First Emperor · Ying Zheng: Battle strategy... I learned about human nature here... military strategists, legalists, strategists of diplomacy... manipulating people's hearts... No wonder he was an ancient human sovereign. The title of Human Sovereign truly suited Di Xin!
Hu Yifei: We looked up the records. Combined with human nature, it seems to have been exactly that way.
Zhuge Dali: But the historical records say otherwise. This would explain how King Wu of Zhou smeared Di Xin and made himself into a great sage. That really was very similar to Liu Bang!
After the entire Chat Group finished reading the memory copy Chen Tian uploaded, they finally understood why Chen Tian said Di Xin was the true Human Sovereign.
And Di Xin also learned why he had ultimately lost.
Tian Chen: After Liu Bang obtained the world, he naturally had to smear First Emperor of Qin. Otherwise, he would have been a rebel. It only takes one simple sentence—the historical records... will always be written by the victors!
Tian Chen: As for First Emperor of Qin, there is no need to say much, right? From ancient times to the present, First Emperor of Qin has had two names. One is the tyrant Teacher Hu mentioned, and the other is the Eternal Emperor! We just said that the historical records are written by the victors. If Liu Bang wanted to smear First Emperor of Qin, he could only seize upon the bad things First Emperor of Qin had done. Even if they were only the tiniest things, he would magnify them enormously!
Hu Yifei: Magnify them? Could burning the books and burying the scholars not have been real?
First Emperor · Ying Zheng: I burned the books and buried the alchemists!
Tian Chen: First Emperor, don't panic. I'll explain it all slowly.
Tian Chen: Teacher Hu, the people buried in the burning of the books and burying of the scholars were real, but they weren't true Confucian scholars! They were alchemists, known as fangshi by the people of the Qin Dynasty! Those people told First Emperor of Qin that they could make him live forever, deceived him, and were therefore buried!
Tian Chen: These matters have already been verified by history. I also vaguely remember that in a certain world, First Emperor of Qin, the tyrant who had been cursed for more than two thousand years, had his title of tyrant overturned by a teacher surnamed Zhou!
Ordinary World.
First Emperor of Qin smiled inside Xianyang Palace. He had already learned that later generations would curse him for more than two thousand years... Yet, after more than two thousand years, someone had finally understood him...
Chat Group.
Tian Chen: This teacher surnamed Zhou read a book! It was called The Great Qin Empire. After reading it, Teacher Zhou went everywhere searching for accounts of First Emperor of Qin, and eventually discovered that these matters were indeed true! Only then did he want to clear the name of the Eternal Emperor through his own efforts. Do you know what kind of person the author of The Great Qin Empire was? He was an old Qin native!!
Tian Chen: Because he was an old Qin native, he wanted to help his ancestor. He couldn't let his ancestor suffer such disgrace!!
After everyone heard this, they once again fell into a strange silence. Indeed, how could they ignore it when their ancestor had suffered such disgrace? The Eternal Emperor had originally been saddled with the title of tyrant...
Tian Chen: As for who truly burned the books and buried the scholars, do you know?
Hu Yifei: Truly burned the books and buried the scholars? What does that mean?
Centenarian: Group Leader, didn't you say that burning the books and burying the scholars wasn't real? That the ones buried were alchemists, not true Confucian scholars?
America's Richest Man Tony: Exactly. According to what Group Leader said, burning the books and burying the scholars wasn't real, so why is there now someone who truly burned the books and buried the scholars?
Tian Chen: Let's not discuss that yet. Let me ask you all—have you read history?
Angel Yan: I just arrived on Earth and looked up all the historical records.
Richest Man in America Tony: J.A.R.V.I.S. also found all the information related to First Emperor of Qin. I've read it all.
Hu Yifei: Obviously. I'm in the academy library with Dali looking up information right now.
Tian Chen: Good. Then tell me, what kind of person was the Hegemon-King of Western Chu?
Angel Yan: Hegemon-King of Western Chu, Xiang Yu? He was a true hero. He would rather kill himself at Wu River than return to Jiangdong in defeat.
Hu Yifei: That's right. He and Yu Ji were deeply in love, and after Yu Ji died, he refused to live on and return to Jiangdong. He truly was a hero, and a real man at that.
