Zhao Ji was a beautiful woman who fell into the country and the city, Sima Qian called her "excellent at dancing" in the "Records of History", and also said that she was "absolutely beautiful" in the "Zizhi Tongjian", but Zhao Ji is most famous for sima Qian saying that she was "the empress dowager".
Zhao Ji's origins were humble, and even her name was not recorded in the history books, because she was born in Zhao Di, so she was called "Zhao Ji" by posterity. Zhao Ji, as the biological mother of the first emperor in Chinese history, is naturally the first empress dowager in history, and her story is wonderful enough.
Zhao Ji and Yin Yiren
During the reign of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, at the suggestion of his courtiers, the King of Qin adopted a plan to send his son to an enemy country as a hostage, and the eldest son of King Zhaoxiang of Qin was held hostage to the State of Wei and died in the State of Wei.
There were often wars between Qin and Zhao, and King Zhaoxiang of Qin needed to choose his royal descendants to send to the Zhao kingdom as protons, while the Yiyi people were "lucky" to become protons. The Yiyi people left home thousands of miles to come to the Zhao Kingdom, and although you were the prince of the Qin Kingdom, he was often bullied.
There were often wars between Qin and Zhao, and the King of Zhao often had to vent his anger at The Yi people, and because the Father of the Yi Yi people, An Guojun, did not value him, it was difficult to satisfy even the basic living materials, so the Yi Yi people lived very tragically in the Zhao Kingdom.
During the Warring States period, there were constant conquests, and for smart people, this was a business opportunity, and Lü Buwei was the most prominent one. Lü Buwei not only has the shrewdness of a businessman, but also has the ambition and vision of a politician. Lü Buwei was not satisfied with the status of the "richest man", because at that time, businessmen had no social status, so he wanted to abandon business and enter politics.
After some searching, Lü Buwei finally decided to invest in Yingyiren and help the frustrated prince in front of him to ascend to the throne of Qin, which was something that Yinyi did not dare to think. Lü Buwei dotted up and down the qin and zhao sides, packaging the yiren.
At a banquet to invite The Yiyi people, Lü Buwei let his concubine Zhao Ji come to sing and dance to help, and after seeing Zhao Ji, the Yin Yiren was out of his soul in an instant, the six gods and no masters, and plucked up the courage to ask Lü Buwei for Zhao Ji, although Lü Buwei was angry, but he thought about his own investment, so he put up with it and gave Zhao Ji to the Yi yiren. Zhao Ji married Yin Yiren and gave birth to a son, Yin Zheng.
At that time, the prince of the Qin state, An Guojun, favored Lady Huayang, but Lady Huayang had no heirs, and Lü Buwei dredged up and down the Qin state, finding an opportunity to persuade Lady Huayang to recognize Yiyi as a son, paving the way for Yingyi to ascend the throne as the King of Qin in the future.
Zhao Ji's greatest achievement
In 257 BC, King Zhaoxiang of Qin sent Great Qin Ruishi to besiege the capital of the Zhao state, Handan, with the goal of destroying Zhao in a battle, and the Zhao state was in danger, and the angry King Zhao decided to kill the Yiyi people.
Lü Buwei learned of the news and quickly fled back to the Qin state with the Yiyi people according to the action plan that had been planned long ago, and in order to confuse the enemy, Lü Buwei left Zhao Ji and Yin Zheng's mother and son in the Zhao kingdom and fended for themselves.
The young and beautiful Zhao Ji took the three-year-old Yingzheng to hide in the east of zhao guodong, to avoid the pursuit of the Zhao army at any time, but in such turbulent and displaced days, Zhao Ji did not neglect the education of Yingzheng.
According to the modern pedagogical point of view, the education of children between the ages of 3 and 5 plays a crucial role in the future life path. Yingzheng was able to become an emperor throughout the ages, showing his strategic vision and courage, and the education of his mother Zhao Ji was indispensable, which was also Zhao Ji's greatest contribution to history.
Zhao Ji's political ability should not be underestimated
After returning to the Qin Kingdom, Yingyiren successfully became the son of Lady Huayang, and Lady Huayang renamed The Yiyiren to Zichu, in fact, Zichu did not have the talent of a king, and more often it was Lü Buwei who helped to give advice behind his back, and the two were mixed up in the court of the Qin State.
In 251 BC, King Zhaoxiang of Qin finally died, and he was the longest reigning king in the history of the Qin state. It was precisely because King Zhaoxiang of Qin was too long-lived that he survived the death of the crown prince An Guojun, who after spending the mourning period of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, only served as the monarch of the State of Qin for 3 days, and he became the shortest reigning monarch in the history of the State of Qin.
