But it was such an able man who once unified the six countries and became the first emperor in the history of our country, ending the long-term social unrest and division at that time. How can such a great man be ugly? It's really hard for me to imagine that almost every generation of emperors in history left portraits, with Qin Shihuang as an exception, but I think even if they did, it wouldn't be of much reference value, because the portraits of ancient emperors were beautified and some ideas of the painters themselves were added.
The most authentic portrait of the emperor is in the Qing Dynasty, but there is a record of the appearance of Qin Shihuang in Historical Records, but it is not directly described, but from Liao Wei's mouth. In the original text, it is written as follows: The king of Qin is a human being, the bee is clever, the eyes are long, he is loyal to birds but false, noisy, less kind and Tigerheart? Liao Wei said this mainly because he wanted to describe the cruelty of Qin Shihuang. Qin Shihuang may not be like this, but Guo Moruo thinks that Qin Shihuang has rickets and complications according to this passage, so he thinks that Qin Shihuang is ugly.
However, Yan Bozan thinks that Zhao Ji, Qin Shihuang's mother, is beautiful, and he will inherit her more or less, so Yan Bozan thinks that Qin Shihuang's face value must be not low. I think what Guo Moruo and Jian Bozan said is very reasonable, but which one is right, only those who have seen Qin Shihuang know.