[Qin] Let My Crimes Be Known

Volume One: Dreams After Death (Chapters 1-9) + What I Saw After Waking (Chapters 10-16)

[PS: Dreams are full of symbolism. This is fiction, not history!]

Volume Two: The Qin Rise to Power + King Zhaoxiang's Meeting in a Dream + Watching My Parents' Love Story (not really) + reborn + Recovering Memories [Chapter 28] + Recruiting Bai Qi + Returning to Xianyang

(Starts from Chapter 17; the final chapter hasn't been decided yet)

(In progress)

Volume Three: One moment studying abroad in the modern era, the next reborn and building infrastructure

[Content warnings]

1. Updates once a week / lots of headcanon / entirely self-indulgent / Ying is the surname and Qin the clan name, so the full name is Ying Zheng (see the author's note in Chapter 6 for the reasoning; if you still disagree, just consider it my own setting) / devoted only to the First Emperor. A little historical research, mixed with my personal preferences and interpretations.

2. I acknowledge the cultural importance and positive influence of the best parts of Confucianism, but personally, I don't have much of a favorable opinion of it. My writing will inevitably reflect my personal feelings, so please don't read if that's not for you!

3. I have many personal interpretations and subjective choices regarding historical sources and viewpoints. My writing is led by my own emotions and may upset casual readers or fellow fans, so please be very cautious before reading. Thank you!

4. The professional aspects of warfare, political intrigue, infrastructure, and so on won't hold up to close scrutiny. Just enjoy the ride.

5. Setting details:

1. Feng Ting → Feng Quji → Feng Jie

2. Ying Ji is eight years older than Bai Qi. Feng Jie and Meng Tian were born in the same year as the First Emperor, and Meng Yi is three years younger.

3. Before the First Emperor became emperor, Qin wore white with gold patterns and used the Shaohao Jintian calendar, with the first month of the year falling in the twelfth month. The First Emperor was born on the first day of the first month, which was the first day of the twelfth month.

(I've seen too many depictions of the First Emperor in black, so I wanted to write a Qin King Zheng in white.)

(This is the kind of white that glimmers with a subtle, iridescent sheen, like mother-of-pearl.)

[The sources behind this bit of headcanon]

(1) In Qin's six-hundred-year history, only five rulers established the Six Altars to worship the gods and the High Lord of Heaven. Half of them (Duke Xiang, founder of the state, established the Western Altar; Duke Wen established the Fu Altar; and Duke Xian, of the returning branch, established the Qi Altar) all worshipped the White Emperor, Shaohao.

(2) Qin used the tenth month of winter as the beginning of the year. Thus, it often held suburban sacrifices at the upper lodgings in the tenth month, lit the sacred fire, and worshipped beside Xianyang, wearing white garments and following the customary rites. Records of the Grand Historian, "Treatise on the Feng and Shan Sacrifices"

3. After the First Emperor became emperor, Qin wore plain black garments and adopted the Zhuanxu calendar. There will be a plotline concerning calendar reform in the second generation.

6. Three-year-old Ying Zheng is central to a major plotline, and his story will take up a lot of pages. In fact, the entire second volume has a bit of a [raising-a-child] feel, with the golden finger cranked way up.

[Major spoilers and content warnings]

1. Chapters 10 and 11 of Volume One will be told mainly from Fusu's point of view.

In my personal view, he wasn't a Confucian partisan or blindly loyal. That's how I'll portray him. I respect that people may disagree, but I don't want to discuss it at length.

Also, what makes Fusu special to me is simply that he's the First Emperor's eldest son. This isn't indispensable to the story, so none of the First Emperor's children from his previous life will be reborn in the second life.

The children of the First Emperor's second life will also be different from those in his previous life, and they won't have the same names.

In short, if you dislike my personal interpretation of Fusu or want more scenes featuring him, please don't read.

2. This story does not support the various theories about the Chu faction, including that the First Emperor had a queen or empress whose name and deeds were erased, or that Fusu's mother was a Chu woman. The only remotely related details are that Queen Ye Yang is the daughter of King Huai of Chu and gives birth to Crown Prince Dao, and that Lady Huayang is a woman of the Chu royal clan. These are needed for the story's structure.

My take and setting for the relationship between King Zhaoxiang of Qin and Queen Dowager Xuan are as follows: King Zhaoxiang seized the throne himself, with Yan and Zhao outside the court and Ying Ji, the model for his strategist, inside it (Ying Ji was King Huiwen's younger brother). Queen Dowager Xuan's power depended on King Zhaoxiang of Qin. [See the author's note in Chapter 18 for sources debunking the relevant rumors.]

3. This story doesn't deal with the succession. The heir is presumed to be a wise and capable ruler who can carry on Qin's legacy. The First Emperor and the children mentioned in the story will only appear in scenes about family affection. (For a story about the heir, see my upcoming novel: When the Great-Grandfather Becomes the Great-Grandson, When the Warring States' Great Villain Becomes the First Emperor's Eldest Son.)

4. The First Emperor's appearance in his second life will remain fixed at the year he unified the realm. He won't live forever, but he won't age. I won't depict his later years or death after he's reborn. I'll only mention in an extra that he lived to be 120, and that the Qin dynasty didn't last for millennia but reigned for 301 years. Still, even after the Ancestral Dragon's soul perished, his legacy endured: for a hundred generations, all followed Qin's laws and policies.

5. Whether the rebellion of Lao Ai was a conspiracy between the Empress Dowager and the First Emperor is disputed. I lean toward it not being one, but I don't want to portray her as a lustful fool or whitewash her too much.

So I made up the name "Man" and the courtesy name "Heyu" for her. She is Zhao Ji (PS: The Empress Dowager wasn't surnamed Zhao or called Zhao. The name Zhao Ji comes from Feng Menglong's novel Records of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms). But in this life, she's had different experiences and lived a different life, so she should truly take responsibility for the title of Empress Dowager.

What makes her special to me is simply that, as the First Emperor's mother, she represents the Empress Dowager.

If you don't like this, please don't read!

6. After being reborn, the First Emperor will return to Qin early, and King Zhaoxiang will die three years later than he did historically. King Zhuangxiang will rule for one year before abdicating in favor of the thirteen-year-old First Emperor. The reason Yiren changed his name to Chu will be different, and he'll live to become the Retired Emperor. (I want to write about the relationship between the great villain and the First Emperor as great-grandfather and great-grandson, as well as the First Emperor's family of three.)

7. I really do write slowly. After the rebirth, there will be child-rearing plotlines, with lots of cute portrayals colored by my personal feelings.

Because a young child's brain has limited capacity, the First Emperor's memories of his past life will be somewhat fuzzy after he's reborn, and he won't fully absorb them until he's eight or nine. Before he turns eight, you can understand it like this: whenever he uses his brain, the fully experienced version of the First Emperor comes out; when he doesn't, he's just an ordinary, slightly clever and gifted child. In short, readers who can't accept that should proceed with caution.

8. The trio behind the forged edict and Xiang Yu won't appear in the second-life storyline.

9. Apart from Han Xin and Zhang Cang, who will be clearly shown serving Qin, most famous figures from Chu and Han won't appear. Han Fei will be shown serving Qin but won't become a Qin official. The Qin court will still be made up mainly of Qin's original officials.

10. My view of the First Emperor himself is that he was "Legalist at his core, with elements of all schools of thought."

My interpretations of the different schools are shallow and entirely my own. They're mostly there to serve the plot and atmosphere, so please don't scrutinize them too closely!

Theme: Looking back at history, the Qin spirit still echoes.