The First Emperor Of China Who Tried To Conquer Death | First Emperor | Timeline

hi everyone welcome to this timeline documentary just before you watch I want to tell you about my new History Channel it's called history it's it's like the Netflix for history it's got hundreds of these documentaries on there and interviews with some of the world's best historians but having new stuff all the time for example today I'm filming in this one of the few remaining Lancaster bombers for a show about the dam Busters raid of 1943 if you want to know more about history and follow the information just below this video or search online for history it's and make sure you use the code timeline to get a special introductory offer now enjoy this show [Music] for 2000 years there has been a legend of a warrior king there is only one way to survive and that is super [Applause] he founded a mighty country China he was its first emperor and his empire became his fortress protected by a great wall the legend says he was a tyrant driven mad by power I know who's responsible and heaven count he cheated death and built a tomb the like of which mankind has never seen but it wasn't enough he wanted to live forever where does it come from immortality and invite to not have it who does a man with one extraordinary vision how big is this supposed to be how big is this going to be and he left a legacy that has lasted over 2,000 years nor defies son speaks Oh Turner when the first emperor was laid to rest the legend says he was the most powerful man on earth that for 30 years he'd subjected China to the most violent and bloody phase in its history yet achieved the impossible he unified of people [Music] ten times as many subjects as the Pharaohs of Egypt across an empire that would outlast Rome by a thousand years [Music] China was his when the doors of his tomb are closed for the final time the most fantastic part of that legend was born [Music] the great ruler it said was sealed in a bronze model of his world at the heart of the largest mausoleum on earth surrounded by rivers and seas of flowing mercury [Music] and so the legend remained for over 2,000 years [Music] Jeffrey regal from the University of California wants to separate fact from fiction he has come to China to examine the latest research on the first emperor unlocking the truth behind one of the world's greatest legends what we knew from these early stories from these legends was the tale of a person who seemed from those sources to be larger than life almost almost impossibly large as a as a real figure as an historical figure even though we knew that of course he had indeed accomplished the unification of the Empire how did he do it how did it how did it come about how how could such an enormous historical personage exist the reality of the Emperor's life has long been shrouded in mystery for two millennia the only detailed information came from a single written history compiled a hundred years after his death the shi-jiiy the records of the grand historian Sumathi yin the foundation of the legend we see the first emperor from many different perspectives and we able to so recreate the first emperor from the position of his high officials from those who tried to assassinate him from the their kings who fought sinned against him even the ordinary person in the street it's an entire world that Samar Chen has recreated for us but for 2,000 years all we had was this text [Music] then in 1974 archaeologists found the Terracotta Army it stunned the world and the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century became the first real physical substance to the legend [Music] it's scale is unprecedented terracotta figures were known about from other burial sites but never on this scale never life-size or in such incredible detail and never an entire army if an individual could take with him in death 6,000 figures at first and then it grew to 7,000 and finally to 8,500 and as of and and and as of the present present date it's even larger and we don't really know how many figures were created then we began to see that yes there was some truth to these stories it's kind of like finding the real Camelot except that it is of course a thousand ten thousand times more interesting and more detail and more fascinating but the huge army is just the beginning [Music] the researchers have so far uncovered over a hundred and eighty separate pits and they're still digging and the more they unearth here the greater the riches promised by the ultimate prize the Emperor's to itself for 2,000 years all that could be seen was a vast mound of earth as big as the largest Egyptian pyramids now professor Jeffrey regal is hoping that new experimental archaeology will unlock the secrets of the tomb and finally reveal the truth behind the legend of the Emperor for the first time archaeologists are probing the mound and regal hopes to be able to answer centuries-old questions is the Emperor's tomb actually there has it been plundered and could it as the legend says really contain rivers and seas of flowing mercury and if this turns out to be true what does that say about the rest of the incredible legend if someone could be responsible for a burial complex of that size of that enormity then yes all of this now suddenly rings true [Music] the first emperor shows little sign of greatness the day he becomes king of the Western Chinese state of Qin it's 247 BC and the omens aren't good the previous king of Qin has lasted just three years Majesty the king is dead long live the king King Ning Chen is barely 13 years old already the Sharks begin to circle hungry for power and caught up at their heart