As one of the most famous eunuchs in Chinese history, the name Zhao Gao can be said to be a household name.
But what many people may not know is that, in fact, Zhao Gao is a person who has no biography in canonical history. All his deeds are only mentioned in the biographies of Qin Shi Huang, Li Si, Meng Tian and others. In addition, the Qin Dynasty is too long ago, and many related historical records have long been lost. This leads to our fact that we do not know too much about Zhao Gao's life, especially Zhao Gao's early life.
According to modern historians, Zhao Gao should have been born in the last year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin. That is to say, Zhao Gao and Qin Shi Huang were actually the same age, and the age difference between the two people was not more than three years old.
In addition, Zhao Gao is a surname of Ying, Zhao. In the pre-Qin period, surnames and surnames were often separated, and only nobles had clans. Therefore, according to later historians, Zhao Gao's mother, who should be a descendant of the Zhao royal family, later exiled to the Qin State and gradually became an ordinary Qin people.
Later, Zhao Gao's mother committed a crime and was taken in as a slave. After that, Zhao Gao's mother gave birth to Zhao Gao and many other children during this period. But for Zhao Gao's father, there is still no mention in the history books. Later historians speculated that Zhao Gao's father was most likely an ordinary official in the Qin State.
It is precisely because of this life that Zhao Gao, although his starting point is relatively low, he has received a good education. Therefore, after Zhao Gao became an adult, he was not only knowledgeable, but also familiar with the laws of the Qin State. Even in terms of calligraphy, there are also extremely high achievements, and even can be called the calligraphy masters of the Qin and Han Dynasties.
It was also for this reason that later, Zhao Gao was sent by Qin Shi Huang to Hu Hai's side to teach Hu Hai law and judgment. In fact, you can think about the person who can be favored by Qin Shi Huang and serve as his son's teacher. Such a Zhao Gao is obviously quite excellent.
However, due to the lack of historical data, at present we do not know anything about the promotion path in the official arena after Zhao Gao entered the army. Moreover, although at present, historians generally regard Zhao Gao as a eunuch as the mainstream view. But in fact, even whether Zhao Gao was a eunuch or not was actually very controversial.
Because in the canonical history, the only record of Zhao Gao's career is that Qin Shi Huang once appointed Zhao Gao as the commander of the Zhongche Prefecture and was responsible for controlling the emperor's carriages and horses. This official position, in different dynasties, has different functions. In some dynasties, eunuchs had to serve as eunuchs. But there were also some dynasties, and the people who managed this aspect of the work were the ministers of the dprk.
In addition, for the crucian government, there are very few historical materials that can be found at present. We also don't know whether this institution is subordinate to the palace or to the imperial court.
As for the reason why Zhao Gao became a eunuch, historians actually have another speculation: Zhao Gao originally inherited his father's position as an official, and gradually became the commander of the Zhongche Government by relying on his own talent. But later, because Zhao Gao broke the law, Meng Yi, who was in charge of the trial, finally sentenced him to death.
However, Qin Shi Huang was more sorry for Cai, pardoned Zhao Gao, and changed Zhao Gao's death sentence to castration. Therefore, after this, Zhao Gao became a eunuch and continued to hold the position of Zhongshu Fu Ling. It is precisely for this reason that Zhao Gao has heirs, but after being castrated, Zhao Gao's personality has changed greatly and he wants to take revenge on the Qin Dynasty, so there will be those things that followed.
Because of the lack of historical materials, to this day, our understanding of Zhao Gao's early experience is still foggy and inconclusive. The detailed record of Zhao Gao actually began in 210 BC.
In this year, Qin Shi Huang made his fifth eastern tour. As an official in charge of the emperor's carriage and horse, Zhao Gao naturally followed all the way. However, on the way to this eastern tour, Qin Shi Huang became seriously ill.
The next thing, everyone is more familiar with.
Before Qin Shi Huang became seriously ill, zhao Gao, who was in charge of the seal, drafted an edict for his son Fu Su, who was supervising the army in the north at the time, to return to Xianyang. However, after Zhao Gao received this order, because he and Fu Su were not compatible, he was worried that after Fu Su took the throne, he would be unfavorable to himself, so he withheld this edict.
Soon after, Qin Shi Huang died, and the chancellor Li Si was afraid that Qin Shi Huang would suddenly die, which would lead to great chaos in the world. It happened that at this time, Zhao Gao found Li Si and finally persuaded Li Si, and the two conspired to support Hu Hai. After that, the two blocked the news of Qin Shi Huang's death, and sent a false edict to the north to force Su to commit suicide.
After the group returned to Xianyang, Zhao Gao and Li Si immediately took the throne of Hu Hai and made public the news of Qin Shi Huang's death. At the same time, Zhao Gao was also named Lang Zhongling by Hu Hai and became one of the decision-makers of the entire Qin Dynasty.
However, what is interesting is that this matter was obviously a conspiracy between Zhao Gao and Li Si and Hu Hai, but later it was made known to the whole world. Even when Chen Sheng revolted, it was under the banner of Fusu. A hundred years later, Sima Qian recorded this incident very clearly. So how this matter was passed on is also a mystery for eternity.
After Hu Hai ascended the throne, he began to be extremely extravagant, act recklessly, and wantonly abuse the people's power. Zhao Gao, on the other hand, used Hu Hai's trust in himself to mainly grasp the power of life and death, and slaughtered opponents in Xianyang City. Not only did he kill many Qin clansmen, but also a large number of officials who opposed him. Even the chancellor Li Si was later framed by Zhao Gao, and finally put on a hat of rebellion and died with hatred.
At the same time, because after Hu Hai took the throne, instead of recuperating, he continued to be poor and extravagant, and finally forced the people at the bottom to start an uprising. In 209 BC, just as Hu Hai was vigorously cleaning up his opponents, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang revolted in Dazexiang, officially opening the prelude to the demise of the Qin Dynasty.
In the face of the surging peasant uprising, the Xianyang side, instead of actively responding, continued to fight among themselves and killed a large number of officials. In 208 AD, with the killing of Li Si, Zhao Gao succeeded him as chancellor and was already the only one in the court. Next, Zhao Gao directed a famous "pointing the deer as a horse" scene, killing those officials who disagreed with him, and completely emptying Hu Hai.
Just as Hu Hai was seizing power, a raging peasant uprising had spread throughout the country. The coalition forces, led by Xiang Yu and Liu Bang and others, had already invaded Guanzhong and were about to march to Xianyang. At this time, Zhao Gao, instead of actively resisting, suddenly launched a coup d'état and killed Hu Hai. After that, Zhao Gao took the jade seal and the emperor's relics and came to the ministers, directly planning to claim the emperor himself.
However, when he began to plan to claim the title of emperor, the Manchu ministers, although forced by his majesty, did not dare to oppose, but no one expressed any support.
At this time, Zhao Gao finally knew that even if he grasped all the great powers, he would still be unpopular after all. So in the end, Zhao Gao could only give the jade seal to the members of the Qin State Sect, and the baby was on the throne. However, after the baby was embraced, he pretended to be sick, and Zhao Gao could only go to ask for it personally. After Zhao Gao came to Zi Bao's territory, Han Tan, the eunuch under Zi Bao, directly went to the front of the knife, resulting in Zhao Gao's life.
In this way, a generation of powerful eunuchs Zhao Gao, in a very absurd form, completed his absurd life.