Family History and Birth
A rich merchant in the State of Han, named Lü Buwei, met Master Yìrén (公子異人, Gōngzǐ Yìrén). Lü Buwei's manipulation helped Yiren become King Zhuangxiang of Qin. At the time, King Zhuāngxiāng of Qin was a prince of Qin blood, who took residence at the court of the State of Zhao as a hostage to guarantee an armistice between the two states.
According to the Records of the Grand Historian, the first emperor was born in 259 BC as the eldest son of King Zhuangxiang of Qin. King Zhuangxiang of Qin saw a concubine belonging to Lü Buwei, and she bore the first emperor on 18 February, it was in January according to the Chinese calender . At birth, he was given the clan name of Zhao (the clan name of the royal house of Qin) inherited from his father and personal name Zheng (正), because he was born in the first month (Zhengyue 正月 in the Chinese calender). His clan name Zhao has nothing to do with being born at the Kingdom of Zhao, it was a coincidence.
Read more about this topic: Qin Shi Huang
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“Q: What would have made a family and career easier for you?
A: Being born a man.”
—Anonymous Mother, U.S. physician and mother of four. As quoted in Women and the Work Family Dilemma, by Deborah J. Swiss and Judith P. Walker, ch. 2 (1993)
“Anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact; and anyone who has studied the history of science knows that almost every great step therein has been made by the “anticipation of Nature.””
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“It suggested, too, that the same experience always gives birth to the same sort of belief or religion.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)