Chapter 320: I, the One of Meager Virtue

"Zhao Zheng, Zhao Zheng…"

In his dream, that form of address which so annoyed the King of Qin rang out once more.

The year the King of Qin was born coincided with the Siege of Handan. Qin troops assailed Handan day and night without cease, and at the same time, the people of Zhao surrounded the house of his birth three layers deep.

According to the Queen Dowager, those Zhao people, bearing the hatred of four hundred thousand Zhao dead from the Battle of Changping, howled that they would tear this vile spawn of Qin apart and devour him!

Had his mother's family not been a powerful clan of Zhao that shielded him with all their might, the King of Qin would never have lived to grow up. And to let him survive safely in Handan, his mother's family, with an eye to currying favor with the Zhao royal house, presumptuously chose a name for him.

"In former days, Qin and Zhao shared the same origin, both tracing their descent from Feilian. Elai, the High Ancestor of Qin, was a son of Feilian; he died young, leaving a son named Nüfang. Nüfang sired Panggao, Panggao sired Taiji, Taiji sired Daluo, and Daluo sired Feizi, who herded horses for the Zhou royal house, a lowly and base station… Thus, by the favor enjoyed by the senior line's Zaofu, all the descendants of Elai were enfeoffed with Zhao City and became the Zhao lineage. Now Qin has a scion, Zheng, born in Handan of Zhao; he too ought to be of the Zhao lineage and be called Zhao Zheng…"

Many years later, the King of Qin inquired of the Junior Minister of Rites, and only then learned that this was a stale, worn-out old matter.

The Junior Minister of Rites said to him, "When the Son of Heaven established virtue, he bestowed surnames according to birth and conferred lineages by enfeoffing them with land. Thus a surname remains unchanged for a thousand, ten thousand years, while a lineage may shift after one or two transmissions — how could there be any principle of clinging to one for centuries?"

Indeed, centuries ago, after the fall of Yin-Shang, the ancestors of Qin were of lowly status, mere horse-herding vassals. Because they shared the same clan as Zhao Zaofu, they too adopted the Zhao lineage and Zhao City to vaunt themselves.

But times changed. From the moment Feizi was recognized by King Xiao of Zhou, granted land as a vassal, and enfeoffed at Qin with the title "Qin Ying," the ancestors of Qin began to cast aside the Zhao lineage and take Qin as their lineage. The Duke of Qin, Qin Zhong — the names of countless forebears are clear proof. When Duke Xiang of Qin was ranked among the feudal lords, he further followed the principle that "the ruler of a feudal state takes his state as his lineage," for which the covenant oaths also serve as evidence.

As for the Zhao lineage? Setting aside that Qin's status had long since far surpassed Zhao's, from the moment Zhao Xuanzi, regent of Jin in the Spring and Autumn period, broke faith and launched the Battle of Linghu, Qin and Zhao had become enemies. In the last hundred years, they had become irreconcilable mortal foes. How could the Qin royal house still take Zhao as its lineage?

That was why the King of Qin had always regarded the name "Zhao Zheng" as a supreme disgrace!

As a child in Handan, those Zhao princelings and noble scions, to humiliate him, forced him to dress as a herdboy and drive horses for them. Those cries of "Zhao Zheng" and the contemptuous epithet "calf-herder of the west" were truly grating.

When he reached the age of eight and finally escaped the bitter sea of Handan, shed Zhao garments, donned the vermilion-and-black Qin robes, and returned to the ancestral land he had never set foot in, he at last cast off that form of address…

But just as he spent over a decade unable to acclimate to Xianyang's climate and found the Xianyang Palace cramped and narrow, the King of Qin likewise disliked the name "Qin Zheng."

So after he succeeded to the throne, when offering sacrifices at the ancestral temple, he issued a bold declaration that astonished the Grand Minister of Rites and the Junior Minister of Rites.

"The Son of Heaven has no lineage!"

The Zhou house had fallen, the Nine Provinces were without a master, yet the King of Qin, a mere thirteen years old, had already set a grand ambition.

This was not only his personal ambition, but also the wish of every Qin ruler from Duke Xiao of Qin onward!

"Unify all under Heaven!"

From then on, the King of Qin was rarely addressed by his given name, let alone "Zhao Zheng."

When was the last time someone called him that?

Was it Lao Ai's hysterical howl before he was executed?

Was it when Crown Prince Dan of Yan, his sole childhood friend in Handan, entered Xianyang as a hostage and, upon learning of his great ambition to sweep away the Six States, let slip a curse in a fit of terror and fury?

Or was it the Queen Dowager, on her deathbed, bearing hatred for his having stuffed his two half-brothers into sacks and beaten them to death, uttering that cry: "Zhao Zheng, you heaven-cursed wretch!"

Tonight, those dead ghosts had returned. Lü Buwei, the Queen Dowager, Lao Ai, Crown Prince Dan of Yan, Fan Yuqi, Chengjiao, the Lord of Changping.

