Qin Er Shi
emperor of the Qin Dynasty
Qin Er Shi (229 – 207 BC), given name Huhai, was the second emperor of the Chinese Qin dynasty, reigning from 210 to 207 BC. The son of Qin Shi Huang, he was put on the throne by Li Si and Zhao Gao, circumventing his brother Fusu, who had been the designated heir. Upon Huhai's ascension, both Fusu and the popular general Meng Tian were killed on the orders of Li and Zhao, with Qin Er Shi's role in the assassinations remaining uncertain and controversial. A weak ruler, Qin Er Shi's reign was completely dominated by Zhao Gao, who eventually forced him to commit suicide. By the time of his death, the Qin Empire's power had lessened so much that his successor Ziying ruled as a king, not emperor.
Early life
Huhai (Chinese: 胡亥) was the personal name of the Second Emperor. Its Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as Ga-gə′. Although his parentage was questioned by many historians including Sima Qian, they accepted Qin Er Shi as a member of the state of Qin's House of Ying. Huhai was the eighteenth son of Qin Shi Huang. As the youngest son, he was doted on by his father. It is not clear who his mother was, although most likely she was "The Hu (barbarian) princess" Hu Ji (胡姬).
“Qin Er Shi” enters the record as emperor of the Qin Dynasty. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what emperor and Dynasty can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7196. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Qin Er Shi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.