1 Our understanding of the Qin legal system has been unexpectedly enriched by the discovery in 1975 of a large number of legal and administrative texts written on bamboo in the grave of a Qin local official who died in 217 BC. These suggest that the Qin laws may have been somewhat less severe than traditional accounts would lead us to believe. The texts have been translated in A. F. P. Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1985).
2 See appendix 2: Interpolations in the Shih-chi, The Cambridge History of China, vol. 1, pp. 94-98.
3 For a discussion of twentieth-century attempts to re-evaluate the role of the First Emperor in Chinese history, see Li Yu-ning, ed., The First Emperor of China (White Plains, N.Y.: International Arts and Sciences Press, 1975), Introduction.
4 This and the summaries that head the other chapters of the translation are taken from Sima Qian’s table of contents in Shi ji 130. The meaning of these cryptic statements will become clear in the course of the chapter.
5 The second of the Five Emperors, mythical rulers of high antiquity who are described in Shi ji 1, “The Basic Annals of the Five Emperors”.
6 According to Shi ji 1, Shao Dian was the father of the Yellow Emperor, the first of the Five Emperors and the great-grandfather of Zhuan Xu. This whole opening section on the legendary descent of the Qin ruling family is fraught with problems and inconsistencies.
7 Note how often bird and animal raising and skill in carriage driving are mentioned. This may be because the Qin people, living on the far western border of China, were closely associated with the nomadic Rong and Di people of that area.
8 Chufu was said to be another name for Feilian.
9 Legends concerning King Mu of Zhou and his fabulous journey to the west are recorded in many early works. The traditional dates for his reign are 1001-947 BC. One li is equal to about one-third of a mile, though here the phrase “a thousand li in one day” is not to be taken literally.
10 A minister to Duke Wen of Jin and famous ancestor of the ruling family of the state of Zhao.
11 King Li was noted for his stem and violent ways and his refusal to heed admonition. He was finally driven out of his capital and died in exile, according to traditional dating, in 828 BC.
12 One theory is that “King Feng” here is a mistake for King You of the Zhou dynasty, who is mentioned below, and that Muying was made a concubine of King You. Another theory is that King Feng is the title of some Rong chieftain in the area.
13 This move took place in 770 BC and marks the close of the Western Zhou period (1122-771 BC) and the beginning of the Eastern Zhou (770-256 BC).
14 One lao or set of sacrificial animals usually consisted of an ox, a sheep, and a pig.
15 Changed from barbarian to Chinese ways? The statement is vague in meaning.
16 The Zhou people in ancient times were said to have lived in the area of Mt. Qi. If Duke Wen presented the area east of Qi to the Zhou dynasty, the offer must have been refused or the territory subsequently returned to Qin, as it is obvious that Qin in later times included the region east of Mt. Qi.
17 Stone-like objects that were enshrined and worshipped by Duke Wen. Their worship is described in Shi ji 28, “The Treatise on the Feng and Shan Sacrifices”.
18 The three sets of relatives are usually defined as the parents, brothers, and wife and children of the criminal, though some say it refers to the families of the criminals’ father, mother, and wife.
19 This event took place in 712 and is recorded in the Spring and Autumn Annals. Sima Qian from time to time mentions such events that occurred in other states in order to keep the reader cued in as to the overall chronology of his narrative.
20 Dang may refer to an individual rather than a family. These persons whom the Qin rulers attacked such as Hao, Dang, and Pengxi later in the text, were apparently local chieftains of the Rong people living in the area.
21 According to the Spring and Autumn Annals, these events took place in 686, which would correspond to the twelfth year of Duke Wu’s rule. The murder of Wuzhi and setting up of Duke Huan took place the following year. Duke Huan of Qi became the first of the so-called ba, overlords or hegemons who exercised power over the other feudal rulers of the time while ostensibly acting in the name of the Zhou king.
22 Officials or attendants of a deceased ruler were often buried with him so that they might “accompany him in death”. Sometimes the persons committed suicide voluntarily, in other cases they were forcibly put to death. The custom was actually quite old in Chinese society, as evidenced by excavations of Shang period burial sites, but Han writers such as Sima Qian often blame its origin on the state of Qin.
23 The fu is the hottest part of the year; here according to commentators the word indicates a summer sacrifice in which dogs were offered at the gates on the four sides of the capital in order to prevent pestilential influences brought on by the hot weather.