Zi Chu successfully ascended the throne as the King of Qin, known as the King of Qinzhuang Xiang, the 32-year-old King of Qin was supposed to show his grand plans, but he did not expect that three years later, King Xiang of Qinzhuang also died of illness. This was followed by the first emperor who completed China's great unification, Yingzheng, who took the throne, but at this time, Yingzheng was only a 13-year-old child.
Because Yingzheng was still young when he ascended the throne, the government of the Qin state was basically in the hands of Lü Buwei and Zhao Ji. Although Lü Buwei was powerful and was respected as the middle father by Yingzheng, he was always a courtier and outsider, while Zhao Ji was different, her identity was The birth mother of Yingzheng, and she was as open and upright as Empress Xuan of that year.
In the nearly ten years from the ascension to the throne to the pro-government, the Qin state still maintained a thriving trend, let alone toward turmoil and weakness, but enhanced the strength of the Qin state in the gap between wars, which is also the fundamental guarantee for the future unification of the six countries.
Therefore, Zhao Ji's political ability cannot be underestimated.
Zhao Ji's miserable "love"
Zhao Ji was originally Lü Buwei's concubine, who was transferred to Yi Yiren, and the love that Zhao Ji longed for also became a tragedy, in the end, Zhao Ji was just a plaything with use value.
Here I have to talk about the life of Yingzheng. Some people say that Yin Zheng is Lü Buwei's son, which is a vain speculation. The history books record that Zhao Ji was pregnant and full-term and gave birth to Yingzheng. Yin Zheng is not Lü Buwei's son, and there are still a few points of analysis.
First of all, from Lü Buwei's point of view, Lü Buwei wants to use the identity of The Yiren to achieve the goal of worshiping the Xiang Knight, and he invests in the Yiyi people, not the descendants of the Yingyi people. The descendants were too far away, and perhaps Lü Buwei at that time was no longer alive, because Lü Buwei did not expect An Guojun to die so quickly and Yin Yiren to die so early.
Second, suppose that Zhao Ji is already pregnant with Lü Buwei's child, but Lü Buwei is not sure that this is a son, there is no need to take risks for this, for a shrewd businessman, this is not worth it.
Finally, when King Zhao wanted to kill the Yiren, Lü Buwei bribed the generals of the Zhao state to defend the city and let them flee back to the Qin state, at which time Lü Buwei chose to leave Zhao Ji's mother and son in the Zhao state. Such an act is a naked abandonment, in the chaotic Zhao state of Handan, a pair of weak mothers and sons are facing the search and arrest of the Zhao army, and there is almost no possibility of survival. It can be seen from this that Lü Buwei did not care about the life and death of Yingzheng at all, and Lü Buwei did not pay any attention to whether there was a person like Yingzheng at all, because he believed that as long as Yingyi could become the monarch of the Qin State, he would definitely worship Xiang xiang and be a marquis, and as for who would succeed Yingyi, this was not what Lü Buwei had to consider.
After the young Yingzheng ascended the throne, Lü Buwei controlled the power of the government, and Empress Zhao Ji, who had been living in the deep palace for a long time, was lonely and unbearable, and her old love with Lü Buwei was revived, and the two of them spent all day in the harem of the Qin Kingdom, and lived a good life.
Happy times are always short-lived, and as Yingzheng grows older, Lü Buwei is afraid of being known by Yingzheng, and coupled with Lü Buwei's old age and inability, he wants to break off an improper relationship with Empress Zhao Ji. However, Lü Buwei knew that Zhao Ji's desire was difficult to fill, and if he wanted to escape, he had to find a substitute, and later Lü Buwei gave the fake castrated Concubine Yi to Zhao Ji and withdrew from it.
Zhao Ji and Concubine Yi lived freely in the harem, and later asked Zhao Ji to allow Zhao Ji to move to the palace in Yong County on the grounds that the feng shui of the palace where Zhao Ji lived was not good. Zhao Ji actually gave birth to two sons for Concubine Yi here, and due to Yan Yi's rampant behavior, Ying Zheng discovered Zhao Ji's private affair with Yan Yi, and Yin Zheng ruthlessly split The concubine and personally killed Zhao Ji's two illegitimate sons.
Zhao Ji was disliked by Ying Zheng from then on, and put her under house arrest in the harem, and in 228 BC, Zhao Ji died and was buried with Yin Yiren.
Zhao Ji, a strong but pitiful woman, is regarded by Lü Buwei as a stepping stone to advancement; a woman who desires to lose herself, lives in the deep palace of seclusion and desires to explode, and the funeral rationality gives birth to illegitimate children, helping Yan Yi to force the palace Qin Wang Yingzheng.