis of Wucheng; the ranked marquis Wang Ben, Marquis of Tongwu; the associate marquis Zhao Hai, Marquis of Jiancheng; the associate marquis Cheng, Marquis of Changwu; the associate marquis Feng Wuze, Marquis of Wuxin; the chancellor Wei Lin; the chancellor Wang Wan; the minister Li Si; the minister Wang Wu; the Grandee of the Fifth Order Zhao Ying; and the Grandee of the Fifth Order Yang Jiu attended him, and deliberated with him by the sea. They said: "The emperors of antiquity had land no more than a thousand li, and the feudal lords each guarded his own enfeoffed region, coming to court or not. They invaded one another violently and in disorder, and their savage campaigns did not cease — yet still they carved metal and stone to make records of themselves. The Five Emperors and Three Kings of antiquity differed in what they knew and taught; their laws and measures were not clear; they borrowed the awe of ghosts and spirits to deceive distant regions; their substance did not match their names, and therefore they did not last long. Before their own persons had perished, the feudal lords turned and rebelled, and their laws and ordinances were not carried out. Now the August Emperor has annexed and unified all within the seas, has made it into commanderies and counties, and the empire is at peace. He has made the ancestral temples bright, embodies the Way and practices its power, and his honorific title is greatly complete. We his assembled ministers together recite the merit and power of the August Emperor and have it carved on metal and stone, to serve as a standard and a norm."

When this was done, Xu Fu (徐巿), a man of Qi, and others submitted a memorial saying that in the midst of the sea there were three spirit mountains, named Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou, where immortals dwelt, and asking to be allowed to purify themselves by fasting and to go with boys and girls to seek them. Accordingly Xu Fu was sent out with several thousand boys and girls to enter the sea and seek the immortals.

The First Emperor returned, and passing through Pengcheng he fasted, purified himself, and made prayer and sacrifice, wishing to bring up the Zhou cauldron from the Si River. A thousand men were sent to dive into the water and search for it, but they did not find it. He then crossed the Huai River to the southwest and went to Mount Heng and the commandery of Nan. He sailed on the Yangzi and came to the shrine of Mount Xiang. There he met a great wind and was almost unable to cross. The Emperor asked the erudites, "What spirit is the Lord of the Xiang?" The erudites replied, "We have heard that she was the daughter of Yao and the wife of Shun, and that she is buried here." At this the First Emperor was greatly angered. He sent three thousand convict laborers to cut down every tree on Mount Xiang and left the mountain bare and red. The Emperor returned from the commandery of Nan by way of the Wu Pass.

In the twenty-ninth year the First Emperor travelled east. At Bolangsha in Yangwu he was startled by brigands. Search was made and they were not found, and he then ordered a great search throughout the empire for ten days.

He ascended Zhifu and had a stone carved. Its text read:

In the twenty-ninth year, the season being mid-spring, when the warmth of yang was just rising,
the August Emperor travelled east, toured and ascended Zhifu, and looked out shining upon the sea.
His attendant ministers admired the prospect, dwelt upon his glorious achievements, and recited them back to their beginning.
The great sage instituted government, established and fixed laws and measures, and made manifest the guiding cords of order.
Abroad he taught the feudal lords, brightly bestowed the graces of culture, and made all clear by the principles of right.
The six states were crooked and depraved, greedy and violent without satiety, cruel and murderous without cease.
The August Emperor pitied the multitude and thereupon sent out a punitive host, rousing and displaying his martial power.
His righteous punishment was carried out in good faith; his awe blazed and reached on every side; there was none that did not submit as guest.
He boiled away and destroyed the strong and violent, rescued the black-headed people, and settled the four extremities all around.
Everywhere he applies clear laws, weaving warp and weft across the empire, to be a model and a rule forever.
Great indeed! Within the whole compass of the realm, all receive and comply with the sage's will.
The assembled ministers recite his merit and ask that it be carved on stone, set forth and handed down as a constant pattern.

The eastern-view inscription read:

In the twenty-ninth year the August Emperor travelled in spring, surveying and inspecting distant regions.
Reaching the corner of the sea, he ascended Zhifu and looked out brightly upon the morning sun.
The prospect was broad and splendid; the attendant ministers all reflected that the source of his Way is utterly bright.
When the sage's laws first arose, he purified and ordered all within the borders, and outside punished the violent and strong.
His martial awe spread on every side, shook the four extremities, and captured and destroyed the six kings.
He opened out and annexed the empire; calamity and harm were cut off and ceased; arms and armor were laid down forever.
The August Emperor's bright power orders and regulates all within the realm; he does not slacken in seeing and hearing.
He instituted the great rightness, clearly set out the full array of implements, and all have their emblems and banners.
Officials in service keep to their allotted parts; each knows what he is to do, and in affairs there is no doubt or suspicion.
The black-headed people are transformed; far and near have the same measure; set against antiquity, this surpasses all.
Constant offices being fixed, his heirs will follow the work and long receive his sagely rule.
The assembled ministers praise his power, reverently recite his sagely achievements, and ask that this be carved at Zhifu.

He turned back, went on to Langya, and came in by the road through Shangdang.

In the thirtieth year nothing happened.

In the twelfth month of the thirty-first year the La sacrifice was renamed "Jiaping." To the black-headed people there was granted, by ward, six piculs of rice and two sheep. The First Emperor went about Xianyang in disguise, with four armed men accompanying him; going out at night he met brigands at Lanchi and was hard pressed, but the armed men struck and killed the brigands. There was a great search within the passes for twenty days. Rice was sixteen hundred cash the picul.

In the thirty-second year the First Emperor went to Jieshi and sent Lu Sheng (盧生), a man of Yan, to seek out Xianmen and Gaoshi. He had an inscription carved at the gate of Jieshi. The walls of cities were pulled down and the dikes and embankments were cut through and opened. Its text read:

He raised up the host and legions, punished and put to death the lawless, and the rebellious were destroyed and ceased.
By arms he exterminated the violent and rebellious; by civil order he restored the guiltless; the hearts of the multitude all submitted.
With kindness he assessed merit and toil; his rewards reached even to oxen and horses; his favor made the land fat.
The August Emperor roused his awe; his power annexed the feudal lords; for the first time there was unity and great peace.
He threw down the walls of cities, cut open the river dikes, and leveled away barriers and defiles.
The lay of the land being settled, the common people have no forced labor, and the empire is everywhere soothed.
Men delight in their fields, women attend to their work, and every affair has its order.
His kindness covers all that is produced; long since brought together, they come to till the fields; there is none not settled in his place.
The assembled ministers recite his achievements and ask that this stone be carved, to set forth and hand down the model and the measure.

He then sent Han Zhong, Hou Gong, and Shi Sheng to seek from the immortals the drug of deathlessness. The First Emperor toured the northern frontier and came in by way of Shangjun. Lu Sheng, the man of Yan who had been sent into the sea, returned, and on the strength of matters of ghosts and spirits presented a chart-book of prophecy which said: "That which will destroy Qin is Hu." The First Emperor then sent the general Meng Tian (蒙恬) with three hundred thousand troops to strike the Hu in the north and to seize the land south of the Yellow River.

In the thirty-third year those who had once absconded, men who had married into their wives' households, and merchants were sent out to seize the land of Luliang, which was made into Guilin, the commandery of Xiang, and Nanhai; convicts were dispatched there as garrisons. In the northwest the Xiongnu were driven out. From Yuzhong along the Yellow River eastward, joining to Yinshan, thirty-four counties were made, and walls were built along the river as a barrier. Meng Tian was also sent to cross the river and take Gaoque, Yangshan, and Beijiazhong, and to build watchtowers and forts so as to drive out the Rong people. Convicts were transferred to fill the newly made counties. Sacrifice was forbidden. A bright star appeared in the west.

In the thirty-fourth year those officials of the courts who had judged crookedly were sent as convicts to build the Long Wall and to work in the land of Nanyue.

The First Emperor set out wine in the palace at Xianyang, and seventy erudites came forward to wish him long life. The supervisor Zhou Qingchen came forward and offered praise: "In former times the land of Qin was no more than a thousand li. Thanks to Your Majesty's divine, bright, and sagely power, all within the seas has been pacified, the Man and Yi have been driven out, and wherever sun and moon shine there is none who does not submit as guest. The feudal states have been made commanderies and counties; every man is at peace and content, there is no calamity of war, and it will be handed down for ten thousand generations. Since high antiquity none has equaled Your Majesty's awe and power." The First Emperor was pleased. The erudite Chunyu Yue (淳于越), a man of Qi, came forward and said: "Your servant has heard that the kings of Yin and Zhou reigned more than a thousand years, and that they enfeoffed their sons and younger brothers and their meritorious servants to be branches and supports to themselves. Now Your Majesty possesses all within the seas, yet your sons and brothers are common men. If ministers like Tian Chang or the Six Ministers should suddenly arise, and there were no supports and helpers, by what means could you be rescued? That affairs which do not take antiquity as their teacher could yet endure long — this I have never heard. And now Qingchen further flatters you to your face and so deepens Your Majesty's fault; he is no loyal servant." The First Emperor sent the matter down for deliberation. The chancellor Li Si said: "The Five Emperors did not repeat one another, and the Three Dynasties did not take over from one another; each governed in its own way. It was not that they were contrary to one another; the times had changed and differed. Now Your Majesty has founded a great enterprise and established a merit for ten thousand generations — something that stupid classicists assuredly do not understand. Moreover, what Yue speaks of are the affairs of the Three Dynasties; what is there in them fit to be a model? In other times the feudal lords contended together and richly attracted wandering scholars. Now the empire is settled and laws and ordinances issue from a single source. The hundred families, in their households, should exert themselves at farming and craft; officers should study the laws, ordinances, and prohibitions. Now these scholars do not take the present as their teacher but study antiquity, and use it to condemn the present age, confusing and disordering the black-headed people. Your servant Si, the chancellor, braving death, speaks: in antiquity the empire was scattered and disordered and none could unify it, and therefore the feudal lords all arose together. In their talk they all invoked antiquity so as to injure the present, and adorned empty words so as to confuse the substantial. Men thought good the private learning they had and used it to condemn what their superiors had established. Now the August Emperor possesses the whole empire together, has distinguished black from white, and has fixed a single sovereign authority. Yet men study privately and join together in condemning the laws and teachings. When they hear an order handed down, each judges it by his own learning; within, they condemn it in their hearts; outside, they discuss it in the lanes; they boast before the ruler to make a name for themselves, take up strange positions to make themselves lofty, and lead the multitude below into slander. If this is not prohibited, the ruler's power will sink above and factions will form below. It is expedient to prohibit it. Your servant asks that all the records of the historians which are not the records of Qin be burned. Except for what is in the charge of the office of erudites, if anyone in the empire dares to keep the Odes, the Documents, or the sayings of the hundred schools, they must all take them to the governor and the commandant to be burned together. Any who dare to speak together of the Odes and the Documents shall be executed in the marketplace. Those who use antiquity to condemn the present shall be exterminated with their kin. Officials who see and know of it and do not report it shall bear the same guilt. Those who have not burned their books within thirty days of the order coming down shall be tattooed and made wall-builders. What is not to be removed: books of medicine and drugs, of divination by shell and stalk, and of the planting of trees. If anyone wishes to study the laws and ordinances, let him take the officials as his teachers." The command read: "Approved."

In the thirty-fifth year roads were cleared, a road running from Jiuyuan to Yunyang, cutting through hills and filling in valleys so that it went straight through. Then the First Emperor, holding that Xianyang had too many people and that the palace and courts of the former kings were small, said: "I have heard that King Wen of Zhou had his capital at Feng and King Wu at Hao; the region between Feng and Hao is the capital of emperors and kings." So he laid out and built a court palace in the Shanglin Park south of the Wei. First he built the front hall, Epang, five hundred paces from east to west and fifty zhang from north to south; above, it could seat ten thousand men; below, banners of five zhang could be set up. All around for galloping there was a gallery-road running from below the hall straight to the Southern Mountains. The peak of the Southern Mountains was marked out to be its gate-tower. An elevated roadway was made, crossing the Wei from Epang and joining it to Xianyang, in the image of the Gallery Road of the celestial pole, which crosses the River of Heaven and reaches the Encampment lodge. The Epang Palace was not completed; when it should be completed, he meant to choose a fine name and name it anew. Because the palace was built at Epang, the empire called it the Epang Palace. More than seven hundred thousand castrated men and convict laborers were divided, some to build the Epang Palace and some to work at Mount Li. Stone for outer coffins was quarried from the northern mountains, and timber was brought from the lands of Shu and Jing, and all of it arrived. Within the passes the palaces were counted at three hundred, and beyond the passes more than four hundred. Then a stone was set up within the borders of Qu on the Eastern Sea, to be the eastern gate of Qin. Thirty thousand households were moved to Liyi and fifty thousand to Yunyang, all exempted from service for ten years.

Lu Sheng urged the First Emperor: "Your servants have sought the magic fungus, marvelous drugs, and the immortals, and have constantly failed to meet with them; it seems there is something that harms the search. Among the arts it is said that the ruler of men should from time to time move about in disguise so as to ward off evil spirits; when evil spirits are warded off, the True Man arrives. If the place where the ruler of men dwells is known to his servants, that is harmful to the spirits. The True Man enters water without being wetted, enters fire without being burned, rides upon the cloud-vapors, and endures as long as Heaven and Earth. Now Your Majesty governs the empire and has not been able to attain calm and stillness. I would have the palace where Your Majesty dwells not be made known to men; only then may the drug of deathlessness perhaps be obtained." At this the First Emperor said, "I admire the True Man. I shall call myself 'the True Man' and not use 'We.'" He then ordered that the two hundred and seventy palaces and lookout towers within two hundred li around Xianyang be joined together by elevated and walled roadways and filled with curtains and hangings, bells and drums, and beautiful women, each assigned to a fixed post and not to be moved. Wherever he went and favored with his presence, anyone who told where he was should be punished with death. The First Emperor favored the Liangshan Palace with his presence, and from the mountain saw that the chancellor's carriages and outriders were many; he was not pleased. Someone among the palace attendants told the chancellor, and afterward the chancellor reduced his carriages and outriders. The First Emperor was angry and said, "Someone among the palace attendants has leaked my words." They were examined and questioned, and none confessed. At that time he ordered the arrest of all who had been beside him then, and all were killed. From then on no one knew where he went. He heard affairs, and the assembled ministers received his decisions on affairs, entirely in the palace at Xianyang.

Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng plotted together, saying: "The First Emperor is by nature stubborn, harsh, and self-willed. He rose from among the feudal lords, annexed the empire, and having attained his purpose and followed his desires, he holds that from antiquity none has equaled him. He gives sole charge to the prison officials, and it is the prison officials who enjoy his intimacy and favor. Though there are seventy erudites, they merely fill their places and are not used. The chancellor and the great ministers all receive matters already settled and rely on the Emperor above to decide them. The Emperor delights in using punishment and killing to make himself feared; the empire, dreading to be found guilty and clinging to its salaries, does not dare exhaust its loyalty. The Emperor above hears nothing of his faults and grows daily more arrogant; those below cower and submit, deceiving him to gain his favor. By the law of Qin, one may not practice two arts, and if the art does not prove out, death follows at once. Yet the watchers of the stars and vapors number three hundred; all are good men, but from fear and taboo they flatter and dare not speak straight of his faults. All the affairs of the empire, great and small, are decided by the Emperor. He goes so far as to weigh out the documents by the stone; day and night there is a fixed quota, and if he has not met the quota he takes no rest. Such is his greed for power and position. One cannot seek the drugs of immortality for him." Then they fled away. When the First Emperor heard that they had fled he was greatly angered and said: "Before this I collected the writings of the empire and got rid of all that was of no use. I summoned very many men of letters and masters of arts and recipes, wishing thereby to raise up a great peace, and the masters of recipes were to refine and seek out marvelous drugs. Now I hear that Han Zhong has gone off and made no report; Xu Fu and the rest have spent sums counted in the tens of millions, and in the end have got no drug; only reports of their crooked profits come to me day after day. Lu Sheng and the others I honored and rewarded most generously, and now they slander me and so make heavier my lack of virtue. As for the scholars in Xianyang, I have had men look into them; some spread strange sayings to disorder the black-headed people." He therefore had the imperial secretaries examine and question all the scholars. The scholars informed on one another in turn, and he himself struck off more than four hundred and sixty who had broken the prohibitions; all of them were buried alive at Xianyang, and the empire was made to know of it as a warning for the future. Still more convicts were sent out to the frontier. Fusu (扶蘇), eldest son of the First Emperor, remonstrated: "The empire has only just been settled, and the black-headed people of distant regions are not yet gathered in. The scholars all recite and take Confucius as their model. Now Your Majesty binds them all with the full weight of the law; your servant fears that the empire will not be at peace. May Your Majesty look into it." The First Emperor was angered and sent Fusu north to Shangjun to oversee Meng Tian.

In the thirty-sixth year Mars lodged in the Heart mansion. A falling star came down in the commandery of Dong, and on reaching the ground it became a stone. Someone among the black-headed people carved on the stone: "The First Emperor will die and the land will be divided." When the First Emperor heard of it he sent an imperial secretary to investigate and question, but none confessed; he seized all the people dwelling near the stone and put them to death, and then had the stone burned and melted away. The First Emperor was not glad. He had the erudites compose poems about immortals and True Men, and wherever he travelled through the empire he passed down orders for the musicians to sing them to strings. In autumn an envoy coming from east of the passes passed by night along the Pingshu road at Huayin. A man holding a jade disc barred the envoy's way and said, "Deliver this for me to the Lord of the Hao Pool." He then said, "This year the Ancestral Dragon dies." The envoy asked him the reason, and the man suddenly vanished, leaving the jade disc behind. The envoy presented the disc and reported the whole matter. The First Emperor was silent for a long while, then said, "A mountain spirit surely knows no more than the affairs of a single year." Withdrawing, he said, "The Ancestral Dragon is the ancestor of men." He had the imperial storehouse examine the disc: it was the disc that had been sunk in the Yangzi when he crossed it on his travels in the twenty-eighth year. The First Emperor then divined about it, and the hexagram he obtained said that travel and removal would be auspicious. Thirty thousand households were removed to Yuzhong on the northern reach of the Yellow River. One degree of rank was granted.

In the thirty-seventh year, in the tenth month, on the day guichou, the First Emperor of Qin set out on a progress. The chancellor of the left, Si (Li Si 李斯), went with him; the chancellor of the right, Quji (Feng Quji 馮去疾), stayed behind on guard. His youngest son Huhai (胡亥) longed to go and asked to come along, and the emperor granted it. In the eleventh month he traveled to Yunmeng and sacrificed from afar to Yu Shun at Mount Jiuyi. He floated down the Yangtze, viewed Jike, and crossed at Haizhu. He passed Danyang and reached Qiantang. He came to the Zhe River, but the waves were dangerous, so he went a hundred and twenty li west and crossed at a narrow place. He ascended Kuaiji, sacrificed to Great Yu, performed the distant sacrifice toward the Southern Sea, and set up a stone carved with a eulogy of the virtue of Qin. Its text ran:

The August Emperor's shining achievement: he leveled and made one all within the cosmos, and his virtue and kindness are long-enduring.
In the thirty-seventh year he toured the world in person, surveying the distant regions on every side.
Then he ascended Kuaiji, proclaimed and examined the customs, and the black-headed people were purified and grave.
The assembled ministers recite his merits, trace his deeds to their source, and look back to their lofty and brilliant origin.
The sage of Qin came to rule the state, first fixed punishments and titles, and set forth the old statutes plainly.
He first regulated laws and standards, carefully distinguished offices and charges, and thereby established constancy.
The six kings were willful and treacherous — greedy, perverse, arrogant, and fierce — leading their multitudes to make themselves strong.
They practiced violence and cruelty as they pleased, relied upon force and grew proud, and again and again set armor and weapons in motion.
In secret they passed spies back and forth, working at the Vertical Alliance, and their conduct was crooked and perverse.
Within they dressed up deceitful schemes; without they came to invade the borders; and so they raised up calamity.
Righteous majesty punished them, wiped out and quenched the violent and rebellious, and the disorderly and the traitorous perished.
The sage's virtue is broad and close-woven; within the six directions his bounty is spread without bound.
The August Emperor has joined the whole cosmos, hears all affairs together, and far and near are wholly clear.
He sets in motion and orders the host of things, tests and verifies the facts of every matter, so that each is recorded under its own name.
Noble and base alike have access; good and bad are laid out before him, and nothing is hidden away.
He amends and examines, proclaiming righteousness: a woman who has a child and then remarries betrays the dead and is unchaste.
He walls off and separates inner and outer, prohibits licentious excess, and men and women are pure and sincere.
If a husband plays the boar lent out for stud, to kill him is no crime, and men hold to the measure of righteousness.
If a wife runs off to remarry, her son may not count her as mother, and all are transformed to uprightness and purity.
Great governance washes the customs clean; the world receives the influence and is covered by the beneficent norms.
All follow the measures and the tracks, harmonious, at peace, earnest and diligent; there is none who does not obey the commands.
The black-headed people cultivate purity; men delight in a rule held in common and gladly keep the Great Peace.
Those who come after will reverently uphold the laws; constant governance will be without limit, and carriage and boat will not overturn.
The attending ministers, chanting his glory, ask to carve this stone, that a bright and beneficent inscription may be handed down.

On his return he passed through Wu and crossed at Jiangcheng. He went along the sea and north as far as Langya. The master of techniques Xu Fu (徐巿) and the others who had gone out to sea in search of the divine drug had failed to obtain it for several years; the expense had been great and they feared reproof. So they lied, saying: "The drug of Penglai can be got, but we are constantly troubled by great sharks and therefore cannot reach it. We ask that good archers be sent with us, so that when one is sighted we may shoot it with repeating crossbows." The First Emperor dreamed that he fought with a sea god shaped like a man. He questioned the interpreters of dreams, and a court erudite said: "The water god cannot be seen; he is signaled by great fish and by jiao-dragons. Now Your Majesty's prayers and sacrifices have been complete and careful, and yet there is this evil spirit. It ought to be removed, and then the good spirits can be brought." He therefore ordered those going out to sea to carry gear for taking huge fish, and he himself waited with a repeating crossbow for a great fish to appear, to shoot it. From Langya north to Mount Rongcheng he saw none. At Zhifu he saw huge fish, and shot and killed one of them. Then he went west along the sea.

He reached the ford of Pingyuan and fell ill. The First Emperor hated any mention of death, and none of his ministers dared speak of the matter of death. The emperor's illness grew worse, and he then had a sealed letter made out for the prince Fusu (扶蘇), saying: "Join the funeral cortege at Xianyang and bury me." The letter had been sealed and lay in the office of Zhao Gao (趙高), prefect of the palace carriage office, who managed the business of the tallies and seals; it had not yet been handed to a messenger. In the seventh month, on the day bingyin, the First Emperor died at the Level Terrace of Shaqiu. The chancellor Si, because the emperor had died away from the capital and he feared that the princes and the empire might rise, kept it secret and did not announce the death. The coffin was carried in a wenliang carriage; the eunuchs who had been favored rode as attendants, and at each stopping place food was brought to the emperor. The hundred officials memorialized affairs as before, and a eunuch would then, from inside the wenliang carriage, approve their memorials. Only his son Huhai, Zhao Gao, and five or six favored eunuchs knew that the emperor was dead. Zhao Gao had formerly taught Huhai writing and the business of prison law, statutes, ordinances, and legal cases, and Huhai favored him in private. Gao then plotted secretly with the prince Huhai and the chancellor Si to break open and destroy the sealed letter the First Emperor had bestowed on the prince Fusu, and to forge instead a claim that the chancellor Si had received the First Emperor's testamentary edict at Shaqiu setting up his son Huhai as heir apparent. They further wrote out a letter to the prince Fusu and to Meng Tian (蒙恬), enumerating their crimes and bestowing death upon them. The account is given in full in the Biography of Li Si. The procession moved on and went by way of Jingxing to Jiuyuan. It happened to be hot, and the emperor's wenliang carriage stank. So an order went to the attending officials that the carriages should be loaded with a picul of salted fish, to confuse the smell.

The procession followed the Straight Road to Xianyang, and the death was announced. The heir apparent Huhai succeeded to the position and became the Second Emperor. In the ninth month the First Emperor was buried at Mount Li. When the First Emperor first came to the throne he had begun digging and working at Mount Li, and when he had united the empire more than seven hundred thousand convicts from all the world were sent there. They dug through three springs, poured in bronze, and set the outer coffin in place. Palaces and towers, the hundred officials, rare vessels and marvelous curiosities were carried in and stored until the place was full. He ordered the artisans to make crossbows worked by triggers, so that anyone who tunneled near would at once be shot. With quicksilver they made the hundred streams, the Yangtze and the Yellow River, and the great sea, and machines poured it and kept it circulating. Above were set out the figures of the heavens, below the features of the earth. Candles were made from the fat of the man-fish, reckoned to burn a long time without going out. The Second Emperor said: "Of the late emperor's women of the rear palace, those who have no sons — it is not fitting that they be sent out." He ordered them all to follow him in death, and those who died were very many. When the burial had been lowered into place, someone said that the artisans who had made the machines knew all about the treasure, and that the treasure was so great it would be leaked. When the great business was finished and the interment complete, the middle passage was shut and the outer gate of the passage let down, so that all the artisans and those who had stored the treasure were closed in, and none came out again. Grasses and trees were planted so that it looked like a hill.

The first year of the Second Emperor: he was twenty-one years old. Zhao Gao was made prefect of the palace gentlemen and entrusted with affairs. The Second Emperor issued an edict increasing the sacrificial victims at the First Emperor's funerary temple and the rites for the mountains and rivers and the hundred sacrifices. He ordered the assembled ministers to deliberate on honoring the First Emperor's temple. The assembled ministers all knocked their heads to the ground and said: "In antiquity the Son of Heaven had seven temples, the feudal lords five, and the grandees three; though ten thousand generations pass, these are not removed and destroyed. Now the First Emperor's is the Ultimate Temple. Within the four seas all present tribute and service; the victims have been increased, the rites are all complete, and nothing can be added. Some of the temples of the former kings are at Xiyong, some at Xianyang. By the ceremony proper to the Son of Heaven, he should alone pour the libation and sacrifice at the First Emperor's temple. From Duke Xiang downward the temples are to be removed in turn. Those established will be seven temples in all. Let the assembled ministers advance the sacrifices according to rite, so as to honor the First Emperor's temple as the ancestral temple of the emperors. Let the August Emperor once more call himself zhen."

The Second Emperor plotted with Zhao Gao, saying: "I am young in years and have only just come to the throne; the black-headed people are not yet gathered in attachment to me. The late emperor toured the commanderies and counties to display his strength and to subdue all within the seas by his majesty. If I now sit quietly and do not tour, this will be seen as weakness, and I shall have no means of holding the empire as my subjects." In spring the Second Emperor went east through the commanderies and counties, with Li Si accompanying him. He reached Jieshi, went along the sea, and south as far as Kuaiji, and on all the inscribed stones the First Emperor had set up he had carving added; at the side of each stone were set the names of the great ministers who had accompanied him, so as to make manifest the accomplished works and abundant virtue of the late emperor:

The August Emperor said: "The inscriptions on metal and stone were all made by the First Emperor. Now that I have succeeded to the title, if the wording of the metal and stone inscriptions does not name the First Emperor, then in the distant future it will look as if a later successor had made them, and it will not do justice to his accomplished works and abundant virtue." The chancellors, your servants Si and Quji, and the imperial secretary, your servant De, braving death, said: "Your servants ask that the edict be carved on the stones in full, so that the matter will be plain. Your servants, braving death, so request." The rescript said: "Approved."

He then went as far as Liaodong and returned.