24 This is the old Ji clan state in the lower Yellow River valley. I have romanized the name “Wey” in order to distinguish it from the state of Wei that was created in 403 BC by the partition of the state of Jin.
25 Lady Li was a concubine of Duke Xian of Jin who tried to manoeuvre her son Xiqi into a favourable position by casting suspicion on his older half-brothers Shensheng, Chonger, and Yiwu. Chonger or “Double Ears”, who in time became Duke Wen of Jin, is one of the outstanding heroes of this period.
26 Lü Sheng’s name is sometimes given as Xialü Yisheng. In my translations of the passages in the Zuo zhuan (Tso chuan) that deal with the events, I have used the name Xialü Yisheng (Hsia-lü I-sheng).
27 Elsewhere in the Shi ji the death of these men is dated to the fifteenth year of Duke Mu’s rule, 645 BC. Guan Zhong is the famous statesman who assisted Duke Huan of Qi to become an overlord.
28 The rulers of Jin belonged to the same Ji clan as the Zhou kings.
29 According to the fuller account in the Zuo zhuan, Duke Xi 33rd year (627 BC), the Qin forces failed to show proper respect for the Zhou king when they passed the gate of his capital at Luoyang. See my Tso chuan, p. 69.
30 This is a highly abbreviated version of the “Oath of Qin” section of the Book of Documents. In the Documents version, there is no mention of Baili Xi and Jian Shu by name. The preface to the Documents version places the oath earlier in Duke Mu’s career, when his armies first returned to Qin from their defeat at Yao.
31 “Airs of Qin” Mao no. 131. The Book of Odes gives their family name as Ziju.
32 The mengzhu or “leader of the alliance” was the leader of most powerful state among a group of feudal lords entering into an alliance. As indicated here, the term implies not only political power but moral superiority as well.
33 This passage summarizes the judgment found in the Zuo zhuan, Duke Wen 6th year, which begins with the words “The gentleman remarks”. The judgment is somewhat ironical, since, as we can see later, Qin did in fact “march east in conquest” in the centuries that followed.
34 Also known as Shi Hui. In my Zuo zhuan translations I have referred to him by the latter name.
35 By “asking about the cauldrons”, the ritual vessels of the Zhou dynasty, he hinted that he was contemplating overthrowing and replacing the Zhou ruler. This famous incident is described in the Zuo zhuan under Duke Xuan 3rd year or 606 BC. See my Tso chuan, p. 82.
36 The Zhi, Fan, Zhonghang, Hann, Wei, and Zhao families. The last three emerged victorious from the power struggle and in 403 BC divided up the Jin territory to create the states of Hann, Wei, and Zhao. The name of the state of Hann has been spelled with two n’s to distinguish it from the later Han dynasty.
37 According to the Zuo zhuan, Duke Ding 10th year (500 BC), Confucius acted as xiang or chief of ceremonies at a meeting between the rulers of Lu and Qi, but he was never chief minister of the state, as Sima Qian implies. Sima Qian’s wording probably reflects the Han period tendency to magnify Confucius’s political importance.
38 Shu is the Sichuan area southwest of Qin, which at this time was just beginning to be integrated into the Chinese cultural sphere.
39 The same prophecy is recorded in Shi ji 4, “The Basic Annals of Zhou”, and Shi ji 28, “The Treatise on the Feng and Shan Sacrifices”, where the text reads “seventeen years”, which is probably correct. The prophecy no doubt is intended to refer to the First Emperor of Qin.
40 Hann, Wei, and Zhao, the three states created out of the former state of Jin.
41 Wei Yang is the Legalist philosopher Gongsun Yang or Lord Shang, whose life is described in Shi ji 68; see pp. 89-95 below.
42 Eleventh highest in the Qin ranks of nobility, of which there were probably seventeen or eighteen at this time. The order of the ranks is counted from the bottom up because later, higher ranks were added at the top.
44 The main or south gate of the palace. Xianyang remained the Qin capital until the final overthrow of the state.
45 The capping rite that took place when young men reached the age of twenty.
46 Xishou, which means “rhinoceros head”, is identified by commentators as an official title; his personal name was said to have been Gongsun Yan.
47 No person named Gongzi Ang is known to have served the state of Qin at this time; commentators suggest that the text should read “Gongsun Yan”, referring to the xishou mentioned above.
