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He was born at a time of continuous wars between the seven powerful lords. His father Zichu, the grandson of King Qinzhao and son of Lord Anguo, was once sent to State of Zhao as a hostage. The rich merchant Lu Bu-wei decided to take advantage of Zichu’s special background, and did his best to help him back home. He even married his favourite concubine Zhaoji to Zichu, who gave birth to a son, the later widely famed and awed Ying Zheng, King of Qin.
After Zichu assumed the throne as King Zhuangxiang, he entitled Ying Zheng as his successor prince. In 247 BC the king died, and the 13-year-old prince took over as King of Qin. Since his crowing in 238 at 22, the young ruler tolerated no more arrogation of his power, but quickly cracker down the rebellions, imprisoned his mother empress, and ousted his premier Lu Bu-wei the next year. He took the advises of the Legalist scholars, such as Han Fei and Li Si, launched irrigation projects, and encouraged farming and mrtial skills, thus further reinforced the power of the state after Shanyang’s State Reformation. With the help of his officials and generals Li Si, Wei Liao, Wang Jian, Meng Tian, just name a few, he also adopted the strategy of making friends with the states afar but attacing those nar, estranging his enemies and then conquering them one by one, thus began his grand mission of sweeping over the other six states to form a united empire of China. After the 10 years bloodshed from 230 to 221 BC, he defeated all the six lord states of Han, Zhao, Yan, Wei, Chu, and Qi, thus ended the warring period of separating regimes of hundreds years and founded the first certralized empire of many nationalities.
Having achieved the unity, King of Qin declared himself to be “Qin-Shi-Huang-Di”, the first emperor of Qin. To consolidate his rule, he instituted a series of new policies, including standardizing the form of writing, the coinage, the system of weight and measures.
Once conquered all, he launched extravagant constructions and built 145 palaces in Xian Yang after those of the six states, among which the most reputed is E-pang Palace. He enjoyed showing off his greatness, and carved praises of his achievements on steles wherever on his inspection tours around the country. In 210 BC he died of disease in present Guangzong, Pingxiang of Hebei province, on a tour like this. Soon a riot broke up and very quickly Qin empire was no longer there, and the grand and extravagant E-pang Palace was burned down by Xiang Yu, the uprising King of Chu.