Empress Dowager Xuan of Great Qin, surnamed Qi, was born in Danyang, Chu (in present-day Hubei Province), also known as Empress Dowager Qin. She was the empress dowager of the King of Qin during the Warring States period, the concubine of King Huiwen of Qin, and the mother of King Zhaoxiang of Qin. At the beginning of the reign of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, Empress Xuan took the throne as empress dowager. During her reign, she attacked the State of Yiqu and destroyed the western plague of the Qin State in one fell swoop. After his death, he was buried in Lishan Mountain, Zhiyang.
Empress Xuan was originally from the State of Chu, and later became a concubine of King Huiwen of Qin, known as Qi Bazi. In the first year of the reign of King Zhaoxiang of Qin (306 BC), King Wu of Qin died because of his lifting of dings. Because King Wu of Qin was childless, his younger brothers competed for the throne. King Wuling of Zhao sent Zhao Gu, the county minister, to send Gongzi Ji, who was a hostage in the Yan kingdom, back to the Qin state. With the help of Empress Xuan's half-brother Wei Ran, Gongzi Ji succeeded to the throne as King Zhaoxiang of Qin.
Wei Ran then killed Empress Huiwen and her sons Zhuang and Gongzi Yong, expelled Queen Wu of Qin to the State of Wei, eliminated the princes who were at odds with King Zhaoxiang of Qin, and quelled the turmoil within the Qin royal family for the throne. Because King Zhaoxiang of Qin was young, Empress Xuan took the throne as empress dowager, and Wei Ran assisted him.
Empress Xuan's mother,the Chu state, sent troops to besiege the Yong clan in Korea and besieged them for five months. King Xiang of Han sent emissaries to the State of Qin for help many times, but the Army of the State of Qin remained stationary. King Xiang of Han also sent Jin Shang as an envoy to the State of Qin, and Jin Shang persuaded the State of Qin to send troops to the rescue as soon as possible with the principle of cold lips and cold teeth. Empress Xuan, because her hometown was the State of Chu, did not agree to send troops.
She summoned Jin Shang and said, "When I was serving King Huiwen of Qin, the king pressed his thighs against my body, and I felt that my body was tired and could not bear it. And when he pressed his whole body against me, I didn't feel the weight because it made me more comfortable. The State of Qin wanted to help Korea, and if there were not enough troops and food and grass, it would not be able to rescue Korea. To rescue Korea from danger, it costs thousands of treasures every day, what good is this for me and the Qin State? "
King Xiang of Han then sent Zhang Cui as an envoy to the State of Qin. Gan Mao believed that once Korea surrendered to the Chu state, Chu and Han would hold the Wei state hostage to endanger the Qin state, and he advocated that King Zhaoxiang of Qin immediately send troops to rescue Korea. King Zhaoxiang of Qin eventually ordered troops to be sent, and the State of Chu withdrew after hearing the news.
In the 20th year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin (287 BC), the five kingdoms of Qi, Zhao, Han, Wei, and Chu failed to succeed in their combined attack on Qin, and the princes ceased to be at Chenggao (present-day west of Xingyang, Henan). King Zhaoxiang of Qin wanted the Korean prince Cheng Yangjun to concurrently serve as minister of state of Han and Wei, but Han and Wei did not agree.
Empress Xuan, through Marquis Wei Ran of Yong, advised King Zhaoxiang of Qin not to appoint Chengyang Jun. Because Cheng Yangjun was trapped in the State of Qi because of King Zhaoxiang of Qin. When he was poor, King Zhaoxiang of Qin did not appoint him. And when The Yang Emperor gained power, King Zhaoxiang of Qin wanted to appoint him again, which would not satisfy him. On the other hand, The appointment of King Chengyang by King Zhaoxiang of Qin and the disagreement of Han and Wei undermined the relations between the Qin state and these two countries. King Zhaoxiang of Qin dispelled this idea after hearing this.