48 A winter festival celebrated in the twelfth lunar month of the year.
49 Commentators say he did this because he assumed the title of king in the thirteenth year of his rule, 325 BC. The carefully dated entry in the preceding paragraph should perhaps refer to the ruler of Qin rather than the ruler of Wei.
50 Commentators throw doubt on many details of this passage, including the assertion that the Xiongnu, a nomadic people living north of China, took part in the attack. In any event, the figures for enemy dead seem extremely high for all these military actions, even given the fact that the scale of warfare had greatly increased over what it had been in earlier periods.
51 Liang here refers to the state of Wei, which had its capital at Daliang. Sima Qian often refers to Wei as Liang.
52 The text should read King Xiang of Wei.
53 The office of chengxiang or chancellor replaced that of xiang or prime minister. But in the narrative that follows, Sima Qian seems to use the two terms interchangably.
54 The three rivers are the Yi, the Luo, and the Yellow River. This sinister pronouncement by King Wu presages Qin’s eventual overthrow of the Zhou dynasty in 256 BC.
55 The text appears to be faulty and the meaning is uncertain.
56 Zuogeng is the ninth highest of the Qin noble ranks. Bai Qi’s biography is translated on pp. 119-124 below.
57 He was a military leader of Qin. He left to avoid punishment for some offence and fled eventually to Qi. See Shi ji 72 (p. 115 below).
58 They realized that as long as there were two of them, the title of di or “emperor” was meaningless.
59 A keqing or “guest minister” is an official who came originally from another state.
60 Zhonggeng is the eighth highest of the Qin noble ranks.
61 The text appears to be faulty and the meaning is doubtful.
62 In Shi ji 28, “The Treatise on the Feng and Shan Sacrifices”, Sima Qian mentions that according to some reports the cauldrons had been sunk in the Si River at Pengcheng many years earlier. The cauldrons were supposed to have been made by Emperor Yu, a sage ruler of high antiquity.
63 That is, Qin set up another Zhou ruler to carry on the sacrifices. It was considered highly inauspicious to put an end to the sacrifices of a family that had once been rulers.
64 Wuji, the lord of Xinling, was a prince of the Wei ruling family. This attack by the combined forces of Yan, Zhao, Wei, Hann, and Chu was the last major effort by the other states to combat the Qin encroachments.
65 It was customary for the ruling families of the various states to exchange sons as hostages so as to insure compliance with diplomatic and military alliances. On Lü Buwei, see chapter 85 below.
66 He was probably named Zheng because he was born in the first (zheng) month of the year. He may have used the surname Zhao because he was born in the state of Zhao, though there are other explanations; the traditional surname of the Qin ruling family was Ying.
67 The name can also be pronounced Yingyang; it is in Henan.
68 The text is very unclear and the meaning doubtful.
69 On Lao Ai, the paramour of the queen dowager, see p. 163.
70 A period of three years of hard labor for the government. Originally, such persons were assigned to gather firewood for use in the sacrifices to the ancestral spirits, but later the term came simply to designate hard labour.
71 Any suggestion that the king was treating his mother in an unfilial manner would be highly damaging to his reputation.
72 See the biography of Li Si, p. 179.
73 Sima Qian quotes the order directly. The last phrase means that this order shall serve as a precedent in future cases.
74 This is the famous Legalist philosopher, author of the Han Fei Zi, who committed suicide at his place of confinement at Yunyang.
75 Because the personal name of the First Emperor’s father, King Zhuangxiang, was Zichu, the character chu, the name of the Chu state in the Yangtze valley, was taboo at this time. Hence the state was referred to by its archaic name, Jing.
76 According to the theory of the Five Elements, here called the Five Powers, each successive dynasty rules by the power of one of the five traditional elements or agents, water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. There were different interpretations of the theory, but the First Emperor evidently subscribed to that by which the elements proceed in the order in which they “overcome” each other, i.e., the element water follows fire because water has the power to overcome fire. In Five Elements lore, the element water is associated with the colour black, the number six, winter, darkness, harshness and death.
77 According to some reports, these collosal figures, which each weighed the equivalent of nearly twenty-nine English tons, represented twelve giants wearing “barbarian” garb who appeared at Lintao in Gansu in this year. The statues were said to have survived until the close of the Eastern Han, when the warlord Dong Zhuo (d. AD 192) destroyed ten of them; the rest were melted down in the fourth century AD.
