Ancient China · Rebel

Lao Ai 嫪毐

Died BC 238

Passages
17
Chapters
4
Histories
2

Overview

The translated histories identify Lao Ai as a courtier, named individual, and rebel. This record brings together 17 passages from 4 chapters across 2 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

TypeEnglishChinesePinyin
Personal Lao Ai 嫪毐 Lao Ai
Personal name Lao Ai 嫪毐 Lào Ǎi
Personal name Lao Ai 嫪毐 Lao Ai

Identity

Historicity
Historical
Identification
Named
Sex
Male

Roles

  • Courtier
  • Named Individual
  • Rebel

Life and dates

Death

  • Manner: execution · Place: Haozhi / 好畤 · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 始皇九年 · Western Year: BC 238
    Explicit · shiji:085:s0097

Attested activity

Family

Career and standing

  • Status: retainer · Action: became · Of Person Id: Lü Buwei (呂不韋)
    Explicit · shiji:085:s0063
  • Status: false-eunuch · Action: became
    Explicit · shiji:085:s0067
  • Status: collective-punishment · Action: exterminated-three-clans · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 夷其三族 · Western Year: BC 238
    Explicit · shiji:078:s0169
  • Status: clan-extermination · Action: suffered · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 始皇九年九月 · Western Year: BC 238
    Explicit · shiji:085:s0079

Places and affiliations

Works and attributed material

Events and relationships

  • Kind: personal · Role: offender · Action: committed-incest · Outcome: confounded ritual norms
    Explicit · hanshu:022:s0023
  • Kind: rebellion · Role: leader · Action: rebelled · Place: Qinian Palace / 蘄年宮 · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 始皇九年 · Western Year: BC 238
    Explicit · shiji:085:s0096
  • Kind: rebellion · Role: rebel · Action: rebelled · Place: Qin / 秦 · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 秦始皇帝立九年 · Western Year: BC 238
    Explicit · shiji:078:s0169
  • Relation: lover-of · Person Id: Mother of Zheng
    Explicit · shiji:085:s0068

Assessments and attributes

  • Assessment: crimes of incest and ritual chaos too vile to recount; placed in seventh class · Provenance: Mode: commentator-judgment · Speaker Person Id: Zhang Yan (張晏)
    Explicit · hanshu:022:s0023
  • Kind: moral · Statement: 上烝昬亂禮度 / incestuous violation of ritual order
    Explicit · hanshu:022:s0023
  • Kind: physical-description · Statement: remarkably well-endowed (大陰人)
    Explicit · shiji:085:s0063

Source notes

  • Statement: household servants numbered several thousand; retainers seeking office exceeded a thousand
    Explicit · shiji:085:s0071

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Book of Han, Chapter 20Table of Ancient and Modern Persons · 1 passage
Open chapter
張晏曰：「老子玄默，仲尼所師，雖不在聖，要為大賢，文伯之母達於禮典，動為聖人所歎，言為後世所則，而在第四。田單以即墨孤城復強齊之大，魯連之博通，忽於榮利，藺子申威秦王，退讓廉頗，乃在第五。大姬巫怪，好祭鬼神，陳人化之，國多淫祀，寺人孟子違於大雅，以保其身，旣被宮刑，怨刺而作，乃在第三。嫪毐上烝，昬亂禮度，惡不忍聞，乃在第七。其餘差違紛錯不少，略舉揚較，以起失謬。獨馳騖於數千歲之中，旁觀諸子，事業未究，而尋遇竇氏之難，使之然乎？」 Zhang Yan said, "Laozi was deep and silent, and Confucius regarded him as a teacher. Though not ranked among sages, he surely counts as a great worthy. Wenbo's mother mastered the ritual classics; the sage praised her conduct and later ages took her words as a model—yet she appears in the fourth grade. Tian Dan restored great Qi from the isolated city of Jimo; Lu Lian was broadly learned yet disdained fame and profit; Lord Lin awed the King of Qin and yielded to Lian Po—yet they are placed in the fifth grade. Great Ji practiced sorcery and loved sacrificing to ghosts and spirits; the people of Chen were transformed by her and the state was full of improper cults. The eunuch Mengzi, turning from the great elegant style to preserve himself—after castration, wrote in resentment—yet is placed in the third grade. Lao Ai committed incest at court and threw ritual order into chaos, in deeds too foul to bear hearing—yet he is placed in the seventh grade. Discrepancies and errors are many; I have cited a few to expose the faults. Did he gallop alone across thousands of years, looking on at the various masters while his work remained unfinished, then soon meet the Dou family's disaster—and did that make it turn out this way?"
Book of Han, Chapter 22Volume 20: Prominent People from the Past Until the Present · 1 passage
Open chapter
Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 78Biography of Lord Chunshen · 1 passage
Open chapter
Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 85Biography of Master Lü Buwei · 14 passages
Open chapter
呂不韋恐覺禍及己，乃私求大陰人嫪毐以為舍人，時縱倡樂，使毐以其陰關桐輪而行，令太后聞之，以啗太后。 Lü Buwei grew fearful that their affair would be discovered and bring ruin upon him. He secretly sought out a man named Lao Ai, who was remarkably well-endowed, and took him on as a retainer. From time to time he arranged entertainments in which Lao Ai displayed his endowment by threading his member through a paulownia-wood wheel and walking about, ensuring that word of the spectacle would reach the Queen Dowager and entice her.