Qin Shi Huang Biography

Qin Shi Huang (Chinese: 秦始皇; literally: "First Emperor of Qin",  pronunciation (help·info); 18 February 259 BC – 10 September 210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty (秦朝) and was the first emperor of a unified China. He was born Ying Zheng (嬴政) or Zhao Zheng (趙政), a prince of the state of Qin. He became Zheng, the King of Qin (秦王政) when he was thirteen, then China's first emperor when he was 38 after the Qin had conquered all of the other Warring States and unified all of China in 221 BC. Rather than maintain the title of "king" (王 wáng) borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor (始皇帝) of the Qin dynasty from 220 to 210 BC. His self-invented title "emperor" (皇帝  huángdì), as indicated by his use of the word "First", would continue to be borne by Chinese rulers for the next two millennia.