10 Fascinating Things About China’s First Emperor that Will Leave You Speechless

10 Fascinating Things About China’s First Emperor that Will Leave You Speechless

Khalid Elhassan - March 17, 2018

10 Fascinating Things About China’s First Emperor that Will Leave You Speechless
Lao Ai, as depicted in the 1998 movie, ‘The Emperor and the Assassin’. Sony Pictures

He Ended His Own Father’s Life

Things had been going great for Lu Buwei, but by 241 BC, he had a problem: he needed to end his affair with the young king’s mother. It had been manageable while the future Chin Shi Huang was a child, but the king was now fast reaching adulthood. If he found out that his prime minister was sleeping with his mother, things would not go well for Lu Buwei.

The king’s mother did not see it that way, however, and complained that Lu Buwei simply did not love her anymore. So to take her mind off him, the enterprising adventurer hit upon the idea of a finding her another lover. He found him in a certain Lao Ai, an extremely well hung young man, whom he presented to the king’s mother. One look at Lao Ai’s big bat, and she fell for him, head over heels.

So Lu Buwei had all of Lao Ai’s hair plucked out to disguise him as a eunuch, and moved him into the dowager queen’s palace. It was a passionate love affair. The queen was soon pregnant by Lao Ai, and moved to the countryside to have his babies. She also gifted him with a palace, complete with hundreds of attendants. It went to Lao Ai’s head, however, and he eventually began conspiring with the besotted queen dowager to have their son ascend the Chin throne.

Word got back to the young king, who so far had been turning a blind eye to his mother’s affair. The threat to his throne spurred him into action, however, and he ordered Lao Ai’s arrest. The latter responded by raising troops in the queen dowager’s name, and launching a rebellion. It was easily crushed, and ended with Lao Ai’s head, and that of his children, hung in public. As to the king’s mother, she was placed under house arrest for the rest of her life.

The only thing that saved Lu Buwei’s head in the revolt’s aftermath was the intercession of courtiers, who pled with the king for mercy on his behalf. So the Chin king settled for firing him as prime minister, but let him keep his life. However, some time later, he reconsidered, and issued a decree stripping Lu Buwei of his holdings and titles. It was accompanied by an ironic letter that asked: “What have you done for Chin, sir, to deserve a fief of 100,000 households? What relation are you to me that you should have the title ‘Second Father’?” Lu Buwei was done for, so he ended his amazing career, and life, by drinking poison.

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