The Real Story Behind Legend of Mi Yue's Rise to China's First Queen Dowager Xuan | Tea with Amy

There was a low-ranked consul in Chinese history who ended up governing the most powerful kingdom in the Warring States period for over 40 years. Today, she is often referred to in modern Chinese pop culture as the first Taihou, the first dowager of Chinese history. She is Shen Taihou, the Queen Dowager Shen of the Kingdom of Qin, the great-great-grandmother of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. Her personal name is not recorded in historical records, and she is only recorded as Lady Mi or Mi Bazi, where Bazi was her consort title. She is reimagined as Mi Yue in the popular C-drama The Legend of Mi Yue, where she is portrayed as a princess of the Kingdom of Chu, a passionate woman who navigates palace intrigue and forbidden love on her way to supreme power. Hey everyone, and welcome to Tea with Amy. Today, we will tell the remarkable story of Queen Dowager Shen of Qin, and see how she laid the groundwork that made Qin Shi Huang's eventual unification of China possible. Lady Mi was born around 344 BCE, a daughter of the royal family of the Kingdom of Chu. We do not know who her parents were, and we do not know what position she occupied within the because her father was not explicitly named in historical records. Most historians believe that she was not a daughter of the King of Chu. This lack of information suggests that she was not that significant in her early life. While still a member of the royal family, she was not important enough to be singled out in historical records. The Kingdom of Chu occupied the vast southern territories of China, and was filled with river valleys, marshes, and subtropical forests. It was a land of mystical shamans, exotic phoenix worship, and legendary poets who chose romantic beauty over cold logic. This was the world that Lady Mi was born into and grew up in. But she would not stay there for long. Around 329 BCE, a political marriage was arranged between the courts of Chu and Qin. A princess of Chu would travel to the Kingdom of Qin to marry Yingsi, King Huiwen of Qin. This kind of diplomatic marriage was fairly common, and the princess wouldn't go alone. A group of female relatives from the Chu royal family would travel with her, usually intended to become secondary consorts in order to strengthen the diplomatic relationship, and also to serve as additional chances to place Chu royal family members into positions of influence in Qin. Lady Mi was around 16 years old and was one of the relatives that went along. The procession left Chu in the kind of weather the south is known for. Warm, heavy with moisture, the smell of river water, and green things everywhere. Lady Mi would have watched through the curtains as the landscape slowly changed. The rivers narrowed, the forests thinned, the air dried out. By the time the convoy crossed into Qin territory, the world outside looked nothing like the one she had left. The earth was yellow and hard, the sky felt higher and colder. The journey from Chu's river country west to the Qin heartland was long, and the world at the other end of it was nothing like the one Lady Mi had left. Everything familiar was now behind her. The kingdom of Qin had just gone through legal reforms led by high-ranking minister Shang Yang. Shang Yang was a follower of legalism, and he significantly weakened the old hereditary nobility, imposing strict laws and collective responsibility. The laws were precise, impersonal, and applied to everyone regardless of birth. What advanced you in Qin was what you accomplished. Enemies defeated, land cultivated, or administrative performance. Everything was ranked and accordingly rewarded. Where Chu had poetry and shamans, and beauty and art, Qin had something harder and more rigid. After arriving in Qin, Lady Mi was granted the consular rank of Bazi. It was not a high rank, but it was still a rank. At the time, the royal harem was led by Queen Huiwen of Qin, and the queen's son Ying Dang was the crown prince. Over the next several years, Lady Mi gave birth to at least three sons for King Huiwen, Ying Ji, Ying Kui, and Ying Fei. Three sons was a significant achievement for a low-ranked consular, and was proof of sustained favor. It meant that she had found her footing in a court that had no particular reason to care about her. But then, in 311 BCE, King Huiwen of Qin died, and a 19-year-old crown prince, Ying Dang, took the throne and would be later known as King Wu of Qin. The favor that King Huiwen had for Lady Mi didn't matter anymore, and the widowed Queen Huiwen became the most dominant woman at the Qin court. Lady Mi and her sons could be potential rivals, especially her eldest son. And so, a diplomatic exchange of political hostages was arranged with the northeastern kingdom of Yan, and Lady Mi's eldest son, Ying Ji, was chosen to go. She