Page 75 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

Maps China in the Han Dynasty.
fear of assassination, and the roads connecting his many palaces
were protected by high walls. So great was his dread of even a nat-
ural death that he was forever seeking through Taoist practitioners
the secret of immortality. In his search for the elixir, tradition has
it that he sent a company of aristocratic boys and girls across the
Eastern Sea to where the fabulous Mount P'eng-lai rises amid the
waves, ever receding as one approaches it. They never returned,
and it was later thought that they might have reached the shores of
Japan.
Shih-huang-ti died in 210 B.C. The reign of his son Hu Hai was
short and bitter. His assassination in 207 was the climax of a rebel-
lion led by Hsiang Yii, a general of Ch'u, and Liu Pang, who had
started his life as a bandit. In 206 the Ch'in capital was sacked;
Hsiang Yii proclaimed himself King of Ch'u, while Liu Pang took
the crown of Han. For four years the two rival kings fought for su-
premacy, till finally in 202, when defeat seemed inevitable, Hsiang
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