Lü Buwei
Chinese merchant and politician of the Qin state (291-235 BC) · Politicians · Lived 291 BC to 235 BC · aged 56
A merchant who bet on a hostage prince and won an empire - almost. Lü Buwei spotted a minor royal languishing in enemy territory, bribed his way to the Qin throne, and ended up regent to the boy who would become China's first emperor. He died in exile by his own hand.
Lü Buwei is read about 500 times a day, in 28 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 9 November 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 114 days, one point a day.
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About this person
Lü Buwei started as a merchant from the Wei state during the Warring States period. Meeting a hostage prince from Qin held in Zhao, he orchestrated bribes and schemes to install the young man as heir, a gamble that paid off in 249 BCE when King Zhuangxiang ascended and made Lü chancellor and Marquis Wenxin. When Zhuangxiang died two years later, Lü became regent to the king's son, Ying Zheng - the future Qin Shi Huang. But in 235 BCE a scandal broke: the Queen Dowager's affair with a man named Lao Ai pulled Lü into the wreckage. Stripped of rank and banished to the remote Shu region, he swallowed poison rather than wait for what came next. He also left behind the Lüshi Chunqiu, an encyclopaedic work compiling the era's competing philosophies, published in 239 BCE while he still held power.
