Han Zhong was a Qin dynasty herbalist fangshi and Daoist xian. In Chinese history, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, commissioned Han in 215 BCE to lead a maritime expedition in search of the elixir of life, yet he never returned, which subsequently led to the infamous burning of books and burying of scholars. In Daoist tradition, after Han Zhong consumed the psychoactive drug changpu for thirteen years, he grew thick body hair that protected him from cold, acquired a photographic memory, and achieved transcendence. He is iconographically represented as riding a white deer and having pendulous ears.
Transcendent with a flower and Han Zhong riding a deer, Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 CE) tomb tile
Xu Fu's expedition searching for Mount Penglai, Japanese ukiyo-e by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, c. 1843
Repeating crossbow mechanism, Warring States period (c. 475-221 BCE)
Han Zhong, the ‘’Bailuxian’’ (白鹿仙, White Deer Transcendent), painting by Zhang Lu (1464–1538)
Burning of books and burying of scholars
The burning of books and burying of scholars was the purported burning of texts in 213 BCE and live burial of 460 Confucian scholars in 212 BCE ordered by Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang. The events were alleged to have destroyed philosophical treatises of the Hundred Schools of Thought, with the goal of strengthening the official Qin governing philosophy of Legalism.
Killing the Scholars and Burning the Books, anonymous 18th century Chinese painted album leaf; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris