In our common sense, it is usually believed that the Qin Dynasty died in the second generation, but we all know that after the Qin Ii Hu Hai, the Qin Dynasty has a successor, that is, the child. However, the title of Zi Bao was relatively special, and at its succession, the title of emperor was still adopted, but at that time, the world was divided and strife was rife, and Qin had lost control of the whole country, so this nominal "Qin III" violated the idea of Qin Shi Huang and changed the emperor to the King of Qin.
However, this "Qin III", which was known in the last period of the Qin Dynasty, hastily went through a formality in history, only to be the king of Qin for 46, he was killed by Xiang Yu, because the age is too long, coupled with the historical record is very small, and it is a time of war and chaos, and even the location of the tomb is not known, and its true identity has become a historical mystery, there are many speculations.
There are several aspects of speculation about the identity of the child, which are divided into four theories: "son of Fusu", "brother of Qin Shi Huang", "son of Qin Shi Huang", and "nephew of Qin Shi Huang", and also have their own arguments, but this statement of "son of Qin Shi Huang" is the most unreliable, although this statement originates from the "Brother and Baby of Gao Li II" in the "Chronology of the Six Kingdoms". However, judging from hu hai's practice of killing his brothers and sisters after he competed for the throne at that time, if it was Hu Hai's brother, it was impossible to be spared.
Therefore, another view from the "Brother and Baby of Gao Li II" in the "Chronology of the Six Kingdoms" is that the child is "the nephew of Qin Shi Huang", and the brother referred to by "Brother II" should refer to Hu Hai's cousin, that is, the nephew of Qin Shi Huang. Zi Bao's identity could justify his immunity from Hu Hai's massacre, because at that time, Hu Hai even killed his relatives and sisters, and Zi Bao, as a cousin, did not pose a real threat, and it was reasonable to survive.
In addition to the above two speculations, there is also an inference of the age of the baby to determine his identity. The "Benji of Qin Shi Huang" describes the murder of Zhao Gao by Zi Bao and "his son two", so it means that at this time, the son of Zi Bao, at least about twenty years old, can have the ability to participate in such major events, so as to judge that the child and baby should be about forty years old, and the difference between him and Qin Shi Huang is about ten years, and this age difference is said to be qin shi huang's younger brother.
And in the Twenty-seventh Biography of Li Silie in the Chronicle of History, Volume 87, "Gao Zizhi Tianfuhe, the Qunchen Fuxu, is the brother of the First Emperor, and the seal is granted." The child is on the throne, and the suffering is said to be ill and does not listen to things, and the eunuch Han Tan and his son murder Gao. It is the evidence that he is the brother of Qin Shi Huang, but there is another doubt here, and it is not clear whether the "and his son" in "Murder Gao with the eunuch Han Tan and his son" is the son of the child or the son of Han Tan
The history itself, copied over thousands of years, is itself a contradiction. The Sixth Book of Qin Shi Huang also records that "li er's brother Gongzi Bao was the king of Qin." And because there is no punctuation in the ancient text, and the different sentences will lead to different literal meanings, especially more than two thousand years of manual copying, the transmission errors in it, I don't know how many, have caused more and more misunderstandings.
And this last theory, that is, the child is the son of Fu Su, both in the Sixth Book of the First Emperor of Qin, "the brother of the second brother Gongzi Bao is the king of Qin." According to the records, the "brother and baby of Gaoli II" mentioned above was judged to be "brother and baby of Gaoli II". The explanation is that "the son of Zhao Gaoli II's brother, the infant, inherits the throne", but in the way Hu Hai slaughtered the imperial family, even the sister was killed, leaving the son of the orthodox heir to die, which is not too much to say in the past.
Therefore, the mystery of the identity of "Qin III" is still a debate, and even whether it is called "Zi Bao" or "Baby" has not yet been determined. However, Wolf Jun personally prefers the "nephew of Qin Shi Huang" or "brother of Qin Shi Huang", both of which are clear in most aspects, but the real answer is still waiting for us to explore.