At that time, the ancient people of Yiqu was active in the area from the north of Jingshui to the Hetao, and they had been at war with the Qin state for a long time. In the seventh year of King Huiwen of Qin (331 BC), civil unrest broke out in Yiqu, and King Huiwen of Qin sent Shu Changcao to quell the civil unrest. In the eleventh year of King Huiwen of Qin (327 BC), King Huiwen of Qin set up a county in Yiqu, and King Yiqu declared himself a vassal to the state of Qin.
Later, the State of Qin attacked Yiqu and captured Yuzhi (郁郅, in modern Qingyang, Gansu). In retaliation, the following year Yiqu participated in Gongsun Yan's five-kingdom campaign against Qin in which Chu, Han, Zhao, Wei, and Yan attacked Qin. Yiqu took advantage of the main force of the Qin army to engage the Five Kingdoms and defeated the Qin army at Li Shuai (李帛, in modern Tianshui, Gansu Province). In the first year of the reign of King Zhao of Zhou (314 BC), King Huiwen of Qin again sent troops to attack Yiqu and captured twenty-five cities and pools, including Tujing (located in the area between present-day Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces and the area west of the southern section of the Yellow River), which greatly damaged the national strength of Yiqu, but still retained a certain strength.
When King Zhaoxiang of Qin succeeded to the throne, king Yiqu came to pay tribute, and Empress Xuan had an affair with king Yiqu and gave birth to two sons. Later Qin Zhaoxiang and Empress Xuan plotted day and night to attack Yiqu. In the thirty-fifth year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin (272 BC), Empress Xuan lured King Yiqu into Qin and killed him at Ganquan Palace. The State of Qin seized the opportunity to send troops to attack Yiqu and established three counties in the homeland of Yiqu: Longxi, Beidi, and Shangjun.
When Empress Xuan was in power, she appointed her younger brothers Wei Ran and Mi Rong (芈戎) and her sons Gongzi Wu (公子悝) and Gongzi Fu (公子芾四桂) to take charge. The monopoly of Empress Xuan and sigui greatly limited the power of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, resulting in a situation in which only the empress dowager and the four nobles were known in the Qin state, but not the king of Qin.
After the Wei state of Fan Ju fled to the State of Qin, he was highly valued by King Zhaoxiang of Qin. Fan Ju suggested that King Zhaoxiang of Qin take back the power of the five people, so as not to cause the disaster of usurping the country like Yu Ya and Li Dui. King Zhaoxiang of Qin took Fan Ju's advice, deposed Empress Xuan, placed her in the shrine instead of letting her participate in political affairs, and expelled Wei Ran, Qi Rong, Gongzi Wu, and Gongzi Fu Sigui from the capital Xianyang. The Biography of Fan Ju Cai Zelie records: "Fan Sui became more and more intimate, and repeated the saying for several years, because he asked for it to say: '... Wen Qinzhi has empresses, Marquis Yong, Huayang, Gaoling, Jingyang, but does not hear that there are kings and kings... Empress Dowager Qin, Marquis Of Yong, Gaoling, Huayang, Jingyang Zuozhi, and the King of Qin, also the King of Qin, li dui, and so on... 'King Zhao, who heard of great fear, said: 'Good. So he deposed the empress dowager and expelled the Marquis of Rang, Gaoling, Huayang, and Jingyang from Guanwai. In October of the forty-second year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin (265 BC), Empress Xuan died and was buried at Mount Li in Zhiyang.
Historian Ma Feibai once said: "Empress Xuan, in the position of the empress dowager, sacrificed her hue to have an affair with the King of Yiqu, and then designed to kill him, destroying the Western Yiqu of the Qin State in one fell swoop, so that the Qin State could concentrate on the east and no longer have any worries about the future." Her merits were not inferior to Zhang Yi's and Sima's mistaken capture of Bashu. Indeed, as the first empress dowager of the Qin State, Mi Yue's contribution to the Qin State was enough to make her famous in qing history.