Thereupon the Second Emperor followed and employed Zhao Gao and made the laws and ordinances stricter. He plotted secretly with Zhao Gao, saying: "The great ministers do not submit, the officials are still strong, and the princes are certain to contend with me. What is to be done about it?" Gao said: "Your servant has long wished to speak of this but has not dared. The great ministers of the late emperor are all men of famous and noble houses of the empire through many generations, who have accumulated merit and service over the ages and handed it down a long while. Now Gao is by origin lowly and mean; Your Majesty has been so kind as to raise him up and place him high, managing the affairs of the palace. The great ministers are discontented; they follow your servant only in outward show, and in their hearts they do not truly submit. Now that Your Majesty is away from the capital, if you do not take this occasion to investigate the governors and commandants of the commanderies and counties who are guilty and put them to death, then above you will fail to shake the empire with your authority, and below you will fail to sweep away those whom the late emperor in his lifetime found unacceptable. In the present time one does not take the civil arts for master, but decides by armed force. I wish Your Majesty to go along with the time and not hesitate, so that the assembled ministers have no time to plot. An enlightened ruler gathers up and raises the remnant people: he ennobles the base, enriches the poor, and brings near those who are far off; then high and low are gathered together and the state is at peace." The Second Emperor said: "Good." He then proceeded to execute great ministers and princes, and on charges of crime he arrested with them the lesser attendant officers, the three orders of gentlemen, so that none was left standing; and six princes were put to death at Du. The prince Jiang Lü (將閭) and his two brothers, three in all, were imprisoned in the inner palace, and the deliberation on their guilt came last of all. The Second Emperor sent a messenger to give Jiang Lü this order: "Prince, you have not behaved as a subject; your crime deserves death, and the officers will apply the law to you." Jiang Lü said: "In the ceremonies of the palace court I never once dared fail to follow the usher's direction; in my place in the hall of the ancestral temple I never once dared lose the proper measure; in receiving commands and making reply I never once dared misspeak. How can I be called no subject? I wish to hear my crime before I die." The messenger said: "Your servant was not party to the deliberation. I act according to the document I carry." Jiang Lü then looked up to Heaven and cried out to Heaven three times in a loud voice, saying: "O Heaven! I have done no wrong!" The three brothers all wept, drew their swords, and killed themselves. The imperial clan was shaken with terror. Ministers who remonstrated were treated as slanderers; the high officials clung to their salaries and sought to please; and the black-headed people were shaken with terror.

In the fourth month the Second Emperor returned to Xianyang and said: "The late emperor considered the court at Xianyang too small, and therefore laid out the Epang Palace for his hall and chamber. Before it was finished the emperor died, and the workmen were dismissed and sent to move earth at Mount Li. The business at Mount Li is now in the main complete. If I abandon the Epang Palace and leave it unfinished, that will publish abroad that what the late emperor undertook was a mistake." He resumed work on the Epang Palace. Abroad he pacified the barbarians of the four quarters, as the First Emperor had planned. He conscripted in full fifty thousand able men to garrison and guard Xianyang, and had them taught archery and the handling of dogs, horses, birds, and beasts. Those to be fed were many, and it was reckoned that supplies would not suffice, so orders went down to the commanderies and counties to transport beans, grain, fodder, and straw; all were made to bring their own provisions, and within three hundred li of Xianyang no one might eat of that grain. The application of the law grew ever more harsh and severe.

In the seventh month the garrison conscript Chen Sheng (陳勝) and others revolted in the old territory of Jing and set up "Zhang Chu." Sheng made himself king of Chu, took his seat at Chen, and sent his generals out to bring the land under his sway. East of the mountains, in the commanderies and counties, the young men suffered under the Qin officials, and everywhere they killed their governors, commandants, prefects, and assistants and rebelled in answer to Chen She. They set one another up as marquises and kings, joined in a vertical alliance, and turned westward, calling it an attack on Qin — they were beyond counting. An internuncio who had been sent to the east came back and reported the rebels to the Second Emperor. The Second Emperor was angry and handed him over to the officers. Later another messenger arrived, and when the emperor questioned him he answered: "They are a band of brigands; the governors and commandants of the commanderies are pursuing and arresting them, and by now they have all been taken. It is not worth troubling about." The emperor was pleased. Wu Chen made himself king of Zhao, Wei Jiu king of Wei, and Tian Dan king of Qi. The Duke of Pei rose at Pei. Xiang Liang raised troops in the commandery of Kuaiji.

In the winter of the second year, Zhou Zhang and the other generals sent out by Chen She came west as far as Xi with several hundred thousand troops. The Second Emperor was greatly alarmed and consulted his ministers, saying: "What is to be done?" The privy treasurer Zhang Han (章邯) said: "The brigands have already arrived; they are many and strong, and to call up the nearby counties now would be too late. The convicts at Mount Li are numerous. I ask that they be pardoned and given weapons, and that we strike the enemy with them." The Second Emperor then proclaimed a general amnesty throughout the empire, made Zhang Han general, and Han struck and broke Zhou Zhang's army, which fled; he then killed Zhang at Caoyang. The Second Emperor further sent the chief clerks Sima Xin and Dong Yi to assist Zhang Han in striking the brigands. They killed Chen Sheng at Chengfu, broke Xiang Liang at Dingtao, and destroyed Wei Jiu at Linji. The famous rebel commanders of the land of Chu being now dead, Zhang Han crossed the Yellow River northward and struck Xie, king of Zhao, and the others at Julu.

Zhao Gao urged the Second Emperor, saying: "The late emperor ruled the empire a long while, and therefore the assembled ministers did not dare do wrong or put forward crooked arguments. Now Your Majesty is rich in years to come and has only just taken the throne. Why should you settle affairs in open court with the high ministers? If a matter goes wrong, you display your shortcomings to the ministers. The Son of Heaven calls himself zhen; his very voice is not to be heard." Thereupon the Second Emperor dwelt constantly within the forbidden quarters and settled all affairs with Gao. After this the high ministers rarely obtained an audience at court, the brigands grew more numerous, and the levies from within the passes sent east to strike the brigands never ceased. The chancellor of the right, Quji, the chancellor of the left, Si, and the general Feng Jie came forward to remonstrate, saying: "East of the pass the bands of brigands have risen together. Qin has sent out troops to punish and strike them, and those killed and lost are very many, yet still it does not stop. The brigands are many because the labor of garrison duty, of water transport, and of hauling is bitter and the taxes and levies are heavy. We ask that work on the Epang Palace be halted for the present, and that garrison duty and transport on the four frontiers be reduced." The Second Emperor said: "I have heard it from Master Han, who said: 'Yao and Shun had gathered rafters that were not planed and thatch of reeds that was not trimmed; they ate from earthen bowls and sipped from earthen vessels — even the keeping of a gatekeeper would be no meaner than this. Yu chiseled through Longmen and opened a way to Daxia, breached the Yellow River and stilled the flood, releasing it to the sea; he himself held the rammer and the spade until the hair was worn from his shins — the toil of a slave or a captive would be no harsher than this.' In general, what makes possessing the empire valuable is that a man may indulge his will and carry his desires to the utmost, while the ruler gives weight to clear laws so that those below dare do no wrong, and thereby controls and drives all within the seas. Now the rulers of Yu and Xia, honored as Sons of Heaven, dwelt in person in the reality of hardship and want in order to serve the hundred families — what then had they to do with law? I hold the honor of ten thousand chariots but not its substance. I wish to build a train of a thousand chariots and a following of ten thousand, to fill out my title and name. Moreover the late emperor rose from among the feudal lords and annexed the empire; when the empire was settled he drove off the barbarians of the four quarters abroad to make the borders secure, and built palaces and halls to make manifest that he had attained his purpose — and you gentlemen have seen that the late emperor's works had their proper sequence. Now within the two years since I came to the throne bands of brigands have risen everywhere; you have not been able to stop them, and you further wish to abandon what the late emperor did. This is, first, to have no way of repaying the late emperor, and next, not to exhaust your loyal strength for me. By what right do you hold your positions?" He handed Quji, Si, and Jie over to the officers, who investigated and charged them with other crimes. Quji and Jie said: "A general or a chancellor is not to be disgraced." They killed themselves. Si was in the end imprisoned and put to the five punishments.

In the third year, Zhang Han and the others led their troops in besieging Julu, and Xiang Yu (項羽), supreme general of Chu, led the troops of Chu to the relief of Julu. In winter Zhao Gao became chancellor, and in the end he pressed the case against Li Si and killed him. In summer Zhang Han and the others fell back repeatedly in battle. The Second Emperor sent a man to reproach Han. Han was afraid and sent his chief clerk Xin to ask for instructions. Zhao Gao would not see him and would not trust him. Xin was afraid and fled away; Gao sent men to seize and pursue him, but they did not overtake him. Xin saw Han and said: "Zhao Gao holds power within. General, if you have merit you will be executed, and if you have no merit you will be executed just the same." Xiang Yu attacked the Qin army fiercely and captured Wang Li, and Han and the others thereupon surrendered with their troops to the feudal lords. In the eighth month, on the day jihai, Zhao Gao wished to make a rebellion but feared the assembled ministers would not obey him. He therefore first set up a test: he brought a deer and presented it to the Second Emperor, saying, "A horse." The Second Emperor laughed and said, "Is the chancellor mistaken? He calls a deer a horse." He asked those around him. Some of them kept silent; some said it was a horse, to flatter Zhao Gao and go along with him; and some said it was a deer. Gao thereupon secretly brought the law against all who had said it was a deer. Afterward the assembled ministers all feared Gao.

Gao had said repeatedly before this that "the brigands east of the pass can do nothing." But when Xiang Yu captured the Qin general Wang Li and the others below Julu and pressed forward, when Zhang Han's armies fell back again and again and he sent up documents asking for more help, and when Yan, Zhao, Qi, Chu, Han, and Wei had all set up kings, then from the pass eastward nearly everyone rebelled against the Qin officials and answered to the feudal lords, and the feudal lords all led their multitudes westward. The Duke of Pei, leading several tens of thousands of men, had already massacred Wu Pass, and he sent someone to treat privately with Gao. Gao feared that the Second Emperor would be angry and that the punishment would reach his own person, so he pleaded illness and did not attend court. The Second Emperor dreamed that a white tiger bit the left outer horse of his team and killed it. His heart was uneasy, and thinking it strange he questioned the interpreters of dreams. The divination said: "The Jing River is the source of the curse." The Second Emperor then fasted at the Wangyi Palace, wishing to sacrifice to the Jing, and sank four white horses in it. He sent a messenger to censure and reproach Gao over the matter of the brigands. Gao was afraid, and plotted secretly with his son-in-law Yan Le (閻樂), prefect of Xianyang, and with his younger brother Zhao Cheng, saying: "The emperor will not listen to remonstrance. Now that matters are urgent he means to lay the calamity on my clan. I intend to remove the emperor and set him aside, and to set up the prince Ying instead. Ziying is humane and frugal, and the people all take up his words." He had the prefect of the palace gentlemen act as an accomplice within, pretending that great brigands had broken in, and ordered Le to summon officers and call out soldiers; and he seized Le's mother and lodged her in Gao's house. He sent Le to lead more than a thousand officers and soldiers to the palace gate of the Wangyi Palace. They bound the prefect of the guard and the supervisor, saying: "Brigands have entered here. Why did you not stop them?" The prefect of the guard said: "The guard posts all around are manned with the greatest care. How could brigands dare enter the palace?" Le thereupon beheaded the prefect of the guard, led his officers straight in, and shot as he went. The gentlemen and eunuchs were greatly alarmed; some fled and some resisted, and those who resisted died at once — several tens of them died. The prefect of the palace gentlemen entered together with Le, and they shot at the curtain of the emperor's canopied seat. The Second Emperor was enraged and called his attendants, but they were all in a panic and would not fight. At his side was one eunuch, who waited on him and did not dare leave. The Second Emperor went inside and said to him: "Why did you not tell me sooner? And so it has come to this!" The eunuch said: "Your servant did not dare speak, and so was able to keep himself whole. Had your servant spoken early he would long since have been executed with the rest — how could he have lived until now?" Yan Le came forward, went up to the Second Emperor, and enumerated his faults, saying: "You have been arrogant and unrestrained; you have executed and killed without principle; the empire has joined together in rebelling against you. Make your own plan." The Second Emperor said: "May I see the chancellor?" Le said: "You may not." The Second Emperor said: "I should be willing to have one commandery and be king there." It was not allowed. He said again: "I should be willing to be a marquis of ten thousand households." That was not allowed either. He said: "I should be willing to become one of the black-headed people, with my wife and children, on the same footing as the other princes." Yan Le said: "Your servant has received his orders from the chancellor, to punish you on behalf of the empire. Though you say much, your servant dares not report it." He signaled his troops to advance, and the Second Emperor killed himself.

Yan Le returned and reported to Zhao Gao. Zhao Gao then summoned all the great ministers and the princes and told them the circumstances of the Second Emperor's execution. He said: "Qin was formerly a kingdom. The First Emperor became lord of the whole world and therefore took the title of emperor. Now the six states have again set themselves up, Qin's territory grows ever smaller, and to be emperor on an empty title will not do. It is proper to be king as before; that is fitting." They set up the son of the Second Emperor's elder brother, the prince Ying, as king of Qin. The Second Emperor was buried with the rites of a commoner in the Yichun Park south of Du. Ziying was ordered to fast, since he was to appear at the ancestral temple and receive the royal seal. When he had fasted five days, Ziying plotted with his two sons, saying: "The chancellor Gao killed the Second Emperor at the Wangyi Palace, and fearing that the ministers would execute him he pretended out of righteousness to set me up. I hear that Zhao Gao has made a compact with Chu to destroy the ruling house of Qin and become king within the passes. Now he has me fast and appear at the temple; this means he wants to seize the occasion in the temple to kill me. I will plead illness and not go. The chancellor will surely come himself, and when he comes we will kill him." Gao sent several parties of men to summon Ziying, but Ziying would not go. Gao did indeed come himself, and said: "The business of the ancestral temple is weighty. Why does the king not go?" Ziying then stabbed Gao to death in the fasting palace, exterminated Gao's family to the three degrees of kin, and paraded them through Xianyang. Ziying had been king of Qin forty-six days when the Chu general, the Duke of Pei, broke the Qin army and entered Wu Pass, then reached Bashang and sent a man to arrange Ziying's surrender. Ziying at once tied a cord about his neck and, in a plain carriage drawn by white horses, bearing the seal and tallies of the Son of Heaven, surrendered beside the Zhi Road. The Duke of Pei then entered Xianyang, sealed up the palaces, offices, and storehouses, and withdrew his army to Bashang. After a little more than a month the troops of the feudal lords arrived; Xiang Ji was chief of the alliance, and he killed Ziying and all the princes and clansmen of Qin. Then they massacred Xianyang, burned its palaces, carried off its sons and daughters, gathered up its precious things and goods and wealth, and the feudal lords divided them among themselves. After the destruction of Qin they divided its land into three, named the king of Yong, the king of Sai, and the king of Di, and called them the Three Qins. Xiang Yu became Hegemon-King of Western Chu, taking charge of the commands, dividing the empire, and making the feudal lords kings. Qin was destroyed at last. Five years later the empire was settled under Han.

