Ministers › Remonstrators
Mao Jiao
Persuader from Qi who warned King Zheng of Qin that banishing his mother would cost him the trust of the other states, and so brought about her return to Xianyang
At dawn in a palace courtyard, a large drum hangs in a small roofed frame beside a red pillar, with a bound bundle of scrolls on a low stand in front; a stone balustrade leads toward a large hall in the mist, and a row of tiny people stands far away.
- Roles
- Remonstrators
Mao Jiao was a man of Qi who came to argue his case at the Qin court of King Zheng. After Lao Ai's revolt was crushed in 238 BC, the king exiled the queen dowager to Yong. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) says that the next year Mao Jiao warned him that while Qin was bent on conquering the realm, a king known for banishing his mother might drive the other states to turn against Qin, and the king went to Yong and brought her back to Xianyang to live in the Ganquan palace. Liu Xiang's Garden of Persuasions (Shuoyuan) tells the story at greater length: the king had already killed twenty-seven remonstrators, yet Mao Jiao asked to speak, stripped and lay down on the executioner's block, until the king relented and honoured him as a father figure and senior minister. Nothing further is recorded of him.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; remonstrated with the King of Qin in 237 BCE