What fascinating reading. In real life, I am a high school history teacher and we study China in 10th grade social studies. My kids are fascinated with Qin. I learned some things from your posts. I already knew that his mercury immortality cocktails hastened his death but the discusssion about Qin not wanting to pass the throne on to his son (although he did leave a will naming his first born son as his successor) and the Confucian writers "using the past to criticize the present" was enlightening. I thank you. It is so true that we do learn from others and I learned from you.