In Chinese history, how many people owned the King of Qin? According to statistics, from the beginning of the Warring States Period to the fall of the Ming Dynasty, there were about 70 people who had the title of King of Qin in history, but almost the vast majority of Qin kings were unknown, and the King of Qin could be divided into two types.
Photo: Stills of Qin Wang Yingzheng
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >, King of Qin in the Zhou Dynasty</h1>
The first refers to the title of the monarch of the Qin state during the Zhou Dynasty, which divided the Guanzhong region, which is also the most well-known King of Qin.
1. Origin of the King of Qin
It is generally believed that when the Western Zhou Dynasty fell, the monarch of Qin won kai because he took the initiative to raise troops to serve the king and rescued the king of Zhou Ping, who was in distress, so that Zhou Tianzi, who was in a state of lack of care, was quite moved, so Zhou Tianzi specially crowned Ying kai as the Marquis of Qin, and the history of the Qin state began.
Therefore, in the history of China, the history of the Qin State actually began with the history of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and although the previous Qin also existed, it was at best a tribe and was not looked up to by the Central Plains countries. In this way, in the first three hundred years of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Qin has always existed as a prince of Zhou, although in the era of Qin Mugong, Qin also had the idea of competing for hegemony, but Qin's strength was only a flash in the pan.
Therefore, before the era of King Huiwen of Qin, the monarch of Qin had always been a duke or a marquis, and all this changed until the reign of King Huiwen of Qin.
Image: Stills of Xiaowen Gong, the monarch of Qin
At first, Qin Xiaogong of the Qin State, driven by the Shang martingale, carried out the transformation of the law, which is the famous Shang martingale transformation method in history. The Shang martingale transformation method made the Qin state the most powerful of the Eastern Zhou princes, and after the death of Duke Xiao of Qin, his son succeeded to the throne, and soon after he began to proclaim himself the King of Qin, which was the historical King Huiwen of Qin.
When King Huiwen of Qin succeeded to the throne, the situation in the Zhou Dynasty changed dramatically, and many powerful princes achieved the title of king. It should be noted that in the Western Zhou Dynasty, only the Tianzi of the Zhou Dynasty could be called king, and later in the early years of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the Southern Chu State felt that the Zhou Dynasty had declined, so the monarchs of the Chu State also began to call the king, the purpose was obvious, that is, to compete with the Zhou Tianzi.
During the reign of King Huiwen of the State of Qin, other princely states also called themselves kings, and in this context, the title of King of Qin was born, so from this point of view, King Huiwen of the State of Qin was regarded as the first king of Qin in the history of the State of Qin.
Image: Stills of the king
2. Special Qin II
Since King Huiwen of the Qin State, successive monarchs of the Qin State have called themselves the King of Qin, but in the history of the Qin State, Qin II is an exception, because Qin II is the only monarch who does not have a record of the title of King of Qin after the Qin Huiwen era.
Before Qin Shi Huang became emperor, he had been the King of Qin for 26 years, until in the 26th year, Qin destroyed the Six Kingdoms of the East, so Qin Wangzheng felt that he should no longer be called the King of Qin, because his achievements were unprecedented. Therefore, at the suggestion of the minister, he obtained the title of emperor. Since then, King Yingzheng of Qin has become the first emperor of Qin.
After the death of Qin Shi Huang, his son Hu Hai succeeded to the throne, and Hu Hai reigned for about three years before being overthrown by the peasant revolt, during which Hu Hai did not claim the title of King of Qin from beginning to end, so Hu Hai was the only emperor in Qin history who was completely outright emperor.
After Hu Hai was killed, Zi Bao succeeded to Qin's monarchical status, at this time Qin had completely lost control of the Six Kingdoms of the East, so Zi Bao faced reality, gave up the title of emperor and restored the title of King of Qin.
Zi Bao became the King of Qin for more than 40 days, and Qin perished, which made Zi Bao the last generation of Qin Kings in history, so from this point of view, if it were not for the fact that Zi Bao was the King of Qin for more than 40 days, then the last generation of Qin Kings in the history of qin might be Qin Shi Huang.
Image: Stills of Qin II Hu Hai
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, descendants of the Qin king</h1>
In the subsequent history of China, many other dynasties also chose to be crowned kings, so the title of King of Qin existed in many later dynasties.
1. There is no King of Qin
However, there are also many dynasties that do not choose to establish the title of King of Qin, for example, the most typical is the Han Dynasty, because the native of the Han Dynasty is in the guanzhong land of Qin, so the Han Dynasty does not intend to establish the title of King of Qin.
Moreover, while the Han Dynasty established the title, it was also necessary to give the fiefs of the princes, and where could the Guanzhong area where the Son of Heaven lived be distributed to others? Therefore, during the Han Dynasty, there was no title of King of Qin, and all this did not change until after the fall of the Han Dynasty.
After the fall of the Han Dynasty, the title of King of Qin appeared in Cao Wei's title, and the title of King of Qin existed in subsequent dynasties until the establishment of the Qing Dynasty.
During the Qing Dynasty, although there were also cases of canonization of princes, the princes of the Qing Dynasty no longer used place names as titles, but took some adjectives as titles.
Photo: Stills of courtiers during the Han Dynasty
2. The King of Qin with characteristics
From the time Cao Wei announced the restoration of the title of King of Qin to the fall of the Ming Dynasty, more than 60 Qin kings appeared in China's history, spanning about 1400 years. Among these Qin kings, the most famous is Li Shimin, the King of Qin in the Tang Dynasty.
In fact, the core area of the Tang Dynasty, like the Han Dynasty, is in the Guanzhong region, and it is a little embarrassing to appoint Li Shimin as the King of Qin, at the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan chose to crown Li Shimin as the King of Qin in order to encourage Li Shimin to actively fight for the Tang Dynasty and seize territory.
In fact, this also represents a little hint from Li Yuan to Li Shimin that the land where the Son of Heaven lives has been crowned to you, which means that as long as the merit is great, the throne is likely to be yours.
However, after Li Shimin helped Li Yuan complete his sweep, Li Yuan did not fulfill his promise, and eventually, Li Shimin launched the famous Xuanwumen Rebellion, in which Li Shimin killed the crown prince and his brother and obtained the right to inherit the throne.
After Li Shimin ascended the throne, the officials of the Tang Dynasty basically did not appoint any prince as the King of Qin, but by the time of the late Tang Dynasty war, many separatist forces began to call themselves the King of Qin, and in the face of these forces, although the Tang Court was unwilling to admit it, it was useless, because the Tang Dynasty at this time had no authority to speak of.
Photo: Li Shimin stills when he was the King of Qin
In addition, the most distinctive Qin king is the King of Qin during the Ming Dynasty, of course, the King of Qin during the Ming Dynasty did not have any famous features, the so-called characteristics refer to Zhu Yuanzhang's implementation of such a system, unless the prince of Daming committed any major crimes, the descendants of the prince can serve as the King of Qin for generations.
This led to the beginning of Zhu Yuanzhang's canonization of one of his sons as the King of Qin, until the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the King of Qin was inherited for more than 200 years, of which 21 Qin kings appeared in total.
However, although most of the people in history are called the King of Qin, the ones who really receive a lot of attention are none other than the ancestors of Qin Shi Huang, and the later Qin King Li Shimin, and the other Qin kings, although they are also called the King of Qin, are all indiscriminate and numerous, and there is nothing worth paying attention to.
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!