had watched her eldest son, Li Xianyang, in a convoy headed northeast. The road to Yan was long, and there was no guarantee he would ever return. But there was nothing she could do. Whatever she felt standing there, she kept to herself. This helplessness would fuel what she would become. She had to be more calculating and more ruthless in order to hold her destiny in her own hands. In 307 BCE, four years into King Wu's reign, something happened that nobody in the Qin court had planned for. For the last few years, King Wu had been aggressively pushing the Qin armies east into the kingdom of Han, reaching all the way to Luoyi, the ancient capital of the Zhou dynasty, which would be later known as Luoyang. By this time, the Zhou royal house was royal in name only, a court that everyone acknowledged, but nobody listened to. But the physical symbols of that old authority of Zhou were still there. And the most significant of them were the nine tripod cauldrons. These cauldrons were enormous bronze vessels, each one believed to be the height of a man. According to tradition, they had been cast by the legendary Dayu after he tamed the great floods, with one cauldron for each of the nine provinces of China, representing sovereign authority over the world. In the Zhou dynasty, they were a physical token of the mandate of heaven itself. Only the son of heaven was supposed to command all nine. To move or disrupt the cauldrons was to claim the mandate of heaven for yourself. King Wu of Qin took the nine tripod cauldrons as a personal challenge. If he could move the cauldrons back to Qin, then he would become the rifled son of heaven. It seemed that his campaign that led him here was all part of fate. This was his destiny. He quickly tasked the strongest men of his army to try to move the cauldrons. But even his strongest man, Meng Shuo, was only barely able to lift one cauldron a little bit off the ground before having to set it back down. Is it because his men were not worthy? Was this like Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, where only the son of heaven himself could move the cauldrons? So, King Wu decided to try for himself. He stripped off his outer robe, gripped the bronze handles, and pulled with everything he had. And for a moment, just a moment, it moved. The cauldron lifted, and King Wu held the weight of it. And perhaps in that moment, he believed it. That this was destiny. That the mandate of heaven was something you could hold in your hands. Then it came down. His kneecap shattered under the weight, and he died of his injuries later that night. He was not worthy. And his destiny did not end up the way that he imagined. King Wu was 23 years old, and he had left no heirs. And the kingdom of Qin was immediately thrown into a messy succession crisis. King Wu's widowed queen moved quickly to put forward her own candidate, a prince named Yin Zhuang, a younger brother of King Wu. The left chancellor, Gan Mao, gave his support. But the right chancellor, Zhu Liqi, was still on the road back from Luoyi with the funeral possession, and had not yet declared his position. And then, a foreign power intervened. King Wuling of Zhao had been watching this Qin crisis unravel with great interest. And he saw an opportunity. If he could help put a Qin prince onto the throne of Qin, then that prince would be in his debt. And he had the perfect candidate. King Wuling of Zhao sent the administrator of Dai, Zhao Gu, to meet Prince Ji in Yan and escort him home. Lady Mi's son, Yin Ji, had spent the last few years as a diplomatic hostage, far away from the politics of the Qin court in Xianyang. While the other princes had been building alliances in opposition, he had neither. He had no friends, but he also had no enemies. But getting Yin Ji back to Qin was only the first problem. Someone had to be ready to receive him inside Xianyang and get him to the Qin court. That someone was Wei Ran, a minister within the Qin court with real military authority. Wei Ran is Lady Mi's half-brother, who shared her mother but not her father. Wei Ran was not directly tied to the normal families of Qin, and everything he had been able to achieve was through his connection to his sister. This made him exactly the kind of person that Lady Mi could trust completely. His fate was tied to hers, and they both knew it. When word came that Yin Ji was being escorted back to Xianyang, Lady Mi knew that she couldn't just wait around and hope for the best. She had waited around before and knew which way that road went. So, she turned to Wei Ran and asked him to support Yin Ji's bid for the throne. And Wei Ran immediately got to work. The rival factions had made one critical mistake. They had declared their positions openly. Left Chancellor Gan Mao had publicly backed Yin Zhuang, which made his position vulnerable to opposition. At the same time, the Right Chancellor Chu Li Ji was