English Version
In the previous two articles, we briefly looked at the real figure and achievements of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China and one of the historical inspirations behind Kingdom. From here, the story becomes a little more mysterious.
Qin Shi Huang, whose personal name was Zheng, unified China for the first time in history. He is said to have begun building his own mausoleum as soon as he took the throne. At the same time, whether because he sensed the limits of his own life or because he was influenced by men known as fangshi—mystics who could also resemble con artists—the exact reason is unclear. But after unifying China and claiming a status beyond the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, he is said to have begun seeing himself as something more than an ordinary human being.
What he sought was a way to become immortal.
According to one theory about the mysterious immigrant clan known in Japan as the Hata clan, they were descendants of Qin Shi Huang. Another legend says that a man named Xu Fu, who had been secretly ordered by the emperor to find the elixir of immortality, eventually reached Japan and settled there. There may, of course, have been other reasons why Qin Shi Huang was so obsessed with finding this legendary medicine.
Mount Tai and the Ritual for Heaven and Earth
After unifying China, Qin Shi Huang traveled through his realm. During one of these tours, he visited Mount Tai and performed the Fengshan ceremony, a sacred rite that in ancient China was reserved for a Son of Heaven chosen by the gods.
Records of this ritual before Qin Shi Huang go back to the Zhou dynasty, which followed the Shang. For a long period, no ruler had performed it. The ceremony was meant to pray before the gods of heaven and earth for peace throughout the realm. However, by Qin Shi Huang’s time, the proper procedure had been lost, so the emperor carried it out according to his own judgment.
It is said that one of the ambitions he prayed for at that time was immortality.
This desire is often connected with the Chinese belief system known as the search for immortals. By around the 3rd century BCE, and possibly even earlier, China had traditions involving meditation, breathing practices, and spiritual training aimed at becoming a xian, or immortal sage. Practitioners known as fangshi claimed knowledge of these methods. Within this worldview, a fangshi who completed the training could supposedly gain the power of eternal life.
In reality, many people who called themselves fangshi were apparently more like frauds seeking money and influence. Later, after Daoism developed, figures of this type came to be known as Daoist priests.
As a side note, many of the Daoist masters who appear in Investiture of the Gods are fictional characters based on this same tradition of immortal-sage thought.
Returning to Qin Shi Huang, the state of Yan is said to have had many such self-proclaimed fangshi. After the unification of China, some of them may have tried to win the emperor’s favor by using their knowledge of immortality lore. As a result, Qin Shi Huang ordered men such as Xu Fu to search for the elixir of life. It is also said that some of the “miracle medicines” these mystics gave him contained mercury.
Mercury, of course, is highly toxic. If these accounts are true, the very substance he took in pursuit of eternal life may have helped shorten his life instead.
Why Did Qin Shi Huang Seek Immortality?
Qin Shi Huang placed enormous importance on rule by law, which was unusual for his time. In later eras, figures such as Zhuge Liang Kongming would also become famous for imposing strict civil and military laws after the state of Shu was established.
A fangshi who fled from Qin Shi Huang is quoted in the Records of the Grand Historian as criticizing the emperor in harsh terms. According to that account, Qin Shi Huang was stubborn by nature and, having risen to rule all under heaven, believed he could control even history and tradition as he pleased. Prison officials were favored, while the seventy scholars at court were not properly used. Ministers simply received orders. The emperor’s pleasures were said to be executions, and the whole realm trembled, showing only surface-level loyalty. Because every decision had to be made by Qin Shi Huang himself, he processed documents day and night in fixed quantities measured by weight, sometimes without even resting. The account concludes by describing him as the embodiment of absolute power.
At first glance, this sounds like a simple denunciation. Yet while he is portrayed as a tyrant intoxicated with authority, the description also resembles the strict internal administration later carried out by Zhuge Liang after Liu Bei’s death. And because Qin Shi Huang’s reforms involved capable officials such as Li Si, the complaint can also be read as the parting words of a frustrated mystic whose influence had failed.
Qin Shi Huang is often seen as a tyrant who tried to deify himself. But it is also possible that, in order to stabilize the unprecedented achievement of unifying China, he sought the elixir of immortality as a way to make his new empire last forever.
For travelers interested in sites connected to Qin Shi Huang, such as Mount Tai or imperial mausoleum areas, visit only official, open routes and follow local rules. Many of these places are protected historic sites, not locations for trespassing or occult exploration.
