Shedding light on real history behind the premises of Kingdom, the manga



Recently, I came across the manga 王者天下 Kingdom because it was listed as a “popular” manga. Gave it a shot and surprisingly, it’s quite captivating.

So, I’m sure some of you, like me, are interested in the real history concerning the Warring States Era in the history of China. And I happen to know a bit of history and I’ve decided to do this long write-up of what happens to each of the characters in real history, with some help from Wikipedia. Read on if you’re interested!

I really love this manga and I’m sure I’m not the only one! Took a while to compile this and match their Japanese-translated names in the manga to real persons in history. Note that the mangaka did make some slight changes to minor events in history, so what you see below might not be how the story will play out in the future. But the author may stay true to history so POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW based on real history.

Now, there are a few important things to say about the Warring States Period (~2500 years ago from now). That’s a long time ago and thankfully, wise scholars from various states back then made some records of the events happening at that time. Note that nothing was mentioned in history about the elite-tiered Six Great Generals of Qin (as in, these generals were present in history but they didn’t have the Six Great Generals title).

In history, records indicate of the existence of the “Four Greatest Generals of the Warring States Era”. The author had already made mention of all 4 of them in the manga. These 4 generals are:

Haku Ki of Qin (listed as the leader of Qin’s Six Great Generals in the manga) Ousen of Qin (he will probably play a bigger part in the manga later on if the author is staying true to history) Renpa of Zhao (who later defected to Wei, and finally, to Chu) Riboku of Zhao (no mention of him being a strategist, was recorded as being a general)

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STATES

Finally, the fates of the states are as below:

Chu: defeated in 223 BC thanks to Qin

Han: steadily declined due to inability to defend its territory and had to request military assistance from other states. 230 BC, state fell.

Wei: surrendered to Qin in 225 BC after Ouhon diverted the Yellow River and flooded Wei’s capital.

Zhao: defeated in 260 BC thanks to Qin. Lost so many men it could never recover. 228 BC, was completely conquered by Qin.

Yan: survived through the era but in 222 BC, fell to Qin after Yan sent an assassin to kill King Ei Sei of Qin, which failed and enraged Ei Sei to annihilate Yan.

Qi: the last state to be conquered by Qin, fell in 221 BC to end the Warring States Era and begin the Qin Dynasty

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CHARACTERS

Now below, I will talk about the characters’ real histories. Note that there are still some major characters in history that have yet to be introduced. I did not include them below. Dead characters aren’t included either.

In alphabetical order:

Chun Shun Kun (Chu’s prime minister who led the coalition army) [Important figure in history]

This guy was actually revered in history, and not all hot-blooded and foul-mouthed like the mangaka portrayed. He was credited with a lot of flood-prevention hydrological works and such in many areas. Even now, the Chinese government built a temple dedicated to him in Shanghai, and both Anhui and Hubei provinces in China have built big tombs/sculptures for him in those areas.

He died from an assassin sent by one of his own chief retainers.

Duke Hyou

A Qin general. The only mention of him in history was that he took the heads of 30,000 soldiers during a battle.

Unlike the manga, there was no mention of his death in history.

Ei Sei (King of Qin who unified the states and became Emperor]

I could say a lot about Ei Sei, but the most important things to know are that he successfully unified China and was credited with many public works including building roads, the Great Wall, many canals, the standardization of the Chinese writing system, standardization of road widths, weights, currency, and many other things. He also abolished the system where power could only be held by people of noble descent; instead, he changed the system so that power is obtained through merit and achievements. He was, however, known as a very brutal emperor.

He built the largest mausoleum in China, and within the tomb were the famous Terracotta Army figures that were discovered a few decades ago in China.

There were several assassination attempts on him which failed. The most famous assassination attempt involved Kanki. This assassination is portrayed in many dramas and movies because it was so famous. See the character Kanki for details of the attempted-but-failed assassination.