78 The name of the first star mentioned in Shi ji 5, “The Treatise on the Heavenly Offices”.
79 The “fast roads” (chidao) were broad, tree-lined highways reaching to outlying parts of the empire.
80 On the Feng and Shan sacrifices, see the treatise of that name in Han Dynasty vol. II. The inscription is in four-character phrases with a rhyme at the end of each third phrase. Subsequent inscriptions employ rhyme at the end of each second phrase.
81 On the cauldrons of Zhou, see note 59 on p. 32 above.
82 Shi ji 55, the biography of the early Han statesman Zhang Liang, reveals that the “bandits” were Zhang Liang and an assistant, who attempted to assassinate the emperor in revenge for his overthrow of the ruling house of the state of Hann. Their plan was to attack the emperor with an iron bludgeon, but they mistakenly struck the carriage in which his attendants were riding. See Han Dynasty vol. I, p. 101.
83 On the la festival, see note 45 on p. 26 above.
84 Jieshi is on the Gulf of Bohai. The seven characters that occur in the text after the word “gate” appear to be a contamination from the text of the inscription and have been omitted in translation.
85 The true meaning of the prophecy does not become evident until p. 63 below.
86 Absconders were those who had run away to avoid taxes or conscription. The second category of persons are men who had sold themselves as bond servants to another family and, unable to buy back their freedom, had became adopted son-in-laws of the family.
87 Tian Chang was a high minister of the state of Qi who in 481 BC overthrew the Qi ruling family. The ruling family of Jin was similarly overthrown in 403 BC by the leaders of six of the most powerful ministerial families.
88 The term chengdau or “wall dawn” is defined rather unconvincingly to mean that the convict had to build walls and stand guard from dawn. It probably simply meant some form of convict labour.
89 These figures seem to indicate a throne room measuring approximately 675 by 112 metres, which is incredibly large. See The Cambridge History of China, vol. 1, p. 102.
90 Where the emperor was building his mausoleum.
91 Yunyang was the site of the Palace of Sweet Springs, the Qin summer palace.
92 Keng, the word translated here as “executed”, can also mean to bury alive. Commentators anxious to emphasize the satanic nature of the First Emperor usually take it in the latter meaning.
93 Commentators can only guess at the meaning of the terms “lord of Hao Lake” and “primal dragon”. The First Emperor is clearly disturbed that they may apply to him.
94 The text must be in error, as no such cyclical date is possible for the seventh month.
95 The renyu or “man-fish” appears to be a type of aquatic mammal; some kind of seal or whale have been suggested as possibilties.
96 Following the suggestion of commentators, I reverse the order of these two phrases.
97 Duke Xiang reigned 777-766 BC and the Qin state had apparently maintained ancestral temples for him and all the succeeding rulers of Qin. The temples of these early rulers are now to be dismantled and only seven, those of the First Emperor’s seven immediate predecessors, retained.
98 In early times zhen was a common first person pronoun for persons of various social ranks, but it had evidently gone out of ordinary use and the Qin accordingly reserved it for the sovereign alone. In Taoist literature the word also means “sign” or “trace”, and commentators think Zhao Gao may be playing on this meaning here, though in just what way is not clear. See also the parallel passage in the biography of Li Si, p. 195 below.
99 The Second Emperor is quoting from and paraphrasing the section on “The Five Vermin” from the works of the Legalist philosopher Han Fei Zi (d. 233 BC).
100 In order to insure that Yan Yue did not betray him.
101 The Biography of Li Si, p. 205, describes Ziying as a younger brother of the First Emperor, but “younger brother” there may simply be a mistake for “grandson”.
102 The rope indicated total submission; white is the colour of mourning.
103 The discussion that follows is the famous essay entitled “The Faults of Qin” by the Han Confucian scholar Jia Yi (201-169 BC).
104 Jia Yi is referring to the efforts to weaken or destroy Qin in the late Warring States period.
105 Jia Yi is thinking of late Zhou times when the Zhou kings had become powerless, but were able to maintain their position as nominal rulers because of the support and protection of the powerful feudal states.
106 The material just quoted is usually treated as the third section of Jia Yi’s essay on “The Faults of Qin”. What follows are the first and second sections. The first section is also quoted at the end of Shi ji 48.