still on the road, and his absence created a small window of opportunity. So, while these factions were busy playing politics, Wei Ran did the opposite. He moved quietly, before any of the competing factions took control of the most important thing that mattered, the military. Wei Ran leveraged his authority and quickly secured loyalty from soldiers of key military positions within Xianyang. The commanders on the city walls, the officers at the palace gates, the men who actually controlled who would enter the capital. One by one, they became his people. By the time the rival factions realized what was happening, it was too late. The other princes still had their claims, but claims without soldiers are just words. By the time Yin Ji crossed the border back into Qin, the soldiers who mattered most were already taking orders from Wei Ran. The court had a simple choice. Support Yin Ji, backed by soldiers now loyal to Wei Ran, or fight those same soldiers inside the walls of Xianyang. It wasn't really a choice. And so, Yin Ji took the throne as the new king of Qin at 19 years old. He would be known in history as King Zhaoxiang. But Yin Ji was still young, so Lady Ni would act as regent, and Wei Ran quickly gained control of Qin court on behalf of his sister. The Left Chancellor Gan Mao knew that Wei Ran despised him and was gaining absolute power. He quickly realized that he would be the first target of a purge, and immediately fled to the kingdom of Wei. Queen Huiwen and her sons, Yin Zhuang and Yin Yong, also feared retribution, so they also chose to flee Xianyang. But they did not want to give up on their power, and wanted to fight back. This marked the beginning of a two-year civil war, where Queen Huiwen and her sons established their own rival court with their own supporters in the outlying regions of Qin, claiming to be the rightful rulers. Two years later, King Zhaoxiang's faction, led by Wei Ran, finally defeated Queen Huiwen's rival forces, and all of the rebels were executed. According to the records of the grand historian, Queen Huiwen, Prince Zhuang, and Prince Yong were executed. Queen Wu was exiled to the kingdom of Wei, and all of King Zhaoxiang's brothers, who were hostile, were destroyed. When it was all over, Lady Mi was the most powerful person in Qin. King Zhaoxiang's position was secured, but he had arrived from Yan with no court alliances, no military relationships, and no independent base of power in Qin. Every person who had helped him launch the throne answered to his mother. He was the king in name, but she governed in practice. With the civil war over and her son's throne secured, Lady Mi had to figure out what came next. She was the mother of the king. She governed in his name. She had the loyal Wei Ran, now the most powerful minister in Qin. For the first time since she had arrived in Qin as a 16-year-old secondary consort, she was the one holding all the cards. At the time, the mother of a king could be referred to as Wang Mu, which literally meant the king's mother, or sometimes Tai Furen, an honorific that basically meant a great lady. And in some cases, the king's mother could also be referred to as queen, especially if she already held the queen title before her son became the king. But those were mostly honorifics, as there wasn't standardized formal political position in the hierarchy for the king's mother yet, and she didn't want to just be the king's mother. She sat in the Great Hall at Xianyang, where Qin's ministers had spent decades bringing their petitions to kings, and she received them herself. She made the decisions. The ministers vowed while she governed. She was the one who spoke. She was the one they answered to. It felt like she was the only person in the world who mattered. Whatever she had felt watching that convoy head northeast towards Yan, this was the other side of it. She needed a stronger title that actually captured the power that she held. And so, she would be known as Tai Kou, a dowager, a queen dowager. And from this moment onward, this was a title that would endure for over 2,000 years. Eventually, adapting into the later imperial system as Huang Taihou, the Empress Dowager. Song Dynasty records claim that this title was created for Lady Mi, and she would be known as the first dowager in Chinese history. But we do see from older records that there were earlier uses of this title, just never quite for a woman that controlled the government like Lady Mi did. She may not have literally been the first to use the title, but she definitely defined what it meant. It was a governing position with real power. And Queen Dowager Mi wasted no time making clear exactly what kind of ruler she intended to be. Around 300 BCE, the Kingdom of Chu attacked and besieged territory within the Kingdom of Han. The Han forces were unable to break the siege on their own, and repeatedly asked the Kingdom of Qin