Zhao Gao

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Zhao Gao (traditional Chinese: 趙高; ?? – 207 BC) was the chief eunuch during the Qin Dynasty of China, who played an instrumental role in the downfall of the Qin Dynasty. Note that while he is referred to as a eunuch, he was not castrated - he was born with a sexual disability.

[edit] Early life

When Zhao was a minor official, he committed a crime punishable by death. Meng Yi was the official in charge of sentencing and he sentenced Zhao to death and removed him from the officials list as instructed by Qin Shi Huang. Zhao was later pardoned by Qin Shi Huang and returned to official status when the emperor recalled him to be a man good at his post.

[edit] Coup following Qin Shi Huang's death

At the end of the reign of the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, Zhao was involved in the death of Marshal Meng Tian and his younger brother Meng Yi. Meng Tian was stationed at the northern border, commanding more than 100,000 troops for the inconclusive Huns campaign; he was a reputable general and a faithful supporter of Fusu, the first son of Qin Shi Huang.

After the sudden death of Qin Shi Huang at the Shaqiu prefecture, Zhao and the Imperial Secretariat Li Si persuaded the emperor's second son Huhai to falsify the emperor's will. The fake decree forced Fusu to commit suicide and stripped the command of troops from Meng Tian. Mindful of hatred for the previous sentencing by Meng Yi, Zhao destroyed the Meng brothers by issuing a false decree of Huhai, now the Second Emperor. He forced Meng Tian to commit suicide and killed Meng Yi via in the hand of a general.

Zhao Gao soon outmaneuvered Li Si. He made Li Si go through "The Five Pains" which were Li's own invention, these consisted of having the victim's nose cut up, cutting off a hand and a foot, then the victim was castrated and finally cut in half in line with the waist. He also executed Li Si's family down to the third generation.

In 207 BC, rebellions rose one after another across China. Zhao was afraid that the Second Emperor might make him responsible for the uprisings. To preempt this, Zhao forced the emperor to commit suicide and replaced him by Fusu's son, Ziying. (Note: Some scholars pointed out that Fusu's son might be too young to plot the demise of Zhao Gao and Ziying might be a brother of the First Emperor instead.)

Ziying soon killed Zhao and surrendered to Liu Bang. The Qin Dynasty collapsed, three years after the death of Qin Shi Huang, and less than twenty years after it was founded.

One Chinese idiom that is derived from an incident involving Zhao is "calling a deer a horse" (traditional Chinese: 指鹿為馬; pinyin: zhǐ lù wéi mǎ). In that incident, Zhao, in order to completely control the government, devised a test of loyalty of the officials. Once, at a formal imperial gathering, he brought a deer in front of the officials and called it a horse. Naturally, Qin Er Shi disagreed, but thought Zhao was joking. Some officials followed the emperor's lead, while some followed Zhao's lead. Zhao then took steps to eliminate the officials who refused to call the deer a horse. In later idiomatic usage, the term refers to a deliberate untruth for ulterior motives.

There is a conspiracy theory that Zhao Gao was a descendant of the royal family of the Kingdom of Zhao, which was destroyed by Qin, and Zhao Gao was seeking revenge on Qin. With Zhao Gao in charge of the Qin government, it was natural that the Qin Empire collapsed in such a short time. In fact, Zhao Gao killed all the sons and daughters of Qin Shi Huang, including the Second Emperor, Huhai. In revenge, Ziying killed Zhao Gao and all of his family members. Thus Zhao Gao or his brothers have no known descendants.