Their faces drenched in blood, they hovered in midair, crying "Zhao Zheng, Zhao Zheng" over and over, hounding him without cease.

Yet the King of Qin felt not the slightest fear. Those who had betrayed and failed him were unworthy of dread.

He was the Son of Heaven, grasping Tai'e, brandishing his sword to cleave the drifting clouds — the feudal lords all came west to pay homage!

Now, a mere flick of his sleeve would scatter those wraiths to oblivion!

A moment later, the King of Qin's dragon eyes opened slightly, his breathing calm, as he stared fixedly at the resplendent ceiling of the palace chamber.

Without glancing left or right, he knew that the vast couch held no one but himself.

The King of Qin had many women — women of Han, Zhao, Chu, Wei, Yan, Qi, and even foreign Hu beauties and Yue beauties from distant lands. Did they number in the hundreds? The thousands? Near ten thousand? He himself could not count them clearly. But they were all merely bedded and forgotten. Apart from the already deceased Hu Qizi, he held no genuine affection for any consort, nor did he ever spend the night in any woman's bedchamber.

They were but tools to bear him heirs. Mutual love? He had never believed in it. The Queen Dowager's deft maneuvering among three men had left a deep impression on him, indelible to this day.

This profound distrust of women — or rather, of anyone — even drove him to order the construction of sky bridges linking many of the Xianyang Palace's halls. He also commanded that in every hall, whether he visited or not, ancient music be played daily. Thus, apart from Zhao Gao, the Prefect of the Palace Chariots, who never left the sovereign's side day or night, no one knew in which hall the King of Qin would actually lodge.

But the King of Qin had one habit that was known to all: he rose every day at cockcrow, was dressed and groomed by palace attendants, and while glancing through the newly delivered memorials and hastily eating his morning meal, would have the Junior Minister of Rites summoned.

At that hour, the sky was only just beginning to lighten.

The Junior Minister of Rites, also called the "Lesser Minister of Rites," was the deputy to the Grand Minister of Rites, the official who managed the ancestral temple sacrifices and oversaw the rites of the temple's spirit tablets. Yet the Junior Minister of Rites was not the least bit junior in years — he was instead a decrepit old man, leaning on a pigeon-headed staff, tottering unsteadily through the vast palace chamber.

He too was of the royal clan, said to be of the same generation as the King of Qin's grandfather, King Xiaowen of Qin, and so the King of Qin had always treated him with deep respect.

He alone had the King of Qin's leave to forgo "Great King" or "Your Majesty" and call him "King of Qin Zheng!"

And every day, at the break of dawn, he would shout it once!

"King of Qin Zheng! Have you forgotten the great wish of the successive Qin rulers to unify all under Heaven?!" Every day at this hour, from over ten paces away, the Junior Minister of Rites's hoarse voice would reach the King of Qin's ears.

Much like, many years before, when Fuchai had a man stand at his gate and, whenever he entered or left, shout: "Fuchai! Have you forgotten that Goujian slew your father?"

At this, the King of Qin would solemnly bow with clasped hands and reply.

"Zheng dares not forget it for a single day!"

But today, the Junior Minister of Rites did not, as he always had, lean on his pigeon staff and shout. He merely walked wordlessly before the King of Qin and performed the most profound prostration, touching his head to the ground.

"The King of Qi entered court last month. With this, the Six States are extinguished. The Great King has at last fulfilled the great wish of the successive Qin rulers to unify all under Heaven. This old minister's duty has reached its end…"

When he raised his head, tears were already streaming down his aged face. "Duke Mu, Duke Xian, Duke Xiao, King Huiwen, King Wu, King Zhaoxiang, King Xiaowen, King Zhuangxiang — could they behold this day's scene, their hearts would surely be comforted!"

Indeed, the King of Qin breathed a deep sigh of relief in his heart. Continuing the six generations' accumulated might, waging war with vigor for over ten years, he had at last swept the Six States flat, brought all under Heaven into one — his great ambition was finally realized!

But was this the end? The King of Qin felt it was not enough. The six kings had entered court one after another, some killed, some exiled, yet he could never feel the satisfaction of a victor.

In particular, his own title of "King" was beginning to seem a trifle petty.

The King of Qin was a man who liked to overturn tradition, so he said to the Junior Minister of Rites, "In former days, I once discussed with the Junior Minister of Rites the debate on names and realities held by the Mohists and the School of Names. The Junior Minister told me that both the School of Names and the Mohists had fallen into sophistry over names and realities. At root, the name is the guest of the reality; a great reality must be matched with a great name, only then can the name be correct and the words flow smoothly — is that not so?"

The Junior Minister of Rites assented, and the King of Qin continued, "Since the Spring and Autumn period, the feudal lords have warred in chaos, ministers and grandees have usurped and seized power, and thus strange terms arose, names and realities fell into disorder. Now that all under Heaven is unified, names and realities must be rectified anew, and this rectification of names shall begin with me!"

With these words, the King of Qin looked toward the court officials and close ministers already waiting within. "Where is Zhao Gao? Draft an edict for me!"

