Two Emperors Who Would Cheat Death

Historical and archaeological records tell us that humans have always been curious about an afterlife and have tried many different approaches to getting there. Egypt’s fascinating “boy king” Tutankhamen and China’s “First Emperor” Qin Shi Huang Di were no exception. Although these two emperors lived a millennium and thousands of miles apart, their concept of the cosmos, its gods, and their possibilities for an afterlife were similar. Everything about these two powerful monarchs’ lives—gods in human form to their subjects—focused on making an indelible mark on their world, living forever and joining the sky gods in the afterlife. 

Both forced their subjects to serve in corvées (forced labor collectives) devoting their energy—and often their lives—to constructing monumental projects for the empire: roads, defenses and waterways; temples for the gods; and personal tombs to ensure the emperor's transition to the hereafter. Both were so accustomed to their lifestyles that they included in their tombs a retinue of servants to provide for their eternal comfort. And both resorted to magical spells and mythological substitutes to shield them in case they might be required to perform the same physical duties for the sky-gods that they had required underlings to perform for them while they were alive.

TUTANKHAMEN

At the tender age of 8, Tutankhaman inherited his father’s throne and with it, his father’s gods. Religion in Egypt meant priesthoods and temples and power to religious leaders, so major cult changes caused political power plays—and vice-versa. From earliest Egyptian history, the people had worshipped a pantheon of animist and astrological gods, including the sun god, under various names. By the New Kingdom (2686-2181 B.C.), Amun, as creator, sun god, and ‘king of gods,’ was honored in a trinity along with Re and Ptah. But when Tutankhamen’s father, Pharaoh Akhenaten (1352-1336 B.C.) promoted Aten over the more popular Amun, it was too much for the people and for the priesthood who vied with the pharaohs for power.

Thus, when young Tutankhamen came to the throne, he may well have been manipulated by the power-seekers of his day to put the old gods back in authority. Or, he may have hoped to win favor with his people and make a name for himself. Whatever the reason, he started the empire on a course back to the old comfortable gods. 

Though “King Tut” died mysteriously at about 17 without completing the process, it continued after him and ancient Egypt quickly returned to the ways of the old favorite gods and powerful priesthoods.

Tut lived such a short life that he didn't have the opportunity to build an impressive mausoleum. But he was nevertheless entombed with many “magic” statuettes (intended to come to life as celestial servants when he joined the gods in the night sky), some servants to feed and entertain him and others to replace him in any physical work that might be required.

Egyptian life was determined by the land and the cycles of nature. Egypt is desert except along the Nile and its delta. The Nile began to rise at the summer solstice, continuing to do so for 100 days, flooding the lowland and depositing silt and precious moisture—annually renewing fertility to the only arable land. By the end of October the river was back to normal levels, remaining so until the next summer solstice. Mummy expert Rosalie David notes in her book Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt that the inundation was worshipped as the god Hapy with ceremonies and sacrifices of food, animals, jewelry and female "dolls" thrown into the river. Hapy and Osiris (god of vegetation and rebirth) were included in a triumvirate along with the sun-god Re (the creator) and petitioned for favorable harvests.

The Pyramid Texts, carved on the walls of the Saqqara pyramids and dating to the Old Kingdom, proclaimed that the rightful reward for the pharaoh was to join the gods in the night sky and travel with them through the constellations as a “star among the imperishable stars.” Magical instructions and spells were to ensure the Pharaoh's safe passage into the next world.

These pyramids were oriented to represent the constellation Orion, identified with the god Osiris, who had died and been resurrected. David says that Osiris “in the old kingdom (2686 B.C. – 2181 B.C.), already played an important role in ensuring the king's eternity," but came to offer "an individual resurrection and eternity to rich and poor alike.”

QIN SHI HUANG DI 

Almost a millennium after Tutankhamen’s death and half a world away, China was near the end of its Warring States period (403-221 B.C.). As many as 170 city-states vied with one another in a political and military free-for-all. Into this mix, in 247 B.C., stepped a new Qin (Chin) king named Zheng. With a more effective use of cavalry, infantry, iron weapons, and—according to John Fairbank and Merle Goldman—“especially the crossbow,” he defeated the other six states and declared himself Qin First Emperor (Qin Shi Huang Di) in 221 B.C. Di had been worshipped as supreme god more than a thousand years earlier. When Zheng compounded di with the word for ‘august’ or ‘majestic’ he made up the title Emperor-god.

To cement his control, he relocated the local aristocratic families to the capitol and administered his 36 new districts using civil servants who were dependant on him for their office and income. Using forced labor, as Egypt’s Pharaohs had done, he built over 4,000 miles of highways, 1,200 miles of waterways and great defensive walls.

Qin pitted family member against family member, using rewards and punishments, in an effort to elevate loyalty to himself and to the state above the long-held tradition of loyalty to the family. Five to ten families were grouped into collectives, responsible for each individual's actions. Severe punishments were inflicted on the whole group in response to one person's misdeeds, which made informing on others the only way to protect one's self.

But the First Emperor of China is best known today for the extravagant grave-goods in his tomb near Xi'an. In 1974 farmers digging a well unearthed the first of approximately 7,500 larger-than-life terracotta soldiers with their accompanying horses, chariots and armaments—placed there to protect and support the emperor in his afterlife. These statues were expected to magically come to life and do the emperor's bidding as he joined his place among the stars. After achieving total conquest and the abject obedience of his subjects, he had become obsessed with learning the key to immortality and a god-like afterlife.

Qin built his temples in orientation with supposedly auspicious celestial objects as the Egyptians had done. He made five royal journeys to sacred mountains—high-places as close to the sky-gods as possible—seeking answers to immortality.

As John Fairbank and Merle Goldman put it, “Under the Qin, the First Emperor's ruthless exactions of men and taxes year after year exhausted the people and the state's other resources. After 37 years as ruler of the Qin state, he suddenly died at age 49 in 210 B.C. His empire quickly disintegrated. Aside from unity of the known world, the First Emperor had sought mainly an elixir of immortality for himself.”

GOT SOUL? 

Tutankhamen and Qin Shi Huang Di have captured the imagination of the modern world, chiefly because their tombs are two of the most spectacular archeological finds to date from ancient times. And while it’s interesting to compare those perspectives they had in common, it is also interesting to note that in the end, neither achieved the most important goal the two shared—that of becoming immortal and a god.

But these two men were not alone in this yearning. Some of the earliest human religious artifacts demonstrate a reverence for astrological symbols and a desire to find a way to continue life after death. Cults such as that devoted to the Egyptian Isis and Osiris and the Babylonian Nimrod and Semiramis offered variations on eternal life.

Around the second century after Jesus, an evolving Christianity began to echo the same ancient cosmologies, teaching that humans can go to heaven and that their souls are immortal. Much of humanity to this day embraces the notion eagerly. Interestingly, however, this is not what Jesus and His early followers taught. They were rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures which tell of the impermanence of man’s physical life: “His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; In that very day his plans perish” (Psalm 146:3 New King James Version). The apostle John records Jesus’ words, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man” (John 3:13, English Standard Version).

Like the prophets who lived before them, Jesus and His followers taught that the hope of life after death did not lie in an immortal soul or spirit, but in God’s power to ultimately resurrect according to the unfolding of His plan for humanity (see "Resurrection"). Very different from the cosmologies of Tutankamen and China’s First Emperor, this plan does not call for the building of elaborate tombs to be stocked with physical possessions for use in an afterlife. Rather, it calls for a focus on inner change, a task that in some ways may seem far more daunting than the building of pyramids.