[3][4][5]: 161–2 The Han dynasty historian Sima Qian does not explain what the name means, but the later commentator Yan Shigu provides three possible explanations.

[5]: 162 After Qin Shi Huang forcibly united the Warring States in 221 BCE, he took a number of measures to establish his authority, including giving himself a title – commonly translated into English as "Emperor" — that was previously used only for semi-divine figures.

According to Sima Qian, when the anti-Qin rebel and Chu aristocrat Xiang Yu entered the already-surrendered capital Xianyang a year later in 206 BCE, the city was sacked and the palaces of Qin were burned to the ground.

[5]: 160–166 In his Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian described the dimensions of the palace as being 693m long × 116.5m wide,[dubious – discuss] but modern studies of the ruins have shown that its rammed earth foundation platform measured 1,320m east to west, 420m north to south, and 8m in height,[6]: 299  making the mausoleum the largest burial complex of a single ruler ever to have been constructed anywhere in the world.

[7] Archaeologists have suggested the dimensions in Sima Qian's account are meant to be understood as referring to plans for the eventual size of the palace, had its construction not been halted, hence the discrepancy.

These bronze statues remained very famous in ancient China and were the object of numerous commentaries, until they were lost around the 4th century CE:[8] 收天下兵, 聚之咸陽, 銷以為鍾鐻金人十二, 重各千石, 置廷宮中.

He collected the weapons of All-Under-Heaven in Xianyang, and cast them into twelve bronze figures of the type of bell stands, each 1000 dan [about 70 tons] in weight, and displayed them in the palace.