赵高 / Zhao Gao
赵高 / Zhao Gao enters the wiki through Qinji 127-2 as the court insider who converts 秦始皇’s death into a succession coup. The source says he comes from low status but is physically capable, literate in law, and useful enough for Qin Shi Huang to make him 中车府令 and 胡亥’s legal teacher.
The episode gives Zhao Gao a personal threat structure before the coup. 蒙毅 once judged him guilty and sentenced him to death, but Qin Shi Huang pardoned him and restored his post. That makes the 蒙恬-蒙毅 brothers a danger if 扶苏 succeeds, while Hu Hai is the dependent prince through whom Zhao Gao can preserve and enlarge his position.
After Qin Shi Huang dies, Zhao Gao first persuades Hu Hai to use the imperial letter and seals, then turns to 李斯. His decisive move is 位阶焦虑式说服: he compares Li Si with Meng Tian on ability, merit, popularity, and Fusu’s trust, making support for Fusu look like Li Si’s own demotion. The source therefore makes Zhao Gao the strategist behind both death concealment and the forged-edict succession coup.
《资治通鉴·秦纪》127-3｜海外回归一批竹简 揭开胡亥立帝之谜！ narrows that role under the 《赵正书》 variant. In the alternate account, Zhao Gao is not the first proposer of Hu Hai’s establishment; he returns as a beneficiary after Hu Hai succeeds and becomes 郎中令. The same episode still keeps the traditional Zhao Gao-Meng family revenge branch visible when it describes Zhao Gao slandering Meng Tian and 蒙毅 to prevent their rehabilitation.
《资治通鉴·秦纪》127-4｜秦始皇陵的惊天秘密 carries that revenge branch into the deaths themselves. After Hu Hai’s accession, Zhao Gao’s influence remains strong enough that 子婴’s warning cannot save 蒙恬 and Meng Yi. The source therefore extends Zhao Gao from succession operator into purge enforcer.
《资治通鉴·秦纪》128-1｜不想篡位的太监 不是个好奸臣 makes Zhao Gao the architect of a broader royal and ministerial purge. When Hu Hai asks whether he can indulge in pleasure, Zhao Gao first agrees, then says the pleasures must wait because princes and old ministers may suspect the 沙丘 transition. His solution is harsh law, mutual implication, destruction of old ministers and royal kin, and promotion of dependent followers. This turns Zhao Gao from a coup operator into the manager of 继位合法性清洗.
《资治通鉴·秦纪》128-2｜起来！被压迫的人们！ keeps Zhao Gao in the causal background for the 大泽乡起义. The episode does not add a new Zhao Gao maneuver; it reiterates that Hu Hai is pulled into power through Zhao Gao’s prompting and then discovers that rule is harder than pleasure. Zhao Gao therefore remains the hinge between accession manipulation and the later burdens that make Qin rule socially explosive.
Key Claims
- Zhao Gao’s legal skill and access to the imperial carriage office make him more than a palace attendant in the source’s transition narrative.
- His past death sentence under Meng Yi makes the Meng family a survival threat, not just a factional rival.
- Hu Hai matters to Zhao Gao because their teacher-student and access relationship gives Zhao Gao a usable prince.
- Zhao Gao cannot complete the coup without Li Si, so he reframes Fusu’s succession as Li Si’s future loss to Meng Tian.
- The source presents Zhao Gao as a political operator who understands both credential control and personal insecurity.
- Qinji 127-3 makes Zhao Gao’s initiative source-dependent: decisive in the forged-edict account, but downstream in the Zhao Zheng Shu version.
- Qinji 127-4 keeps Zhao Gao central after accession by tying his influence to the killing of the Meng brothers despite Ziying’s warning.
- Qinji 128-1 shows Zhao Gao converting Hu Hai’s pleasure-seeking and legitimacy fear into a purge program that also expands Zhao Gao’s own personnel control.
- Qinji 128-2 carries Zhao Gao’s influence from court purge into rebellion background: the source treats his prompting of Hu Hai’s accession as one early cause of the regime path that ends at Dazexiang.
Connections
- 秦始皇 - ruler who promoted and pardoned him.
- 胡亥 / 秦二世 - prince taught by Zhao Gao and elevated through the coup.
- 李斯 - chancellor Zhao Gao must recruit.
- 扶苏, 蒙恬, and 蒙毅 - opposing succession and Meng-family threat structure.
- 位阶焦虑式说服, 书面继承凭证, 秘不发丧式过渡控制, and 伪诏继位政变 - mechanisms attached to his role.
- Qinji 127-3, 《赵正书》, and 史书异文政治重量 - alternate account where Zhao Gao is reweighted from originator to later beneficiary.
- Qinji 127-4 and 子婴 - purge aftermath and ignored remonstrance against killing the Meng brothers.
- Qinji 128-1, 嬴将闾, 嬴高, 继位合法性清洗, and 法家君术 - harsh-law royal purge after Hu Hai returns to Xianyang.
- Qinji 128-2, 大泽乡起义, and 误期死局式起义触发 - accession manipulation as background to the social crisis.