16. The Mother Who Plotted to Depose Her Son In Favor of Her Lover’s Children
Qin Shi Huangdi (259 – 210 BC), China’s first emperor, was reportedly not the biological son of his royal “father”, but that of an adventurer named Lu Buwei. The story goes that Lu Buwei’s mistress had caught the eye of a royal prince, who fell passionately in love with her. To keep on his good side, Lu Buwei agreed to pass his mistress on to the prince. The latter married her, and she became known thereafter as Lady Zhao. However, the prince got more than what he had bargained for: Lady Zhao was already pregnant by Lu Buwei, and she eventually gave birth to the future emperor. Her husband eventually ascended the throne, but died soon thereafter, leaving the crown to his “son”, with Lu Buwei, the prime minister, and Lady Zhao, the dowager queen, acting as regents.
The duo resumed their affair, but by 241 BC, Lu Buwei figured that he needed to end his affair with the dowager queen. It had been manageable while the future Qin Shi Huangdi was a child, but the king was now nearing adulthood. If he found out that his prime minister was getting it on with his mother, things could get ugly. However, Lady Zhao did not see things that way, and figured that Lu Buwei had simply fallen out of love with her. To get her mind off him, the enterprising adventurer decided to find the dowager queen a substitute lover. He succeeded way more than he had ever imagined, as Lady Zhao fell so hard for her new lover, that she eventually plotted with him against her own son.