is his own mother My dear boy I'm so sorry but the Queen has a longtime lover the last King's advisor Liu Bei [Music] Magister it would be my honor to serve you as Prime Minister let's not talk about this since tonight but you should confirm ankle-deep away as your prime minister as soon as you can we all thing is for the best sleep now good night Iceland serve you and guide you as a father you will get him to do it tomorrow once you're under be patient why should we wait this is our time to rule all I need is his appointment trust me goodnight nations like chin have always been run as a feudal family business by men like lube way but there is a revolution coming that will change all that first here in chin and ultimately the whole of China [Music] the revolution will be led by a young scholar named Lee su just months after Yin Yin becomes King Lee su arrives at his court looking for a job but the man who hires and fires here is the Queen's lover lu buwei now Prime Minister impressed by Lisa's obvious ambition he is quick to take him onto his staff it's an impulsive decision he will come to regret [Music] the scholar already has a clear idea of how things work here and how to make his name I never expected rats in a royal palace but then why not drawn but a chance of an easy meal conditioned by fear control the food and the fear and you control the rat same everywhere Prime Minister lu buwei allows Lisu an audience with the young king without taking care to be present himself we had a strongest date within the seas by taking advantage of our own strengths and the weaknesses of our enemies surely but the power Qin has at its disposal it would be possible to completely wake up the feudal lords uniting the whole world under one rule this kind of opportunity sir only comes once in 10,000 years your destiny rarely ever creates a man great enough to take advantage but I believe the great ruler is you majesty and the time is now [Music] lisu awakens in yunjin a realization that real power is his he just needs the courage and the vision to use it and over the next decade he will do just that in the ten years since he came to the throne in 247 BC pinging Jim has strengthened his power through more he fights for his life and for a dream to forge a new nation China many great Kings have tried before him and all affair but this time will be different because young gen is different the youngest king to lead his nation into war he is its greatest warrior a visionary leader burning with ambition if anyone can unify China it is him ancient China is made up of seven warring States six of the seven have been weakened by endless warfare while one continues to grow at their expense the state of Qin well in its campaign against the state of Zhao the Qin army takes over 10,000 prisoners the rules of war are explicitly prisoners must be cared for and the day is yours and this is yours however looking after captives would slow down his campaign you want to know what to do it [Music] there's only one way to treat Wigner's and that is exploited there's only one way for ten to survive and that is all 10,000 shall prisoners will be executed and Yin Jen defines his quest for Empire bloody utterly ruthless and totally dependent on the army for 2,000 years no one had any idea what that army was really like but now it can be seen frozen in time for Geoffrey regal this is an opportunity to answer his first great question about the Emperor's meteoric rise to power militarily how did he do it [Music] joining regal is dr. yuan who has devoted his entire career to understanding these mysterious figures and the military power of the first emperor to date they have unearthed over seven and a half thousand individual warriors in all respects except living flesh and blood these were real soldiers the people who made these figures and arranged and arranged them were following real military procedures so this really represents what the Qin army looked like this gives us an idea of Qin military formation and the way in which the Qin Army was actually put into the field the big surprise was that the front three lines were highly mobile infantry it appears these were the Emperor's shock troops behind them came the heavy infantry who in turn were supported by columns of chariots and sweeping up behind a fast-moving cavalry but it's not just the precision of the Army's formation that has astonished the researchers it's the weapons they carried only the metal parts have survived but they are the finest quality bronze weapons found anywhere in the world one of the most incredible finds is a sword perfectly preserved after 2,000 years in the ground this this knotch here in the sword shows us that this is a sword that was actually used this was a sword that was wielded by an actual soldier professor yuan has explained to me that this remarkable weapon is longer than any sword that existed before the qin started the qin dynasty started to make these significantly longer Qin Armorer's managed to perfect the art of bronze making to give their soldiers 30% extra reach and cutting power in close quarter combat and there is new evidence that shows quite how seriously the Qin took their ability to wage war Oh a Qin halberd part of the bronze assembly at the top of the halberd the sharpened bronze head was placed on the end of a 10 foot long staff making a powerful weapon this has an inscription what it says is that in the 5th year of the king of Chin's reign the Prime Minister of State lu buwei had this halberd made that's a guarantee of its quality and that it was made to a standard so that he himself was being held accountable for the effectiveness of the weapons that the soldiers were carrying into battle [Applause] the well-trained highly motivated Qin army equipped with precision weapons and led from the front by a ruthlessly ambitious King creates the perfect conquest machine [Applause] within seven years yang Jian captures 13 cities from the state of Han for further 20 cities from other states and repels a combined force intent on stopping him in his tracks but while foreign enemies are easily brushed aside inside his own court unseen enemies want to destroy him [Music] the official history records Ying Jen's coming of age at 20 years old as the defining moment the entire cord is assembled in celebration but not everyone's watching the show the Queen has a new favorite [Music] Marquess lau i in the eyes of the court though i is a unit which is an odd choice of companion for a woman with a history of important lovers but lau i is no eunuch he has fathered two sons by the queen who they have raised in secret and he intends to place one of them on the throne but the cana has his suspicions about his mother and her supposedly secret lover [Music] the state of chin is not a safe place for anybody the queen has kept her young sons secret in the care of eunuchs she believes are loyal to her but loyalties change quickly and the king has learned of their existence [Music] hello hi what I'm good I like what I saw Hey oh you are so heavy knowing it's only a matter of time before his plot to put the eldest boy on the throne has discovered the Queen's lover Marquess Lau I makes a desperate bid for power he has stolen royal seals giving him the authority to mobilize troops so you think you'll make a good king yes the boys have just condemned themselves as a direct threat to the king [Music] district forces under Lao eyes command approached the palace he knows his only chance is to catch the King unprepared with the palace lightly guarded and seized the throne Palace security is the responsibility of the Prime Minister lu buwei and he has just discovered Liao's plan to grab power what is it the Royal seized of missing majesty the ones used by military commanders I strongly recommend that we put all palace and regional forces on high alert really low high has disappeared it seems he may have taken the seals if he is able to mobilize troops the state could be at risk why would he do that why would a Marquess threaten us what could he hope to achieve I don't know majesty what would a unit do with a throne even he beheaded who owned earth would he leave it to humans don't have successes do they move away except of course this one does two pretenders to the throne courtesy of my mother some eunuch now if you don't mind I think we have a rebellion to crush Wow eyes forces feet no resistance as they approach the past what a trap is being set and they advance straight into it [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Wow eyes troops are annihilated and he is taken prisoner [Music] he said he did it for you you've executed him no not yet but I think you should come and say goodbye to armas mr. Lau before we take care of him I'm not going to let my boys say that of course not mama just you the boys they can't stay come on [Music] [Music] why didn't you tell me I don't know I below I move away I'm not the first cream to take another you've done more than that mama [Music] now lies execution is designed to send a very clear and deliberate message soon to be reinforced by killing every single member of his family starting with the most dangerous [Music] [Music] and the voice line you you see them as a threat they are not not now [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the first challenge to jung geun's reign is over and the lesson has been learned ruthless control becomes the standard treatment for all including his own family his mother has conspired against him and her sons have paid the price now iing gen is expected to add his prime minister and his own mother to his long list of victims lube way is under sentence of death for failing to protect his king but they have a special secret bond looking for forgiveness lube away yes for your mother but perhaps you should have thought a bit more carefully about who she slept with then you would not be helped okay you speak to me like that has any part I would dare speak to his son to tell him the truth I can forgive her and you forgive us I can and will do what is right for the king of Qin if I choose to show mercy then it is only the judgment of a ruler nothing [Music] the Prime Minister is exiled from the king his son and the Kings mother both parents lives are spared but within the year lu buwei will commit suicide a disgraced and broken man waiting in the wings his own Protege the scholar Lee su he will be the new power behind the throne perfecting a totalitarian ideology ready to impose on a unified China by 227 BC the Qin state has swallowed three of the independent states of China like a silkworm devouring a leaf panic spreads ahead of the advancing war machine the state of yin is next in the firing line and they know they will be powerless to resist a diplomatic mission is sent to the Qin court its aim to halt the advancing bandwagon in its tracks they bring peace offerings - kinging Jin the first is a map of Chin's conquests guaranteed to flatter the king the other gift is the severed head of a renegade Qin General returned as a sign that Yin will not Harbor Chin's enemies but the men carrying them are no diplomats they are professional assassins and neither expects to return from the mission alive the plan is for one assassin to distract Ying Jen by showing him the head while the second gets