Zhao Gao, Prefect of the Palace Chariots, was a man of both literary and martial talent — not only did he drive a chariot superbly, his calligraphy was also peerless. He immediately stepped forward, spread a silk scroll upon the desk, dipped his brush in the finest ink under Heaven, and, following the King of Qin's oral decree, wrote out the edict in small seal script, one of the three finest calligraphic hands under Heaven.

"In former days, the King of Han offered up territory and presented his seal, requesting to serve as a vassal. Shortly thereafter, he broke the covenant, joined with Zhao and Wei in a vertical alliance to rebel against Qin. Therefore troops were raised to punish him, and his king was captured."

"The King of Zhao sent his chancellor Li Mu to conclude an alliance, and therefore his hostage was returned. Shortly thereafter, he broke the alliance and turned against us at Taiyuan. Therefore troops were raised to punish him, and his king was taken. The Zhao prince Jia then set himself up as King of Dai, and therefore troops were raised to strike and destroy him."

"The King of Wei initially agreed to submit and enter Qin, but shortly thereafter plotted with Han and Zhao to attack Qin. Qin troops and officers punished him, and thereupon crushed him."

"The King of Jing offered up the lands west of Qingyang, but shortly thereafter broke the covenant and attacked our Nan Commandery. Therefore troops were dispatched to punish him, his king was taken, and his Jing territory was thereupon pacified."

"The King of Yan was muddled and chaotic; his Crown Prince Dan secretly ordered Jing Ke to act as an assassin. Troops and officers punished him, and his state was destroyed."

"The King of Qi heeded Hou Sheng's counsel, severed ties with Qin's envoys, and plotted rebellion. Our soldiers and officials executed him, captured his king, and pacified the lands of Qi."

First came a recounting of the reasons and course of Qin's destruction of the six kingdoms. After a brief pause and a moment of reflection, the King of Qin finally began the main text:

"I, a man of the humblest stature, raised troops to punish tyranny and rebellion. Relying on the spirits of the ancestral temple, the six kings have all submitted to their crimes, and all under Heaven is greatly settled."

"The ancients said: 'The name is the guest of the reality!' Now that I, the unworthy one, have been exalted as Son of Heaven, presiding over the Nine Provinces and commanding the Six Directions, the title of 'King' is no longer sufficient to honor this. Therefore, if the title is not changed, there is no way to mark this success or transmit it to later generations. I now command the Chancellor, the Grandee Secretary, and all the Court Counselors to jointly deliberate on an imperial title!"

Yes — just as, while he lived, he absolutely refused to be called, much less call himself, 'Zhao Zheng,' so too did this great achievement of ending a chaotic age and unifying all under Heaven, this vast territory of ten thousand li across the Nine Provinces, require an even greater title to set it off!

And then, transmitted for ten thousand generations!

……

In the second month of mid-spring, the twenty-sixth year of the reign of King Zheng of Qin, this edict commanding the assembled ministers to "deliberate on an imperial title" stirred up a great storm in the court and public of Xianyang City.

Chancellor Kui Zhuang, Chancellor Wang Wan, Grandee Secretary Feng Quji, and others were the first to bear the brunt. The Commandant of Justice, Li Si, also gathered his staff and held meetings all day to discuss the matter.

And a copy of this edict was also sent to the office of the Prefect of the Gentlemen of the Palace outside Xianyang Palace, where it was circulated among the court gentlemen. Finally, it reached the desk of a newly appointed, dark-complexioned six-hundred-bushel Court Counselor…

Heifu stared at the beautiful small-seal script on the copy of the edict and thought to himself, "I never imagined that on only my second day in office, I would run into this matter!"

When an exam paper is handed out, and while everyone else is racking their brains, guessing and deliberating, you already know the correct answer — at a time like this, what should you do?

PS: Regarding the King of Qin's clan name, this is my own view. 'Ying Zheng' is certainly incorrect, but the 'Zhao Zheng' that has become popular in recent years, though it has many examples, mostly comes from Han dynasty accounts. As a certain history expert has cautioned, "In Han dynasty historical materials related to Qin, if the source uses Han-era criticisms of the Qin people, one must be careful." Therefore, neither the Tsinghua bamboo-slip manuscript *Zhao Zheng Shu* nor the scattered references to 'Zhao Zheng' and 'Zhao clan' in Han dynasty historical sources can be trusted without doubt. Parroting others is naturally easy, but upon carefully teasing apart the *Basic Annals of Qin*, quite a few holes appear. The above is merely one person's opinion; no need to take it as truth. In any case, after the First Emperor assumed the imperial throne, according to the summary in *Rizhilu: On Original Surnames*, it is undisputed that "the Son of Heaven has no clan name," so the debate becomes meaningless.

Also, the *Basic Annals of the First Emperor* records that the Grandee Secretary at this time was Feng Jie. Feng Jie was the son of Feng Quji. Logically, his official position could not have outranked his father's, so it is more appropriate to change it to Feng Quji.

(End of chapter)