Did the first emperor of China die of mercury poisoning?

Question

Did the first emperor Qin Shi Huang die of mercury poisoning? If so, how do we know? I've seen lots of claims that he did (and claims that he didn't), but no citation explaining what primary source backs this up. It is known he ingested mercury and modern archaeologists have detected lots of mercury around his tomb, but that doesn't quite prove he died of mercury poisoning.

If Qin Shi Huang's cause of death is unknown, are there good sources to cite for this?

Edit (background research): I understand that much (most?) of our historical record on Qin Shi Huang comes from the Shiji (史记). But I was under the impression that the Shiji was written before the discovery that mercury was poisonous, so it's implausible that the Shiji attributes Qin Shi Huang's death to mercury poisoning. (I may be wrong and mercury's toxicity was known far earlier.)

I believe the idea he ingested mercury comes from the importance of cinnabar (which contains inert mercury) in ancient immortality elixers.

More importantly, the Shiji covers Qin Shi Huang's life in this chapter but "朱", the character for cinnabar, never appears. Nor does "汞", the character for mercury. As the Shiji was written in classical Chinese, it's possible cinnabar was referred to by a different name I'm not familiar with.

If I understand it correctly (which I may not), the sentence about him dying is

及至秦王，续六世之馀烈，振长策而御宇内，吞二周而亡诸侯，履至尊而制六合，执棰拊以鞭笞天下，威振四海。

Which just says he fought for two weeks before dying. (Edit 2: My reading of this that quote is garbage.) Nothing about mercury or cinnabar. Am I missing something about the Shiji or does the belief he died from mercury poisoning come from some other source?

Answer 1

I've only read the English Wikipedia where it reads:

The cause of Qin Shi Huang's death is still largely unknown, reportedly, he died from Chinese alchemical elixir poisoning due to ingesting mercury pills, made by his alchemists and court physicians, believing it to be an elixir of immortality.

But from the view of an ancient chinese chroniker there was no mercury poisoning because it was believed to be a remedy for diseases or, in the case of the emporer, a cure for death itself.

Usually elemantary mercury was produced by heating cinnabar. This was mixed with fats or other carrier substances in order to create 'medicine'. Whilst elementary mercury has a low accute toxicity, chronic consumption causes brain damages which lead to symptoms like paranoia, from which Qin Shi Huang suffered.

So in general the mercury certainly weakened him much but the ultimate cause of his death may never be known, although it is likely that it is somehow connected with the mercury he received from his doctors.