107 This concludes Jia Yi’s essay. There follows a brief chronological outline of the reigns of Qin rulers and their place of burial, probably one of the sources that Sima Qian used for his account of the Qin which someone has appended to the end of the chapter, plus some remarks by the Han historian Ban Gu (AD 32-92) that were written in response to Jia Yi’s essay. Both have been omitted in the translation.
108 Li ji, Qu li, part 2. Sima Qian is pointing out that Duke Xiang of Qin, by performing sacrifices to the Lord on High, another name for Heaven, was usurping privileges reserved for the Zhou ruler.
109 In 403 BC three powerful ministerial families divided up the state of Jin, creating the states of Hann, Zhao, and Wei, also know as the “Three Jin”. In 386 BC Tian He made himself ruler of Qi. The Six States are Hann, Zhao, Wei, Qi, Yan, and Chu.
110 Sima Qian regards the actual founding of the dynasty as the “reaping of rewards.” The location of Bo is uncertain, but the other places mentioned are all in northwestern China.
111 A reference to the writings of the Confucian philosopher Xun Zi, particularly Xun Zi, sec. 5, Fei Xing.
112 The old Ji clan state situated in the lower Yellow River valley. I have romanized it “Wey” to distinguish it from the Wei farther to the west that was created out of the former state of Jin.
113 The term designates the branch of the Legalist philosophy of government that deals with bureaucratic control of the population, particularly through the use of harsh penalties.
114 Duke Mu (r. 659 BC) greatly strengthened the power of the state and in time became recognized as a ba or hegemon who was able to exercise power over the other feudal states of the time. Gongsun Yang’s journey to Qin took place in 361 BC.
115 There are said to have been five feudal rulers in the Spring and Autumn period who merited the title of ba or hegemon. Lists differ, but all include Duke Huan of Qi (r. 685 BC-643 BC) and Duke Wen of Jin (r. 636 BC-628 BC), and usually Duke Mu of Qin mentioned in note 3 above.
116 Tang and Wu are the founders of the Yin and Zhou dynasties respectively.
117 Zuoshuzhang was the eleventh highest in the Qin ranks of nobility, of which there were probably seventeen or eighteen at this time. In the debate just concluded, we are never told who Gan Long and Du Zhi are, though presumably they were officials at the court of Duke Xiao.
118 Daliangzao was the sixteenth rank in the Qin ranks of nobility.
119 There is considerable debate concerning the exact meaning of this laconic statement, though it seems to refer to some reform in the land system. The traditional interpretation is that it indicates the abandonment of the old well-field system.
120 Lord Five Ram Skins, so called because at one point he was ransomed for the price of five ram skins, was Baili Xi, a famous statesman who served under Duke Mu of Qin.
121 The three rulers of Jin were dukes Hui (r. 651 BC-637 BC), Huai (r. 637 BC-636 BC) and Wen (r. 636 BC-628 BC). The reference to a “misfortune” in the state of Jing or Chu is unclear.
122 You Yu’s ancestors were from the state of Jin but he was bom among the Rong barbarians of the north. He was sent to the court of Duke Mu of Qin by the chief of the Rong and later became Duke Mu’s adviser on barbarian affairs. The “Pass” is the Hangu Pass, one of the passes leading to Qin, the “land within the passes”.
123 From the “Airs of Yong”, Mao no. 52. The two quotations that follow, from the Odes and Documents respectively, are not found in the present texts of those works.
124 Midway in his reign, Duke Hui, Duke Xiao’s successor, assumed the title of king, as did many of the other feudal rulers of the time; hence he is referred to here as King Hui.
125 “Opening up Barriers” and “Agriculture and Warfare” are the titles of two sections in the Shangjun shu or The Book of Lord Shang, the work that purports to embody Lord Shang’s political theories. The present text of the work is in 26 sections.
126 Fourteenth highest in the Qin ranks of nobility.
127 King Wu is hinting at the overthrow of the Zhou ruler. In “The Basic Annals of Qin”, the pronouncement appears in slightly different form; see p. 27 above.
128 I.e., you will be demonstrating an admirable impartiality, not allowing personal enmities to interfere with your judgment in matters of state.
129 Wusui, a city of Hann, had earlier been seized by Qin. Yiyang likewise had been seized from Hann and its inhabitants expelled.
