Lu Buwei

Also known as Lu Zi · Zhong Fu

Lu Buwei was, according to the *Records of the Grand Historian* (*Shiji*), a wealthy merchant of Yangdi, though the *Intrigues of the Warring States* (*Zhanguo ce*) makes him a man of Puyang. Trading in Handan, he met the Qin prince Yiren, a hostage there, judged him 'a rare commodity worth hoarding', funded him and went to Qin to win over Lady Huayang, so that Yiren, renamed Zichu, became heir to the crown prince. When Zichu took the throne as King Zhuangxiang in 249 BC he made Lu chancellor and Marquis Wenxin, and King Zheng later called him 'second father'. Lu gathered three thousand retainers and had them compile the *Annals of Lu Buwei* (*Lushi chunqiu*), offering a thousand pieces of gold at the Xianyang market gate to anyone who could improve a single word. Implicated in the Lao Ai affair, he lost office in 237 BC and, ordered to move to Shu, took poison in 235 BC. The *History of the Han* (*Hanshu*) classes his book among the eclectic writers.