for help, but were ignored. Eventually, Han sent an envoy named Shang Jing to Qin to ask for military assistance. Upon arriving in the Qin court, Shang Jing made a sentimental case that Han and Qin were allies and mutually dependent, and that if Han fell, Qin would be exposed. His argument was sound, but his words were empty, and Queen Dowager Mi summoned him in for a private audience. And then, Queen Dowager Mi said to Shang Jing, when I served the late king, if he rested his thigh across my body, I found it tiring and could not bear it. But when he put his full weight upon me, I did not feel him as heavy at all. Why? Because that was good for me too, and was to my benefit. Now, you ask Qin to save Han, but if there aren't enough soldiers or not enough supplies, Han cannot be saved. In order to save Han from this crisis, it will cost 1,000 gold each day. So what is the benefit for me? It was a shocking metaphor that was not supposed to be said out loud. Queen Dowager Mi was not trying to be proper. She was trying to make a point. She was making a statement about how Qin worked. Han needed to present more than sentimental reasons. What would Qin actually gain? Qin would only move if the benefit was worth the cost. And it was up to Han to prove that it was. A second Han envoy eventually came back, and this time, the envoy provided a more carefully constructed argument, clearly describing how Qin could benefit from helping Han. And finally, Qin agreed to send help. The kingdom of Qin under Queen Dowager Mi was not going to be moved by sentiment, by historical relationships, or by appeals of morality. It would be moved by one thing only, a clear benefit. There was no power of friendship here. This was the logic that would shape Qin's rise, and set the stage for its eventual unification of China. There was a problem that had outlasted every king of Qin so far, and that was the problem of the Yi Qu. The Yi Qu were a semi-nomadic people who occupied the highland plateau to the north and west of Qin. Their position gave them a strategic advantage that had frustrated Qin for generations. Every time Qin moved its main armies east to campaign against the other kingdoms, the Yi Qu cavalry would sweep in from the west and strike at the undefended Qin territory left behind. Qin could not fully commit east while its western flank was exposed. And the western flank was always exposed, because the Yi Qu were always there. The previous kings had tried the direct approach. The late King Huiwen had campaigned against the Yi Qu and took some of their territory, weakening them, but not completely defeating them. This was a problem that the kings of Qin had always had to deal with. And now it was a problem for Queen Dowager Mi. And she decided to try something different. Around 306 BCE, the King of Yi Qu came to Xianyang to congratulate King Zhaoxiang on his ascension to the throne. When he arrived, he found himself in a world completely unlike his own. His people lived along the northwestern frontier, combining pastoral traditions with settled life, far removed from the rigid court rituals and bureaucratic order of the Qin. And the most powerful person in this new world was a woman who received him warmly, who showed him something other than the cold precision that defined everything else in Qin. Whether that warmth was calculated from the very beginning, or whether it became calculation over time, we don't know. But what we do know is that Queen Dowager Mi seduced the King of Yi Qu, and he fell for her charms. It is said that during the reign of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, the King of the Yi Qu had an intimate affair with Queen Dowager Mi, and they had two sons. This was an affair that would last over 30 years, during which the King of Yi Qu and Queen Dowager Mi would frequently meet at the Ganquan Palace. The Ganquan Palace was a mountain retreat located slightly north of Xianyang, and it was a private, secluded location. The King of Yi Qu was treated lavishly, became comfortable, and started spending most of his time there. It became a time of peace with the Yi Qu, and over time, his absence from the Yi Qu homeland gradually weakened the internal cohesion of the Yi Qu people. A people without their king is like a river that has lost its banks. It does not stop moving, it just stops going anywhere in particular. Year by year, the Yi Qu drifted, and year by year, the man who should have been holding them together was comfortable in a mountain palace north of Xianyang, and growing soft. Now, Empress Dowager Mi was still the widow of King Huiwen, and taking a foreign king as her lover was certainly scandalous, and definitely inappropriate. But it wasn't a secret. The court knew, the historians knew, nobody said anything though, because she was the most powerful person in the kingdom. What they didn't know was that she had a plan. And then, around 