The Grand Historian's Judgment (太史公曰)

The Grand Historian says: The ancestor of Qin was Bo Yi (伯翳), who once had merit in the time of Tang and Yu, and received land and was granted a surname. In the age between Xia and Yin the line grew faint and scattered. When Zhou declined, Qin arose and had its settlement on the western march. From Duke Mu (繆公) onward it gnawed away at the feudal lords like a silkworm, and at last produced the First Emperor. The First Emperor held that his merit surpassed the Five Emperors and his territory was wider than that of the Three Kings, and he was ashamed to be reckoned their equal. How well Master Jia set it out! He said:

Qin annexed the feudal lords and held more than thirty commanderies east of the mountains; it repaired the fords and passes, occupied the strongholds and defiles, put armor and weapons in order, and held them. Yet Chen She, with a few hundred garrison conscripts, a scattered and disorderly crowd, raised his arm and gave a great shout. They used no bows or halberds for weapons, but hoes and rakes and bare staves; they ate at whatever house came in sight; and they ranged at will across the empire. The men of Qin did not hold their barriers and defiles; the passes and bridges were not closed; the long halberds did not stab; the strong crossbows did not shoot. The Chu army penetrated deep and fought at Hongmen, and met not so much as the obstacle of a hedge. Thereupon everything east of the mountains was in an uproar, the feudal lords rose together, and men of ability set one another up. Qin sent Zhang Han as general on an eastern campaign, and Zhang Han used the host of his three armies to strike a bargain abroad and plot against his own sovereign. That the ministers were not to be trusted may be seen in this. Ziying was set up, and still he did not awaken. Had Ziying possessed the ability of even a mediocre ruler and got no more than middling assistants, then though the region east of the mountains was in revolt the land of Qin could have been kept whole and held, and the sacrifices at the ancestral temple need not have been cut off.

The land of Qin is clothed in mountains and girdled by the Yellow River, which make it secure — a state closed on four sides. From Duke Mu down to the king of Qin there were more than twenty rulers, and Qin was regularly the strongest among the feudal lords. Was it that generation after generation was worthy? Its position made it so. Moreover the empire once joined heart and combined strength to attack Qin. In that age worthy and wise men stood side by side, good generals marched their armies, and worthy chancellors carried through their plans; yet they were blocked at the barriers and defiles and could not advance. Qin then invited them in to fight and opened the passes to them, and a host of a million fled north and was broken. Was it that their courage, strength, and wisdom were insufficient? The terrain was unfavorable and the position not convenient. Qin drew its small settlements into its great walled cities, garrisoned the strongholds and defiles and encamped there, raised its ramparts high and would not fight, closed the passes and held the narrows, and shouldered halberds to guard them. The feudal lords had risen from among common men and were joined by advantage; they had nothing of the conduct of a true king. Their alliances were not intimate, their subordinates were not attached; they called it destroying Qin, but in truth they sought their own profit by it. Seeing that Qin's barriers were hard to violate, they would surely have withdrawn their armies. Had Qin then settled the land and given the people rest, waiting for their exhaustion, gathering in the weak and supporting the worn out, so as to give commands to the rulers of the great states, it need not have feared failing to have its way within the seas. That, honored as Son of Heaven and possessing the wealth of the empire, its ruler yet became a captive — this was because the way it went about rescuing failure was wrong.

The king of Qin was satisfied with himself and did not inquire of others, and so he erred and did not change. The Second Emperor received it from him, followed it and did not reform, and by violence and cruelty made the disaster heavier. Ziying stood alone with no kin, imperiled and weak with no support. The three rulers were deluded and to the end of their lives did not wake. That they perished — was it not fitting? In that time the age was not without men of deep reflection who understood change; but the reason they did not dare exhaust their loyalty and correct what was wrong was that the customs of Qin had many taboos and prohibitions, and a loyal word was not out of the mouth before the body was cut down and destroyed. So it made the men of the empire incline the ear to listen, stand with one foot set upon the other, and clamp their mouths shut and say nothing. Therefore the three rulers lost the Way, loyal ministers dared not remonstrate, wise men dared not plan; the empire was already in disorder, and the treachery was not reported above. Is this not pitiful! The former kings knew that being blocked and screened off injures a state, and therefore they established high ministers, grandees, and officers, to order the laws and set up punishments, and the empire was well governed. When they were strong, they curbed violence and punished disorder and the empire submitted. When they were weak, the Five Hegemons campaigned and the feudal lords followed. When they were reduced, they held fast within and others attached themselves without, and the altars of soil and grain survived. So when Qin flourished its laws were multiplied and its punishments severe, and the empire trembled; and when it declined the hundred families resented it and all within the seas rebelled. So Zhou's five orders attained the proper Way, and for more than a thousand years it was not cut off. Qin lost root and branch together, and therefore did not last long. Looking at it in this way, the principles of security and of danger are far apart indeed. A country proverb says, "Not forgetting what went before is the teacher of what comes after." Therefore when the noble man governs a state he observes high antiquity, tests it against the present age, brings human affairs into the comparison, examines the principles of flourishing and decay, and considers what is fitting for authority and position, so that his rejecting and adopting have their order and his changes have their season; and thus through long stretches of days the altars of soil and grain are at peace.

Duke Xiao of Qin held the strongholds of Yao and Han and embraced the land of Yongzhou; ruler and ministers held it firmly while they eyed the house of Zhou. He had the intention of rolling up the empire like a mat, of wrapping up and lifting all within the cosmos, of bagging the four seas, and the heart to swallow the eight wastes. At that time Lord Shang assisted him: within, he established laws and measures, made plowing and weaving the business of the people, and put in order the equipment for defense and war; without, he joined the Horizontal Alliance and set the feudal lords fighting one another. Thereupon the men of Qin with folded hands took the land beyond the Western He.

When Duke Xiao had died, King Hui and King Wu inherited the enterprise he left and followed the plans he bequeathed. In the south they annexed Hanzhong; in the west they took Ba and Shu; in the east they cut off the rich and fertile lands and gathered in the strategic commanderies. The feudal lords were afraid. They met in covenant and plotted to weaken Qin, and did not begrudge precious vessels, heavy treasures, or rich and beautiful lands in order to draw the men of talent of the empire; they joined the Vertical Alliance, bound their friendships, and made themselves one. At that time Qi had Mengchang, Zhao had Pingyuan, Chu had Chunshen, and Wei had Xinling. These four lords were all clear-sighted and wise, loyal and trustworthy, generous and kind and loving of others; they honored the worthy and gave weight to men of ability; they bound the Vertical Alliance and broke up the Horizontal, and combined the multitudes of Han, Wei, Yan, Chu, Qi, Zhao, Song, Wey, and Zhongshan. Thereupon among the men of the six states such as Ning Yue, Xu Shang, Su Qin, and Du He made the plans for them; the likes of Qi Ming, Zhou Zui, Chen Zhen, Zhao Hua, Lou Huan, Zhai Jing, Su Li, and Yue Yi carried through their intentions; and the company of Wu Qi, Sun Bin, Dai Tuo, Ni Liang, Wang Liao, Tian Ji, Lian Po, and Zhao She commanded their troops. With lands ten times as great and hosts of a million they knocked again and again at the passes and attacked Qin. The men of Qin opened the passes and invited the enemy in, and the armies of the nine states hesitated, slipped away, and did not dare advance. Qin was at no cost of a lost arrow or a spent arrowhead, and already the feudal lords of the empire were in distress. Thereupon the Vertical Alliance scattered and the compact dissolved, and they vied to cut off territory and offer it to Qin. Qin had strength to spare and mastered them in their exhaustion; it pursued the fugitives and chased the routed, corpses lay a million, and the flowing blood floated the great shields. Taking advantage and riding the favorable moment, it carved up the empire and split apart its rivers and mountains; the strong states begged to submit and the weak states came to court. Coming down to King Xiaowen and King Zhuangxiang, their possession of the state was of few days, and there were no great affairs in the state.

When it came to the king of Qin, he carried on the residual glory of six generations, brandished the long whip and drove all within the cosmos, swallowed the two Zhous and destroyed the feudal lords, trod upon the supreme place and controlled the six directions, took hold of rod and switch to flog the empire, and his majesty shook the four seas. In the south he took the lands of the Hundred Yue and made of them the commanderies of Guilin and Xiang, and the rulers of the Hundred Yue lowered their heads, tied cords about their necks, and entrusted their lives to petty officials. He then sent Meng Tian to build the Long Wall in the north and guard the frontier fence, driving the Xiongnu back more than seven hundred li, so that the Hu did not dare come south to pasture their horses and their warriors did not dare bend the bow to avenge a grievance. Thereupon he abolished the way of the former kings and burned the sayings of the hundred schools, in order to make the black-headed people stupid. He threw down the famous walled cities, killed the men of ability, and collected the weapons of the empire and gathered them at Xianyang, melting down the points and casting bell-stands, and making of them twelve figures of metal, in order to weaken the black-headed people. After this he cut Mount Hua for a wall and used the Yellow River for a moat, occupying a rampart of a hundred million fathoms and looking down upon a ravine of unfathomable depth, and made these his security. Good generals with strong crossbows guarded the strategic places; trusted ministers and picked soldiers drew up their sharp weapons and challenged all who passed; and the empire was settled. In the mind of the king of Qin, the strength of the land within the passes, a wall of metal a thousand li long, was the enterprise of his sons and grandsons as emperors and kings for ten thousand generations.

When the king of Qin had died, his lingering majesty still shook peoples of strange custom. Chen She was the son of a house with a jar for a window and a rope for a door hinge, a man of the tenant and bondsman class and one of the transported. His ability did not come up to the average man's; he had neither the worth of Zhongni or Mo Di, nor the wealth of Tao Zhu or Yi Dun. Yet he set foot in the ranks and files and rose up suddenly among the squads and companies; he led exhausted and scattered soldiers, commanded a host of a few hundred, and turned to attack Qin. They cut wood for weapons and raised poles for banners, and the empire gathered like clouds and answered like an echo, carrying provisions and following like a shadow; and the men of ability east of the mountains then rose together and destroyed the house of Qin.

And yet the empire had not become small and weak: the land of Yongzhou and the strongholds of Yao and Han were what they had always been. Chen She's station was not more honorable than that of the rulers of Qi, Chu, Yan, Zhao, Han, Wei, Song, Wey, and Zhongshan; hoes and rakes and thornwood staves were not sharper than hooked halberds and long lances; a crowd of banished garrison men was no match for the armies of the nine states; and in deep planning and far-sighted reflection, in the art of marching armies and using troops, they did not come up to the men of that earlier time. Yet success and failure went differently and the achievements were the opposite. Try measuring the length and gauging the size of the states east of the mountains against Chen She, comparing their authority and weighing their strength — they cannot be spoken of in the same breath. Yet Qin, with a small patch of land and the power of a thousand chariots, summoned the eight provinces and made those of its own rank come to court, for more than a hundred years. After that it made the six directions its household and Yao and Han its palace; and then one man raised a difficulty and the seven temples fell, the ruler died at another's hands and became the laughingstock of the empire. Why? Because humaneness and righteousness were not practiced, and the circumstances of attack and of defense are not the same.

Qin united all within the seas, annexed the feudal lords, faced south and called himself emperor, and nourished the four seas, and the men of talent of the empire turned gracefully toward his influence. Why was this so? The answer: in recent antiquity there had long been no true king. The house of Zhou was low and feeble, the Five Hegemons had died, and commands were not carried out in the empire. Therefore the feudal lords governed by force; the strong invaded the weak and the many did violence to the few; weapons and armor never rested, and officers and people were worn out. Now Qin faced south and ruled the empire as king, and that meant there was a Son of Heaven above. Since the common people hoped to gain peace for their natures and lives, there was none who did not empty his heart and look up to the ruler. At such a time, to preserve majesty and settle achievement — the root of security and of danger lay just here.

The king of Qin harbored a greedy and mean heart and acted upon a self-assertive cleverness. He did not trust his meritorious ministers, was not close to officers and people, abolished the kingly Way and set up private authority, banned writings and made punishments and laws cruel, put deceit and force first and humaneness and righteousness last, and made violence and cruelty the beginning of his rule over the empire. Now one who annexes and absorbs exalts deceit and force; one who brings peace and stability values compliance with circumstance. This says that taking and holding are not the same art. Qin passed out of the age of the Warring States and ruled the empire as king, yet its Way was not altered and its government not reformed: that is, the means by which it took and the means by which it held were not different. It possessed the empire in isolation and alone, and therefore its downfall could be awaited standing. Had the king of Qin reckoned with the affairs of former ages and taken together the traces of Yin and Zhou to govern and control his rule, then although there were later rulers given to excess and arrogance, there would have been no calamity of overturning and peril. So it was that when the Three Kings established the empire their names and titles were illustrious and fine and their works lasted long.

Now when the Second Emperor of Qin was set up, there was no one in the empire who did not crane his neck to watch how he would govern. A man who is cold finds a coarse short jacket useful, and one who is hungry finds husks and chaff sweet: the crying out of the empire is the capital of a new ruler. This says that with a people worn by toil it is easy to be humane. Had the Second Emperor possessed the conduct of even a mediocre ruler and employed the loyal and worthy, so that minister and lord were of one heart and grieved over the troubles within the seas; had he in plain white mourning corrected the late emperor's errors; had he divided the land and apportioned the people to enfeoff the descendants of meritorious ministers, established states and set up rulers so as to treat the empire with ritual propriety; had he emptied the prisons and remitted punishments and executions, done away with the foul offenses of confiscating a man's wife and children, and let each return to his own village; had he opened the granaries and distributed goods and coin to relieve the orphaned, the solitary, the destitute, and the hard-pressed; had he lightened the taxes and reduced the demands upon the people to help the hundred families in their urgencies; had he simplified the laws and pared down punishments to sustain them thereafter, so that the men of the empire could all begin anew, change their conduct and cultivate their behavior, each guarding his own person, so as to satisfy the hopes of the myriad people, and had he shared majesty and virtue with the empire — then the empire would have been gathered together. Then within the four seas all would have rejoiced, each at peace and content in his own place, fearing only that a change might come; and though there were crafty and cunning people among them, they would have had no heart to depart from their ruler, and then unruly ministers would have had no way to dress up their cleverness, and the treachery of violence and disorder would have ceased. The Second Emperor did not practice this art, but compounded it with lawlessness. He ruined the ancestral temples and the people, began afresh the building of the Epang Palace, multiplied punishments and made executions severe; the officials governed harshly and deeply; rewards and punishments were unfitting; exactions were without measure. Affairs in the empire were many and the officials could not keep account of them; the hundred families were in distress and poverty and the ruler did not gather them in and show pity. After this treachery and fraud arose everywhere, high and low evaded one another, those who bore guilt were many, punishment and execution were within sight of one another along the roads, and the empire suffered under it. From lords and ministers down to the common multitude, every man harbored a heart that felt itself in danger, and dwelt in person in the reality of hardship and want; all were uneasy in their stations, and therefore they were easily moved. That is why Chen She, without the worth of Tang and Wu and without borrowing the honor of a duke or a marquis, raised his arm at Daze and the empire answered like an echo — because its people were in peril. So the former kings saw the changes of beginning and end and knew the pivot of survival and ruin; and therefore in the way of shepherding the people the whole business lies in giving them peace, and nothing more. Then though the empire may have ministers who act against it, there will surely be no help that answers them like an echo. So it is said, "With a people at peace one can practice righteousness; with a people in peril it is easy to do wrong." This is what is meant. That one honored as Son of Heaven and possessing the wealth of the empire did not escape being slaughtered — this was because his setting right of what was toppling was wrong. Such was the fault of the Second Emperor.

