article_title issue spouse
lady zhao
 qin shi huang 2 infants lü -lrb- consort -rrb- lao ai -lrb- lover -rrb- buwei -lrb- concubine -rrb- king zhuangxiang of qin
lady zhao

zhao ji -lrb- chinese : t , s , lit .
`` concubine of zhao '' ; -228 -rrb- was the wife of king zhuangxiang of qin and the mother of shi huangdi , the first emperor of china .
upon her marriage , she was the lady zhao ; after the king 's death , she was the queen dowager zhao .
the daughter of a prominent family of zhao , she was living as a concubine of the merchant lü buwei when he was forced to surrender her to his protegé , prince yiren of qin .
a year later , she gave birth to a son named zheng ; the historian sima qian , ill-disposed towards the first emperor , claimed that the pregnancy was especially long and that the child was actually lü 's .
the couple were living at the time in the capital of zhao , where yiren served as a hostage ; when qin laid siege to the city , lü was able to bribe the prince 's way out of town but lady zhao and her infant son were forced to hide among her family .
thanks to lü 's intervention and diplomacy , prince yiren subsequently ascended the qin throne , becoming known to history by his posthumous name king zhuangxiang .
when king zhuangxiang died in 247 , crown prince zheng ascended the throne and lady zhao became the queen dowager .
sima qian claimed she continued her affair with lü buwei but , facing exposure and persecution , he gave her man named lao ai disguised as a eunuch .
the couple produced another two illegitimate children .
after lao ai was killed during an attempted `` coup d'état '' , the queen was imprisoned in her palace and the children were killed .
king zheng later unified china and became known as shi huangdi , the `` first emperor '' .
