Did Qin Shihuang get the elixir of life? The story of Qin Shihuang's search for elixir of life

In history, Qin Shihuang is famous not only for his immortal achievements, but also for his persistent pursuit of immortality. In many TV dramas, Qin Shihuang will pursue immortality and send people to find and refine the elixir. Of course, Qin Shihuang did not find the elixir of life in the final endings of these film and television dramas, and from our current perspective, Qin Shihuang's ideas were too naive and overbearing, which made Qin Shihuang himself look like a fatuous and incompetent image.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, a hundred schools of thought contended and the cultural development advanced. Various cultures and ideas collide with each other, and various academics communicate with each other. For a time, many academic schools rose in succession. Among them, a hundred schools of thought contend and are famous for Confucianism, Mohism, Buddhism, Taoism, Yin and Yang, and military strategists. Qin Shihuang recruited alchemists all over the country and refined the elixir for himself, which cost a lot of manpower and material resources.

In 2 19 BC, Qin Shihuang once took a boat on Shandong Peninsula for three months, and they have been drifting at sea. Qin Shihuang heard that there are three fairy mountains in Bohai Bay, Penglai, abbot and Yingzhou, and each fairy mountain has an immortal. Qin Shihuang was greatly tempted and began to pursue immortality. The person who told this story to Qin Shihuang was called Xu Fu. Shandong alchemist Xu Fu told Qin Shihuang that he had seen these fairy mountains with his own eyes and promised to find them, immortals and elixirs for the first emperor before Qin Shihuang.

There is another saying about why Qin Shihuang sought immortality. That was when the Qin Dynasty was just unified. Qin Shihuang was still young at that time. How could he think of not letting himself die of old age? It is because of a legend that in ancient Fujian, there were many dead people who either died in war or starved to death without food. A crow flew to the fallen body, but a grass on the crow accidentally fell off. I didn't expect the body to come back to life. The soldiers saw it and reported it to their superiors. The story was handed down from level to level, and Qin Shihuang knew it. He sent many people to look for the crow and the sacred grass on its back. I don't know who first said that crows flew from fairy island, but in short, they actually began to send people to find immortals.

According to Xu Fu's request, Qin Shihuang immediately sent thousands of virgins to Xu Fu and took them to the East China Sea to get the elixir of life. After a long time, Xu Fu came back, but he didn't bring back the elixir. He said he had seen immortals. The immortal also asked him if he was an envoy sent by the Western Emperor. Chuifu replied yes, so the fairy asked Chuifu why he came here. Father Cui said he was looking for an elixir of life. The immortal thought that the gift given by Qin Shihuang was not desirable, and it was too meager, so he did not agree to give Chuifu an immortal medicine. Xu Fu said that the immortal asked to send 3,000 boys and girls with a lot of grain, seeds, skilled workers and technicians to get the elixir. Qin Shihuang went to prepare these things without saying anything. So Chui fook set off again with the second team. After waiting for Cui Fu for three months, there was no news at all. Qin Shihuang decided to go back to Beijing and continue to look for the elixir of life.

Then in 2 15 BC, when Qin Shihuang made an expedition to the east, he met warlocks Lu Sheng and Hou Sheng. First, Lu Sheng said that he knew how to seek immortality, so Qin Shihuang treated him as a guest of honor. Lu Sheng found a "fairy book" with the words "Hu also died in Qin", so Qin Shihuang sent troops to destroy the Xiongnu. Then Lu Sheng said that Qin Shihuang's whereabouts could not be known to others, or he would not get the elixir. So Qin Shihuang began to build tunnels and corridors vigorously, and set up curtains and bells and drums in the palace to remind people that he lived in various palaces and not to let people know his whereabouts. Sounds like a naughty boy, doesn't it?

Qin Shihuang's whereabouts are really hidden, and everyone doesn't know where he is. However, because Qin Shihuang appointed cruel officials, Lu Sheng and Hou Sheng discussed running away together, instead of looking for Dan medicine for Qin Shihuang. In fact, this is just an excuse. Lu Sheng and Hou Sheng saw things clearly exposed, and they were afraid of being persecuted by Qin Shihuang, so they ran away. However, although they ran away, they aroused the anger of Qin Shihuang. Qin Shihuang began to hate all Confucian scholars, and as a result, there was an incident of "burning books to bury Confucianism"