Duke Xiang was set up. He held the state for twelve years. He first made the western altar. He was buried at the western march. He begot Duke Wen.

Duke Wen was set up. He dwelt in the palace of the western march. In the fiftieth year he died and was buried at the western march. He begot Duke Jing.

Duke Jing died without holding the state. He begot Duke Xian.

Duke Xian held the state for twelve years. He dwelt in the new settlement in the west. He died and was buried at Ya. He begot Duke Wu, Duke De, and Chuzi.

Chuzi held the state for six years. He dwelt at Xiling. Three shuzhang — Fuji, Weilei, and Sanfu — led brigands who murdered Chuzi at Biyan. He was buried at Ya. Duke Wu was set up.

Duke Wu held the state for twenty years. He dwelt in the Feng Palace at Pingyang. He was buried southeast of the settlement of Xuanyang. The three shuzhang submitted to the penalty for their crime. Duke De was set up.

Duke De held the state for two years. He dwelt in the Great Zheng Palace at Yong. He begot Duke Xuan, Duke Cheng, and Duke Mu (繆公). He was buried at Yang. The fu sacrifice was first performed, to ward off noxious influences.

Duke Xuan held the state for twelve years. He dwelt in the Yang Palace. He was buried at Yang. The intercalary month was first recorded.

Duke Cheng held the state for four years. He dwelt in the palace at Yong. He was buried at Yang. Qi attacked the Shanrong and Guzhu.

Duke Mu held the state for thirty-nine years. The Son of Heaven conferred the hegemony upon him. He was buried at Yong. Duke Mu studied and brought men to prominence. He begot Duke Kang.

Duke Kang held the state for twelve years. He dwelt in the High Chamber at Yong. He was buried at Qushe. He begot Duke Gong.

Duke Gong held the state for five years. He dwelt in the High Chamber at Yong. He was buried south of Duke Kang. He begot Duke Huan.

Duke Huan held the state for twenty-seven years. He dwelt in the Great Chamber at Yong. He was buried north of the mound at Yili. He begot Duke Jing.

Duke Jing held the state for forty years. He dwelt in the High Chamber at Yong, and was buried south of Qiuli. He begot Duke Bi.

Duke Bi held the state for thirty-six years. He was buried north of Cheli. He begot Duke Yi.

Duke Yi did not hold the state. He died and was buried at the Left Palace. He begot Duke Hui.

Duke Hui held the state for ten years. He was buried at Cheli (near Kang and Jing). He begot Duke Dao.

Duke Dao held the state for fifteen years. He was buried west of Duke Xi. He walled Yong. He begot Duke Ligong.

Duke Ligong held the state for thirty-four years. He was buried at Ruli. He begot Duke Zao and Duke Huai. In his tenth year a comet appeared.

Duke Zao held the state for fourteen years. He dwelt in the Shou Chamber. He was buried south of Duke Dao. In his first year a comet appeared.

Duke Huai came from Jin. He held the state for four years. He was buried at Liyushi. He begot Duke Ling. The assembled ministers surrounded Duke Huai, and Duke Huai killed himself.

Duke Suling was the son of Zhaozi. He dwelt at Jingyang. He held the state for ten years. He was buried west of Duke Dao. He begot Duke Jian.

Duke Jian came from Jin. He held the state for fifteen years. He was buried west of Duke Xi. He begot Duke Hui. In his seventh year the common people first wore swords.

Duke Hui held the state for thirteen years. He was buried at Lingyu. He begot Duke Chu.

Duke Chu held the state for two years. Duke Chu killed himself and was buried at Yong.

Duke Xian held the state for twenty-three years. He was buried at Xiaoyu. He begot Duke Xiao.

Duke Xiao held the state for twenty-four years. He was buried at Diyu. He begot King Huiwen. In his thirteenth year the capital was first established at Xianyang.

King Huiwen held the state for twenty-seven years. He was buried at Gongling. He begot King Daowu.

King Daowu held the state for four years and was buried at Yongling.

King Zhaoxiang held the state for fifty-six years. He was buried at Zhiyang. He begot King Xiaowen.

King Xiaowen held the state for one year. He was buried at Shouling. He begot King Zhuangxiang.

King Zhuangxiang held the state for three years. He was buried at Zhiyang. He begot the First Emperor. Lü Buwei (呂不韋) was chancellor.

In the seventh year after Duke Xian was set up, markets were first instituted. In the tenth year, household registers were made and the people were grouped in fives.

In the sixteenth year after Duke Xiao was set up, peach and plum trees blossomed in winter.

King Huiwen was set up in the nineteenth year of his life. In the second year after he was set up, coin was first issued. There was a newborn infant who said, "Qin is about to be king."

King Daowu was set up in the nineteenth year of his life. In the third year after he was set up, the waters of the Wei ran red for three days.

King Zhaoxiang was set up in the nineteenth year of his life. In the fourth year after he was set up, the fields were first laid out and the boundary paths opened.

King Xiaowen was set up in the fifty-third year of his life.

King Zhuangxiang was set up in the thirty-second year of his life. In the second year after he was set up, he took the territory of Taiyuan. In the first year of King Zhuangxiang there was a great amnesty; he honored the meritorious ministers of the former kings, extended virtue generously to his own flesh and blood, and spread kindness among the people. Eastern Zhou plotted against Qin together with the feudal lords, and Qin sent the chancellor of state Buwei to punish them, taking their whole state into Qin. Qin did not cut off their sacrifices, but granted the land of Yangren to the lord of Zhou so that he might maintain his offerings.

The First Emperor held the state for thirty-seven years. He was buried at Liyi. He begot the Second Emperor. The First Emperor was set up in the thirteenth year of his life.

The Second Emperor held the state for three years. He was buried at Yichun. Zhao Gao (趙高) was chancellor and Marquis of Anwu. The Second Emperor was set up in the twelfth year of his life.

The above, from Duke Xiang of Qin to the Second Emperor, is six hundred and ten years.

Colophon

This translation was prepared for the Chinese shelf of the Good Works Library and translated independently from the classical Chinese text printed below. The stone inscriptions, composed in rhymed four-character lines, were kept as verse with line breaks rather than run into prose; the year-by-year campaign notices were kept terse; and Jia Yi's long essay in the Grand Historian's judgment, quoted by Sima Qian at unusual length, was kept as continuous argument rather than broken into annal-style entries.

The translation-status check named Burton Watson, Records of the Grand Historian (1961; 1993), and William H. Nienhauser Jr. et al., The Grand Scribe's Records, vol. 1 (1994), as existing English coverage of the Shiji's Basic Annals. Both are named here as controls-in-existence and were not consulted; this translation makes no claim of firstness, and the check itself could not include a live search when this file was prepared.

A note on the text: the closing register of Qin rulers repeats material already given in the chapter's own narrative and in the fifth Basic Annal, listing burial places and reign lengths back to Duke Xiang; it is kept complete and in full as the transcription carries it, since the Good Works Library does not abridge or select from source text.

Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation and editorial work.

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Source Text: 史記 卷6 秦始皇本紀

Classical Chinese text in the Chinese Wikisource transcription, with the Sanjia commentary set in 〔 〕 as the transcription carries it. Presented complete for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above; the commentary is not translated.

始皇帝

秦始皇帝者，秦莊襄王子也。莊襄王為秦質子於趙，見呂不韋姬，悅而取之，生始皇。以秦昭王四十八年正月生於邯鄲。及生，名為政，姓趙氏。年十三歲，莊襄王死，政代立為秦王。當是之時，秦地已并巴、蜀、漢中，越宛有郢，置南郡矣；北收上郡以東，有河東、太原、上黨郡；東至滎陽，滅二周，置三川郡。呂不韋為相，封十萬戶，號曰文信侯。招致賓客游士，欲以并天下。李斯為舍人。蒙驁、王齮、麃公等為將軍。王年少，初即位，委國事大臣。晉陽反。

秦始皇元年，將軍蒙驁擊定之。

二年，麃公將卒攻卷，斬首三萬。

三年，蒙驁攻韓，取十三城。王齮死。十月，將軍蒙驁攻魏氏暢、有詭。歲大饑。

四年，拔暢、有詭。三月，軍罷。秦質子歸自趙，趙太子出歸國。十月庚寅，蝗蟲從東方來，蔽天。天下疫。百姓內粟千石，拜爵一級。

五年，將軍驁攻魏，定酸棗、燕、虛、長平、雍丘、山陽城，皆拔之，取二十城。初置東郡。冬雷。

六年，韓、魏、趙、衛、楚共擊秦，取壽陵。秦出兵，五國兵罷。拔衛，迫東郡，其君角率其支屬徙居野王，阻其山以保魏之河內。

七年，彗星先出東方，見北方，五月見西方。將軍驁死。以攻龍、孤、慶都，還兵攻汲。彗星復見西方十六日。夏太后死。

八年，王弟長安君成蟜將軍擊趙，反，死屯留，軍吏皆斬死，遷其民於臨洮。將軍壁死，卒屯留、蒲鶴反，戮其尸。河魚大上，輕車重馬東就食。

嫪毐封為長信侯。予之山陽地，令毐居之。宮室車馬衣服苑囿馳獵恣毐。事無小大皆決於毐。又以河西太原郡更為毐國。九年，彗星見，或竟天。攻魏垣、蒲陽。四月，上宿雍。己酉，王冠，帶劍。長信侯毐作亂而覺，矯王御璽及太后璽以發縣卒及衛卒、官騎、戎翟君公、舍人，將欲攻蘄年宮為亂。王知之，令相國昌平君、昌文君發卒攻毐。戰咸陽，斬首數百，皆拜爵，及宦者皆在戰中，亦拜爵一級。毐等敗走。即令國中：有生得毐，賜錢百萬；殺之，五十萬。盡得毐等。衛尉竭、內史肆、佐弋竭、中大夫令齊等二十人皆梟首。車裂以徇，滅其宗。及其舍人，輕者為鬼薪。及奪爵遷蜀四千餘家，家房陵。（四）［是］月寒凍，有死者。楊端和攻衍氏。彗星見西方，又見北方，從斗以南八十日。十年，相國呂不韋坐嫪毐免。桓齮為將軍。齊、趙來置酒。齊人茅焦說秦王曰：「秦方以天下為事，而大王有遷母太后之名，恐諸侯聞之，由此倍秦也。」秦王乃迎太后於雍而入咸陽，復居甘泉宮。

大索，逐客，李斯上書說，乃止逐客令。李斯因說秦王，請先取韓以恐他國，於是使斯下韓。韓王患之。與韓非謀弱秦。大梁人尉繚來，說秦王曰：「以秦之彊，諸侯譬如郡縣之君，臣但恐諸侯合從，翕而出不意，此乃智伯、夫差、湣王之所以亡也。願大王毋愛財物，賂其豪臣，以亂其謀，不過亡三十萬金，則諸侯可盡。」秦王從其計，見尉繚亢禮，衣服食飲與繚同。繚曰：「秦王為人，蜂準，長目，摯鳥膺，豺聲，少恩而虎狼心，居約易出人下，得志亦輕食人。我布衣，然見我常身自下我。誠使秦王得志於天下，天下皆為虜矣。不可與久游。」乃亡去。秦王覺，固止，以為秦國尉，卒用其計策。而李斯用事。

十一年，王翦、桓齮、楊端和攻鄴，取九城。王翦攻閼與、橑楊，皆并為一軍。翦將十八日，軍歸斗食以下，什推二人從軍取鄴安陽，桓齮將。十二年，文信侯不韋死，竊葬。其舍人臨者，晉人也逐出之；秦人六百石以上奪爵，遷；五百石以下不臨，遷，勿奪爵。自今以來，操國事不道如嫪毐、不韋者籍其門，視此。秋，復嫪毐舍人遷蜀者。當是之時，天下大旱，六月至八月乃雨。

十三年，桓齮攻趙平陽，殺趙將扈輒，斬首十萬。王之河南。正月，彗星見東方。十月，桓齮攻趙。十四年，攻趙軍於平陽，取宜安，破之，殺其將軍。桓齮定平陽、武城。韓非使秦，秦用李斯謀，留非，非死雲陽。韓王請為臣。

十五年，大興兵，一軍至鄴，一軍至太原，取狼孟。地動。十六年九月，發卒受地韓南陽假守騰。初令男子書年。魏獻地於秦。秦置麗邑。十七年，內史騰攻韓，得韓王安，盡納其地，以其地為郡，命曰潁川。地動。華陽太后卒。民大饑。

十八年，大興兵攻趙，王翦將上地，下井陘，端和將河內，羌瘣伐趙，端和圍邯鄲城。十九年，王翦、羌瘣盡定取趙地東陽，得趙王。引兵欲攻燕，屯中山。秦王之邯鄲，諸嘗與王生趙時母家有仇怨，皆阬之。秦王還，從太原、上郡歸。始皇帝母太后崩。趙公子嘉率其宗數百人之代，自立為代王，東與燕合兵，軍上谷。大饑。

二十年，燕太子丹患秦兵至國，恐，使荊軻刺秦王。秦王覺之，體解軻以徇，而使王翦、辛勝攻燕。燕、代發兵擊秦軍，秦軍破燕易水之西。二十一年，王賁攻（薊）［荊］。乃益發卒詣王翦軍，遂破燕太子軍，取燕薊城，得太子丹之首。燕王東收遼東而王之。王翦謝病老歸。新鄭反。昌平君徙於郢。大雨雪，深二尺五寸。

二十二年，王賁攻魏，引河溝灌大梁，大梁城壞，其王請降，盡取其地。

二十三年，秦王復召王翦，彊起之，使將擊荊。取陳以南至平輿，虜荊王。秦王游至郢陳。荊將項燕立昌平君為荊王，反秦於淮南。二十四年，王翦、蒙武攻荊，破荊軍，昌平君死，項燕遂自殺。

