Ministers › Remonstrators
Fu Su
Eldest son of the First Emperor, sent to the northern frontier for protesting the execution of scholars and driven to suicide by a forged edict after his father's death
At dawn in a palace courtyard, a large drum hangs in a small roofed frame beside a red pillar, with a bound bundle of scrolls on a low stand in front; a stone balustrade leads toward a large hall in the mist, and a row of tiny people stands far away.
Also known as Gongzi Fusu
- Roles
- Remonstrators
Fusu was the eldest son of the First Emperor of Qin. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) says that in 212 BC, when his father had more than four hundred and sixty scholars buried alive, Fusu protested that the empire was newly settled and that punishing men who followed Confucius so harshly would unsettle it; the angry emperor sent him north to Shang commandery to oversee Meng Tian's army. When the emperor died at Shaqiu in 210 BC, Zhao Gao, Li Si and the younger son Huhai forged orders that made Huhai heir and accused Fusu of failure and slander, commanding him to die. Li Si's biography says Meng Tian suspected a forgery and urged him to appeal, but Fusu replied that a son ordered to die by his father need not ask again, and killed himself. In 209 BC Chen Sheng and Wu Guang began their rising at Dazexiang by claiming to act in the names of Prince Fusu and the Chu general Xiang Yan.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–210 BCE