Zhao Ji (; Ji 姬 was an

ancestral name In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

of the Zhou royal family, which later evolved to generally mean "lady" in successive eras. But there are no more detailed mentions on her family at Zhao (which was a Boyi-descent state and shared

origins Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics and manga * ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002 * ''The Origin'' (Buffy comic), a 1999 ''Buffy the Vampire Sl ...

with Qin) except that it was "a prominent family." –228 BC), personal name unknown, was the wife of

King Zhuangxiang of Qin King Zhuangxiang of Qin (281– 6 July 247 BCEVolume 05 of ''Records of the Grand Historian'' indicated that King Zhuangxiang died on the ''bingwu'' day of the 5th month of the 4th year of his reign. Using the ''Zhuanxu'' calendar, the date corre ...

and the mother of

Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang (, ; February 25912 July 210 BC), born Ying Zheng () or Zhao Zheng (), was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China. He is widely regarded as the first ever supreme leader of a unitary state, unitary d ...

, the first

emperor of China Throughout Chinese history, "Emperor" () was the superlative title held by the monarchs of imperial China's various dynasties. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was the " Son of Heaven", an autocrat with the divine mandat ...

. Upon her marriage, she was the Lady Zhao; after the king's death, she was the Queen Dowager ().

Life

The daughter of a prominent family of Zhao, she was a

concubine Concubinage is an interpersonal relationship, interpersonal and Intimate relationship, sexual relationship between two people in which the couple does not want to, or cannot, enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarde ...

of the merchant

Lü Buwei Lü Buwei (291–235 BCE) was a Chinese merchant and politician of the Qin state during the Warring States period. Originally an influential merchant from the Wey () state, Lü Buwei met and befriended King Zhuangxiang of Qin, who was then a ...

, who gave her to his protégé, Prince Yiren of Qin. A year later, she gave birth to a son named Zheng; the historian

Sima Qian Sima Qian () was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for the ''Shiji'' (sometimes translated into English as ''Records of the Grand Historian''), a general history of China cov ...

, ill-disposed towards the first emperor, claimed that the pregnancy was especially long and that the child was actually Lü's. The couple were living at the time in

Handan Handan is a prefecture-level city located in the southwest of Hebei province, China. The southernmost prefecture-level city of the province, it borders Xingtai on the north, and the provinces of Shanxi on the west, Henan on the south and Shando ...

, the capital of Zhao, where Yiren was a hostage; when Qin laid siege to the city, Lü was able to bribe the prince's way out of town but Lady Zhao and her infant son were forced to hide among her family. Thanks to Lü's intervention and diplomacy, Prince Yiren subsequently ascended the Qin throne, becoming known to history by his

posthumous name A posthumous name is an honorary Personal name, name given mainly to revered dead people in East Asian cultural sphere, East Asian culture. It is predominantly used in Asian countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand. ...

King Zhuangxiang. When King Zhuangxiang died in 247 BC, Crown Prince Zheng ascended the throne and Lady Zhao became the

Queen Dowager A queen dowager or dowager queen (compare: princess dowager or dowager princess) is a title or status generally held by the widow of a king. In the case of the widow of an emperor, the title of empress dowager is used. Its full meaning is cle ...

. Sima Qian claimed she continued her affair with Lü Buwei but, facing exposure and persecution, he gave her a man named

Lao Ai Lao Ai (; died 238 BCE) was an imposter eunuch and official of the State of Qin during the late Warring States period. Allegedly falsifying his castration in order to gain entry into the court of Qin, he became the favorite of Queen Dowager Zhao, ...

disguised as a

eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

. The couple produced two illegitimate children. After Lao Ai was killed during an attempted ''

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

'', the queen was imprisoned in her palace and the children were killed. In 237 BC, a Qi man named Mao Jiao persuaded King Zheng to welcome the Queen Dowager back from Yong to Ganquan Palace in

Xianyang Xianyang ( zh, s=咸阳 , p=Xiányáng) is a prefecture-level city in central Shaanxi province, situated on the Wei River a few kilometers upstream (west) from the provincial capital of Xi'an. Once the capital of the Qin dynasty, it is now int ...

, for fear that other regional states would turn against the Qin if they heard that King Zheng exiled his own mother.''

Records of the Grand Historian The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st ce ...

'', "Basic Annals of the First Emperor of Qin". quote: "十年，…… 齊人茅焦說秦王曰：「秦方以天下為事，而大王有遷母太后之名，恐諸侯聞之，由此倍秦也。」秦王乃迎太后於雍而入咸陽，復居甘泉宮。"

Death and legacy

By 221 BC, when King Zheng had unified China and become known as

Shi Huangdi Qin Shi Huang (, ; February 25912 July 210 BC), born Ying Zheng () or Zhao Zheng (), was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China. He is widely regarded as the first ever supreme leader of a unitary dynasty in Chine ...

, the "First Emperor", the queen-dowager was already deceased. She was posthumously promoted as Empress Dowager ().Her title should be distinguished from the other Empresses Dowager starting from

Empress Lü Lü Zhi (241 BC – 18 August 180 BC), courtesy name E'xu (娥姁) and commonly known as Empress Lü () and formally Empress Gao of Han (), was the empress consort of Emperor Gaozu of Han, Gaozu, the founding emperor of the Han dynasty. They h ...

. Those successors were granted the slightly different title which can be also translated as

Empress Dowager Empress dowager (also dowager empress or empress mother; ) is the English language translation of the title given to the mother or widow of a monarch, especially in regards to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese monarchs in the Chines ...

(). She was buried with King Zhuangxiang at Zhiyang.

Popular culture

In the manga and anime '' Kingdom'', she was described and introduced as a beautiful dancing girl and Lu Buwei's lover, before she was engaged to Zhuangxiang. After getting stranded in Handan and giving birth to Zheng, she was cold to her son, to the point of sadism. She escaped after her son and joined the court as a dowager. She knew

due to Lu's schemes and had children with him. In the aftermath of her attempt at a coup, she was imprisoned and her children with Lao Ai were secretly banished instead of killed. She is portrayed by Wu Jinyan in the Chinese television series '' The Legend of Haolan'' (2019) and by Zhu Zhu in the series ''Qin Dynasty Epic''.

Footnotes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhao, Queen Dowager 3rd-century BC Chinese people 3rd-century BC Chinese women 280s BC births 228 BC deaths Qin royal consorts Qin Shi Huang Mothers of Chinese emperors Queen mothers