Making Up Unofficial History on the Spot, a Terrifying Scenario
["The Kingdom of Nanyue had five emperors in all. Zhao Tuo was the first, and he really did live to be 103, so long that his sons all died before him."]
Apart from certain long-lived emperors, nearly every emperor throughout the dynasties envied Zhao Tuo for living more than a hundred years.
There was affection between fathers and sons in the imperial family, but not much.
For a father to outlive all his sons would be an utterly heartbreaking thing in an ordinary family.
In the imperial family, there would surely be grief, but not much.
Some emperors had gone mad in their pursuit of power.
["Zhao Tuo was succeeded by his grandson, Zhao Hu, who became the second emperor."]
["The third emperor was Zhao Hu's son, Zhao Yingqi. The fourth and fifth emperors were Zhao Xing and Zhao Jiande."]
["Of these five emperors, Zhao Xing and Zhao Jiande each reigned for only one year. The Kingdom of Nanyue was in the process of being annexed by the Han Dynasty at the time, so, in theory, neither could have left behind such a vast tomb."]
["We can start by ruling out the third emperor, Zhao Yingqi. Sun Quan sent men to dig up his tomb in 226 CE."]
["The second emperor, Zhao Hu, had his tomb discovered in 1916 at Gui Mountain in Guangzhou. Master Wang Guowei identified it."]
["So, by deduction, the ancient tomb before us is most likely the tomb of Zhao Tuo, the first emperor of the Kingdom of Nanyue. Could an elixir of immortality be hidden inside?"]
In one plane.
Zhao Tuo's face darkened. He had no elixir of immortality, nor had he ever taken one. If the heavenly screen didn't make that clear, his troubles would be endless from this point on.
He didn't have an army of five hundred thousand at his disposal now, either.
He had lost many soldiers while attacking the Baiyue.
Many of the old Qin people had been unwilling to stay among the Baiyue and had secretly run back.
If he really had five hundred thousand Great Qin elites, he would have marched on Chang'an long ago.
An army of five hundred thousand—what did that mean?
["The first thing unearthed was the remains of a sacrificial victim lying in the tomb passage. After the tomb door was opened, a pottery jar bearing the inscription 'Changle Palace vessel' was found in the front chamber. Changle Palace was a palace of the Han emperors, so why would it appear in an ancient tomb in Guangzhou?"]
["The experts said this meant all their earlier deductions were correct: this was the tomb of an emperor who had overstepped his station. This Changle Palace was not the one in Chang'an, but a knockoff Changle Palace that this self-styled emperor had built in the Kingdom of Nanyue, following the Han Dynasty's system of official ranks and rites."]
"He certainly overstepped! The ruler of a mere petty kingdom of southern barbarians dared call himself an emperor."
"Did Zhao Tuo really have an army of five hundred thousand? If he had that many men and had also taken an elixir of immortality, why didn't he fight his way back and contest the realm with the House of Han? Wouldn't being emperor of the whole realm be better than living in a remote corner?"
["Once again, the clues point to Zhao Tuo as the tomb's occupant."]
["Moving farther in, all kinds of barbecue grills, large wine jugs, and a set of bronze bells were unearthed in the eastern side chamber."]
["Next, the western side chamber was excavated. It was full of weapons and chariots, very much in the style of the State of Qin. It now seems the tomb's occupant can almost certainly be identified as Zhao Tuo."]
["The next step is to enter the main burial chamber. Will the legendary elixir of immortality be found there?"]
Emperors throughout the dynasties stared at the heavenly screen, wanting to know whether there really was an elixir of immortality in Zhao Tuo's tomb.
"Wait, that's not right! Even if there was an elixir of immortality, Zhao Tuo should have taken it! How could it possibly be in the tomb?" A perceptive person had spotted the crucial point.
["The first thing unearthed was a jade dew-collecting cup, an object used by Han Dynasty alchemists. The alchemists claimed that jade could gather the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth."]
["At night, this dew-collecting cup would spontaneously turn the essence of the sun and moon into dew. Then, by grinding superior jade into fine particles, mixing it into the dew, and drinking it, one obtained the catalyst for an elixir of immortality. Emperor Wu of Han once had a huge dew-collecting basin built in Chang'an, based on the same principle as this cup, so the experts recognized it at a glance. This was just a trick played by the alchemists of the Central Plains."]