二十五年，大興兵，使王賁將，攻燕遼東，得燕王喜。還攻代，虜代王嘉。王翦遂定荊江南地；降越君，置會稽郡。五月，天下大酺。

二十六年，齊王建與其相后勝發兵守其西界，不通秦。秦使將軍王賁從燕南攻齊，得齊王建。

秦王初并天下，令丞相、御史曰：「異日韓王納地效璽，請為藩臣，已而倍約，與趙、魏合從畔秦，故興兵誅之，虜其王。寡人以為善，庶幾息兵革。趙王使其相李牧來約盟，故歸其質子。已而倍盟，反我太原，故興兵誅之，得其王。趙公子嘉乃自立為代王，故舉兵擊滅之。魏王始約服入秦，已而與韓、趙謀襲秦，秦兵吏誅，遂破之。荊王獻青陽以西，已而畔約，擊我南郡，故發兵誅，得其王，遂定其荊地。燕王昏亂，其太子丹乃陰令荊軻為賊，兵吏誅，滅其國。齊王用后勝計，絕秦使，欲為亂，兵吏誅，虜其王，平齊地。寡人以眇眇之身，興兵誅暴亂，賴宗廟之靈，六王咸伏其辜，天下大定。今名號不更，無以稱成功，傳後世。其議帝號。」丞相綰、御史大夫劫、廷尉斯等皆曰：「昔者五帝地方千里，其外侯服夷服諸侯或朝或否，天子不能制。今陛下興義兵，誅殘賊，平定天下，海內為郡縣，法令由一統，自上古以來未嘗有，五帝所不及。臣等謹與博士議曰：『古有天皇，有地皇，有泰皇，泰皇最貴。』臣等昧死上尊號，王為『泰皇』。命為『制』，令為『詔』，天子自稱曰『朕』。」王曰：「去『泰』，著『皇』，采上古『帝』位號，號曰『皇帝』；他如議。」制曰：「可。」追尊莊襄王為太上皇。制曰：「朕聞太古有號毋謚，中古有號，死而以行為謐。如此，則子議父，臣議君也，甚無謂，朕弗取焉。自今已來，除謚法。朕為始皇帝。後世以計數，二世三世至于萬世，傳之無窮。」

始皇推終始五德之傳，以為周得火德，秦代周德，從所不勝。方今水德之始，改年始，朝賀皆自十月朔。衣服旄旌節旗皆上黑。數以六為紀，符、法冠皆六寸，而輿六尺，六尺為步，乘六馬。更名河曰德水，以為水德之始。剛毅戾深，事皆決於法，刻削毋仁恩和義，然後合五德之數。於是急法，久者不赦。

丞相綰等言：「諸侯初破，燕、齊、荊地遠，不為置王，毋以填之。請立諸子，唯上幸許。」始皇下其議於群臣，群臣皆以為便。廷尉李斯議曰：「周文武所封子弟同姓甚眾，然後屬疏遠，相攻擊如仇讎，諸侯更相誅伐，周天子弗能禁止。今海內賴陛下神靈一統，皆為郡縣，諸子功臣以公賦稅重賞賜之，甚足易制。天下無異意，則安寧之術也。置諸侯不便。」始皇曰：「天下共苦戰鬬不休，以有侯王。賴宗廟，天下初定，又復立國，是樹兵也，而求其寧息，豈不難哉！廷尉議是。」

分天下以為三十六郡，郡置守、尉、監。更名民曰「黔首」。大酺。收天下兵，聚之咸陽，銷以為鐘鐻，金人十二，重各千石，置廷宮中。一法度衡石丈尺。車同軌。書同文字。地東至海暨朝鮮，西至臨洮、羌中，南至北向戶，北據河為塞，并陰山至遼東。徙天下豪富於咸陽十二萬戶。諸廟及章臺、上林皆在渭南。秦每破諸侯，寫放其宮室，作之咸陽北阪上，南臨渭，自雍門以東至涇、渭，殿屋複道周閣相屬。所得諸侯美人鐘鼓，以充入之。

二十七年，始皇巡隴西、北地，出雞頭山，過回中。焉作信宮渭南，已更命信宮為極廟，象天極。自極廟道通酈山，作甘泉前殿。筑甬道，自咸陽屬之。是歲，賜爵一級。治馳道。

二十八年，始皇東行郡縣，上鄒嶧山。立石，與魯諸儒生議，刻石頌秦德，議封禪望祭山川之事。乃遂上泰山，立石，封，祠祀。下，風雨暴至，休於樹下，因封其樹為五大夫。禪梁父。刻所立石，其辭曰：

皇帝臨位，作制明法，臣下修飭。二十有六年，初并天下，罔不賓服。親巡遠方黎民，登茲泰山，周覽東極。從臣思跡，本原事業，祗誦功德。治道運行，諸產得宜，皆有法式。大義休明，垂于後世，順承勿革。皇帝躬聖，既平天下，不懈於治。夙興夜寐，建設長利，專隆教誨。訓經宣達，遠近畢理，咸承聖志。貴賤分明，男女禮順，慎遵職事。昭隔內外，靡不清凈，施于後嗣。化及無窮，遵奉遺詔，永承重戒。

於是乃并勃海以東，過黃、腄，窮成山，登之罘，立石頌秦德焉而去。

南登瑯邪，大樂之，留三月。乃徙黔首三萬戶瑯邪臺下，復十二歲。作瑯邪臺，立石刻，頌秦德，明得意。曰：

維二十八年，皇帝作始。端平法度，萬物之紀。以明人事，合同父子。聖智仁義，顯白道理。東撫東土，以省卒士。事已大畢，乃臨于海。皇帝之功，勸勞本事。上農除末，黔首是富。普天之下，摶心揖志。器械一量，同書文字。日月所照，舟輿所載。皆終其命，莫不得意。應時動事，是維皇帝。匡飭異俗，陵水經地。憂恤黔首，朝夕不懈。除疑定法，咸知所辟。方伯分職，諸治經易。舉錯必當，莫不如畫。皇帝之明，臨察四方。尊卑貴賤，不踰次行。瑯邪不容，皆務貞良。細大盡力，莫敢怠荒。遠邇辟隱，專務肅莊。端直敦忠，事業有常。皇帝之德，存定四極。誅亂除害，興利致福。節事以時，諸產繁殖。黔首安寧，不用兵革。六親相保，終無寇賊。驩欣奉教，盡知法式。六合之內，皇帝之土。西涉流沙，南盡北戶。東有東海，北過大夏。人跡所至，無不臣者。功蓋五帝，澤及牛馬。莫不受德，各安其宇。

維秦王兼有天下，立名為皇帝，乃撫東土，至于瑯邪。列侯武城侯王離、列侯通武侯王賁、倫侯建成侯趙亥、倫侯昌武侯成、倫侯武信侯馮毋擇、丞相隗林、丞相王綰、卿李斯、卿王戊、五大夫趙嬰、五大夫楊樛從，與議於海上。曰：「古之帝者，地不過千里，諸侯各守其封域，或朝或否，相侵暴亂，殘伐不止，猶刻金石，以自為紀。古之五帝三王，知教不同，法度不明，假威鬼神，以欺遠方，實不稱名，故不久長。其身未歿，諸侯倍叛，法令不行。今皇帝并一海內，以為郡縣，天下和平。昭明宗廟，體道行德，尊號大成。群臣相與誦皇帝功德，刻于金石，以為表經。」

既已，齊人徐巿等上書，言海中有三神山，名曰蓬萊、方丈、瀛洲，僊人居之。請得齋戒，與童男女求之。於是遣徐巿發童男女數千人，入海求僊人。

始皇還，過彭城，齋戒禱祠，欲出周鼎泗水。使千人沒水求之，弗得。乃西南渡淮水，之衡山、南郡。浮江，至湘山祠。逢大風，幾不得渡。上問博士曰：「湘君神？」博士對曰：「聞之，堯女，舜之妻，而葬此。」於是始皇大怒，使刑徒三千人皆伐湘山樹，赭其山。上自南郡由武關歸。

二十九年，始皇東游。至陽武博狼沙中，為盜所驚。求弗得，乃令天下大索十日。

登之罘，刻石。其辭曰：

維二十九年，時在中春，陽和方起。皇帝東游，巡登之罘，臨照于海。從臣嘉觀，原念休烈，追誦本始。大聖作治，建定法度，顯箸綱紀。外教諸侯，光施文惠，明以義理。六國回辟，貪戾無厭，虐殺不已。皇帝哀眾，遂發討師，奮揚武德。義誅信行，威燀旁達，莫不賓服。烹滅彊暴，振救黔首，周定四極。普施明法，經緯天下，永為儀則。大矣哉！宇縣之中，承順聖意。群臣誦功，請刻于石，表垂于常式。

其東觀曰：

二十九年，皇帝春游，覽省遠方。逮于海隅，遂登之罘，昭臨朝陽。觀望廣麗，從臣咸念，原道至明。聖法初興，清理疆內，外誅暴彊。武威旁暢，振動四極，禽滅六王。闡并天下，甾害絕息，永偃戎兵。皇帝明德，經理宇內，視聽不怠。作立大義，昭設備器，咸有章旗。職臣遵分，各知所行，事無嫌疑。黔首改化，遠邇同度，臨古絕尤。常職既定，後嗣循業，長承聖治。群臣嘉德，祗誦聖烈，請刻之罘。

旋，遂之瑯邪，道上黨入。

三十年，無事。

三十一年十二月，更名臘曰「嘉平」。賜黔首裏六石米，二羊。始皇為微行咸陽，與武士四人俱，夜出逢盜蘭池，見窘，武士擊殺盜，關中大索二十日。米石千六百。

三十二年，始皇之碣石，使燕人盧生求羨門、高誓。刻碣石門。壞城郭，決通隄防。其辭曰：

遂興師旅，誅戮無道，為逆滅息。武殄暴逆，文復無罪，庶心咸服。惠論功勞，賞及牛馬，恩肥土域。皇帝奮威，德并諸侯，初一泰平。墮壞城郭，決通川防，夷去險阻。地勢既定，黎庶無繇，天下咸撫。男樂其疇，女修其業，事各有序。惠被諸產，久并來田，莫不安所。群臣誦烈，請刻此石，垂著儀矩。

因使韓終、侯公、石生求僊人不死之藥。始皇巡北邊，從上郡入。燕人盧生使入海還，以鬼神事，因奏錄圖書，曰「亡秦者胡也」。始皇乃使將軍蒙恬發兵三十萬人北擊胡，略取河南地。

三十三年，發諸嘗逋亡人、贅婿、賈人略取陸梁地，為桂林、象郡、南海，以適遣戍。西北斥逐匈奴。自榆中并河以東，屬之陰山，以為三十四縣，城河上為塞。又使蒙恬渡河取高闕、陽山、北假中，筑亭障以逐戎人。徙謫，實之初縣。禁不得祠。明星出西方。

三十四年，適治獄吏不直者，筑長城及南越地。

始皇置酒咸陽宮，博士七十人前為壽。仆射周青臣進頌曰：「他時秦地不過千里，賴陛下神靈明聖，平定海內，放逐蠻夷，日月所照，莫不賓服。以諸侯為郡縣，人人自安樂，無戰爭之患，傳之萬世。自上古不及陛下威德。」始皇悅。博士齊人淳于越進曰：「臣聞殷周之王千餘歲，封子弟功臣，自為枝輔。今陛下有海內，而子弟為匹夫，卒有田常、六卿之臣，無輔拂，何以相救哉？事不師古而能長久者，非所聞也。今青臣又面諛以重陛下之過，非忠臣。」始皇下其議。丞相李斯曰：「五帝不相復，三代不相襲，各以治，非其相反，時變異也。今陛下創大業，建萬世之功，固非愚儒所知。且越言乃三代之事，何足法也？異時諸侯并爭，厚招游學。今天下已定，法令出一，百姓當家則力農工，士則學習法令辟禁。今諸生不師今而學古，以非當世，惑亂黔首。丞相臣斯昧死言：古者天下散亂，莫之能一，是以諸侯并作，語皆道古以害今，飾虛言以亂實，人善其所私學，以非上之所建立。今皇帝并有天下，別黑白而定一尊。私學而相與非法教，人聞令下，則各以其學議之，入則心非，出則巷議，夸主以為名，異取以為高，率群下以造謗。如此弗禁，則主勢降乎上，黨與成乎下。禁之便。臣請史官非秦記皆燒之。非博士官所職，天下敢有藏詩、書、百家語者，悉詣守、尉雜燒之。有敢偶語詩書者棄市。以古非今者族。吏見知不舉者與同罪。令下三十日不燒，黥為城旦。所不去者，醫藥卜筮種樹之書。若有欲學法令者，以吏為師。」制曰：「可。」

三十五年，除道，道九原抵雲陽，塹山堙谷，直通之。於是始皇以為咸陽人多，先王之宮廷小，吾聞周文王都豐，武王都鎬，豐鎬之閒，帝王之都也。乃營作朝宮渭南上林苑中。先作前殿阿房，東西五百步，南北五十丈，上可以坐萬人，下可以建五丈旗。周馳為閣道，自殿下直抵南山。表南山之顛以為闕。為復道，自阿房渡渭，屬之咸陽，以象天極閣道絕漢抵營室也。阿房宮未成；成，欲更擇令名名之。作宮阿房，故天下謂之阿房宮。隱宮徒刑者七十餘萬人，乃分作阿房宮，或作麗山。發北山石槨，乃寫蜀、荊地材皆至。關中計宮三百，關外四百餘。於是立石東海上朐界中，以為秦東門。因徙三萬家麗邑，五萬家雲陽，皆復不事十歲。

盧生說始皇曰：「臣等求芝奇藥僊者常弗遇，類物有害之者。方中，人主時為微行以辟惡鬼，惡鬼辟，真人至。人主所居而人臣知之，則害於神。真人者，入水不濡，入火不爇，陵雲氣，與天地久長。今上治天下，未能恬倓。願上所居宮毋令人知，然後不死之藥殆可得也。」於是始皇曰：「吾慕真人，自謂『真人』，不稱『朕』。」乃令咸陽之旁二百里內宮觀二百七十復道甬道相連，帷帳鐘鼓美人充之，各案署不移徙。行所幸，有言其處者，罪死。始皇帝幸梁山宮，從山上見丞相車騎眾，弗善也。中人或告丞相，丞相後損車騎。始皇怒曰：「此中人泄吾語。」案問莫服。當是時，詔捕諸時在旁者，皆殺之。自是後莫知行之所在。聽事，群臣受決事，悉於咸陽宮。