Japanese Language
過去2回にわたってキングダムのモデルになった始皇帝の実像や功績について簡単に紹介してきましたが、ここからは 少しミステリアスなお話 になります。中国を史上初めて統一した政こと始皇帝は自身の墓となる陵墓を王位についた段階で建設し始めていました。その一方で、自分自身の寿命を悟ったからなのか、それとも当時の方士と呼ばれる詐欺師のような人間に吹き込まれたのか…。理由は定かではありませんが、中国を統一し、 三皇五帝を超えた始皇帝は自分自身を普通の人間とは違うと考え始めた と言われています。
そして求めたのが 「不老不死」になる方法 でした。謎の渡来人である秦氏の正体の一説によれば、 秦氏は始皇帝の末裔 、もしくは 始皇帝から不老不死の薬を見つける密命を受けた徐福という人物が日本に辿り着いて定住した という逸話があります。くわしくは以下の記事をご覧下さい。謎の渡来人 秦氏 ・ 秦氏はどこから日本へ渡ったのか？。もちろん、これ以外にも 始皇帝が不老不死の秘薬を探し求めていた のには理由があるのかもしれません。始皇帝の求めた不老不死の秘薬。
。画像引用元： 始皇帝 。始皇帝は中国を統一したあと、国内の巡業を行なっています。この時、泰山という場所で、古代中国の時代から神に選ばれた天子のみが行なった「封禅」という儀式を執り行います。始皇帝以前にこれを行なった記録は、殷の後の王朝である周の時代であり、その期間は誰もこの封禅をおこなっていませんでした。この儀式は天地の神前において、天下泰平を安寧する目的のものでしたが、始皇帝の時代には封禅の正しい手順の記録がなかったことから、始皇帝は自分自身の判断でこの儀式を行います。
その時に願ったと言われているのが 「不老不死」 という野望だと言われているのです。これらは神仙思想に基づく考え方だったとも言われています。神仙思想は紀元前3世紀ころ、あるいはもっと古代から中国では存在しており、瞑想や気功の体得によって「仙人」になることを目指す「方士」と呼ばれる修行者が存在していました。神仙思想という一種の考え方の中では、この 修業を完成させた方士は不老不死の力を持つ とも言われていたのです。実際にはこれらの方士を名乗る殆どは金目当ての詐欺師のような存在であったそうですが、方士は道教が成立したあとに道士と呼ばれることになります。
少し話がずれますが、 「封神演義」で活躍した多くの道士は、この神仙思想に基づく架空の登場人物達 でした。話を戻しますが、燕の国には当時このような方士を名乗る人物が多く居たようで、 始皇帝が中国を統一した後に、神仙思想の知識を武器に取り入ろうとした と言われています。この結果、徐福などに不老不死の秘薬を探すように命じたり、これらの自称方士が 始皇帝に渡した妙薬の中には「水銀」が混ざっていた とも言われています。言うまでもなく「水銀」は猛毒であり、これが原因で始皇帝は短命に終わったのかも知れません。
。始皇帝が不老不死を目指した理由とは？。始皇帝は法による統治に非常に重きを置いた人物であり、この考え方はそれまでになかったことでした。後の時代になれば例えば諸葛亮孔明などは蜀が国として成立した後、内政や軍政に厳しい法律を課したことで有名です。また、始皇帝から逃げた方士は以下のように史記で始皇帝を評しています。始皇帝は生まれながらの強情者で、成り上がって天下を取ったため、歴史や伝統でさえ何でも思い通りにできると考えている。獄吏ばかりが優遇され、70人もいる博士は用いられない。
大臣らは命令を受けるだけ。始皇帝の楽しみは処刑ばかりで天下は怯えまくって、うわべの忠誠を示すのみと言う。決断はすべて始皇帝が下すため、昼と夜それぞれに重さで決めた量の書類を処理し、時には休息さえ取らず向かっている。まさに権勢の権化と断じた 。引用元： 始皇帝 。これは、一見すると悪評のようにも見えますが、権勢の権化とは言われているものの、実はこれは 諸葛亮孔明が劉備の亡くなった後に行なった内政と非常に似ている のです。また、実際の改革事業には李斯などの人物も関わっていることから、いわゆるペテンの代表であった方士の捨て台詞のようにも見えてしまいますね。
自身を神格化しようとした暴君とも捉えられがちですが、過去に誰も成し遂げなかった中国の統一を安定させるために、始皇帝は不老不死の秘薬を求めたのかもしれません