["It seemed that legends were, after all, only legends. Just when the experts thought this legend had been debunked, two more strange objects were unearthed."]
["The first was a silver medicine box, shaped like a clove of garlic and made entirely of silver. Silver production in ancient China was not high, and silverware was not well developed, much less had this garlic-clove design ever appeared there."]
["A great many silver objects in this garlic-clove shape have instead been unearthed from the Ancient Persian Empire of more than two thousand years ago. So why did the tomb's occupant have an ancient Persian medicine box? Could it really contain an elixir of immortality?"]
["The second strange object was also unearthed. It was a jade seal, and to everyone's surprise, it bore the name Zhao Mo."]
["Who was this Zhao Mo? No one named Zhao Mo had ever appeared in the historical record. Wasn't this supposed to be Zhao Tuo's tomb? Why was its occupant suddenly calling himself Zhao Mo? But as the investigation went deeper, an even greater mystery emerged."]
"Who was Zhao Mo? Is he mentioned in the historical records?"
"Is there an elixir of immortality in the tomb or not?"
"It stopped halfway through. How frustrating!"
[The man died and was buried in a tomb, and you're telling me there's an elixir of immortality? If there were, would he still be in the tomb?]
[Read carefully. It says he could live forever without aging, not that he couldn't be killed.]
[Living forever means you can live a long time if nothing interferes. It's an extension of your lifespan. It doesn't mean you can't die, and there are still outside factors.]
[Is there really an elixir of immortality?]
[Ants have never seen whales, but that doesn't mean whales don't exist. So it's still possible.]
[I thought the experts would dig up the tomb and an immortal would suddenly jump out.]
[There's no continuation?]
Seeing that comment, those who wanted to know what happened next nodded in agreement.
That's right! Where was the rest? What happened next?
[Unofficial history records: The First Emperor of Qin unified the realm, standardized writing and cart axles, and made great contributions to future generations. Heaven and earth rewarded him with an elixir of immortality containing the aura of the Son of Heaven.
The First Emperor of Qin was originally destined to live only forty-nine years. This represented the fifty of the Great Dao, the forty-nine derived by heaven, and the one that eludes man.
The elixir of immortality could extend his life by fifty years, representing that elusive "one."
As long as he took the elixir, he could live to be ninety-nine, representing the ultimate number of nine nines.
But the First Emperor of Qin changed. He undertook massive construction projects, burdening the people and draining their resources, until public resentment boiled over.
The elixir of immortality left him and went to the Baiyue, where Zhao Tuo later took it.
Zhao Tuo gained the aura of the Son of Heaven, founded the Kingdom of Nanyue, and became emperor.]
[Where did this unofficial history come from?]
[I just made it up. Pretty good, right?]
Apart from the First Emperor of Qin himself, people throughout the dynasties were very interested in this unofficial history made up on the spot in the comments.
Ying Zheng: The first half was very well made up. You could have left out the second half.
[Suppose there really was an elixir of immortality. Zhao Tuo could live forever without his appearance aging, and although he was an emperor with great power, the Kingdom of Nanyue wasn't the only country in the world. Fearing that the rulers of other countries would covet his immortality, he decided to change his name and hide.
As emperor of the Kingdom of Nanyue, hiding would have been all too easy for him.
For example, he could find a young man among his sons and grandsons who looked fairly like him, kill him, and take his place, then do it again a dozen or so years later.
As long as he still had sons and grandsons, he would have a never-ending supply of descendants.
He could even continue having children after taking the place of a son or grandson.
All he had to do was change his name regularly.]
[According to your scenario, Zhao Tuo could establish an ancestral rule that only descendants who looked like him could inherit the throne.
That would make it even easier for Zhao Tuo to assume their identities.]
[Zhao Mo might have been one of Zhao Tuo's stand-ins.]
The bottom three comments once again upended the common people's view of the world.
Killing his sons and grandsons to take their places was terrifying!
Statesmen and clever people throughout the dynasties thought the method was quite feasible.
The prerequisite was that you had to have an elixir of immortality!