Zhao Ji

Also known as Shi Ditaihou

Zhao Ji, as later writers call her, since the histories record no name, was the mother of the First Emperor of Qin. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) says she was the daughter of a powerful family in Zhao and a concubine of the merchant Lu Buwei, who gave her to the Qin prince Zichu, then a hostage in Handan, after the prince was taken with her; she bore Ying Zheng there in 259 BC. When Zichu fled the siege of Handan, Zhao sought to kill his wife and son, but her family hid them. As queen dowager she resumed her affair with Lu Buwei and later took up with Lao Ai, bearing him two sons. After Lao Ai's revolt was crushed in 238 BC she was banished to Yong, but the next year, on the advice of Mao Jiao of Qi, the king brought her back to Xianyang. She died in 228 BC, received the title Queen Dowager Di, and was buried with King Zhuangxiang at Zhiyang.