Heqin

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Family tree of Ban Chao.

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Han emperors sent imperial daughters to marry Xiongnu chieftains as living tribute — the practice, called heqin, was dressed as diplomacy but functioned as ransom paid in women.

By 1995, Doom ran on more machines than Windows 95 — spread across corporate networks and floppy disks, a game that became its own planetary infrastructure before the internet made that ordinary.

When the Flor de la Mar sank off Sumatra in 1511, it took four elephant-loads of Malaccan royal gold with it — the largest prize Afonso de Albuquerque ever seized. The wreck's location remains disputed.

Cassander starved Alexander's mother Olympias to death in a sealed tomb, then had her son and Alexander's own son executed — methodically erasing the bloodline. He reportedly never met Alexander's eyes willingly.

Liu Ziye forced his own aunts into his imperial harem, declared them imperial concubines, then was stabbed to death by a palace servant at sixteen — his ministers had arranged the blade.

He made $100 million shorting the 1929 crash, then lost it all twice more. Jesse Livermore walked into a New York coat-check room with a pistol in 1940. The note said he was a failure.

In spring 2024, Kendrick Lamar alleged Drake had a secret daughter in addition to the already-hidden son — across certified gold and platinum releases. Two children, neither confirmed, both now public record.

Ottoman sultans kept Angora rabbits as living luxury objects in the Topkapi Palace; their wool — harvested monthly by hand — was spun into garments reserved for imperial gift-giving.

Parmalat's CFO produced a Bank of America account statement confirming €4 billion — it was a photocopied forgery. The dairy company behind your supermarket milk had a $14 billion hole in its books. Europe's Enron, assembled with a scanner.