Qin and Han · Ruler

Qin Ershi 秦二世

Qín Èrshì

Attested BC 210 - BC 207

Passages: 44
Chapters: 17
Histories: 5

Overview

The translated histories identify Qin Ershi as a royal family member and ruler. This record brings together 44 passages from 17 chapters across 5 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Qin Ershi	秦二世	Qín Èrshì
Regnal
Title
Title	Crown Prince	太子	Taizi
Title	Er Shi	二世	Er Shi
Personal	Hu Hai	胡亥	Hu Hai
Personal name	Huhai	胡亥	Huhai
Title	Prince Hu Hai	公子胡亥	Gongzi Hu Hai
Personal name	Qin Er Shi	秦二世	Qín Èr Shì
Regnal	Qin Ershi	秦二世	Qín Èrshì
Title	Qin Ershi	秦二世	Qín Èrshì
Title	Second Emperor	二世	Èrshì
Title	Second Emperor	二世	Ershi
Regnal	Second Emperor	二世
Title	Second Emperor	二世
Title	Second Emperor	二世	Er Shi
Regnal	Second Emperor	二世	Èrshì
Regnal	Second Emperor	二世皇帝	Ershi Huangdi
Regnal	Second Emperor	二世	Ershi
Title	Second Emperor of Qin	秦二世	Qín Èrshì
Personal	Second Emperor of Qin	秦二世	Qin Er Shi
Title	Second Emperor of Qin	秦二世	Qín Èr Shì
Title	Second Emperor of Qin	二世
Alternate name	Second Generation	二世	Ershi

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · hanshu:001:s0527, shiji:048:s0007, shiji:088:s0025, shiji:099:s0084, xintangshu:113:s0087
Sex: male
Strongly inferred · hanshu:059:s0023, hanshu:067:s0105, liangshu:038:s0309, shiji:025:s0017, shiji:073:s0170, shiji:102:s0023, shiji:113:s0004

Roles

Royal Family Member
Ruler

Life and dates

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: BC 210-207 · Western Interval: Start: BC 210 · End: BC 207
Strongly inferred · xintangshu:113:s0087
Source Date: Text: 二世 · Western Interval: Start: BC 209 · End: BC 207
Strongly inferred · hanshu:067:s0105
Source Date: Text: 二世 · Western Interval: Start: BC 210 · End: BC 207
Explicit event contextual date · hanshu:059:s0023
Source Date: Text: 二世 · Western Year: BC 209
Explicit event contextual date · hanshu:041:s0086, shiji:099:s0084
Source Date: Text: 二世元年 · Western Year: BC 209
Explicit event contextual date · shiji:048:s0007
Source Date: Text: 二世時 · Western Interval: Start: BC 209 · End: BC 207
Explicit event contextual date · shiji:113:s0004
Source Date: Text: 二世時 · Western Interval: Start: BC 209 · End: BC 207
Explicit · shiji:113:s0004
Source Date: Text: 大同十一年 · Western Year: AD 545
Explicit event contextual date · zizhitongjian:159:s0003, zizhitongjian:159:s0003a, zizhitongjian:159:s0133c
Source Date: Text: 始皇三十七年 · Western Year: BC 210
Explicit event contextual date · shiji:088:s0025
Source Date: Text: 秦二世 · Western Interval: Start: BC 210 · End: BC 207
Strongly inferred · liangshu:038:s0309
Source Date: Text: 秦二世之時 · Western Interval: Start: BC 210 · End: BC 207
Explicit · shiji:073:s0170
Source Date: Text: 秦二世宿軍無用之地 · Western Interval: Start: BC 210 · End: BC 207
Explicit event contextual date · shiji:025:s0017
Source Date: Text: 胡亥 · Western Interval: Start: BC 210 · End: BC 207
Explicit · shiji:083:s0163
Source Date: Text: 至於二世 · Western Interval: Start: BC 210 · End: BC 207
Explicit event contextual date · shiji:102:s0023

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

Sibling of Fusu (扶蘇)
Kinship Term: prince / 公子 · Shared Parentage: full · Subject Role: brother · Object Role: brother
Child of Qin Shihuang (秦始皇帝)
Kinship Term: prince / 公子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
Kinship Term: younger son / 少子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: son · Object Role: father
Sibling of Prince Fusu (公子扶蘇)
Shared Parentage: full · Subject Relative Age: younger

Career and standing

Second Emperor of Qin / 秦二世
Explicit · hanshu:001:s0527
Title: Second Emperor of Qin
Explicit · hanshu:001:s0175
Title: Second Emperor of Qin / 二世 · Action: held throne · Provenance: Mode: speech-report · Speaker Person Id: Chen She (陳涉)
Explicit · shiji:048:s0013
Title: Second Emperor / 二世皇帝 · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 喪至咸陽已葬 · Western Year: BC 210
Explicit · shiji:088:s0048