close enough to strike at his heart with a dagger bring it up [Music] the first assassin keeps his nerve but his accomplice is frozen with fear bring me his gift and let him wait outside he's going to have to act alone [Music] [Applause] since Lau is attempted coup engines greatest fear is betrayal and assassination now no one in court is armed except him and no one except him can summon troops engines new security system has failed the great Conqueror the invincible King was inches from death and he knows it from now on paranoia grows in engines mind for the rest of his reign images of death haunt his dreams it isn't so much the act of dying he fears but the realization that he is filling the spirit world with the souls of those he sacrificed souls who will all as soon as he is dead seek terrible revenge there is only one thing that can protect him in the next world a spirit army [Music] since the moment he became King Yin GN has planned for his own death a tomb is being constructed which by tradition will contain replicas of his most precious possessions including his army good that tradition will continue very good but on a scale no one has ever seen before how big is this supposed to be [Music] well it's a simple question how big is this supposed to be one of the most incredible aspects of the Terracotta Army is size not just the army itself but every single soldier each figure measures six feet tall an army of giants by the standards of the time China's Kings were known to bury miniature terracotta soldiers as spirit guards for the afterlife never a full sized army with state-of-the-art weapons he felt that in death that the spirits of his enemies might actually attempt to attack him and so he needed a spirit army these clay soldiers who would whose whose very substance would last forever he would need them in order to protect him from these from these spiritual enemies that he'd had before but it seems even the Terracotta Army was not enough closer to the Emperor's tomb mound a new pit has been discovered a research team under dr. Duan Jing Bo we're expecting to find an imperial palace guard but all they have on earth are empty suits of armor made of stone and no sign of any terracotta warriors to wear them Reagle believes the evidence points to an emperor more and more obsessed with death and betrayal oh yeah when we look at Chinese historical texts it's unprecedented that we would find or know about stone armor and in fact the belief of mr. Duan and his team and and their colleagues is that the burial of this stone armor may have had something to do with the rituals surrounding worship of the spirits of dead soldiers who suffered violent deaths whose whose bodies then could not what we're torn apart could not undergo the the proper kinds of burial ritual they didn't have in the Chinese definition of things a happy death so something had to be done for them because otherwise they might become vengeful spirits they might turn against the first emperor himself so here in this pit something is being provided for them so the back the wands team has so far found over 200 sets of stone armor in this one small pit but this excavation is just the corner of a pit as big as the Terracotta Army itself tens of thousands of stone armor suits were made ready for the spirits of dismembered soldiers by 223 BC Yin Jen stands on the brink of achieving his ultimate dream the unification of all of China he's taken all but two of the seven warring states with the largest state of Chu the last great prize to be claimed but the conquest machine has stalled the Chu army has destroyed his first invasion force and they're more than ready to do it again now half a million choose soldiers threatened to ending Jen's dream of empire in a desperate bid to overcome them he commits everything he has new provisions better weapons and half a million more men the Qin Army appears to have dug in for a long siege of the state of Chu two vast forces of equal size faced each other and the fate of China hangs in the balance what will ultimately tip that balance in favor of Qin can be seen in the remains of the Terracotta Army itself [Music] one of the greatest finds is a perfect replica of a Qin war chariot on its front a model of one of the deadliest weapons ever created a Qin crossbow the assault rifle of the 3rd century BC [Music] no functioning originals exist but weapons expert Mike Loades has had one recreated from the Chinese model it's a mighty weapon tremendous power the power comes from the bow this is a composite structure made of horn and sinew and that gives a really powerful spring the real key to this is the trigger mechanism the secret to how the whole thing works it's credibly ingenious so what we've got here is a weapon that will give us range a weapon that would deliver energy deliver power to have a thump into the enemy sufficient power to drive a crossbow bolt straight through flesh and bone 2:23 BC and the Qin army appears to be an immovable obstacle dug in for a long siege of the state of Chu [Music] it prompts the two generals to reconsider their advance position and they decide to withdraw to more defendable lines [Music] but what looks like the static Qin encampment is in fact an illusion the entire force is primed and ready to move immediately the moment their opponent's backs are turned [Music] [Applause] [Music] the last great obstacle to young Jen's Imperial dream is finally crushed the sole remaining independent state of Qi succumbs without a fight by 221 BC the ultimate prize is one Qin is now China his China at the age of 34 young jen is crowned with a veil of stars symbolizing the divinity of China's