He also became obsessed with immortality later in his reign and died around the age of 50 due to illness (probably heavy metals poisoning from ingesting mercury elixirs and immortality pills made by alchemists etc). He died away from the capital in bed and the power struggles that ensued put an end to the Qin Dynasty only 15 years after it was established. But, from then on, the Dynasty system was used by all the following emperors (previously, the heads of the state would still call themselves King and the citizens of each area would still call themselves citizens of Chu/Wei/Zhao etc, but with the unification of China, Ei Sei tried to have these boundaries blurred out). After the Qin Dynasty came the Han Dynasty (this has nothing to do with the State of Han, which was already annexed by Qin. The Han Dynasty is written as Han漢, whereas the state of Han is written as Han韓. Different characters but same pronunciation).

Ei Sei also became known as Qin Shi Huang (First Emperor of Qin), as opposed to the previous titles of King of State.

Heki

A Qin general. Potentially only a fictional character. Heki’s name corresponds to “wall” in Chinese and the only passage where he is potentially mentioned is that a general dies. The potential interpretations of this passage is either that a certain General Wall dies 8 years into Ei Sei’s reign, OR, a general dies on the [castle] wall 8 years into Ei Sei’s reign.

Houken

From Zhao. Commander of the coalition army, which failed to conquer Qin.

Afterwards, in 236 BC, he led the Zhao army to attack the state of Yan. During this time, the Qin used the excuse of aiding the state of Yan to launch an offensive into Zhao (led by Ousen, Kanki and Yotanwa) and took 9 of their cities, while the Zhao only took 3 of Yan’s cities. Because of this, the Zhao has lost a major part of their northern and western territories. The king of Zhao died from his sorrows due to this event. Zhao said bye bye to history as well in 229 BC (18 years into Ei Sei’s reign) thanks to the combined efforts of said Qin generals.

No more records of Houken after this point.

Kanki [Important figure in history]

Don’t read this if you don’t want to be sad. He is one of my favorite characters in the manga because he is good at being cool and awesome. It makes me sad because in real history…

Kanki was a Qin general. There was no mention of him being some mountain bandit, unlike what is portrayed in the manga. 11 years into Ei Sei’s reign, he teamed up with Ousen and Yotanwa to take 9 cities from Zhao while Zhao’s backs were turned from battling Yan to the east. Another offensive launched 14 years into Ei Sei’s reign had him battling the Zhao again with Riboku as the enemy commander. He was defeated and defected to the state of Yan (this is debated in history. The first possibility was that Kanki was never seen again after his defeat. The second possibility was that he defected to Yan and became a very wanted man with a high bounty in Qin. The following description assumes that the second scenario occurred).

Yup, so Kanki became a traitor and defected to Yan >_<. Ei Sei was enraged and put a humongous bounty on his head and Kanki wanted revenge against Ei Sei.

At this time, the Qin army was already camped at the Zhao capital and ready to advance upon the state of Yan. The state of Yan devised a plan to thwart their aggressors via an assassination attempt on the King of Qin, Ei Sei.

The below assassination attempt is very famous in history and can be seen re-enacted in many movies and dramas. The state of Yan sent a scholar by the name of Jing Ke, who was proficient with sword fighting, to go assassinate Ei Sei. The plan was to pretend to be a nobleman from Yan and show up in Qin’s court to beg for mercy with gifts presented to Ei Sei. The first gift would be a rolled-up map, with a poisoned dagger concealed inside.

For the second gift, the assassin Jing Ke approached the Qin traitor Kanki to discuss the assassination plan. Jing Ke needed to ensure that he is granted an audience with Ei Sei so he wanted to present the traitor Kanki’s head to Ei Sei. Since there was already a huge bounty on Kanki’s head, Kanki thinks the plan would work and his revenge would be fulfilled through the assassination of King Ei Sei and agreed to commit suicide by drinking poison and have his head chopped off by Jing Ke to present to Ei Sei.

