Birth Controversy
For a long period of time, people are never tired of talking about the birth controversy of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang. According to the Book of History, the birth father of the first emperor was Lu Buwei instead of the King Zhuangxiang of Qin. Because by the time Zhao Ji, the concubine of Lu Buwei was sent as a gift to Zi Chu (later the King Zhuangxiang of Qin), she was already pregnant by Lu. After one year's marriage to the King Zhuangxiang of Qin, she gave birth to Emperor Qin Shi Huang. However, some scholars pointed that the duration of the pregnancy lasting a full year was irregular, based on the modern medicine. To say the emperor was an illegitimate child is obviously a slander to the emperor.

Handsome or Disfigured
About the appearance of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang, people have two adverse opinions. Some say he was tall and handsome while in other opinions, he was short and disfigured. The feature description can be found in the Book of History. But since the book was written in classical languages in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-24 AD), there are dissensions due to the difference of character apprehension by modern people. A group of people think the emperor had big eyes, a high nose, a loud voice and a spirited quality in action. Walking erect and confident, he was such a real masculine Apollo. While in other's opinion, represented by Guo Moruo, a Chinese author, historian, and archaeologist, the Emperor Qin Shi Huang had a saddle nose, protruding eyeballs and the howl of a jackal. He was pigeon-breasted and suffered from tracheitis and rickets.

However, many people cannot accept that the first emperor was such a teratosis and believe it was only a vilification to the emperor. In Qin state, the most soldierly prince was chosen to succeed to the throne instead of the eldest. Therefore, a disfigured and handicapped boy would not be appointed as the crown price anyhow. And Zhao Ji, the mother of Qin Shi Huang, was a well-known beauty. The father of the emperor, King Zhuangxiang of Qin, being the posterity of royal lineage, was probably endowed with excellent genetic code. So the Emperor Qin Shi Huang, should have inherited well from his parents. That is to say, the feature of the emperor was fine and at least not ugly.

Were the remains of Qin Shi Huang intact?
Some experts have introduced the idea that the remains of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang was intact, which soon became the centre of attention. They also provided some pieces of facts and bold guesswork to support the argument. The emperor died in Shaqiu Palace (today's northwest of Guangzong County in Hebei Province) in July, where the weather could be much cooler at that time than in these days. The weather condition helped in the preservation of the body. Besides, the key figures of the Qin Court including Hu Hai, Li Si and Zhao Gao was present when Qin Shi Huang died. They would try their best to keep the body well to show filial piety and loyalty to the country. They put the body of the emperor in Wenliang Chariot which equaled to today's refrigerated truck. And the imperial physician Xia Wuju should have used the most advanced medical techniques at that time to preserve the body.

But many other experts hold different views. They believe there was only the emperor's skeleton left in the mausoleum, even though the underground palace was not stolen, because it was not easy to preserve the dead body in hot summer. And according to the Historical Book, the body had already given off a nasty smell when transported not very far. To prevent the bad smell from diffusion to result in leaking information (because the sudden death of the emperor would cause great disorder under heaven), Zhao Gao and Hu Hai sent someone to fish baskets of abalone and put them together with the dead body to mix the smell. After about a 50 days travel on bumpy road, the body of the first emperor was supposedly not kept intact. Therefore, if the mausoleum was open today, we could only found the bones of the emperor and his real appearance is forever a mystery.

Why the Emperor Qin Shi Huang did not determine the empress?
It is a fact that the Emperor Qin Shi Huang was the only emperor in Chinese history that did not have an empress. Is it because he had too many concubines than he could choose? Or his mother’s bad behavior made him hatred of women? Or there was no woman qualified enough to be his empress? There were dozens of predictions.

What did Qin Shi Huang die from?
Like his birth, the death of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang is also a mystery. His sudden death gave people a lot of space to imagine. Some say he died of poisoning from the elixirs. Some believe that he died from overwork. And in other's view, he died of murder. Who is correct? There is no final conclusion.