Places and affiliations

Qin / 秦
Explicit · hanshu:001:s0527
Label: Qin / 秦 · Relation: ruled
Explicit · liangshu:038:s0309
Polity: Qin / 秦 · Relation: ruled
Explicit · hanshu:059:s0023, hanshu:067:s0105, hanshu:067:s0114, shiji:025:s0017, shiji:073:s0170, shiji:088:s0048, shiji:102:s0023
Place: border regions / 邊陲 · Relation: stationed-troops-at
Explicit · shiji:025:s0017

Works and attributed material

Kind: edict · Role: author · Other Person Id: Meng Tian (蒙恬)
Explicit · shiji:088:s0075
Kind: edict · Role: author · Other Person Id: Meng Yi (蒙毅)
Explicit · shiji:088:s0056, shiji:088:s0057, shiji:088:s0058, shiji:088:s0059

Events and relationships

Kind: diplomatic · Role: actor · Action: incurred-resentment · Place: Xiongnu / 匈奴
Explicit · shiji:025:s0018
Kind: political · Role: reigning-ruler · Action: reign-during · Organization: Meng clan / 蒙氏 · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 秦二世之時 · Western Interval: Start: BC 210 · End: BC 207
Explicit event contextual date · shiji:073:s0170
Kind: military · Role: commander · Action: stationed-armies
Explicit · shiji:025:s0017
Relation: entrusted-to · Person Id: Zhao Gao (趙高)
Explicit · liangshu:038:s0309
Relation: entrusted-power-to · Person Id: Zhao Gao (趙高) · Provenance: Mode: historical-example · Speaker Person Id: Emperor Wu of Liang (梁武帝)
Explicit · zizhitongjian:159:s0133c

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: failed to govern himself; trusted slander; lost state and ancestral temples · Provenance: Mode: quotation · Speaker Person Id: Sima Xiangru (司馬相如)
Explicit · hanshu:067:s0114, hanshu:067:s0115, hanshu:067:s0117
Assessment: strong-but-exhausted-by-endless-warfare · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · shiji:025:s0017, shiji:025:s0018, shiji:025:s0019

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Book of Han, Chapter 1Volume 1: Annals of Emperor Gaozu 1 · 4 passages

秦二世元年秋七月，陳涉起蘄，至陳，自立為楚王，遣武臣、張耳、陳餘略趙地。 In the first year of the Second Emperor of Qin, in autumn, in the seventh month, Chen She rose at Qi. He reached Chen, set himself up as King of Chu, and sent Wu Chen, Zhang Er, and Chen Yu to seize the territory of Zhao.

楊熊走之滎陽，二世使使斬之以徇。 Yang Xiong fled to Xingyang. The Second Emperor sent an envoy to execute him as a warning to others.

秦相趙高恐，乃殺二世，使人來，欲約分王關中，沛公不許。 The Qin Chancellor Zhao Gao became afraid, so he killed the Second Emperor and sent men to propose dividing Guanzhong into kingdoms. Pei Gong refused.

九月，趙高立二世兄子子嬰為秦王。 In the ninth month, Zhao Gao installed the Second Emperor's nephew Zi Ying as King of Qin.

Book of Han, Chapter 41Volume 32: Zhang Er and Chen Yu · 1 passage

秦將詐稱二世使使遺良書，不封，曰：「良嘗事我，得顯幸，誠能反趙為秦，赦良罪，貴良。」 A Qin commander, falsely claiming to act for the Second Emperor, sent Li Liang an unsealed letter saying: "Liang once served me and received manifest favor. If he can truly turn Zhao back to Qin, I will pardon Liang's crime and honor Liang."

Book of Han, Chapter 59Volume 50: Zhang, Feng, Ji and Zheng · 1 passage

以故不聞其過，陵夷至於二世，天下土崩。 The ruler therefore never heard his own faults; decline ran on to the Second Emperor, and the realm fell apart.

Book of Han, Chapter 67Volume 57b: Sima Xiangru · 2 passages

還過宜春宮，相如奏賦以哀二世行失。 On the way back the imperial train passed Yichun Palace, where Xiangru offered a rhapsody mourning the Second Emperor's moral failure.

弭節容與兮，歷吊二世。 I check the horses, let the carriage drift, and halt where the Second Emperor lies.