侯生盧生相與謀曰：「始皇為人，天性剛戾自用，起諸侯，并天下，意得欲從，以為自古莫及己。專任獄吏，獄吏得親幸。博士雖七十人，特備員弗用。丞相諸大臣皆受成事，倚辨於上。上樂以刑殺為威，天下畏罪持祿，莫敢盡忠。上不聞過而日驕，下懾伏謾欺以取容。秦法，不得兼方不驗，輒死。然候星氣者至三百人，皆良士，畏忌諱諛，不敢端言其過。天下之事無小大皆決於上，上至以衡石量書，日夜有呈，不中呈不得休息。貪於權勢至如此，未可為求僊藥。」於是乃亡去。始皇聞亡，乃大怒曰：「吾前收天下書不中用者盡去之。悉召文學方術士甚眾，欲以興太平，方士欲練以求奇藥。今聞韓眾去不報，徐巿等費以巨萬計，終不得藥，徒姦利相告日聞。盧生等吾尊賜之甚厚，今乃誹謗我，以重吾不德也。諸生在咸陽者，吾使人廉問，或為訞言以亂黔首。」於是使御史悉案問諸生，諸生傳相告引，乃自除犯禁者四百六十餘人，皆阬之咸陽，使天下知之，以懲後。益發謫徙邊。始皇長子扶蘇諫曰：「天下初定，遠方黔首未集，諸生皆誦法孔子，今上皆重法繩之，臣恐天下不安。唯上察之。」始皇怒，使扶蘇北監蒙恬於上郡。

三十六年，熒惑守心。有墜星下東郡，至地為石，黔首或刻其石曰「始皇帝死而地分」。始皇聞之，遣御史逐問，莫服，盡取石旁居人誅之，因燔銷其石。始皇不樂，使博士為僊真人詩，及行所游天下，傳令樂人歌弦之。秋，使者從關東夜過華陰平舒道，有人持璧遮使者曰：「為吾遺滈池君。」因言曰：「今年祖龍死。」使者問其故，因忽不見，置其璧去。使者奉璧具以聞。始皇默然良久，曰：「山鬼固不過知一歲事也。」退言曰：「祖龍者，人之先也。」使御府視璧，乃二十八年行渡江所沈璧也。於是始皇卜之，卦得游徙吉。遷北河榆中三萬家。拜爵一級。

三十七年十月癸丑，始皇出游。左丞相斯從，右丞相去疾守。少子胡亥愛慕請從，上許之。十一月，行至雲夢，望祀虞舜於九疑山。浮江下，觀籍柯，渡海渚。過丹陽，至錢唐。臨浙江，水波惡，乃西百二十里從狹中渡。上會稽，祭大禹，望于南海，而立石刻頌秦德。其文曰：

皇帝休烈，平一宇內，德惠修長。三十有七年，親巡天下，周覽遠方。遂登會稽，宣省習俗，黔首齋莊。群臣誦功，本原事跡，追首高明。秦聖臨國，始定刑名，顯陳舊章。初平法式，審別職任，以立恒常。六王專倍，貪戾傲猛，率眾自彊。暴虐恣行，負力而驕，數動甲兵。陰通閒使，以事合從，行為辟方。內飾詐謀，外來侵邊，遂起禍殃。義威誅之，殄熄暴悖，亂賊滅亡。聖德廣密，六合之中，被澤無疆。皇帝并宇，兼聽萬事，遠近畢清。運理群物，考驗事實，各載其名。貴賤并通，善否陳前，靡有隱情。飾省宣義，有子而嫁，倍死不貞。防隔內外，禁止淫泆，男女絜誠。夫為寄豭，殺之無罪，男秉義程。妻為逃嫁，子不得母，咸化廉清。大治濯俗，天下承風，蒙被休經。皆遵度軌，和安敦勉，莫不順令。黔首修絜，人樂同則，嘉保太平。後敬奉法，常治無極，輿舟不傾。從臣誦烈，請刻此石，光垂休銘。

還過吳，從江乘渡。并海上，北至瑯邪。方士徐巿等入海求神藥，數歲不得，費多，恐譴，乃詐曰：「蓬萊藥可得，然常為大鮫魚所苦，故不得至，願請善射與俱，見則以連弩射之。」始皇夢與海神戰，如人狀。問占夢，博士曰：「水神不可見，以大魚蛟龍為候。今上禱祠備謹，而有此惡神，當除去，而善神可致。」乃令入海者齎捕巨魚具，而自以連弩候大魚出射之。自瑯邪北至榮成山，弗見。至之罘，見巨魚，射殺一魚。遂并海西。

至平原津而病。始皇惡言死，群臣莫敢言死事。上病益甚，乃為璽書賜公子扶蘇曰：「與喪會咸陽而葬。」書已封，在中車府令趙高行符璽事所，未授使者。七月丙寅，始皇崩於沙丘平臺。丞相斯為上崩在外，恐諸公子及天下有變，乃祕之，不發喪。棺載輼涼車中，故幸宦者參乘，所至上食。百官奏事如故，宦者輒從輼涼車中可其奏事。獨子胡亥、趙高及所幸宦者五六人知上死。趙高故嘗教胡亥書及獄律令法事，胡亥私幸之。高乃與公子胡亥、丞相斯陰謀破去始皇所封書賜公子扶蘇者，而更詐為丞相斯受始皇遺詔沙丘，立子胡亥為太子。更為書賜公子扶蘇、蒙恬，數以罪，（其）賜死。語具在李斯傳中。行，遂從井陘抵九原。會暑，上輼車臭，乃詔從官令車載一石鮑魚，以亂其臭。

行從直道至咸陽，發喪。太子胡亥襲位，為二世皇帝。九月，葬始皇酈山。始皇初即位，穿治酈山，及并天下，天下徒送詣七十餘萬人，穿三泉，下銅而致槨，宮觀百官奇器珍怪徙臧滿之。令匠作機弩矢，有所穿近者輒射之。以水銀為百川江河大海，機相灌輸，上具天文，下具地理。以人魚膏為燭，度不滅者久之。二世曰：「先帝後宮非有子者，出焉不宜。」皆令從死，死者甚眾。葬既已下，或言工匠為機，臧皆知之，臧重即泄。大事畢，已臧，閉中羨，下外羨門，盡閉工匠臧者，無復出者。樹草木以象山。

二世皇帝元年，年二十一。趙高為郎中令，任用事。二世下詔，增始皇寢廟犧牲及山川百祀之禮。令群臣議尊始皇廟。群臣皆頓首言曰：「古者天子七廟，諸侯五，大夫三，雖萬世世不軼毀。今始皇為極廟，四海之內皆獻貢職，增犧牲，禮咸備，毋以加。先王廟或在西雍，或在咸陽。天子儀當獨奉酌祠始皇廟。自襄公已下軼毀。所置凡七廟。群臣以禮進祠，以尊始皇廟為帝者祖廟。皇帝復自稱『朕』。」

二世與趙高謀曰：「朕年少，初即位，黔首未集附。先帝巡行郡縣，以示彊，威服海內。今晏然不巡行，即見弱，毋以臣畜天下。」春，二世東行郡縣，李斯從。到碣石，并海，南至會稽，而盡刻始皇所立刻石，石旁著大臣從者名，以章先帝成功盛德焉：

皇帝曰：「金石刻盡始皇帝所為也。今襲號而金石刻辭不稱始皇帝，其於久遠也如後嗣為之者，不稱成功盛德。」丞相臣斯、臣去疾、御史大夫臣德昧死言：「臣請具刻詔書刻石，因明白矣。臣昧死請。」制曰：「可。」

遂至遼東而還。

於是二世乃遵用趙高，申法令。乃陰與趙高謀曰：「大臣不服，官吏尚彊，及諸公子必與我爭，為之柰何？」高曰：「臣固願言而未敢也。先帝之大臣，皆天下累世名貴人也，積功勞世以相傳久矣。今高素小賤，陛下幸稱舉，令在上位，管中事。大臣鞅鞅，特以貌從臣，其心實不服。今上出，不因此時案郡縣守尉有罪者誅之，上以振威天下，下以除去上生平所不可者。今時不師文而決於武力，願陛下遂從時毋疑，即群臣不及謀。明主收舉餘民，賤者貴之，貧者富之，遠者近之，則上下集而國安矣。」二世曰：「善。」乃行誅大臣及諸公子，以罪過連逮少近官三郎，無得立者，而六公子戮死於杜。公子將閭昆弟三人囚於內宮，議其罪獨後。二世使使令將閭曰：「公子不臣，罪當死，吏致法焉。」將閭曰：「闕廷之禮，吾未嘗敢不從賓贊也；廊廟之位，吾未嘗敢失節也；受命應對，吾未嘗敢失辭也。何謂不臣？願聞罪而死。」使者曰：「臣不得與謀，奉書從事。」將閭乃仰天大呼天者三，曰：「天乎！吾無罪！」昆弟三人皆流涕拔劍自殺。宗室振恐。群臣諫者以為誹謗，大吏持祿取容，黔首振恐。

四月，二世還至咸陽，曰：「先帝為咸陽朝廷小，故營阿房宮為室堂。未就，會上崩，罷其作者，復土酈山。酈山事大畢，今釋阿房宮弗就，則是章先帝舉事過也。」復作阿房宮。外撫四夷，如始皇計。盡徵其材士五萬人為屯衛咸陽，令教射狗馬禽獸。當食者多，度不足，下調郡縣轉輸菽粟芻稿，皆令自齎糧食，咸陽三百里內不得食其穀。用法益刻深。

七月，戍卒陳勝等反故荊地，為「張楚」。勝自立為楚王，居陳，遣諸將徇地。山東郡縣少年苦秦吏，皆殺其守尉令丞反，以應陳涉，相立為侯王，合從西鄉，名為伐秦，不可勝數也。謁者使東方來，以反者聞二世。二世怒，下吏。後使者至，上問，對曰：「群盜，郡守尉方逐捕，今盡得，不足憂。」上悅。武臣自立為趙王，魏咎為魏王，田儋為齊王。沛公起沛。項梁舉兵會稽郡。

二年冬，陳涉所遣周章等將西至戲，兵數十萬。二世大驚，與群臣謀曰：「柰何？」少府章邯曰：「盜已至，眾彊，今發近縣不及矣。酈山徒多，請赦之，授兵以擊之。」二世乃大赦天下，使章邯將，擊破周章軍而走，遂殺章曹陽。二世益遣長史司馬欣、董翳佐章邯擊盜，殺陳勝城父，破項梁定陶，滅魏咎臨濟。楚地盜名將已死，章邯乃北渡河，擊趙王歇等於鉅鹿。

趙高說二世曰：「先帝臨制天下久，故群臣不敢為非，進邪說。今陛下富於春秋，初即位，柰何與公卿廷決事？事即有誤，示群臣短也。天子稱朕，固不聞聲。」於是二世常居禁中，與高決諸事。其後公卿希得朝見，盜賊益多，而關中卒發東擊盜者毋已。右丞相去疾、左丞相斯、將軍馮劫進諫曰：「關東群盜并起，秦發兵誅擊，所殺亡甚眾，然猶不止。盜多，皆以戌漕轉作事苦，賦稅大也。請且止阿房宮作者，減省四邊戍轉。」二世曰：「吾聞之韓子曰：『堯舜采椽不刮，茅茨不翦，飯土塯，啜土形，雖監門之養，不觳於此。禹鑿龍門，通大夏，決河亭水，放之海，身自持筑臿，脛毋毛，臣虜之勞不烈於此矣。』凡所為貴有天下者，得肆意極欲，主重明法，下不敢為非，以制御海內矣。夫虞、夏之主，貴為天子，親處窮苦之實，以徇百姓，尚何於法？朕尊萬乘，毋其實，吾欲造千乘之駕，萬乘之屬，充吾號名。且先帝起諸侯，兼天下，天下已定，外攘四夷以安邊竟，作宮室以章得意，而君觀先帝功業有緒。今朕即位二年之閒，群盜并起，君不能禁，又欲罷先帝之所為，是上毋以報先帝，次不為朕盡忠力，何以在位？」下去疾、斯、劫吏，案責他罪。去疾、劫曰：「將相不辱。」自殺。斯卒囚，就五刑。

三年，章邯等將其卒圍鉅鹿，楚上將軍項羽將楚卒往救鉅鹿。冬，趙高為丞相，竟案李斯殺之。夏，章邯等戰數卻，二世使人讓邯，邯恐，使長史欣請事。趙高弗見，又弗信。欣恐，亡去，高使人捕追不及。欣見邯曰：「趙高用事於中，將軍有功亦誅，無功亦誅。」項羽急擊秦軍，虜王離，邯等遂以兵降諸侯。八月己亥，趙高欲為亂，恐群臣不聽，乃先設驗，持鹿獻於二世，曰：「馬也。」二世笑曰：「丞相誤邪？謂鹿為馬。」問左右，左右或默，或言馬以阿順趙高。或言鹿（者），高因陰中諸言鹿者以法。後群臣皆畏高。

高前數言「關東盜毋能為也」，及項羽虜秦將王離等鉅鹿下而前，章邯等軍數卻，上書請益助，燕、趙、齊、楚、韓、魏皆立為王，自關以東，大氐盡畔秦吏應諸侯，諸侯咸率其眾西鄉。沛公將數萬人已屠武關，使人私於高，高恐二世怒，誅及其身，乃謝病不朝見。二世夢白虎齧其左驂馬，殺之，心不樂，怪問占夢。卜曰：「涇水為祟。」二世乃齋於望夷宮，欲祠涇，沈四白馬。使使責讓高以盜賊事。高懼，乃陰與其婿咸陽令閻樂、其弟趙成謀曰：「上不聽諫，今事急，欲歸禍於吾宗。吾欲易置上，更立公子嬰。子嬰仁儉，百姓皆載其言。」使郎中令為內應，詐為有大賊，令樂召吏發卒，追劫樂母置高舍。遣樂將吏卒千餘人至望夷宮殿門，縛衛令仆射，曰：「賊入此，何不止？」衛令曰：「周廬設卒甚謹，安得賊敢入宮？」樂遂斬衛令，直將吏入，行射，郎宦者大驚，或走或格，格者輒死，死者數十人。郎中令與樂俱入，射上幄坐幃。二世怒，召左右，左右皆惶擾不鬬。旁有宦者一人，侍不敢去。二世入內，謂曰：「公何不蚤告我？乃至於此！」宦者曰：「臣不敢言，故得全。使臣蚤言，皆已誅，安得至今？」閻樂前即二世數曰：「足下驕恣，誅殺無道，天下共畔足下，足下其自為計。」二世曰：「丞相可得見否？」樂曰：「不可。」二世曰：「吾願得一郡為王。」弗許。又曰：「願為萬戶侯。」弗許。曰：「願與妻子為黔首，比諸公子。」閻樂曰：「臣受命於丞相，為天下誅足下，足下雖多言，臣不敢報。」麾其兵進。二世自殺。

