17. Qin Shi Huang, the founder of a unified China, died after consuming mercury in an attempt to circumvent the human condition and attain immortality
Qin Shi Huang, born Ying Zheng in 259 BCE, was the first emperor of a unified China and founder of the short-lived Qin dynasty. Inheriting the Kingdom of Chin at the age of thirteen, the young ruler unleashed campaign after campaign against his neighboring rivals. Gradually assimilating smaller and weaker components of larger China, by 230 Zheng initiated the final campaign of the Warring States period. Conquering Zhao in 228, Yan in 226, and Wei in 225, by 221 he had achieved his dream: a unified China. Proclaiming himself “First Emperor” and possessing a “Mandate from Heaven”, Zheng set about organizing his new dominion.
Continuing to expand the size of the Chinese state, including the annexations of Hunan and Guangdong, the reign of Qin Shi Huang was also marked by extreme political repression. Scholars were executed en masse, philosophical texts burned, and the creation of the Great Wall of China and his city-sized mausoleum entailed the use of slave labor on an unprecedented scale. In 211, after the fall of a meteor, a prophecy was made foretelling the death of the emperor. Fearing his own mortality, it is believed the emperor ingested mercury pills in the mistaken belief they could prolong his life; instead, he died suddenly on September 10, 210 BCE.