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60 free Qin Shi Huang trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Qin Shi Huang trivia quiz covers the man who unified China in 221 BC and invented the title of emperor. The easy questions are the ones any history reader knows: the country, the dynasty, the wall, the tomb and the clay army guarding it. From there the set moves into the strange and vivid details recorded by Sima Qian: the merchant Lü Buwei who may have been his real father, the coup by his mother's lover, the assassin whose dagger was hidden in a rolled map, the blind musician who swung a lead-weighted zither, and the strongman who smashed the wrong carriage with a 97-kilogram cone. The harder end covers his reign as emperor: the commanderies that replaced feudal states, the standardised axle widths and Ban Liang coin, the seal script, the twelve bronze colossi, the Lingqu Canal, the burning of books and the disputed burial of scholars, the five-elements theory that made black the imperial colour, his hunt for the elixir of life, his death on tour and the carts of rotten fish that hid the smell of his body. It ends with the tomb at Mount Li, the mercury readings that suggest Sima Qian was right, and how Mao and modern historians have re-judged him. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for the emperor, his dynasty and his officials before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Terracotta Army, Great Wall of China and ancient China quizzes next.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The emperor's mausoleum is guarded by thousands of life-sized terracotta figures depicting what?
Soldiers
Around 6,000 figures have been excavated, along with 40,000 real bronze weapons.
Q 02The emperor joined earlier state walls along the northern frontier to create what?
The Great Wall of China
Hundreds of thousands of workers were mobilised, and an unknown number died.
Q 03Qin Shi Huang is remembered as the first emperor of which country?
China
He unified the warring states in 221 BC and founded the Qin dynasty.
Q 04What new title did the King of Qin create for himself in 221 BC, rather than keep the old title of king?
Huangdi
It combined the huang of the mythical Three Sovereigns with the di of the legendary Five Emperors.
Q 05In which city, the capital of the state of Zhao, was the future emperor born?
Handan
His father was living there as a hostage to guarantee a truce between Qin and Zhao.
Q 06Which wealthy merchant helped Ying Zheng's father to the throne and later served as regent?
Lü Buwei
Sima Qian's Shiji also claims, probably slanderously, that the merchant was the boy's real father.
Q 07How old was Ying Zheng when he became King of Qin in 246 BC?
13
His father, King Zhuangxiang, had reigned for only three years.
Q 08How was the future emperor's personal name, Zheng, said to have been chosen?
From the month of his birth
Zhengyue is the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar.
Q 09Which man, disguised as a eunuch, became the queen dowager's lover and staged a coup in 238 BC?
Lao Ai
He was caught after boasting at a dinner party that he was the young king's stepfather.
Q 10How was the coup leader executed after his rebellion failed?
Torn apart by horse carriages
A bounty of a million copper coins had been placed on his head if taken alive.
Q 11How did the disgraced merchant-regent die in 235 BC?
He drank poisoned wine
His fall left the young king in full control of Qin.
Q 12Which assassin, sent by Crown Prince Dan of Yan in 227 BC, hid a dagger inside a rolled-up map?
Jing Ke
He also brought the severed head of a fugitive general as a gift to gain an audience.
Q 13Why did King Zheng struggle to defend himself when the dagger was revealed?
He could not draw his long sword
None of his courtiers were allowed to carry weapons in his presence, so no one could help.
Q 21Which coin became the standard currency across the newly unified empire?
The Ban Liang
Weights, measures and even wagon axle lengths were standardised at the same time.
Q 22Which style of Chinese writing became the official standard across the empire?
Seal script
Regional scripts were abolished, creating one written language despite many spoken dialects.
Q 23What did the emperor have made from the confiscated bronze weapons of the conquered states?
Twelve monumental statues
Each colossus was said to stand about 11.5 metres tall and weigh around 70 tons.
Q 14The musician Gao Jianli tried to kill the king with which instrument, weighted with lead?
A zhu
The king had already ordered him blinded, but was reluctant to kill so fine a player.
Q 15Why did Zhang Liang's 218 BC assassin fail after hurling a metal cone at the procession?
The ruler was in a second, identical carriage
The cone weighed 120 jin, roughly 97 kilograms, and both men escaped the manhunt.
Q 16Which was the first of the rival states to fall to Qin, in 230 BC?
Han
Han was the weakest of the Warring States.
Q 17Which was the last state to be conquered, completing the unification of China in 221 BC?
Qi
Its King Jian was captured without much resistance.
Q 18How did Qin forces bring about the surrender of Wei in 225 BC?
By flooding its capital
The capital was Daliang, near modern Kaifeng.
Q 19Which minister worked with the emperor on the great programme of standardisation?
Li Si
He was later a co-conspirator in forging the emperor's will.
Q 20Into how many commanderies was the empire first divided after 221 BC?
36
The number later rose to 40; below them came counties, townships and hundred-family units.
Q 24Which school of thought became the mandatory ideology of the Qin dynasty?
Legalism
The Hundred Schools of Thought of the Warring States era were suppressed.
Q 25Which subjects were exempted when the emperor ordered books burned from 213 BC?
Astrology, agriculture, medicine and divination
Histories of the state of Qin itself were also spared.
Q 26According to the Shiji, how many scholars did the emperor have buried alive in 212 BC?
460
Recent research suggests the victims were more likely alchemists who had deceived him.
Q 27Which of the emperor's sons openly criticised him for the burial of the scholars?
Fusu
He was later tricked into suicide by a forged letter after his father's death.
Q 28Which element and colour did the Qin dynasty adopt under the theory of the five elements?
Water and black
The Zhou were held to have ruled by fire, so the next element in the cycle was chosen.
Q 29Which number was given special significance under the Qin's element theory?
Six
Carriages were two metres wide and official hats 15 centimetres long, in keeping with the scheme.
Q 30Which general led the 215 BC campaign that drove the Xiongnu from the Ordos Plateau?
Meng Tian
The same general was later ordered to begin construction of the emperor's tomb.