130 The text reads “Devil Valley”, which seems to be a contamination from the passage above; I have followed commentators in emending to “Acacia Valley”. Guigu or Devil Valley is in Yangcheng in the state of Hann; Huaigu or Acacia Valley is near the Qin capital.
131 Apparently the king of Chu felt he was on sufficiently close terms with Qin to be able to select someone for the office of prime minister of Qin.
132 Reading ke lian instead of bu lian.
133 The assertion that the seven-year-old Xiang Tuo acted as teacher to Confucius would appear to be one of numerous Taoist inspired legends designed to make fun of the Sage.
134 The famous Qin military leader Bai Qi, whose biography appears below.
135 The marquis of Ying is the Qin statesman Fan Ju.
136 The Bazi of Lady Mi’s name is a court title indicating that she was a concubine of the middle rank. The statement that Queen Huiwen died before her son is contradicted by The Basic Annals of Qin, p. 28, where we are told that she died in the revolt that followed the death of King Wu.
137 The revolt referred to in the note above.
138 Book of Documents, “The Announcement to the Prince of Kang”.
139 The Three Jin are the states of Zhao, Hann and Wei created in 403 BC out of the old state of Jin.
140 The text of this letter, like the parallel passage in Zhanguo ce, “Stategies of Qin”, presents numerous problems of interpretation and the translation is frequently tentative.
141 Zhao Bao and Zhao Sheng, members of the Zhao ruling family. Zhao Sheng or Lord Pingyuan has his own biography in Shi ji 76.
142 Lord Mafu was Zhao Kuo’s father Zhao She, a military leader noted for his command of strategy.
143 Assuming that the text is not faulty, this entry for the forty-eighth year, which begins with the tenth month, then mentions the first month, and finally the ninth month, is proof that at this time the state of Qin began its calendar year with the tenth month. This practice continued through the Qin dynasty and into the early Han; see Han Dynasty vol. I, p. 1 note 2.
144 Jing is an old name for the state of Chu in the Yangtze valley.
145 There is some disagreement as to the proper character for Fan Ju’s personal name. Gladys and Hsien-yi Yang in their translation of the chapter call him Fan Sui (Records of the Historian; Hong Kong, Commercial Press, 1974, pp. 94-117). I follow the reading used by Crump in his translation of the Zhanguo ce, J.I. Crump, Jr., Chan-kuo ts’e (Oxford, 1970).
146 According to Qin law, Wang Ji, the one who recommended Fan Ju, would be held responsbile for any shortcomings in the person he recommended.
147 According to Shi ji 110, “The Account of the Xiongnu”, Queen Dowager Xuan, King Zhao’s mother, had had relations with the ruler of the Yiqu, a non-Chinese people living west of Qin. She bore him two sons, but later deceived and murdered him at the Palace of Sweet Springs, an act that led to hostilities between Qin and the Yiqu people.
148 Painting the body with lacquer to induce leprous sores is a reference to the actions of Yu Rang, who did so in order to disguise his identity and avenge the death of his lord. Loosing the hair like a madman refers to Ji Zi; see note 6 below.
149 Wu Zixu was a native of the state of Chu. When King Ping of Chu killed his father and elder brother, he escaped south through the Zhao pass to Wu. He became adviser to King Helü of Wu and eventually rose to high position. His biography is in Shi ji 66. See my Records of the Historian (Columbia University Press, 1969), pp. 16-29.
150 Ji Zi was a nobleman under the evil last ruler of the Shang dynasty. When his admonitions were unheeded, he feigned madness. Jieyu, the madman of Chu, was a recluse of Chu and contemporary of Confucius. There is no mention of these men having painted their bodies with lacquer.
151 I.e., to the right and left of the ruler as he sits on his throne facing south.
152 This place name may also be read Yingyang.
153 No such lines are found in the present text of the Book of Odes.
154 Cui Shu was minister to Duke Zhuang of Qi, Nao Chi minister to King Min. Li Dui served under King Wuling of Zhao.
155 Xu Jia addresses Fan Ju by his polite name.
156 Reading lao in the place of ru, as in the parallel passage in Shi ji 41, “The Hereditary House of Yue”.
157 The first quotation is from the Book of Changes, the explanation for the first hexagram, qian. The second is from Analects VII, 15.
158 Duke Huan of Qi (r. 685-643 BC) was the first of the five ba or hegemons who imposed their will on the other feudal rulers during the Spring and Autumn period. The meeting at Kuiqiu or Sunflower Hill took place in 651 BC.