272 BCE, Queen Dowager Mi made her move. It is said that Queen Dowager Mi lured the king of Yi Qu to the Gancheng Palace and killed him, then raised an army to attack and wipe out the Yi Qu people. It is not known what happened to the two sons that she had with the king of Yi Qu, but some believe that they were also killed. Three new commanderies were established on the conquered territory, Longxi, Beidi, and Shangjun. These territories would become Qin's primary sources of horses, building the powerful cavalry and warhorses that would contribute directly to the Qin's eventual unstoppable military power, whatever the cost. The result was clear. She had done what previous kings of Qin could not, and the west was finally secure. By 272 BCE, the kingdom of Qin had become the dominant military power in the world of the warring states. Queen Dowager Mi had built her power carefully and deliberately. But the same tools she used to survive had, over time, created a new problem. When she first came to power, with a young son on the throne and enemies still circling, she did what made sense. She put her family in charge. Her maternal half-brother, Wei Ran, became chancellor and was given the title Marquis of Rang. She had a paternal half-brother, Mi Rong, who had committed a crime back in the kingdom of Chu and was forced to flee. Queen Dowager Mi had invited him to serve as an official in Qin and granted him the title Lord Huayang. Her two younger sons were also granted prestigious titles. Yinfei was named Lord Jingyang and Yinkui was named Lord Gaoling. These were the four most powerful men in the Qin court during the reign of King Zhaoxiang. And all of them were close relatives of Queen Dowager Mi. They were known as the Sigui, the Four Nobles. Together with the Queen Dowager, they held so much wealth and military power that they were pretty much the overshadowing the king. In the early years, this arrangement made sense. Queen Dowager Mi needed people that she could trust, and family was her safest bet. But decades passed, and King Zhaoxiang grew up. By 266 BCE, he had been king for over 40 years. And the arrangement that had run the kingdom of Qin was now the same arrangement that was making him look like a fool in front of every other kingdom in China. But of course, nobody was going to say this out loud, especially not to the king's face. That is, until Fan Ju. Fan Ju was a refugee from the kingdom of Wei. He was accused of being a spy back in Wei, beaten so severely that his ribs were broken and his teeth knocked out, and left for dead. He survived by playing dead and escaped to Qin. He then worked his way into the Qin court as an advisor, and eventually gained King Zhaoxiang's confidence. He saw the structural power imbalance of the Qin court, and how the king's authority had been hollowed out by his own relatives. He believed that this was dangerous not just for the king's dignity, but also for the kingdom's survival. He was worried that once a faction became more powerful than the king, they'd stop behaving like servants and start behaving like rival rulers. And sooner or later, the kingdom would tear itself apart. One day, Fan Ju had a private audience with the king, and he said, I heard that Qin had a queen dowager, a marquis of Rang, and the lords Huayang, Jingyang, and Gaoling. But I never heard that it had a king. King Zhaoxiang was not happy to hear that. Fan Ju pressed further, pointing to historical examples of ministers in other kingdoms who had accumulated so much power that they had effectively replaced the rulers they served. The message was clear. This was not just embarrassing, it was dangerous. And then Fan Ju raised his concerns regarding Wei Ran's military campaigns. During the Warring States period, Tao was an important city-state and commercial hub, because it was located where major trade routes intersected. It was far to the east of Qin, surrounded by the kingdoms of Wei, Qi. Back around 286 BCE, Tao was captured by Qin forces, and the city was granted to Wei Ran as his private fief. Since then, Wei Ran would constantly lead Qin's armies across the territories of Han and Wei to attack the distant kingdom of Qi. Because Qi was far away, even if Qin won a battle, it would end up with isolated pockets of territory it could barely hold. But each of those gains strengthened the position of Tao, tightening a ring of protection around Wei Ran's private fief. Fan Ju told the king, To cross the territories of Han and Wei to attack the distant Qi is a mistake. If you send a few troops, they will not be enough to harm Qi. If you send many, it will bring harm to Qin. And even if you take that land, it would be difficult to control it. Fan Ju was hinting that by attacking Qi, Wei Ran was using the Qin military to protect his own assets and to increase his own wealth. And then he offered his own advice. It would be better for your