15. Qin Shi Huang’s Attempt to Find a Solution to the Problem of Human Mortality Backfired
Qin Shi Huang was obsessed with finding a solution to human mortality. So he lavishly funded searches for a “Life Elixir” that would keep him alive forever. He sent an expedition with hundreds of ships into the Pacific in search of a mythical “Land of the Immortals”, that was never heard from again. He also patronized alchemists who claimed that they were close to inventing the Life Elixir, but were hobbled by a lack of funding – a problem which the emperor generously put to rights.
One of those charlatans gave Qin Shi Huang daily mercury pills. He claimed that they were a life-prolonging intermediate step in his research for immortality drugs, which should tidy the emperor Huang over until the Life Elixir was ready. Swallowing mercury every day, the emperor gradually poisoned himself and gradually grew insane. He became a recluse who concealed himself from all but his closest courtiers, listened constantly to songs about “Pure Beings”, had nearly all books burned, ordered 400 scholars buried alive, and had his son and heir banished. Instead of extending his life, Qin Shi Huang shortened it, and died of mercury poisoning at the relatively young age of 49.