First, let us discuss the distinction between a king and an emperor. At that time, China was home to seven kings; one of them—through sheer force—defeated the other six and ascended to the position of Emperor. He was China's first emperor: Qin Shi Huang. Qin Shi Huang is revered by the Chinese people as the "Emperor of the Ages"—a title signifying not only that he was the very first emperor, but also implying that a figure of such magnitude appears only once in a millennium. It represents the ultimate accolade for an emperor—a "supreme tribute" bestowed upon him by posterity.
Qin Shi Huang installed upon the disparate lands of China an operating system—one capable of running autonomously for two millennia—that would persist even after his own death and the eventual collapse of the Qin Dynasty. He invented the very concept of China as an indivisible entity; that is to say, any emperor who failed to unify China could not be considered a truly legitimate sovereign—at best, he was merely a regional warlord. This explains why, whenever China fragmented, the various kings would scramble to achieve unification with a frenzied intensity—even though they could have easily lived lives of luxury and opulence simply by ruling their own separate territories. Qin Shi Huang indelibly etched the ideology of "Great Unification" into the very bones of every Chinese person: this land permits the existence of only one political authority. If you do not take the initiative to unify the realm, you will inevitably be unified by someone else; only through unification does one attain the status of a legitimate emperor.
The twilight years of the Eastern Han Dynasty saw the realm fragment into the Three Kingdoms: Wei, Shu, and Wu. Among them, Wu—lacking any ambition for expansion and content merely to hunker down in its corner as a regional fiefdom—has been reviled by the Chinese people for 1,800 years as the "Rats of Jiangdong," a derogatory label likening its rulers to cowardly vermin. The King of Wei was Cao Cao. By nature, he was paranoid and ruthless (once, when a friend prepared to slaughter cattle and sheep to fete him, Cao Cao—mistakenly believing the host intended to kill *him*—ended up killing his friend instead); furthermore, his moral character was depraved (he was notorious for coveting and bedding the wives of others). Yet, he harbored an unwavering ambition to unify the entire realm. Consequently, the Chinese people—even at their most critical—have accorded him the title of *Xiaoxiong* (a "Hero-Tyrant"): a figure who is neither wholly good nor purely evil, but possesses immense capability and grand ambition—someone willing to employ ruthless tactics and a "dark heart" to achieve success. This sentiment also explains why the Chinese people tend to view the history of the Wei-Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms periods with disdain. To put it bluntly, they are regarded as mere "children"; and just as children are relegated to a separate table to eat among themselves, only true "adults"—figures of genuine historical magnitude—are deemed worthy of taking their rightful place at the main table to partake in the wine of history.
Qin Shi Huang stood 190 cm tall. He ascended to the throne at the age of 13, and by 21, he had taken full control of the state, no longer heeding the counsel of others. He launched campaigns to the north against the Xiongnu and to the south against the Baiyue—conquering hundreds of tribes and dismantling five major Yue polities. The comprehensive administrative framework he established was a system of centralized authority—a system that remains in use to this very day; for instance, he implemented the commandery and county system at the local level, and counties continue to exist in China today. Economically, he standardized the currency; culturally, he unified the written script—thereby ensuring the cohesion of Chinese culture—and standardized road gauges, as well as units of length, weight, and volume. He oversaw the construction of the Great Wall and the excavation of artificial canals to transport grain and troops. He effectively incorporated the Lingnan region—comprising present-day Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong, Macau, southeastern Yunnan, and a small portion of southern Fujian—into the Chinese territorial domain, and he constructed what amounted to the "ancient highways" of his era. He accomplished a multitude of tasks that were essential for the state. Yet, for two millennia, he has been vilified—ironically, in part for advocating for gender equality and for strictly punishing adultery. He abolished the practice of burying the living alongside the deceased, replacing it instead with the Terracotta Army. These clay soldiers were crafted based on the likenesses of actual troops prior to their deployment; this signified that soldiers who fell in battle could, in spirit, be interred alongside him. He harbored so many more ambitions that remained unfulfilled. Were he still alive today, he certainly would not fault *me* for my inability to speak English; rather, he would blame *himself* for failing to unify the entire globe. All he ever sought was an elixir of immortality—not the stars and the moon from the heavens above. What, then, was his crime? Just give it to him already! (That good-for-nothing Xu Fu—unable to locate the elixir of immortality, yet too terrified of execution to return, he simply fled to Japan instead.)