Book of Han, Chapter 75Volume 64b: Yan, Zhu, Wuqiu, Zhufu, Xu, Yan, Zhong, Wang, and Jia 2 · 1 passage

然地南不過閩越，北不過太原，而天下潰畔，禍卒在於二世之末，長城之歌至今未絕。 Even so Qin never pushed south beyond Min-Yue or north beyond Taiyuan, yet the empire shattered. Calamity struck under the Second Emperor, and the ballad of the Great Wall still haunts us.

Book of Han, Chapter 96Volume 85: Gu Yong and Du Ye · 1 passage

秦所以二世十六年而亡者，養生泰奢，奉終泰厚也。 Qin perished in the sixteenth year of the Second Emperor because life was nurtured with excessive luxury and funerals with excessive pomp.

Book of Liang, Chapter 38Volume 38: Zhu Yi; He Chen · 1 passage

猶二世之委趙高，元後之付王莽。 Think of Er Shi handing everything to Zhao Gao, or Empress Yuan giving the realm to Wang Mang.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 25Treatise on the Pitch-Pipes · 1 passage

秦二世宿軍無用之地，連兵於邊陲，力非弱也； Qin Er Shi stationed armies in useless places and kept troops connected at the borders; his strength was not slight.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 48House of Chen She · 3 passages

二世元年七月，發閭左適戍漁陽，九百人屯大澤鄉。 In the seventh month of the first year of the Second Emperor's reign, a levy was raised to conscript commoners for garrison duty at Yuyang. Nine hundred men were assembled at Daze Township.

吾聞二世少子也，不當立，當立者乃公子扶蘇。 I have heard that the Second Emperor is the younger son and was never meant to take the throne. The rightful heir was Prince Fusu.

今或聞無罪，二世殺之。 Now word has it that, though Fusu committed no crime, the Second Emperor had him killed.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 73Biographies of Bai Qi and Wang Jian · 1 passage

秦二世之時，王翦及其子賁皆已死，而又滅蒙氏。 In the time of Qin Ershi, Wang Jian and his son Ben had both already perished, and they also extinguished the Meng clan.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 83Biographies of Lu Zhonglian and Zou Yang · 2 passages

李斯竭忠，胡亥極刑。 Li Si devoted himself with utmost loyalty, yet Huhai subjected him to the cruelest punishment.

願大王孰察卞和、李斯之意，而後楚王、胡亥之聽，無使臣為箕子、接輿所笑。 I beg Your Majesty to examine closely the true intentions of Bian He and Li Si, and not to listen as the King of Chu and Huhai did, lest your servant become an object of ridicule alongside Jizi and Jieyu.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 88Biography of Meng Tian · 16 passages

高既私事公子胡亥，喻之決獄。 Gao had privately attached himself to Prince Hu Hai and tutored him in the adjudication of legal cases.

是時丞相李斯、公子胡亥、中車府令趙高常從。 At the time, only Chancellor Li Si, Prince Hu Hai, and Zhao Gao, the Commander of the Central Chariot Bureau, were in constant attendance.

高雅得幸於胡亥，欲立之，又怨蒙毅法治之而不為己也。 Zhao Gao had long enjoyed the favor of Hu Hai and wished to place him on the throne. He also harbored a grudge against Meng Yi, who had once prosecuted him strictly by the law without any regard for personal considerations.

因有賊心，乃與丞相李斯、公子胡亥陰謀，立胡亥為太子。 Driven by these treacherous ambitions, he conspired with Chancellor Li Si and Prince Hu Hai to install Hu Hai as the heir apparent.

太子已立，遣使者以罪賜公子扶蘇、蒙恬死。 Once the succession was settled, they sent an envoy bearing charges of crime against Prince Fusu and Meng Tian, commanding them to take their own lives.

胡亥以李斯舍人為護軍。 Hu Hai appointed a retainer of Li Si's as Protector General to take command of the army.

使者還報，胡亥已聞扶蘇死，即欲釋蒙恬。 When the envoy returned with his report, Hu Hai, having learned of Fusu's death, was inclined to release Meng Tian.

毅還至，趙高因為胡亥忠計，欲以滅蒙氏，乃言曰：「臣聞先帝欲舉賢立太子久矣，而毅諫曰『不可』。 When Meng Yi returned from his mission, Zhao Gao, under the pretense of offering loyal counsel to Hu Hai while seeking to destroy the Meng clan, addressed the new Emperor: "Your servant has heard that the late Emperor long wished to choose a worthy heir and install a Crown Prince, but Yi remonstrated against it, saying, 'It must not be done.'

胡亥聽而系蒙毅於代。 Hu Hai heeded Zhao Gao's counsel and had Meng Yi imprisoned at Dai.

