Expert: Jennifer - 5/9/2009

Question
thank you so much for answering our questions the other day. You were very helpful. Would it be possible to ask a few more for our interview? #1.  What was Qin's childhood like and did it have an impact on the type of adult he was?
#2.How many wives and children did he have? #3. Who was his general or second in command?  Again, thank you for your help.

Answer
Dear Katrina,

I did not study much into the childhood of Qin Shi Huang's childhood so I can only tell you as much as I know. By the way, I would like to point out that his surname is actually not Qin. He named the dynasty as the Qin dynasty but his actual name was actually Ying Zheng. The rest of the answers are as follow:

#1: Ying Zheng was the son of Ying Ren, who in turn was the son of a concubine of the king of Qin. Ying Zheng had a miserable and insecure childhood.

#2: Most of the records on his sons and concubines and wife are missing. I believe they will be uncovered as more of the underground burial chamber of Qin Shi Huang (the terracotta army etc) gets uncovered. A lot of childless concubines were buried with Qin Shi Huang in his funeral so that explains why some of the records are missing. However, he certainly has at least 2 sons - the eldest is Fu Su who committed suicide after believing that his father's will for him is to die and not ascend the throne. That was actually a plot by the chief advisor Li Shi and the chief eunuch Zhao Gao, fearing that they would lose their powers if Fu Su ascended the throne.

#3: The commander of the army is actually a man named Meng Tian, who was on good relationship with Fu Su, but in terms of power, Li Shi and Zhao Gao had more power.

Hope it helps.