Following the surrender of Qi in 221 BC, King Zheng had reunited all of the lands of the former Kingdom of Zhou. Rather than maintain his rank as king, however, he created a new title of "huángdì" (emperor) for himself. This new title combined two titles"huáng" of the mythical Three Sovereigns (, "Sān Huáng") and the "dì" of the legendary Five Emperors (, "Wŭ Dì") of Chinese prehistory. The title was intended to appropriate some of the prestige of the Yellow Emperor, whose cult was popular in the later Warring States period and who was considered to be a founder of the Chinese people. King Zheng chose the new regnal name of First Emperor ("Shǐ Huángdì", formerly transcribed as Shih Huang-ti)Sima Qian]. ["Records of the Grand Historian"], ["§5: Basic Annals of Qin"]. Hosted at Wikisource, 2012. Accessed 27 December 2013. </ref> on the understanding that his successors would be successively titled the "Second Emperor", "Third Emperor", and so on through the generations. (In fact, the scheme lasted only as long as his immediate heir, the Second Emperor.) The new title carried religious overtones. For that reason, Sinologistsstarting with Peter Boodberg or Edward Schafersometimes translate it as "thearch" and the First Emperor as the First Thearch.