喪至咸陽，已葬，太子立為二世皇帝，而趙高親近，日夜毀惡蒙氏，求其罪過，舉劾之。 When the funeral cortege reached Xianyang and the burial was complete, the Crown Prince was installed as the Second Emperor. Zhao Gao insinuated himself ever closer to the throne, slandering the Meng clan day and night, dredging up any pretext for charges, and filing formal impeachments against them.

胡亥不聽。 But Hu Hai would not listen.

而遣御史曲宮乘傳之代，令蒙毅曰：「先主欲立太子而卿難之。 Instead, he dispatched the Imperial Secretary Qu Gong by relay post to Dai with a message for Meng Yi: "The late sovereign wished to install a Crown Prince, but you opposed it.

以臣不知太子之能，則太子獨從，周旋天下，去諸公子絕遠，臣無所疑矣。 If you claim your servant failed to recognize the Crown Prince's abilities, consider that the Crown Prince alone accompanied the late sovereign on his tours throughout the realm and stood far above all the other princes. Your servant had no cause for doubt.

夫先主之舉用太子，數年之積也，臣乃何言之敢諫，何慮之敢謀！ The late sovereign's choice of heir was the fruit of years of deliberation. What words would your servant have dared speak in remonstrance? What counsel would he have presumed to offer?

使者知胡亥之意，不聽蒙毅之言，遂殺之。 But the envoy already knew Hu Hai's true intentions. He refused to heed Meng Yi's words and put him to death.

二世又遣使者之陽周，令蒙恬曰：「君之過多矣，而卿弟毅有大罪，法及內史。」 The Second Emperor then dispatched another envoy to Yangzhou with a message for Meng Tian: "Your offenses have been many, and your younger brother Yi stands guilty of grave crimes. By law, the sentence extends to you as well."

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 99Biographies of Liu Jing and Shusun Tong · 6 passages

數歲，陳勝起山東，使者以聞，二世召博士諸儒生問曰：「楚戍卒攻蘄入陳，於公如何？」 Several years later, Chen Sheng rose east of the mountains. When an envoy reported this, the Second Emperor summoned the erudites and scholar-students and asked, "Chu garrison soldiers have attacked Qi and entered Chen. What do you gentlemen make of this?"

願陛下急發兵擊之。」 We wish Your Majesty to urgently send troops and strike them.'

二世怒，作色。 The Second Emperor was enraged, his expression darkening.

二世喜曰：「善。」 The Second Generation was pleased and said: 'Good.'

於是二世令御史案諸生言反者下吏，非所宜言。 The Second Emperor then ordered the Imperial Secretary to investigate those scholars who had called it rebellion and hand them over to the authorities, for speaking what was improper.

秦以不蚤定扶蘇，令趙高得以詐立胡亥，自使滅祀，此陛下所親見。 Because the Qin failed to designate Fusu early, Zhao Gao was able to fraudulently enthrone Huhai, bringing about the extinction of the Qin sacrificial line—this is something Your Majesty witnessed personally.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 102Biographies of Zhang Shizhi and Feng Tang · 1 passage

以故不聞其過，陵遲而至於二世，天下土崩。 Because of this, the throne never learned of its own failings. The dynasty declined by degrees until the Second Emperor, when the empire crumbled to dust.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 113Treatise on the Nanyue · 1 passage

至二世時，南海尉任囂病且死，召龍川令趙佗語曰：「聞陳勝等作亂，秦為無道，天下苦之，項羽、劉季、陳勝、吳廣等州郡各共興軍聚眾，虎爭天下，中國擾亂，未知所安，豪傑畔秦相立。 When the Second Emperor's reign began, the Commandant of Nanhai, Ren Xiao, fell gravely ill and lay near death. He summoned Zhao Tuo, the Magistrate of Longchuan, and told him: "I have heard that Chen Sheng and the others have risen in revolt. Qin has ruled without the Way, and the whole realm suffers for it. Xiang Yu, Liu Ji, Chen Sheng, Wu Guang, and men across the commanderies and districts have all raised armies and gathered followers, fighting over the empire like tigers. The Central Plains are thrown into chaos, and no one knows where peace will come from. Great men everywhere have turned against Qin and set themselves up as rival lords.

New Book of Tang, Chapter 113Volume 113 Biographies 38: Tang, Zhang, Xu · 1 passage

秦、漢廣事四夷，造宮室，至二世土崩，武帝末年戶口減半。 Qin and Han both campaigned widely and built palaces on a vast scale—Qin collapsed under the Second Emperor, and by the end of Emperor Wu's reign the registered population had been cut in half.

Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, Chapter 159Volume 159 Liang Records 15 · 1 passage

二世之委趙高，元後之付王莽，呼鹿為馬，又可法歟？ The Second Emperor entrusted Zhao Gao; Empress Yuan entrusted Wang Mang—calling a deer a horse—is that law?