A falling star landed at Dongjun and turned to stone. Carved on the stone were the words: "The First Emperor dies and the land divides." Qin Shi Huang, enraged, ordered an investigation. When no culprit was found, he burned the village and executed its residents.
Account
A falling star landed at Dongjun and turned to stone. Carved on the stone were the words: "The First Emperor dies and the land divides." Qin Shi Huang, enraged, ordered an investigation. When no culprit was found, he burned the village and executed its residents.
Debunked
⚠️ Human inscription: Modern scholars generally hold that the words were carved by local people — survivors of the six conquered states — as a political curse, not by the meteorite itself.
Sources
- Records of the Grand Historian, "Basic Annals of Qin Shi Huang"