first emperor now his ministers are ready to suggest a title suitable for the greatest ruler in China's history your majesty of old there were the celestial sovereign the terrestrial sovereign and the great am I not the first great sovereign Emperor or Kass ruler of the whole love China or am I missing something majesty your vision humbles and inspires us it shall be so and my son will be the second divine Emperor and his son the third and so on on to ten thousand generations your majesty he called himself Qin Shi Huangdi literally translated this means he was the first august god of the Qin he regarded himself not only as a deified figure but as an initiator a creator someone who was beginning a long lineage and so with the help of his chief minister Lee Suh the first emperor Qin Shihuang put in place a system of governance that would long outlast him Lee su who arrived as a young scholar the year the emperor came to the throne has now become the new power behind it for 20 years he's perfected a system which will sweep away China's feudalist past once and for all but not everyone is ready for the revolution most illustris divide office Emperor the feudal lords are destroyed may we recommend that the sons of the imperial household be established as the new fuel rods everyone expects that with unification the feudal order will continue with power and privilege taken from the Emperor's enemies and given to his family and friends may please his majesty to give his consent but they are in for a shock Lee su only Lisu has correctly read the new political climate because he created it this is insane we have spent centuries enduring endless warfare at the hands of the feudal lords and now that we finally put them down we want to create more of the same but these will be members of the Imperial Household exactly the only force in a thousand years that has been able to create peace is the divine power of the Emperor there must be no loyalty but to the Emperor and his divine power must be executed in a most efficient way possible through officers who had no other interests except to fulfill his divine order without this the chaos and warfare will return which of course we do not want excellent he's right the Minister for justice is right I shall personally appoint six governors for the six command areas of the Empire 36 in all which of course is six times the number of the states I have conquered did I mention six is my favorite number Lee soos totalitarian philosophy is called legalism and there is evidence that shows how total the power of that new regime became rules Turks has been deciphering a series of legal documents from the tomb of a minor official in the distant reaches of the new Empire the text sets down rules that govern every part of every citizens daily life and the penalties for transgression if you look at the punishing system in the Qin legal system then physical punishments that include mutilation tattooing for example tattooing the body tattoo in the face cutting of parts of the limbs these were traditionally one among the most severe punishments for example there's there's one provision here that says if you have two people Texas fornicate then they ought to be send off to the market which is a polite way of saying that there will be beheaded on the market square so even private life here is part of sort of the tentacles of chin of chin law now to be universally applied to everybody who was a subject you know of this new world order called the Qin Empire [Music] in 220 BC Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi sets off to survey his new empire for the first time ever a secure and peaceful land he intends to keep it that way millions of deccan scripted soldiers are now freed from fighting ready to be reused the Empire is one but it must be secured with a great role for centuries the northern edges of civilized China have been ravaged by nomadic tribes and though the frontier towns have had defensive walls there were always plenty of gaps now that will change with the major wars over labor is plentiful and building begins on the greatest engineering project of the ancient world a single impregnable barrier to seal the Empire a Great Wall of China [Music] made of compacted earth it is 30 feet high and 3,000 miles long at its peak of production the records say over a million people are enslaved to build the Great Wall perhaps a quarter will die in the process the Emperor's demands on labor keep on growing with the Empire secure he turns his eyes to the fulfillment of his next great vision sending thousands more workers to build a tomb befitting the first divine ruler of all of China today all that can be seen is a vast earthen mound as big as the great Egyptian Pyramid at Giza the first clue to its possible contents was the Terracotta Army but that was nearly a mile from the tomb Mound when archaeologists dug into the space in between an incredible world opened up to date they have found over a hundred and eighty separate pits containing so much more than soldiers [Music] hundreds of terracotta dancers musicians and acrobats were built to the same exacting standards as the Emperor's precious army and the Imperial craftsmen freed from making weapons created perfect birds to stand in the artificial lakes of buried gardens and perhaps the most exquisite bronze artifact ever found a half scale model of the Imperial chariot to convey the Emperor in his underground world the burial mound it turns out is in fact at the center of an enormous necropolis an above ground and underground city for the for the first emperor it would provide him it would continue to provide him with all of the