majesty to befriend the distant and attack the nearby. In this way, every inch of land gained is your majesty's inch. Every foot gained is your majesty's foot. Currently, you abandon what is near to attack what is far. And in the end, such efforts are bound to fail. King Zhaoxiang was shocked by the full realization of what was happening around him. To say that King Zhaoxiang was enraged would have been an understatement. He snapped. The decree came without warning. Queen Dowager Mi was stripped of her governing authority. The four nobles were expelled from Xianyang. And then King Zhaoxiang confiscated Wei Ran's massive wealth. It was said that the treasure taken from Wei Ran's estate was even greater than the entire Qin royal treasury. The rule of the four nobles was over. But at least nobody was killed. She had governed Qin for over 40 years. And she stepped aside without a fight. The petitions stopped coming. The ministers stopped coming. The decisions that had defined every day of her life for 40 years were now someone else's decisions. What she had now was time and the company of a young male favorite named Wei Choufu. She was now just a woman living out her days in a quiet corner of the palace. And then the following year, in 265 BCE, Queen Dowager Mi fell gravely ill. She was approximately 80 years old. And now, on her deathbed, she made one last request. She wanted Wei Choufu to be buried alive with her after she died. But Wei Choufu did not want to die. He found a minister named Yong Rui and begged him to intervene. So Yong Rui went to Queen Dowager Mi's bedside and asked her a question. Do you believe that the dead possess consciousness? The Queen Dowager replied, they do not. Then he said, if your majesty's divine wisdom knows clearly that the dead have no consciousness, then why bury alive someone you love alongside a dead person who cannot know anything? But if the dead do possess consciousness, then the late king's accumulated anger has been building for a very long time. Your majesty would have no time to make amends, let alone any private time with Wei Choufu. Yong Rui did not appeal to compassion. He did not argue that it was wrong to kill an innocent man. He made a logical argument on her own terms. If there is nothing after death, burying Wei Choufu is pointless. If there is something after death, then the late king probably was not too happy with her time spent with the king of Yiqu and definitely would not want to see Wei Choufu. And with this persuasion, Yong Rui successfully convinced her to spare Wei Choufu's life. It was, in a way, a fitting end to how she had governed for 40 years. She was not sentimental. She was not moved by appeals to morality or emotion. But she was always moved by a logical argument. Yong Rui understood this and he gave her one. Shortly after, Queen Dowager Mi passed away. Some say it was from grief. She was buried at Zhiyang Lishan, east of Xianyang, in a tomb separate from King Huiwen. She had never been his queen anyways. After her passing, she was granted the character Xuan, which means illustrious or renowned. And she would be known as Xuan Taihou, Queen Dowager Xuan, the illustrious Queen Dowager. Before Empress Dowagers and before female emperors, Queen Dowager Xuan governed the powerful kingdom of Qin for over 40 years. She had outlasted enemies, secured her son's throne, and solved a problem that had frustrated three generations of kings. She left behind a Qin that was substantially larger, more secure, and more capable than the one she had received. And still, she is criticized by many ancient historians. Some say that she threw Qin into disorder. Some criticized her concentration of state power away from the king. And others denounced her as scandalous and obscene. But today, there is also a different take. The modern historian Ma Feibai praised her greatly by saying, from her honored position as the mother of the king, Queen Dowager Xuan sacrificed her personal dignity to engage in an intimate affair with the king of Yiqu. She then devised a plan to have him killed, and eliminated the great western threat of the Yiqu. This allowed the kingdom of Qin to focus its full attention toward the east, without any further worries about its rear. She built a Qin that was ready to take over the world. And her great-great-grandson, Ying Zheng, would do exactly that. The territories Queen Dowager Xuan secured in the west became the heartland of Qin's cavalry. The governing logic she embodied, to act on benefit and not sentiment, became Qin's doctrine. She did not live to see the unification. But the Qin that unified China was, in no small part, the Qin she built. What do you think about the life of Queen Dowager Xuan? Let me know in the comments. If you liked today's topic, don't forget to like and subscribe. Thanks again for watching, and I'll see you in the next one. Stay curious, stay magical.