227 BC, the assassin Jing Ke went to present these gifts (map & Kanki’s head) on behalf of Yan to Ei Sei. He was allowed an audience with Ei Sei and Ei Sei descended his throne to receive these gifts. As Ei Sei unrolled the map, the poisoned dagger was revealed.

Jing Ke immediately grabbed the dagger and thrusted it at Ei Sei, which Ei Sei managed to dodge. Ei Sei tried to pull out his sword from his belt but the ceremonial sword was too long and Ei Sei could not unsheathe it properly. At the time, there was a policy that no one in the court was allowed to carry weapons, and palace guards were still too far away, so no one could come to Ei Sei’s rescue. As Jing Ke advanced on Ei Sei, Ei Sei tried to escape from him by circling around a pillar. At that time, one of the royal physicians happened to carry a big bag of medicine with him, which he used to slam Jing Ke with. This slowed down Jing Ke enough for Ei Sei to back off and move the ceremonial sword to his back, where he would finally be able to draw out the sword over his shoulder. Ei Sei then managed to stab Jing Ke in the thigh, immobilizing him. He slashed at Jing Ke 8 times in total and managed to kill his would-be-assassinator.

After the ordeal, it was said that Ei Sei sat down in his throne, rather paralyzed and shocked and recovered only after the adrenaline rush died down a while later. Thus concludes this assassination attempt, and Ousen was sent to annihilate the state of Yan after this.

Kyou Kai

A Qin general. No mention of Kyou Kai being female. No mention of Kyou Kai being close to Lee Shin in any way. In the manga, she’s still a lieutenant, so it’s likely that we will see her advance to a general. The only mention of him in history is that he worked with Ousen a few times to attack other states and gain territories.

No mention of his death.

Moubu [Famous figure in history]

A famous Qin general.

In 223 BC, along with Ousen, attacked and put an end to the state of Chu.

No mention of his death.

Mougou [Famous figure in history]

A famous Qin general. Racked up a load of achievements as a general and took more than 70 cities in his career as an army commander.

On his last and final campaign, he launched an assault towards the Zhao capital but was ambushed by Houken and his army in a mountainous forest. The Qin army was utterly defeated and Mougou died from a rain of arrows in the ambush.

Mouki [Famous figure in history]

A famous Qin politician. Son of Moubu and brother of Mouten. He was very trusted by King Ei Sei, so much that he was allowed to ride in the same carriage as him and stand near the king during court processions.

A serious offense was commited by a villainous and corrupt eunuch official, and Mouki went by the books to give him the death penalty but King Ei Sei pardoned the eunuch. Zhao Gao was the eunuch’s name.

When Emperor Ei Sei passed away, said eunuch then cooperated with Rishi of Legalism to forge the emperor’s will to put the prince of their choosing onto the throne. Then, they convinced the new emperor to arrest Mouten and Mouki and order them to commit suicide by drinking poison. The Qin Dynasty fell within 15 years of its establishment thanks to the new king’s incompetency and his reliance on corrupt officials who continued to execute anyone they disliked.

Died from being forced to drink said poison.

Mouten [Famous figure in history]

A famous Qin general. He was credited with his successful campaigns against the Xiongnu in the north, as well as the construction of a good expanse of the Great Wall of China. He also supervised the construction of a large system of roads to connect areas in the former states of Chu, Yan, Qi, and Wu, which eventually played an important part in imperial use and economic trades. He also made many improvements to the calligraphy brush. In the annual Huzhou Pen Festival, homage is given to Mouten.

Was arrested by corrupt officials of Qin and forced to commit suicide by drinking poison in prison (for details of event, see character Mouki). The Qin Dynasty fell 3 years after Mouten’s death.

