Why did Qin Shi Huang firmly believe in immortality?
"Long nostalgia for immortals, dizzy heart." - "The Poetry of the Immortals"
In the long river of history, the pursuit of eternal life has always been the greatest dream of mankind. In order to live forever, people have tried many ways, including refining various elixirs of immortality, but despite a lot of efforts and attempts, it has always backfired. In addition to the myths and legends that people can live forever, in real life, people can only accept the fate of continuous aging.
Peng Zu tore up the "book of life and death" and lived to be 800 years old
If you ask who has the longest life, it must be Pengzu. According to myths and legends, Peng Zu and Chen Zhuo Laozu were both longevity stars, and both of them were in charge of the Jade Emperor's side. Peng Zu was in charge of the Book of Merit, and Old Ancestor Chen was in charge of the Book of Life and Death. One day, Peng Zu took advantage of the gap between Chen Zhuo's old ancestors tore off the page with his name written on it, and then ran to the human world.
Peng Zu played in the human world, which can be described as a lot of fun. He took more than 40 wives and gave birth to more than 50 sons, but they all died of old age, because they were all in the book of life and death. But Peng Zu was still as young as he had been. One day, Pengzu's fiftieth wife asked him, "Why have you been so young?" Peng Zu laughed and told her the truth of the matter. After her death, the wife informed the Jade Emperor. Subsequently, the Jade Emperor sent two messenger gods to capture Peng Zu.
One day, the two messengers came to Peng Village in Yijun County, quietly stole a large saw, and went to the wheat field to saw it. Such a move attracted the onlookers of the villagers. And among them is Pengzu. People are talking and talking about it. After Peng Zu read it, he said with a smile and a smile: "My Peng Zu has lived for 800 years, and I have never seen anyone saw it." As soon as the words fell, the two messengers threw the saw and locked Peng Zu on the spot. That night, Peng zu died. Of course, this is just myth and legend.
Look for elixirs
Ordinary people certainly did not have Peng Zu's good luck and could not tear up the "book of life and death", so they could only think of ways to find the "medicine of immortality".
After Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, he sent Lu Sheng, a Yan man, to find the "medicine of immortality". Lu Sheng returned without success. The second person to find the "elixir of immortality" for Qin Shi Huang was Xu Fu. Xu Fu came to see the King of Qin and claimed that there were three immortal islands in the Eastern Sea, namely Penglai, Abbot, and Yingzhou, where there was an immortal medicine, and he was willing to take it.
Xu Fu went a total of 3 times, returning empty-handed for the first time. The second time, Xu Fu deceived Qin Shi Huang that the immortals of the Oriental Immortal Island wanted him to exchange three thousand boys and girls for the elixir of immortality, and that the road to the Oriental Immortal Island was so sinister that he needed a large ship and a strong bow and crossbow. Qin Shi Huang asked for medicine and agreed happily. As a result, this time Xu Fu never looked back, ran to Japan to claim the throne, and lived a leisurely life.
Seeing that others were unreliable, Qin Shi Huang decided to personally tour the east in search of "the medicine of immortality". On the third eastern tour, Qin Shi Huang fell ill and returned.
Is the Emperor of the Ages a fool?
Is there really an elixir in the world?
Of course not. Isn't that a simple piece of common sense? How could Qin Shi Huang not even know this common sense? Is he an idiot?
Of course not, he is not a fool, but a supremely intelligent emperor of the ages. He ended the war that lasted for more than five hundred years, unified the Six Kingdoms, established the first centralized unified dynasty in Chinese history, unified writing, unified weights and measures, unified currency, built the Great Wall, resisted the mighty Xiongnu in the north, and did a lot of earth-shattering undertakings in his life. How can such a person be said to be a fool?
There is no elixir in the world, which is the basic common sense of modern people, and in the era of Qin Shi Huang, many people truly believed that there was an elixir of immortality. Moreover, not only in the era of Qin Shi Huang, but also in the later Tang Taizong and others did not also pursue immortality? From another point of view, is this also a human exploration of the unknown world?