trappings of power with all of the protection that someone of his status required but there was no way to see the ultimate symbol of power the tomb itself yet again it was the ancient official history that provided the only clue but this time the account seemed too incredible to take at face value Lin Chang tortie knew sure your swatch and ginger t-shirt the Emperor sent more than 700 thousand convicts to dig down through three rivers and fill it with bronze on the floor of the vault there was created a map of his entire empire all of China he had artisans stick jewels into the ceiling to represent the sky the cosmos above the streams the ocean the text said were filled with Quicksilver with liquid mercury he had some kind of machine which circulated that mercury to imitate the actual flowing of the waters that it would be a kind of water clock a machine and that as long as it kept running the Emperor would continue to exist in his enclosed world a bronze tomb filled with liquid mercury the idea seems beyond fantasy the weight of the mercury alone would be more than 500 tons even though China has mercury or an abundance how could one man command such resources and could it be proved [Music] the tomb of the first emperor of China has been sealed for over 2,000 years but there is a way in using a new combination of techniques including ground-penetrating radar electrical resistance measurements and core samples the research team under Duan Ching Bou have been able to build up a three-dimensional model of the entire complex beginning with the outer walls of the necropolis and revealing for the first time the mausoleum structure hidden beneath the mound an early surprise was that the mausoleum appears as a vast divided pyramid with passages leading to the tomb from the east and west and when they took the all-important readings from the ground underneath the pyramid they discovered the tomb itself seen here as a clearly defined area marked in blue an underground space hermetically sealed for over 2,000 years it measures as big as a football field and though at first the pyramid appeared to be a solid closed structure covering over the tomb the outer surface of the tombs roof is in fact open to the sky or it would be if it hadn't been covered by a million tons of earth 2,000 years ago Don and his team have been probing that earth for almost a decade tracing the shape of the pyramid beneath their feet with a series of four thousand core samples and each one jeffrey regal realized could potentially hold an incredible piece of evidence direct from the tomb itself because if there was mercury there over the centuries mercury vapor could seep through the roof and into the surrounding soil where regal hopes they may be able to detect it a hunt on Darla handle mm ah does this ever shoot the hunting of a team yeah samples of this sort enable us to see the the supporting structure the rammed earth structure that supporting the entire Mound but of course what really interests us is what is the burial like so if the legend about the emperor having placed in the base of his tomb a map of all of China of all of his empire with rivers of flowing mercury if that legend is true then we can expect that a test of this soil will tell us whether or not it's true will either provide us with corroboration or won't the Chinese archaeologists have no immediate plans to excavate the tomb [Music] they have no way yet to preserve its contents and no desire to disturb the Emperor's spirit so for the foreseeable future the mercury test may be their only way to understand what's inside each of the 4,000 soil samples from the tomb mound has to be individually analyzed for mercury content that process has been ongoing and is almost complete [Music] by 215 BC the tomb itself is well on the way to completion but the man it is intended to house suddenly has a change of heart no the idea of an eternal afterlife however grand is no longer enough I will live on i well yeah [Music] 215 BC the first emperor of China is once again on the road he no longer trusts the security of his own court and has started taking practical steps to extend his life his doctors prescribed repeat doses of something long believed to increase longevity some sex with multiple partners but his new court physician Xue Phu has suggested something more chemical a substance whose eternal properties are thought ideal for the Emperor's tomb properties xufu hopes will keep him out of that tomb indefinitely if consumed the mystical substance a mercury have you got it yes majesty while at work Majesty all the world's alchemists agree that mercury is highly indicative of increased longevity how increased sire as with sex given the right application it can help a lot how much longer one can expect to live is not going to what is where does it come from zu for immortality where can he be found why do I the first divine sovereign Emperor of the whole of China not have it and if I do not have it sire there is a legend of a place where The Immortals live a series of islands caught upon lie where we believe the Immortals reside forever there are two types of Lydia want to restraint in the flight of the hung so upon death find him majesty you will go there find them and bring them back to me and then you will personally administer them to me majesty but the whereabouts of the islands are unknown and I have no means to get there even if I knew where to go give me whatever he needs yes majesty this is an imperial mission and my missions do not fail no majesty do you believe me yes majesty [Music] come sufu is given a small army of his own with which to conquer death [Music] thousands of