In 230 BC, Qin Shi Huang adopted the strategy of long-distance and close-range attack, division and continuous horizontal attack, and launched the Qin War to destroy the Six Kingdoms. Finally, in 221 BC, the whole country was unified for the first time, and Qin Shi Huang believed that his merits were better than the previous Three Emperors and Five Emperors. The "emperor" among the three emperors and the "emperor" among the five emperors constitute the title of "emperor". Chancellor Li Si suggested using "朕" as a first-person pronoun exclusive to the emperor. Taking the meaning of "the whole world is degenerate and the imperial power is exclusive", Qin Shi Huang Yingzheng happily agreed.
In fact, the title of "朕" was a very common title before the pre-Qin Dynasty. There is nothing special, no matter whether it is honorable or inferior, everyone can call themselves "Yuan". According to the Erya Shijue, "Shuo, the body also." In other words, "朕" is actually a first person, which is no different from the word "I".
In the Qin and Han dynasties, in addition to calling themselves "Yuan", they would also become self-proclaimed "widows" and "orphans" and so on. However, after the Tang Dynasty, it was basically called uniformly. Of course, there are some exceptions, such as zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, because he was originally a beggar, so he often called himself "we".
But we know that in history, in addition to the emperor, there was also the Emperor Taishang. Generally speaking, it is the emperor who gives way to his son when he is older. In Chinese history, there have been a total of 17 Emperor Taishang. Then according to the regulations, only the emperor can become a "yuan". So what does the Emperor Taishang call himself?
The earliest Taishang Emperor in history should be the father of Qin Shi Huang, Yin Chu. He was originally exiled as a hostage to the Zhao State, and later returned to the Qin State to inherit the throne, and died of illness at the age of thirty-five. After his son Yin Zheng became emperor, he honored him as Emperor Taishang, so he could not talk about calling himself.
The second Taishang Emperor should be counted as Liu Taigong, the father of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu, and in the eyes of Liu Taigong, in fact, Liu Bang was the most indisputable. In his twenties, he was still idle and did not even do farm work, and was raised by his family. But he never dreamed that this indisputable son would eventually become the emperor, and he would naturally become the first living emperor in history.
However, Liu Taigong has been a peasant all his life, what kind of emperor's mind is there? When Liu Taigong was arrested and Xiang Yu said that he was going to cook Liu Taigong, Liu Bang actually said that he wanted Liu Bang to share a piece of his own soup, which shows that liu bang did not care much about this old father, in fact, he was supported in the palace, not to mention what honorable self-proclaimed.
There are really not many famous "Taishang Emperors" in history, and if you want to say the most famous one, then you have to be the qianlong emperor closest to us. Qianlong was born on August 13, 1711, the fiftieth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, and died in the fourth year of Jiaqing (1799). He reigned for 60 years from 1735.
At the age of eighty-five, he ceded imperial Zen to his son, the Jiaqing Emperor Yongyan. However, it did not completely surrender real power, and in the records of the Qing Dynasty, the Qianlong Emperor once said: "Emperor Taishang, the Military State Emperor took the emperor's punishment in advance, and then played the Emperor's knowledge" which means that all the major affairs of the military state were first handed over to the Jiaqing Emperor to deal with, and then the matter was told to himself. Therefore, after Qianlong abdicated, he still called himself "Yuan", and even if he abdicated, he was still the most powerful person in the Qing Dynasty.