Lü Buwei
| Lü Buwei | |
|---|---|
| Chancellor of Qin | |
|
In office 251 BC – 235 BC |
|
| Monarch |
King Zhuangxiang of Qin Ying Zheng |
| Succeeded by | Li Si |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 290 BC |
| Died | 235 BC (aged 54-55) |
| Lü Buwei | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 呂不韋 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 吕不韦 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Lǚ Bùwéi |
| Gwoyeu Romatzyh | Leu Buhwei |
| Wade–Giles | Lü3 Pu4-wei2 |
| IPA | [lỳ pû.wèi] |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Yale Romanization | Léuih Bāt-wàih |
| Jyutping | Leoi5 Bat1-wai4 |
| Southern Min | |
| Tâi-lô | Lī Put-uî |
| Old Chinese | |
| Baxter-Sagart | *[r]aʔ pə [ɢ]ʷə[j] |
Lü Buwei (291–235 BC) was a politician of the Qin state in the Warring States period of ancient China. Originally an influential merchant from the Wey (衛) state, Lü Buwei met and befriended King Zhuangxiang of Qin, who was then a minor prince serving as a hostage in the Zhao state. Through bribes and machinations, Lü Buwei succeeded in helping King Zhuangxiang become the heir apparent to the Qin throne. In 249 BC, after King Zhuangxiang ascended the throne following the death of his father, King Xiaowen, he appointed Lü Buwei as his chancellor (相國) and enfeoffed him as "Marquis Wenxin" (文信侯). After King Zhuangxiang's death in 247 BC, Lü Buwei became the chancellor and regent to King Zhuangxiang's young son, Ying Zheng, who later became Qin Shi Huang (First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty).
In 235 BC, after being implicated in a scandal involving the Queen Dowager Zhao (Ying Zheng's mother) and her illicit lover Lao Ai, Lü Buwei was stripped of his posts and titles and was banished to the remote Shu region in the south of Qin. While in exile, Lü Buwei committed suicide by consuming poison. Apart from his political career, Lü Buwei is also known for sponsoring the Lüshi Chunqiu, an encyclopaedic compendium of the ideas of the Hundred Schools of Thought that was published in 239 BC.
The primary sources of information about Lü Buwei date from the first century BC: Sima Qian's Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) and Liu Xiang's Zhan Guo Ce (Strategies of the Warring States) and Shuoyuan (說苑, Garden of Stories). Since these three Han Dynasty texts openly criticise both Lü and the Qin Dynasty, some alleged stories (for example, Lü's private thoughts and conversations) can be discounted. Note that some of the following English translations come from John Knoblock and Jeffrey Riegel's scholarly study of the Lüshi Chunqiu.
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