There seems to be some truth to this formulation. The point is that Qin Shi Huang's pursuit of the elixir of immortality has reached the level of depravity, and it has hurt the lives of many people, and he has been repeatedly deceived. This is certainly not a scientific exploration. Therefore, Qin Shi Huang is still problematic.
So, where is the root of the problem? Maybe there's something flawed in his humanity. Let's move on.
Qin Shi Huang's human flaws
It is generally believed that Qin Shi Huang was the son of Prince Chu of Qinzhuang. However, until now, many people still believe that he is the illegitimate son of Lü Buwei and Zhao Ji.
In 259 BC, Zi Chu, as a son of King Xiaowen of Qin, was taken hostage in the Zhao state of Handan. Taking the son of a monarch hostage was a way for one country to express peace to another during the Warring States period. If the two countries fall out of harmony, important hostages can act as a check.
From this point of view, Zi Chu is a messenger of peace, which seems to be very important. But on the other hand, it can be seen that Zichu is not valued by King Xiaowen of Qin at all. King Xiaowen of Qin had many sons, and he sent Zi Chu as a hostage, and it was likely that he would sacrifice Zi Chu when the Qin state needed it.
In the Zhao Kingdom, Zi Chu's life was very embarrassing, and few people looked up to him. The business magnate Lü Buwei felt that Zi Chu was a good place to live, and after careful consideration, he decided to make political investment at any cost, and bought Princess Huayang, who was favored by Qin Xiaowen, through heavy money, so that he persuaded Qin Xiaowen to make Zi Chu crown prince.
For Zi Chu himself, Lü Buwei was even more co-opted, and soon after he knew, he gave his concubine Zhao Ji to Zi Chu. After that, Yingzheng was born. Therefore, it is difficult to say whether Yin Zheng is the son of Zi Chu or the son of Lü Buwei.
When Ying Zheng was three years old, the State of Qin and the State of Zhao were at war, and the State of Zhao wanted to kill Zi Chu. Lü Buwei used gold to buy the officials guarding the city, causing Zi Chu to escape. Zhao Guo also wanted to kill Zi Chu's family, and Zhao Ji and Yin Zheng were also cared for by Lü Buwei, hiding in anonymity and hiding for five years.
That is to say, when Yingzheng was just born and just understood things, he encountered a cruel political struggle, which will inevitably leave a deep trace in his heart, not to mention the more brutal and bloody political struggle, military struggle, and court struggle later...
It can be imagined that Yingzheng became the King of Qin and the First Emperor of Qin step by step in various extremely complicated struggles. Although he has a very high IQ, he is very cold and selfish in his heart, and is an extremely thin and unsympathetic character.
Desirelessness is rigidity
Sure enough, after The Emperor unified the Six Kingdoms, he called himself the First Emperor and passed on the throne to thousands of generations. His power reached the limits of the world.
At the same time, his indifferent, selfish, brutal, and greedy character was also exposed, and he violently ruled the country and did not hesitate to satisfy his selfish desires alone with the strength of the whole country.
He claimed the original concubines and concubines of the Six Kingdoms for himself; he used 700,000 more people for a palace; and his mausoleum sacrificed the lives of countless people. And when all the worldly desires are satisfied, a greater desire that is completely disconnected from reality arises, that is, the pursuit of immortality.
We usually say that no desire is just. That is to say, without desire, you can be very rational. Normal desires, of course, are understandable. Many times, normal desires also produce passion and positive factors. However, if the desire is too great to be boundless, and the person is completely obsessed with it, and becomes a slave to the desire, even the most intelligent and great person will become a fool and be deceived by others.
Qin Shi Huang was like this.
And as he grew older, he became more desperate to live forever, to the point of falling into a rage. Of course, Qin Shi Huang had not yet had time to find the legendary elixir and returned to the west early.
epilogue:
Although modern people are no longer as convinced that there is a panacea that can make people immortal, the desire to pursue health and longevity is even worse.
Heaven and earth are leisurely and life is short, who does not want to live with heaven and earth, the sun and the moon? But most modern people live a suicidal life. Some people are too laid-back, some are too tired, people spend the night indulging in pleasure or hard work, always knowing how to cherish life when they are about to lose their lives.