Ouhon [Famous figure in history]

A famous Qin general. Son of Ousen. 225 BC, 22 years into Ei Sei’s reign, Ouhon led an army to attack Wei and diverted the Yellow River to flood its capital and conquered Wei. 25 years into Ei Sei’s reign, Ouhon led an army to attack Yan and captured its king, conquering Yan. 26 years into Ei Sei’s reign, Ouhon led an army to attack Qi and captured their capital, conquering Qi. This Qin vs. Qi battle was very famous in history, as now Qin has finally unified all the states.

Ouhon was awarded with a nice title and his son was also a famous Qin general. There was no mention of his death.

Ousen [Important figure in history]

Very famous Qin general. In the manga, it’s said that he’s highly ambitious, going on about his “kingdom” etc, but in history, he was a loyal Qin general and didn’t turn out to be a traitor. Yay.

19 years into Ei Sei’s reign, led and army and annexed Zhao once and for all.

23 years into Ei Sei’s reign, to attack Chu, Ousen needed at least 600,000 troops but our dear protagonist Shin told the king that only 200,000 troops were necessary. Ei Sei was delighted to hear that number and casted Ousen aside in favour of Shin and Mouten. A rare, crushing defeat of the Qin army followed with 7 Qin commanders being slain in battle. King Ei Sei personally rushed to the battlefront and reinstated Ousen and granted him his request of 600,000 troops. Ousen then led the army and conquered Chu in 223 BC.

No mention of his death.

Queen Mother

Ei Sei’s mother of Qin. See character Ryo Aii for more details.

Ren Pa [Important figure in history]

Famous Zhao commander who won many battles but defected to Wei, then Chu, because he became distrusted by the Zhao king.

In history, records indicate that he had an astonishingly big appetite and could eat 2 lb of rice and 30 lb of meat in one meal even in his senior years.

Lived rather long and died naturally.

Riboku [Important figure in history]

Very famous Zhao commander. Riboku has never suffered a defeat in a battle that he led. The manga showed Riboku leading the failed coalition army when in actual fact, there was no mention in history about his role in the coalition army, nor about him initiating the alliance.

In fact, he was so good at not losing, it made Qin realize that getting rid of Riboku was a necessity to the unification of China. The Qin were able to pillage Han and Wei but could not do the same to Zhao.

So, the Qin devised a plan to get rid of Riboku in order to conquer Zhao. The plan was to send many spies into the court of Zhao and bribe Zhao’s officials to keep telling Zhao’s king that Riboku was planning a revolt. The king believed them and told Riboku to hand over his position to two other generals. Riboku refused, knowing that these two generals aren’t capable of defending Zhao against the Qin. This solidified the king’s belief that Riboku was planning a revolt. So he arrested Riboku and executed him.

This makes me sad, yeah. Good guy Riboku got done in by corrupt officials. That said, the manga seems to show him being exiled to the countryside. Hooray for changing history!

Rishi of Legalism [Important figure in history]

A Qin politician who later was elevated to Chancellor.

After Ryofui’s titles were stripped due to the Queen Mother incident, his subordinates were casted away by Ei Sei. The only exception was Rishi of Legalism, who became favoured by Ei Sei and was heavily used and relied upon. Kept being promoted all the way up to being the Chancellor.

After Ei Sei unified China, Rishi decided to suppress intellectuals and scholars in order to unify thought and political opinion in China, so he persuaded the emperor to do so. This led to the famous event known as the “burning of texts and slaughter of scholars” and anyone found to possess banned books were executed, along with their families. Records indicate some 460 scholars being buried alive and numerous texts lost. This resulted in a huge loss to the history of China.

When Emperor Ei Sei was on his deathbed, Rishi conspired with the villainous eunuch to place a prince of their choosing onto the throne by forging the Emperor’s will. The forged will ordered Ei Sei’s eldest son, and the rightful heir to the throne, to commit suicide by drinking poison, which the son faithfully did. Incidentally, this son seemed to be very wise and loyal, who recommended against the burning of books, etc. Unfortunately, the son was good friends with Mouten and if he had become king, Mouten would have likely been appointed Chancellor; thus, Rishi didn’t want to relinquish power and set up this scheme with the villainous eunuch known as Zhao Gao.

