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Wang Wan
Qin chancellor who helped devise the imperial title in 221 BCE and proposed enfeoffing the emperor's sons as kings, a plan rejected in favour of Li Si's commanderies
In a council hall, a long table holds an unrolled map scroll, a brass-cornered chest and a brush pot, with tall-backed chairs around it and a bronze lamp at the left; a figure stands with their back turned on the balcony at the right, with palace roofs beyond.
- Roles
- Chief Ministers
Wang Wan was chancellor to the king of Qin, known mainly from the basic annals of the First Emperor in the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji). When Qin completed its conquest of the other states in 221 BCE, he, the grand secretary Feng Jie and the commandant of justice Li Si were ordered to propose a new title for the ruler; they suggested Supreme Sovereign, which the king altered to Emperor. That year Wang Wan and other ministers also asked that the emperor's sons be made kings to hold the distant lands of Yan, Qi and Chu. Li Si argued that the Zhou fiefs had ended in war among the lords, and the emperor sided with him, dividing the realm into thirty-six commanderies. The edict standardising weights and measures issued that same year names the chancellors Zhuang and Wan; it was cast on many Qin weights and measuring vessels that have since been excavated. After this he disappears from the Shiji.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; chancellor of Qin in 221 BCE
- 221 BCEInstitution of County SystemLegacy
- 221 BCEQin Establishing Thirty-Six Commanderies