History Literature / ZacharyYingAndTheDragonEmperor

** Qin Shi Huang is extremely egotistical, sacrificing mermaids to make their fat into lamps, building a lavish tomb, and is livid when Zachary knows Rameses II, Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan but not him. Even Tang Taizong, who himself was a conqueror who did very questionable deeds, calls him a megalomanic who sacrificed innocent mermaids.

* CainAndAbel: During his lifetime, Tang Taizong had his two brothers killed.[[note]]The Xuanwu Gate Incident, when Taizong killed his brothers in a coup to seize the throne, is divisive, but it's generally agreed that the two brothers planned to kill Taizong first because [[SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome his military accomplishments outranked theirs]]. [[/note]]
* CastFromHitPoints: Tang Taizong’s spirit bow harms its user with every shot, as a reference to how he used it to kill his own brothers.

* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: Spirits gain their strength and powers from their legend. Qin Shi Huang is unusually powerful because of his status as a legend, but is unable to connect to Zachary because Zachary has no idea who he is. This leads to Simon and then Zachary having to rattle off his Wikipedia page really quickly when they’re attacked by a taotie.
* HauntedTechnology: Since Zachary rejected him, Qin Shi Huang has to quickly jump to the nearest suitable vessel, which is Zachary’s portal-lens.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Qin Shi Huang is extremely egotistical, sacrificing mermaids to make their fat into lamps, building a lavish tomb, and is livid when Zachary knows Rameses II, Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan but not him. Even Tang Taizong, who himself was a conqueror who did very questionable deeds, calls him a megalomanic who sacrificed innocent mermaids.

* MorphWeapon: Wu Zetian’s weapon can become a whip, then a hammer, and then a dagger due to a legend about her suggesting she’d use the three to tame an untameable stallion.
* MuggingTheMonster: A local gang tries to rob Zack when he's walking alone in the rain. [[spoiler:Zack still has the heirloom seal which compels everyone to obey them]], and within minutes he's their new leader.

** [[spoiler:Qin Shi Huang and the emperors had Zachary’s mother kidnapped to motivate him to come on their journey. When Zack finds out, he snaps and heads off on his own, letting himself get possessed by Fusu and nearly undoing the portal plug himself because he’s convinced the Emperors are manipulating him into an evil plan.]]

* NotSoDifferentRemark: Having grown up as a Qin hostage in a Zhao court, Qin Shi Huang can relate to Zachary being torn between two worlds. He bluntly tells Zachary to stop waiting for people to accept him and to create his own path in life. Zachary also admits to himself that as much as he despises Qin Shi Huang’s ruthlessness, they both share a desire for power.
* NotTooDeadToSaveTheDay: [[spoiler:Zack’s father briefly escapes the portal to possess a charioteer statue and help his son escape the collapsing tomb.]]

* RecognitionFailure: Zachary didn’t know who Qin Shi Haung was until Simon talked about him. Qin Shi Huang is ''livid'' about this, particularly when Zachary ''can'' name Alexander the Great, Ramses II, and Genghis Khan, his mahjong buddies.
* SemanticSuperpower: Spirits have powers based on their legends. For examples, Wu Zetian declared herself “the sun and moon in the sky” so she can create a blinding light, Cheng Yaojin was known for showing up out of nowhere so he can teleport, and Tang Taizong had six of his best warhorses immortalized so he can call upon their spirits.

* StatingTheSimpleSolution: After they're captured by the Dragon King, Zack realizes that there was a much simpler way of getting what they wanted: [[spoiler:simply walking in and asking the Dragon King for the seal, which he would have given to them simply for being polite unlike every ''other'' hero who broke into his house.]] Wu Zetian and Tang Taizong are quite sheepish when they admit it never occurred to them.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Qin Shi Huang grew up in the 7 Warring States and suffered many horrible things as part of their ForeverWar, so he decided to conquer them all to end it. He committed many atrocities himself, but considered them all worth it for creating China. Zack, however, wonders how much of it is true and how much of it was [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist him justifying his own desire for power]]. [[spoiler:In the end, Qin Shi Huang proves it by sacrificing himself to save China.]]

* {{BFS}}: Qin Shi Huang has the Tai'e sword, a ceremonial sword that's 1.62 m, or about 5'3". In life, [[DeconstructedTrope it nearly got him killed in an assassination attempt because it was difficult to draw]], but after he became a spirit those problems no longer apply.