In 221 BC, the wise and martial King of Qin finally swept away the Six Kingdoms and established the first feudal dynasty in Chinese history--- the Qin Dynasty.
Although he was a majestic emperor, there was no lack of violent side, he wanted to protect the country he had worked so hard to build, but he did not learn how to govern a unified feudal dynasty.
In fact, the first emperor was a conscientious ruler, as an ambitious ruler, he longed to be able to sit firmly on the throne, and in the later years of his reign, he began to seek medical treatment, hoping that he could live forever.
Of course, in our eyes today, this is naturally impossible.
Pursuing one thing too persistently will naturally be counterproductive. The large intake of inferior elixirs made the First Emperor's body deteriorate. Finally, on the way back from the fifth cruise, in Pingyuanjin, Pingyuan County, Shandong Province, the First Emperor fell ill, and while traveling to the platform of the sand dunes in Hebei, the First Emperor, who was only forty-nine years old, died suddenly.
Although later generations were quite critical of his death. After his death, the Great Qin Empire began to decline. So who overthrew the Qin State, which has been fighting for five hundred and fifty years in the Central Plains? Usually the answer is Chen Sheng, Wu Guang, Xiang Yu, Liu Bang.
It is easy for everyone to think that behind them, there is a very important "accomplice". Although he did not have direct or indirect contact with them, he did participate in this momentous event: the end of the short-lived Qin Empire. Who is this person? Let's explore step by step.
Tampering with the edict Hu Hai came to power
When the emperor dies, it is natural to put the matter of inheritance on the agenda. The best heir in the first emperor's heart is actually the eldest prince Fusu, as the son of the first emperor, he has considerable political talent and cares for the people at the bottom, if he can succeed to the throne, the Qin Dynasty may have another fate.
However, a few years before the death of the First Emperor, he was demoted to the Meng Tian army as a supervisor for exhorting the First Emperor to "burn books and pit Confucianism".
Therefore, when the first emperor died, Fusu was naturally not close to his father, and he only had his youngest son Hu Hai by his side, although the first emperor wanted to establish Fusu, but it was also a little beyond his reach, and this move was bound to violate the interests of many traitors.
The first was the eunuch Zhao Gao, who had offended Fusu and feared reprisals, so he colluded with Prime Minister Li Si to tamper with the edict of the first emperor to pass on the throne, and they wanted to install Hu Hai, who was close to him and easy to control.
In order to remove the roots early, the careerists even falsely preached the divine decree and asked Fusu to be buried by Qin Shi Huang, and Fusu was very filial, seeing his father's edict, he did not have much doubt, and ended his life despite the obstruction of the great general Meng Tian. In this way, Fusu was killed, and Qin II's most powerful competitor was gone.
Find out if the first emperor still has a bloodline
Descendants rarely see the surname "Huan", and even many scholars have suggested that Qin Shi Huang may not have so-called descendants. Why is that?
In fact, there are not many children of Qin Shi Huang, according to investigations, there are thirty-three, which in history, it can be said that there are many descendants, so why do later generations say that Qin Shi Huang's descendants are thin? Naturally, there are many reasons for this.
First of all, due to the complexity of the living environment, the ancients often tried their best to survive, and the most common choice was to change the name and surname.
As a descendant of the emperor, the living environment is bound to be even more dangerous. Legend has it that the first emperor had more than thirty children, most of which were not recorded. The most important reason was the extermination of Qin II.
As a usurper of power, when Hu Hai was a prince, he did not study all day long, he was idle, and naturally had no ability to govern the country, if it were not for his teacher, the great traitor Zhao Gao, he would definitely not be able to ascend to this ninety-five honor, so his heart weakness could not be concealed.
In order to secure this hard-won throne, as soon as he ascended the throne, he wantonly killed his brothers and sisters, killing thirty-one of his brothers and sisters, and even more cruelly, during his reign, even his sisters and sisters who did not have the right to inherit were spared, twelve of these royal children were killed in the Xianyang vegetable market, and three princes were given to die in the palace.
For a time, in order to survive, these princes and grandchildren had to do everything they could to change their names and surnames in order to live in peace. In this way, Qin Shi Huang can continue to have descendants.
The surviving royals changed their surnames to save their lives
So, how did these royal descendants survive in a perilous environment? The wisest thing to do, of course, is to change the surname, make a big move, the surname "winning" is too eye-catching, many people are terrified, smart they began to try their best to survive.
Among the surviving descendants of the first emperor, many chose to change their surname "Zhao". This is because the First Emperor was born to Zhao Nu when his father was a hostage of the State of Zhao, so he is said to have half of the blood of the State of Zhao.
Although Qin Shi Huang's original surname was "Huan", some of his few surviving descendants changed their surname "Huan" to "Zhao" in order to commemorate their ancestors and to be able to save their lives. The surname "Zhao" is a big surname, with a large population and mixed fish and dragons, which is conducive to hiding their identities and helping them escape the scourge of killing.
This is also the number one surname in the hundred families, speaking of which, are there many friends surnamed Zhao who will feel that they also have half of the royal blood?
The descendants recognized by history, the historical origin of the surname "Feng"
In addition, there is a verified surname, which is the surname "Feng". This surname has been recorded as early as the Qin Xian Gong period. Duke Xian of Qin's second son, Huan Jichang, as a prince, he should have enjoyed full glory and wealth, but he was persecuted by his brother because he opposed Qin Xiaogong's Shang martingale law.
In order to save the lives of the family, Huan Jichang decided to flee to the homes of relatives and friends near Fengjiashan, and even changed the surname "Huan" to "Feng", so he survived incognito.
Although the descendants of Huan Jichang are not the orthodox descendants of Qin Shi Huang, they are still orthodox descendants of the Qin family, and they all belong to the same line of Qin Shi Huang. When Huhai slaughtered the Huan clan, many royal families also fled to the Feng's clan, after all, the green mountains remained, and they were not afraid of no firewood.
Later historians finally determined that the surname "Feng" was a descendant of Qin Shi Huang after layers of exploration based on historical documents.
Gongzi Gao's ingenious plan to change his surname to "Gao"
The sons of the First Emperor were not slaughtered, and many of them had "the last laugh". Just like Gongzi Gao. He was born after the first emperor was officially declared emperor.
After Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms, he naturally relaxed and began to indulge in women, so there were many sons, although these sons did not have a high sense of existence, but the wife of the first emperor only gave birth to two sons, one was the eldest prince Fusu, and the other was the second son Gongzi Gao.
Gongzi Gao is a person who does not have a high sense of existence in history, but he is also a relatively intelligent person, seeing his brothers and sisters being slaughtered, he is afraid that he will not escape death, and he began to plan for himself.
He understood that the reason why Hu Hai killed them was because of jealousy, and he was afraid that the power he had hard-won would be taken away by others.
After thinking about this, Gongzi Gao began to respect Hu Haibi, and he offered to go to Qin Shi Huang to guard his soul so that he could stay away from the vortex of imperial politics and survive.
And Hu Hai was naturally very happy when he heard this request.
He even gave Gongzi Gao a lot of rewards, and this time Gongzi Gao not only saved his life, but also allowed his family to live a worry-free life.
But Gongzi Gao is a person who knows how to plan ahead, and he is worried that Hu Hai will one day kill himself because of the throne, so he simply does not do anything, takes Hu Hai's reward and his family to travel east to Japan, and begins to change his name and surname to develop in Japan.
Later, after continuous inheritance, this line of his was preserved, and he took "Gao" as his surname.
Other people who changed their surnames and their reasons
In addition to the descendants of the lucky son Gao, there are also some royal family members, because they are not the children of the royal family, so they can survive such a dangerous situation, according to later historical records, they should have changed the surnames "Qin", "Yin", and "Yin" respectively, of course, some people continued to choose the surname "Huan".
Qin was originally their national name, and these descendants chose to continue to live in seclusion out of nostalgia for their homeland. In addition, there is a part of the quotation of the Qin surname, which is that this group of Qin people is a descendant of Fusu.
The reason why I say this is because after Hu Hai's death, Zhao Gao made Fusu's son Ziying emperor, but after Xiang Yu rushed into the Afang Palace, he ordered the extermination of the Ziying family, and some of the people who survived the war also chose the surname "Qin".
With the inheritance from generation to generation, these descendants of the Qin surname have lived in Shaanxi until today. And the surname "Huan" was originally the original surname of Qin Shi Huang, and his legendary life also made future generations very impressed, so the people with the surname Huan still have the choice of not being afraid of disasters to continue the surname of their ancestors.
The remaining surnames "Yin" and "Yin" are all because of the similar pronunciation of "Yin", and the descendants of the First Emperor on the one hand to commemorate their ancestors and remember their surnames, on the other hand, to save their own lives, so as not to invite the scourge of killing.
Therefore, a surname with a similar pronunciation of "嬴" was chosen. These surnames are still used so far, and many of them claim to be descendants of Qin Shi Huang. In fact, these surnames did develop from the pre-Qin dynasty, and they can say so on a certain basis.
But China is an ancient country with a very long history, and some of its surnames have a long history, so whether they are descendants of Qin Shi Huang in the true sense needs further consideration.
epilogue
The children of Qin Shi Huang and their descendants have in fact become almost extinct after two brutal killings by Qin II and Xiang Yu, and those descendants who survived by luck did not dare to claim that they were the descendants of the First Emperor, and would only live incognito. Today, the total number of people with surnames in the country is only more than 10,000.
In ancient imperial families, the collapse of a dynasty was usually a disaster for the children of the royal family, and the whole family was bound to be slaughtered, on the other hand, it was also a kind of destruction of the national spiritual culture.
Just like Xiang Yu's slaughter of the remnants of the Qin Dynasty, and even the burning of Afang Palace, the fire burned for three days and three nights, and how many civilizational monuments were destroyed. The flame of hatred has turned civilization into ashes, which cannot help but make future generations sigh.
Fortunately, we live in an era when all people are born equal and free, and we can choose our own surname, and we do not have to choose to give up our surname in order to survive, like the descendants of the first emperor.
A big country with a long history, but because of the feudal and decadent era, has lost its civilizational autonomy, which also gives us a warning today, while developing the economy, we must also broaden our horizons, pay attention to exploring the excellent traditional culture of our nation, and do not let the plight of the descendants of the Qin Dynasty repeat itself in the contemporary era.