閻樂歸報趙高，趙高乃悉召諸大臣公子，告以誅二世之狀。曰：「秦故王國，始皇君天下，故稱帝。今六國復自立，秦地益小，乃以空名為帝，不可。宜為王如故，便。」立二世之兄子公子嬰為秦王。以黔首葬二世杜南宜春苑中。令子嬰齋，當廟見，受王璽。齋五日，子嬰與其子二人謀曰：「丞相高殺二世望夷宮，恐群臣誅之，乃詳以義立我。我聞趙高乃與楚約，滅秦宗室而王關中。今使我齋見廟，此欲因廟中殺我。我稱病不行，丞相必自來，來則殺之。」高使人請子嬰數輩，子嬰不行，高果自往，曰：「宗廟重事，王柰何不行？」子嬰遂刺殺高於齋宮，三族高家以徇咸陽。子嬰為秦王四十六日，楚將沛公破秦軍入武關，遂至霸上，使人約降子嬰。子嬰即系頸以組，白馬素車，奉天子璽符，降軹道旁。沛公遂入咸陽，封宮室府庫，還軍霸上。居月餘，諸侯兵至，項籍為從長，殺子嬰及秦諸公子宗族。遂屠咸陽，燒其宮室，虜其子女，收其珍寶貨財，諸侯共分之。滅秦之後，各分其地為三，名曰雍王、塞王、翟王，號曰三秦。項羽為西楚霸王，主命分天下王諸侯，秦竟滅矣。後五年，天下定於漢。

太史公曰

太史公曰：秦之先伯翳，嘗有勳於唐虞之際，受土賜姓。及殷夏之閒微散。至周之衰，秦興，邑于西垂。自繆公以來，稍蠶食諸侯，竟成始皇。始皇自以為功過五帝，地廣三王，而羞與之侔。善哉乎賈生推言之也！曰：

秦并兼諸侯山東三十餘郡，繕津關，據險塞，修甲兵而守之。然陳涉以戍卒散亂之眾數百，奮臂大呼，不用弓戟之兵，鉏櫌白梃，望屋而食，橫行天下。秦人阻險不守，關梁不闔，長戟不刺，彊弩不射。楚師深入，戰於鴻門，曾無藩籬之艱。於是山東大擾，諸侯并起，豪俊相立。秦使章邯將而東征，章邯因以三軍之眾要市於外，以謀其上。群臣之不信，可見於此矣。子嬰立，遂不寤。藉使子嬰有庸主之材，僅得中佐，山東雖亂，秦之地可全而有，宗廟之祀未當絕也。

秦地被山帶河以為固，四塞之國也。自繆公以來，至於秦王，二十餘君，常為諸侯雄。豈世世賢哉？其勢居然也。且天下嘗同心并力而攻秦矣。當此之世，賢智并列，良將行其師，賢相通其謀，然困於阻險而不能進，秦乃延入戰而為之開關，百萬之徒逃北而遂壞。豈勇力智慧不足哉？形不利，勢不便也。秦小邑并大城，守險塞而軍，高壘毋戰，閉關據阨，荷戟而守之。諸侯起於匹夫，以利合，非有素王之行也。其交未親，其下未附，名為亡秦，其實利之也。彼見秦阻之難犯也，必退師。安土息民，以待其敝，收弱扶罷，以令大國之君，不患不得意於海內。貴為天子，富有天下，而身為禽者，其救敗非也。

秦王足己不問，遂過而不變。二世受之，因而不改，暴虐以重禍。子嬰孤立無親，危弱無輔。三主惑而終身不悟，亡，不亦宜乎？當此時也，世非無深慮知化之士也，然所以不敢盡忠拂過者，秦俗多忌諱之禁，忠言未卒於口而身為戮沒矣。故使天下之士，傾耳而聽，重足而立，拑口而不言。是以三主失道，忠臣不敢諫，智士不敢謀，天下已亂，姦不上聞，豈不哀哉！先王知雍蔽之傷國也，故置公卿大夫士，以飾法設刑，而天下治。其彊也，禁暴誅亂而天下服。其弱也，五伯征而諸侯從。其削也，內守外附而社稷存。故秦之盛也，繁法嚴刑而天下振；及其衰也，百姓怨望而海內畔矣。故周五序得其道，而千餘歲不絕。秦本末并失，故不長久。由此觀之，安危之統相去遠矣。野諺曰「前事之不忘，後事之師也」。是以君子為國，觀之上古，驗之當世，參以人事，察盛衰之理，審權勢之宜，去就有序，變化有時，故曠日長久而社稷安矣。

秦孝公據殽函之固，擁雍州之地，君臣固守而窺周室，有席卷天下，包舉宇內，囊括四海之意，并吞八荒之心。當是時，商君佐之，內立法度，務耕織，修守戰之備，外連衡而鬬諸侯，於是秦人拱手而取西河之外。

孝公既沒，惠王、武王蒙故業，因遺冊，南兼漢中，西舉巴、蜀，東割膏腴之地，收要害之郡。諸侯恐懼，會盟而謀弱秦，不愛珍器重寶肥美之地，以致天下之士，合從締交，相與為一。當是時，齊有孟嘗，趙有平原，楚有春申，魏有信陵。此四君者，皆明知而忠信，寬厚而愛人，尊賢重士，約從離衡，并韓、魏、燕、楚、齊、趙、宋、衛、中山之眾。於是六國之士有寧越、徐尚、蘇秦、杜赫之屬為之謀，齊明、周最、陳軫、昭滑、樓緩、翟景、蘇厲、樂毅之徒通其意，吳起、孫臏、帶佗、兒良、王廖、田忌、廉頗、趙奢之朋制其兵。常以十倍之地，百萬之眾，叩關而攻秦。秦人開關延敵，九國之師逡巡遁逃而不敢進。秦無亡矢遺鏃之費，而天下諸侯已困矣。於是從散約解，爭割地而奉秦。秦有餘力而制其敝，追亡逐北，伏尸百萬，流血漂櫓。因利乘便，宰割天下，分裂河山，彊國請服，弱國入朝。延及孝文王、莊襄王，享國日淺，國家無事。

及至秦王，續六世之餘烈，振長策而御宇內，吞二周而亡諸侯，履至尊而制六合，執棰拊以鞭笞天下，威振四海。南取百越之地，以為桂林、象郡，百越之君俛首系頸，委命下吏。乃使蒙恬北筑長城而守藩籬，卻匈奴七百餘里，胡人不敢南下而牧馬，士不敢彎弓而報怨。於是廢先王之道，焚百家之言，以愚黔首。墮名城，殺豪俊，收天下之兵聚之咸陽，銷鋒鑄鐻，以為金人十二，以弱黔首之民。然後斬華為城，因河為津，據億丈之城，臨不測之谿以為固。良將勁弩守要害之處，信臣精卒陳利兵而誰何，天下以定。秦王之心，自以為關中之固，金城千里，子孫帝王萬世之業也。

秦王既沒，餘威振於殊俗。陳涉，罋牖繩樞之子，甿隸之人，而遷徙之徒，才能不及中人，非有仲尼、墨翟之賢，陶朱、猗頓之富，躡足行伍之閒，而倔起什伯之中，率罷散之卒，將數百之眾，而轉攻秦。斬木為兵，揭竿為旗，天下雲集響應，贏糧而景從，山東豪俊遂并起而亡秦族矣。

且夫天下非小弱也，雍州之地，殽函之固自若也。陳涉之位，非尊於齊、楚、燕、趙、韓、魏、宋、衛、中山之君；鉏櫌棘矜，非錟於句戟長鎩也；適戍之眾，非抗於九國之師；深謀遠慮，行軍用兵之道，非及鄉時之士也。然而成敗異變，功業相反也。試使山東之國與陳涉度長絜大，比權量力，則不可同年而語矣。然秦以區區之地，千乘之權，招八州而朝同列，百有餘年矣。然後以六合為家，殽函為宮，一夫作難而七廟墮，身死人手，為天下笑者，何也？仁義不施而攻守之勢異也。

秦并海內，兼諸侯，南面稱帝，以養四海，天下之士斐然鄉風，若是者何也？曰：近古之無王者久矣。周室卑微，五霸既歿，令不行於天下，是以諸侯力政，彊侵弱，眾暴寡，兵革不休，士民罷敝。今秦南面而王天下，是上有天子也。既元元之民冀得安其性命，莫不虛心而仰上，當此之時，守威定功，安危之本在於此矣。

秦王懷貪鄙之心，行自奮之智，不信功臣，不親士民，廢王道，立私權，禁文書而酷刑法，先詐力而後仁義，以暴虐為天下始。夫并兼者高詐力，安定者貴順權，此言取與守不同術也。秦離戰國而王天下，其道不易，其政不改，是其所以取之守之者［無］異也。孤獨而有之，故其亡可立而待。借使秦王計上世之事，并殷周之跡，以制御其政，後雖有淫驕之主而未有傾危之患也。故三王之建天下，名號顯美，功業長久。

今秦二世立，天下莫不引領而觀其政。夫寒者利裋褐而饑者甘糟糠，天下之嗷嗷，新主之資也。此言勞民之易為仁也。鄉使二世有庸主之行，而任忠賢，臣主一心而憂海內之患，縞素而正先帝之過，裂地分民以封功臣之後，建國立君以禮天下，虛囹圉而免刑戮，除去收帑汙穢之罪，使各反其鄉里，發倉廩，散財幣，以振孤獨窮困之士，輕賦少事，以佐百姓之急，約法省刑以持其後，使天下之人皆得自新，更節修行，各慎其身，塞萬民之望，而以威德與天下，天下集矣。即四海之內，皆讙各自安樂其處，唯恐有變，雖有狡猾之民，無離上之心，則不軌之臣無以飾其智，而暴亂之姦止矣。二世不行此術，而重之以無道，壞宗廟與民，更始作阿房宮，繁刑嚴誅，吏治刻深，賞罰不當，賦斂無度，天下多事，吏弗能紀，百姓困窮而主弗收恤。然後姦偽并起，而上下相遁，蒙罪者眾，刑戮相望於道，而天下苦之。自君卿以下至于眾庶，人懷自危之心，親處窮苦之實，咸不安其位，故易動也。是以陳涉不用湯武之賢，不藉公侯之尊，奮臂於大澤而天下響應者，其民危也。故先王見始終之變，知存亡之機，是以牧民之道，務在安之而已。天下雖有逆行之臣，必無響應之助矣。故曰「安民可與行義，而危民易與為非」，此之謂也。貴為天子，富有天下，身不免於戮殺者，正傾非也。是二世之過也。

襄公立，享國十二年。初為西畤。葬西垂。生文公。

文公立，居西垂宮。五十年死，葬西垂。生靜公。

靜公不享國而死。生憲公。

憲公享國十二年，居西新邑。死，葬衙。生武公、德公、出子。

出子享國六年，居西陵。庶長弗忌、威累、參父三人，率賊賊出子鄙衍，葬衙。武公立。

武公享國二十年。居平陽封宮。葬宣陽聚東南。三庶長伏其罪。德公立。

德公享國二年。居雍大鄭宮。生宣公、成公、繆公。葬陽。初伏，以御蠱。

宣公享國十二年。居陽宮。葬陽。初志閏月。

成公享國四年，居雍之宮。葬陽。齊伐山戎、孤竹。

繆公享國三十九年。天子致霸。葬雍。繆公學著人。生康公。

康公享國十二年。居雍高寢。葬竘社。生共公。

共公享國五年，居雍高寢。葬康公南。生桓公。

桓公享國二十七年。居雍太寢。葬義裏丘北。生景公。

景公享國四十年。居雍高寢，葬丘裏南。生畢公。

畢公享國三十六年。葬車裏北。生夷公。

夷公不享國。死，葬左宮。生惠公。

惠公享國十年。葬車里（康景）。生悼公。

悼公享國十五年。葬僖公西。城雍。生剌龔公。

剌龔公享國三十四年。葬入里。生躁公、懷公。其十年，彗星見。

躁公享國十四年。居受寢。葬悼公南。其元年，彗星見。

懷公從晉來。享國四年。葬櫟圉氏。生靈公。諸臣圍懷公，懷公自殺。

肅靈公，昭子子也。居涇陽。享國十年。葬悼公西。生簡公。

簡公從晉來。享國十五年。葬僖公西。生惠公。其七年。百姓初帶劍。

惠公享國十三年。葬陵圉。生出公。

出公享國二年。出公自殺，葬雍。

獻公享國二十三年。葬囂圉。生孝公。

孝公享國二十四年。葬弟圉。生惠文王。其十三年，始都咸陽。

惠文王享國二十七年。葬公陵。生悼武王。

悼武王享國四年，葬永陵。

昭襄王享國五十六年。葬茝陽。生孝文王。

孝文王享國一年。葬壽陵。生莊襄王。

莊襄王享國三年。葬茝陽。生始皇帝。呂不韋相。

獻公立七年，初行為市。十年，為戶籍相伍。

孝公立十六年。時桃李冬華。

惠文王生十九年而立。立二年，初行錢。有新生嬰兒曰「秦且王」。

悼武王生十九年而立。立三年，渭水赤三日。

昭襄王生十九年而立。立四年，初為田開阡陌。

孝文王生五十三年而立。

莊襄王生三十二年而立。立二年，取太原地。莊襄王元年，大赦，修先王功臣，施德厚骨肉，布惠於民。東周與諸侯謀秦，秦使相國不韋誅之，盡入其國。秦不絕其祀，以陽人地賜周君，奉其祭祀。

始皇享國三十七年。葬酈邑。生二世皇帝。始皇生十三年而立。

二世皇帝享國三年。葬宜春。趙高為丞相安武侯。二世生十二年而立。

右秦襄公至二世，六百一十歲。

〔Author:班固〕

Source Colophon

The Chinese text follows the Chinese Wikisource transcription of Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian (article 史記/卷006, revision of 13 July 2026), inspected from a witness copy captured on 22 August 2026. Chinese Wikisource transcriptions are published under CC BY-SA 4.0 and the GFDL; the text itself is ancient and in the public domain. The wiki header, navigation links, license templates, and modern contributors' footnotes have been removed; the text is otherwise complete and unaltered.

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