159 Xia Yu appears to have been a person of great strength and daring. Nothing is known of the story of the grand historian Jiao.
160 Fan Li and Dafu Zhong helped King Goujian (r. 496-465 BC) of Yue to defeat his rival, the state of Wu, and attain a position of power. But Fan Li, unlike Dafa Zhong, had the good sense to withdraw from Yue, go elsewhere, and embark on a second career under the name Lord Zhu of Tao.
161 No such passage is found in the present text of the Book of Documents.
162 Explanation for the first hexagram.
163 Han Fei Zi, sec. 49, “The Five Vermin”.
164 In these last remarks, Sima Qian is no doubt hinting at his own difficulties with Emperor Wu.
165 Younger sons of rulers were often sent to reside at the courts of allied states where they acted as hostages to encourage the continuance of peaceful relations between the states.
166 In such cases the tally was broken in two, the pieces to be held by the two parties to the agreement. Since Lord Anguo was himself only crown prince, he could not at this time make public his decision.
167 The famous Confucian philosopher Xun Zi (fl. 250 BC), author of a work in 32 sections.
168 The work is still extant and provides invaluable information on Qin period thought and language.
169 Because it would involve his whole family in the punishment.
170 Confucius, contrasting the true man of distinction with one who merely enjoys a good reputation, said, “The man of fame may be one who puts on the appearance of virtue but in practice acts quite differently.” (Analects XII, 20)
171 The biography of Jing Ke is the last of five biographies that make up Shi ji 86, “The Biographies of the Assassin-retainers”. The cike or “assassin-retainers” are men who undertake an assassination or threat of assassination in order to avenge some wrong done to their lord or to right a political wrong. The account of Jing Ke is the only one of the five biographies that concerns the history of the state of Qin. The whole chapter is translated in my Records of the Historian: Chapters from the Shih Chi of Ssu-ma Ch’ien (N.Y.: Columbia University Press, 1969), pp. 45-67.
172 The boundaries of the state of Yan.
173 The deadly scales that protrude from the throat of a dragon.
174 Cao Mei or Cao Mo, a general of the state of Lu, had several times been defeated by the forces of the neighbouring state of Qi and forced to concede lands to Qi. When the rulers of Lu and Qi came together for a meeting, Cao Mei, brandishing a dagger, threatened the Qi ruler, Duke Huan (r. 685-643 BC), and forced him to return the lands to Lu. Cao Mei’s is the first of the five biographies that make up “The Biographies of the Assassin-Retainers”.
175 An anonymous fictionalized version of the Jing Ke story, which contains this detail, has been handed down, in somewhat battered state, under the title “Prince Dan of Yan”. It is translated in Wolfgang Bauer and Herbert Franke, eds., The Golden Casket (Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1964), pp. 30-41.
176 The Confucian philosopher Xun Zi.
177 King Zhuangxiang died in 247 BC and was succeeded by his son Zheng, who in time became First Emperor.
178 The reigns of Duke Xiao and kings Huiwen, Wu, Zhao, Xiaowen, and Zhuangxiang, or from 361 to 247 BC.
179 According to Shi ji 29, “The Treatise on the Yellow River and Canals”, Hann had sent Zheng Guo to Qin to talk Qin into undertaking construction of an irrigation canal so as to deplete Qin’s funds and manpower. When Zheng Guo’s true purpose came to light, the king of Qin was about to put him to death, but he persuaded the king to let him complete the project, which in fact proved to be highly beneficial to Qin. See my Records of the Grand Historian, Han Dynasty vol. II, pp. 53-54.
180 Zhang Yi (d. 309 BC) was a native of the state of Wei, who entered the service of Qin and aided it in the acquisition of territory.
181 See the parallel text in “The Basic Annals of the First Emperor of the Qin”, p. 54 above.
182 Kings Tang and Wu overthrew the last rulers of the Xia and Shang dynasties respectively. It is not certain what event in the state of Wey Zhao Gao is alluding to.
183 The last refers to the forces under the rebel leader Zhou Wen, also called Zhou Zhang, which advanced as far as Xi or Hongmen, just east of the Qin capital, before being repulsed. See Han Dynasty vol. I, p. 4.
