Mad Ruler Poisons Himself While Ingesting “Immortality Drug”
Qin Shihuangdi (259 – 210 BC), whose name means “First Emperor“, was the first ruler to unify China’s disparate kingdoms into a single empire. One of history’s most capable rulers, he was also one of history’s cruelest despots. In one of history’s more karmic plot twists, Qin Shihuangdi wanted to live forever and pursued a “Life Elixir” to that end. Instead of prolonging his life, the quest for immortality ended up killing China’s First Emperor.
Qin Shihuangdi sought the advice of philosophers, alchemists, opportunists, sketchy characters, and outright charlatans. One of the charlatans gave him mercury pills, which he claimed were a life-prolonging intermediate step in his research for immortality drugs. Using them every day should tidy Qin Shihuangdi over until the Life Elixir was ready.
However, ingesting mercury every day gave the emperor a nasty dose of mercury poisoning and drove him insane. He became a recluse, concealed himself from all but his closest courtiers, and spent his days listening to songs about “Pure Beings”. During this period, he did a lot of bizarre things, such as order the live burial of hundreds of scholars, and had his son and heir banished.
Mercury poisoning finally finished Qin Shihuangdi off at the relatively young age of 49. While touring the provinces, he dropped dead inside his huge imperial wagon – a miniature house on wheels – on September 10th, 210 BC. His corpse was discovered by his chief bodyguard, who informed the emperor’s most trusted adviser, Li Ssu. The duo sat on the information until they returned to the capital, and in the meantime, put on a show to pretend that the emperor was still alive and kicking. They sent food and official reports to the wagon and its ripening corpse, whose stench they concealed by placing wagons of rotting fish nearby. They then forged an imperial signature on a document ordering the emperor’s first son and legal heir, who disliked Li Ssu, to commit suicide, and arranged to have a more pliant heir crowned emperor.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Sources & Further Reading
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History of Yesterday – How to Live Forever — Three Crazy Ways People Have Tried It
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