Ministers › Statesman / Official
Lao Ai
Retainer of Lu Buwei who was passed off as a eunuch to serve the Qin queen dowager, became Marquis of Changxin, and was torn apart by chariots after a failed coup in 238 BC
In the courtyard of a district government hall, a line of petitioners waits before a raised bench with a long table and document boxes; a blue umbrella stands beside it, a large drum stands at the gate where a few people wait, and a lake with sailboats lies beyond.
- Roles
- Statesman / Official
Lao Ai was a retainer of the Qin chancellor Lu Buwei. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) says that Lu, fearing exposure of his affair with the queen dowager, had Lao Ai's beard plucked and passed him off as a eunuch to attend her. She took him as her lover, bore him two sons and had him made Marquis of Changxin, with Shanyang as his fief and the Taiyuan region as his domain and thousands of servants. In 238 BC, when someone reported that he was no eunuch, he forged the seals of the king and the queen dowager to raise troops and attack the Qinian palace, but the Lords of Changping and Changwen beat his men in Xianyang. He was captured and torn apart by chariots, his clan was wiped out, his two sons by the queen dowager were killed, and more than four thousand households of his followers were sent to Shu. Lu Buwei lost his post the following year.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–238 BCE