young men and women are conscripted to help him search for the islands of Peng Lai the Emperor takes his first course of mercury pills if xufu is right it might help hold back the years until the elixirs can be found but rulers rarely die of natural causes accident or attempted assassination history doesn't record but the real cause of the fire in the Imperial encampment makes little difference for the Emperor there are always enemies unseen enemies enemies within he starts to withdraw further into his own world giving greater power to those close to the throne by 213 BC Lisu now promoted to prime minister has been left free to expand his totalitarian state beyond the mundane rules of life he decides it is now necessary to control thought free thought is to be suppressed starting with an act of terrible destruction entire libraries of bamboo Scrolls are burned only a single copy of each agricultural and medical text is kept secure in the imperial archive everything else is destroyed [Music] there are worse shocks to come those who try to hide their works are rounded up in their thousands branded on the face and sentenced to a life of forced labor mostly on the great wall and those who resist further are buried alive and all the time the Emperor's contact with reality is being loosened still further aided by his mercury consumption the dose has been increased over the last five years as his desire for immortality has become more obsessive and the elixirs of the islands of the Immortals have failed to materialize but far from prolonging his life the Mercury's actually having the opposite effect take it away liquid mercury was known to Chinese alchemists as the only substance that could dissolve the eternal incorruptible metal gold to the ancient mind it must have seen like a supernatural substance there was nothing like it in the natural inclination is to think it has some power that maybe if you took it into your body and then it would pass this magical property on to you and even perhaps help you prolong your life but not in its liquid form pure mercury cannot be absorbed by the human body so the Chinese alchemists made soluble compounds they knew were easily digestible and this it is believed is what the emperor took for years the more he took it in whatever form he was taking it the more dangerous it was going to become as the more and more mercury is absorbed into the body then it begins to attack the nervous system so slowly you'll get a slight tremor and that will get worse and worse but the damage that's real being done to your body is in the brain begin with you become talkative later on you become slightly aggressive people became very confrontational they were obsessed with being watched but eventually of course it becomes total paranoia this is from Gangu directly from kangju well how do they know where I am well anyone revealing the Emperor's whereabouts is under instant sentence of death find out who's responsible and have him killed seven years after Qin Shi Huangdi began his quest for immortality the mercury is starting to poison his body as well as his mind among other things his kidneys are beginning to fail he knows his time is running out and there is only one place left to turn to save himself your divine son speaks you see the world is united and last I erased out establish law i punished this order and bring calm to the four corners of the earth and now all under the Sun and the stars are one mine mine all guided by one single will mine Oh one day I shall be God shall be God [Music] [Music] thirty-five years after he came to the throne Qin Shi Huangdi embarks on yet another Imperial tour but this one is different where once there was a prosperous and powerful nation today the nation rots the land is starved of labour for the Emperor's great projects famine looms and there's nothing anyone can do the Emperor's obsession with immortality is uppermost in his mind the legal system takes orders only from the tongue and while the emperor was rational Lee su was ready to implement his vision with ruthless efficiency but now the vision is turning to madness listen I have a fallen star the Emperor's latest diversion is a meteorite which fell to earth in a distant province to Qin Shi Huangdi it is a sign that his call to the heavens has been answered do you know what it means no Majesty this is a defiant message there will be no after Qin Sephardi majesty you don't suppose that I'm just gonna die of course not we're searching for the elixir of things are sooo fulfilled then you know that never came back I sent a spies to find them and do you know what it said to me they couldn't find the island because their way was blocked by a race of giant fish majesty we will move heaven and earth soon I had a dream about I see God in human form me I am the sea guard I've ordered the armor is to build me a giant crossbow so I can put the fish in the sea the historical records say the Emperor reached the island of Jaffe on the coast of China in the tenth month of 210 BC [Music] where he hunted giant fish with a crossbow the great realist is now immune to reality the divine ruler warrior king of the Qin has gone in his place a madman whose every whim must be accommodated here coming for you summon ed bro of the whole of China and brawn choose London and now I command you to let my people boss over missile oh my god while the emperor plays in a world of his own his advisers plan what to do with his empire once his poisoned body has gone the way of his poisoned mind they know it won't be long with Lee su is the Emperor's second son who hi who hi is not the Emperor's first choice to succeed him but the emperor