184 As noted earlier in the parallel passage in “The Basic Annals of the First Emperor” on p. 69 above, the Second Emperor is quoting and paraphrasing section 49, “The Five Vermin”, from the works of the Legalist philosopher Han Fei Zi.
185 Master Shen is the Legalist philosopher Shen Buhai (d. 337 BC). Only fragments of his writings remain.
186 Han Fei Zi, sec. 50, “Eminence in Learning.”
187 Here and in the next paragraph Li Si is once again drawing on “The Five Vermin” section of Han Fei Zi.
188 A reference to the Mohists and Confucians.
189 The assassination of Duke Jian of Qi by Tian Chang took place in 481 BC. The usurpations of Zihan are mentioned in Han Fei Zi, sec. 7, “The Two Handles”, but the incident is otherwise unknown, as is the incident of Han Yi and King An (r. 238-230) of Hann; this last was presumably an event familiar to both Li Si and the Second Emperor.
190 The five penalties are tatooing of the face, amputation of the ears, nose, fingers and feet, flogging and exposure of the head at the execution.
191 From this it appears that Zhao Gao had a child or children before becoming a eunuch.
192 The text describes Ziying as a “younger brother” of the First Emperor, but “younger brother” must be a mistake for “grandson”.
193 Model statesmen of the early Zhou period.
194 Lintao is in Gansu Province south of the present day city of Lanzhou. Liaodong is on the Gulf of Bohai.
195 Since Sima Qian has not devoted a separate chapter to Zhao Gao, he is obliged to insert this brief account of his background into the biography of one of the many men whose downfall Zhao Gao engineered.
196 Omitting the name Huhai, which does not appear to belong in the sentence.
197 The brother or nephew of the Second Emperor who in time succeeded him as ruler of Qin.
198 On these charges against Duke Mu, see “Basic Annals of Qin”, p. 17 above. It is very doubtful that the posthumous name Mu was intended to mean “mistaken,” though one way of writing the character can yield that meaning.
199 No such quotation is found in the present text of the Zhou section of the Book of Documents. To know “the threes and fives” means to know the true situation. A slightly different version of this story is found in the “Metal-bound Casket” section of the Book of Documents.
200 Jie is the evil last ruler of the Xia dynasty, who refused to heed the admonitions of his minister Guan Longfeng. Zhou is the evil last ruler of the succeeding Shang dynasty.
201 Sima Qian’s brief chapter on “Wits and Humorists” (hua ji) deals with court entertainers and actors who, like the king’s jester in Western literature, deftly correct their erring or unenlightened lords through their use of a ready quip. Translated here is the only section of the chapter that deals with the Qin.
202 Le., to make the whole capital area into one big hunting park.
203 I.e., they were chosen from among the men of the group to be its leaders; the group as a whole was in turn commanded by officers of the Qin government.
204 I.e., die fighting for the restoration of the former state of Chu. Another interpretation would have it mean “die fighting to win a kingdom.”
205 Like all good diviners, this one is careful to answer ambiguously. His remark may be interpreted to mean, “Though your plan may succeed, will you not find yourselves among the spirits of the dead?” But Chen She and Wu Guang prefer to interpret him differently.
206 This placename may also be read Yingyang.
207 The heartland of Qin, with its capital, Xianyang, lay in the northwest, surrounded by rivers and mountains, the so-called land within the Passes. The two principal approaches to it were through the Wu Pass in the south and the Hangu Pass in the east. Unless otherwise stated, “the Pass” refers to the latter.
208 Where they had been assembled to work on the great mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin.
209 This chapter lacks the customary closing remarks of the Grand Historian.
210 A paraphrase of the words of the poet Qu Yuan (3rd cen. BC) in his poem “Encountering Sorrow.”
211 Since it was considered inauspicious to carry out the death sentence in spring, executions were sometimes hastily conducted in the last days of the winter season.
212 The Wise Kings of the Left and Right were subordinates of the Shanyu, or khan, hereditary commanders of the eastern and western sections of the Xiongnu nation respectively.
213 The Ershi, or Sutrishna, General was Li Guangli, overall commander of the expedition and eldest brother of the emperor’s favorite, Madam Li.
214 Li ji, or Book of Rites, sec. 1. The meaning is not that officials are outside the law but that anyone who has the moral qualifications to hold high office will not commit an offense, or if he does so, will take his own life without waiting for punishment to be applied.
215 A quotation from the Bing fa, or Art of War, by Sun Wu.