Rishi also invented a cruel method of execution called The Five Pains, which involves chopping the nose off, the limbs, and finally the waist. After the incapable prince was pushed onto the throne, Rishi’s co-conspirator, the villainous eunuch Zhao Gao, convinced the new king to execute Rishi on the grounds of treason. And ironically enough, Rishi was executed using the method of Five Pains, which he himself had invented.

Barring the power struggles aside, Rishi was credited with many achievements in Qin. Accomplishments include the high efficiency of state operations, success of its military conquests, standardization of weights, currency, and writing systems in the unified China.

Ryofui [Important figure in history]

Originally a merchant and became the Chancellor of Qin, as stated in the manga. In 235 BC, he was implicated in an affair with the Queen Mother and was stripped of his titles then exiled.

As a Chancellor, he was known for commissioning a compilation of an encyclopedia containing subjects such as music, agriculture, etc. This compendium was also one of the longest early texts in history.

He feared execution so he committed suicide while in exile by consuming poison.

Ryo Aii [Important figure in history]

From Qin. He is the fake eunuch with the stiff member that Ryofui snuck into the harem to appease the Queen Mother. He will play an important part later, if the mangaka is staying true to history.

The Queen Mother was infatuated with him and showered him in riches and used her influence to get him official positions. He spent lavishly and recklessly took control of many affairs of state. Ryo Aii and the Queen Mother had 2 illegitimate sons and decided to plot against King Ei Sei by placing their own illegitimate son on the throne.

During a drunken argument at a dinner party, it was recorded in history that Ryo Aii drunkenly bellowed out that he was the stepfather of the emperor and dared anyone to oppose him. One of the men that he had quarreled with went and reported this to the emperor. The emperor was outraged and started investigations into Ryo Aii and the Queen Mother. 238 BC.

Ryo Aii decided to make a move first and using the Royal Seal that is still in the harem’s hands, summoned an army to perform a coup d’etat on the throne while Emperor Ei Sei was out of the capital. The emperor tasked Ryofui, Shouheikun, and Shoubunkun to quell the rebellion, with which they succeeded. The emperor then executed Ryo Aii along with 3 generations of his relatives, stripped the Queen Mother of all her titles, and put their 2 illegitimate sons in sacks and had them beaten to death.

Lee Shin

A famous Qin general. Helped Ei Sei to unite all of China along with a few other generals. No mention of him being close to King Ei Sei in any way, unlike what is portrayed in the manga.

He is the ancestor of some extremely famous generals to come in the Han Dynasty (nothing to do with the State of Han), and was also the descendant of a famous line of Lee’s, including Lao Tzu, a prominent philosopher who founded philosophical Taoism (AKA Lao Tzu was his great-great-great granddad or something along those lines).

No mention of his death.

Shoubunkun

A high-ranking official in Qin who helped to crush Ryo Aii’s rebellion (for details see character Ryo Aii). No mention of him being especially close to King Ei Sei, like portrayed in the manga.

Passed away in 226 BC.

Shouheikun

A Qin general. In history, he was actually a prince of Chu (?? debated) who came to work in Qin. He was credited with helping to crush a rebellion started by Ryo Aii.

He later left Qin and went back to Chu to be crowned king but died in a battle with the Qin.

Ten

Fictional character in the manga.

Tou [Important figure in history]

A very famous Qin general, who later started handling state affairs as an official in court after China was unified. The areas where he conquered and where he administrated, peace was brought thanks to him implementing laws that benefited the citizens. He was a well-respected general and later on, an official. There was no mention of him being affiliated with Ouki in any way.

Historians think Tou died naturally from old age.

Yotanwa

A general of Qin. No mention of mountain tribes or being female. The only mention of Yotanwa in history was the offensive into Zhao (see character Houken for battle details).

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