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King Zhuangxiang of Qin

king of the Qin

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ1327607 ↗
Source-derived summary

King Zhuangxiang of Qin (281– 6 July 247 BCE), personal name Ying Yiren (嬴異人), Ying Ziyi or Ying Zichu, was a king of the state of Qin. He was the father and predecessor of Qin Shi Huang, who would later unify China proper and become China's first emperor. He was posthumously honored as a Taishang Huang by the Qin dynasty.

Life

Yiren was born to Lord Anguo, the second son and heir apparent of King Zhaoxiang, and his concubine Lady Xia (夏姬). He was chosen to serve as a political hostage in the Kingdom of Zhao. In Handan, the capital of Zhao, he met a merchant, Lü Buwei, who saw Yiren as extraordinary and detected in him the potential to become the king of Qin in the future. Lü Buwei treated Yiren well and presented his concubine Lady Zhao to Yiren. Lady Zhao later bore Yiren a son, Ying Zheng.

In the meantime, through bribes and machinations, Lü Buwei helped Yiren return to Qin. He also successfully convinced Lord Anguo's primary spouse, the childless Lady Huayang, to adopt Yiren as her own son, thereby making Yiren Lord Anguo's legitimate heir apparent.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “King Zhuangxiang of Qin” as king of the Qin. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current 191-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The linked authority record independently contributes the date -0281-01-01. The account is most persuasive where King, Zhuangxiang and king can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as king of the Qin. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1327607. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “King Zhuangxiang of Qin”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow King Zhuangxiang of Qin primary sources, King Zhuangxiang of Qin archive and King research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “King Zhuangxiang of Qin”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “King Zhuangxiang of Qin” 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.