Tian Chen: Hahahahaha, a true hero? A real man? Very good, very good. According to what you said, he was indeed a true hero and a real man. But what if I told you that the person who truly burned the books and buried the scholars was him?
America's Richest Man Tony: How could that be??
Baili Tusu: According to what Sister Yan and Sister Yifei said, Hegemon-King of Western Chu Xiang Yu was an upright, indomitable man. How could he have burned the books and buried the scholars?
Zi Yin: We have none of those records here, nor any of that history. (helpless)
Tian Chen: Xiang Yu really was the person who truly burned the books and buried the scholars! After First Emperor died, Xiang Yu led his troops straight toward Xianyang. As for the cities he passed along the way, guess what he did after defeating them? He slaughtered the cities outright!!! Whether soldiers, civilians, or chickens, ducks, and sheep inside, he killed every last one!
Tian Chen: First Emperor of Qin had commanded a million-strong army to destroy the Six States, yet he never slaughtered a city! He didn't even kill the nobles of the former Six States. But Xiang Yu slaughtered more than ten cities! Do you know how many of their civilians died?
Ordinary World.
When First Emperor of Qin saw what Chen Tian had posted, he could no longer suppress the killing intent surging from his entire body!
"Someone come!!" First Emperor of Qin roared furiously. Before anyone arrived, he ordered, "From this moment on, search the entire world for Xiang Yu! If you find him, execute him first and report afterward. The Xiang clan must cease to exist!!"
The eunuch trembled as he said, "Yes..."
The eunuch had no idea why First Emperor of Qin was so furious. First Emperor of Qin had never exterminated an entire clan before, after all. Yet now...
Only after the eunuch left did First Emperor of Qin feel somewhat calmer. He continued reading the Chat Group.
Tian Chen: When Xiang Yu reached Xianyang and fought the Qin army, do you know what kind of army that Qin army was? It was a prisoner army! They were all prisoners—soldiers from the Six States whom First Emperor of Qin had dragged away to build his mausoleum. That was why Xiang Yu could attack Xianyang Palace directly!
Tian Chen: And when Xiang Yu reached Xianyang Palace, he did one more thing: he set Xianyang Palace ablaze!!!
Hu Yifei: Xianyang Palace? Wasn't it Epang Palace?
Zhuge Dali: The historical records say Xiang Yu burned Epang Palace. How did it become Xianyang Palace?
Richest Man in America Tony: No, no... I actually found a record here saying that archaeologists discovered no traces of fire at Epang Palace!
Tian Chen: Perhaps Dali's world's historical development is a little shorter. Back to the topic: precisely because Xiang Yu burned Xianyang Palace, all the books from the various states that First Emperor of Qin had stored there were destroyed! You should know that, to unify the written language, First Emperor of Qin had recalled the books held among the people, allowing them to study only Qin writing. This was also connected to the unification of weights and measures—the so-called "same script for all writings, same axle width for all carts"!
Tian Chen: But First Emperor of Qin did not burn those collected books. He stored them in Xianyang Palace. It wasn't until Xiang Yu arrived and set it ablaze that they were all burned. That was why I said the person who truly burned the books and buried the scholars was Xiang Yu, not First Emperor of Qin!
Tian Chen: Why did First Emperor of Qin build a million-strong army and unify the Six States? It was for the unification of all Huaxia—for Huaxia to stop fighting. And the purpose of fighting here! Was to achieve peace!
Tian Chen: I imagine everyone must be wondering: if First Emperor of Qin was so remarkable, why was Qin called a brutal dynasty? You should understand that throughout history, whenever a dynasty was short-lived, later generations would certainly turn it into a tyrannical dynasty!
Hu Yifei: So that's why you said the historical records are always written by the victors...
Zhuge Dali: Definitely. Take the Shang Dynasty, for example. Its good Human Sovereign became the tyrant King Zhou of Shang. The Eternal Emperor, First Emperor of Qin, ended up becoming the brutal Qin.
Zhuge Dali: Every short-lived dynasty was inevitably followed by an age of prosperity! For example, after the Shang Dynasty fell, Great Zhou continued for eight hundred years. And the dynasties we are most proud of in history were also the ones that came after short-lived dynasties fell. One was Great Han! Great Qin fell, and Great Han flourished. Another was Great Tang. The Sui Dynasty fell, and the Great Tang golden age began.
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