will not live forever and lisa has plans to change the succession the turning from the coast Qin Shi Huangdi becomes ill and hurries back to his capital he writes to his eldest son who soon telling him he is to succeed as the second emperor but the Imperial convoy is stopped in its tracks [Music] in the seventh month of 210 BC the journey is over the search for immortality has ended majesty majesty the great empire has lost its maker at the age of 50 Qin Shi Huangdi is dead the state is rudderless and this is exactly the moment Lee su and his supporters have been waiting for he decides to keep the death secret to give himself time to put his plan into action they know the letter to his son was written but they don't know if it was ever sent [Music] their luck is in the letter is still there [Music] they now have the power to change the Imperial succession and it will bring the Empire to its knees [Music] following his death in 210 BC the body of the first emperor is taken back to the giant mausoleum that was built in his lifetime and after Qin Shi Huangdi the most powerful man on earth has been laid to rest the last few precious objects are ready to place beside him in the depths of his vast tomb but while the formal rites proceed according to the Emperor's wishes outside in the Imperial City a power struggle is underway from a recently open pit close to the Emperor's tomb comes startling new evidence to suggest that the imperial family was tearing itself apart professor Yan thinks that the death of this individual was very much linked with the struggle for succession after the death of the first emperor what is remarkable is that there's an arrowhead embedded in the base of the skull here behind the ear it looks as if this is a person who was shot at close range that means of course that this was no accident this was a an assassination by tradition the successor should have been the first Emperor's oldest son but several members at the court conspired to have a more junior member of the family succeed to the throne after the junior member became the second emperor he then saw to it that those who had opposed him his brothers his sister's more distant relatives who were all members of the Qin Imperial house all of them were then killed [Music] [Music] the Emperor is ready for his final journey and he will not go alone [Music] while his chosen successors are being assassinated hundreds of his favorite concubines prepare to make their final act of devotion they will stay with their master to start a new Imperial family in the next world but while the terracotta soldiers stand guard over their Emperor outside real soldiers are fighting real battles rebellion stirs and there is evidence that graphically shows how far that rebellion spread right into the compound surrounding the Emperor's tomb the stone armor reserved for the Emperor's dead soldiers shows clear scorch marks from an intense fire that swept through the burial pits the Terracotta Army itself was in pieces when it was discovered smashed by rioters the one area the rebels will never reach is inside the tomb this is the Emperor's final resting place and he must never be disturbed [Music] it has long been decided that not only will he take his concubines and his Terracotta Army but the designers the architects the engineers and builders of the tune all those who know the way in and out will be forced to stay hundreds are sealed inside the tomb and all its secrets will stay secret all except one The Legend of the rivers and seas of mercury [Music] 4,000 Souls apples taken from the tomb mound of the first emperor have been tested and checked at Beijing University for traces of mercury now Geoffrey Regal is about to see what could be the greatest revelation since the discovery of the Terracotta Army he's come to meet dr. Liu who's been processing the samples and the results are ready the first piece of news is that there is mercury there in huge concentrations and it's not just found anywhere each red dot is a core sample each blue one where mercury is found and the dark blue show the highest concentrations and all of it within the actual tomb just as the ancient historian said laid out in the shape of his empire wow this is this is an extremely interesting map this concentration here corresponds to BA high the C that we know the first emperor visited in his search for immortality this concentration in the south and southwest would correspond to the great marshlands the great wetlands of the southwest and the Yangtze River it's just startling in fact that one would find confirmed so neatly one would find such a striking and exact correspondence between scientific evidence and ancient legend so yes indeed just as described 2,000 years ago when the first emperor had his underground Palace created he did indeed have a map of his empire he did indeed have all of the rivers and seas represented and those rivers and seas flowed Quicksilver liquid mercury forever Qin Shi Huangdi left a legacy the like of which has never been seen before or since [Music] a nation unified for the first time with a single written language that is still being used a system of administration that survives to this day and a great wall that still stands at the edge of his realm but more than anything Qin Shi Huangdi created the idea of China a people and a land as one perhaps his desire for immortality was realized after all [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 332,168

Rating: 4.8460588 out of 5

Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history

Id: wDsDLayV5Fw

Length: 100min 31sec (6031 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 18 2020