Jing Ke, The Master Assassin
The reason why China suffers bitterly from endless wars is because of the existence of feudal lords and kings.
Qin Shi Huangdi
Qin Shi Huangdi was the founder of the Qin dynasty and was renowned for being a violent and brutal man. He became the first emperor of unified China in 221 BC and, at the time when he assumed power, the country had been in turmoil for over 200 years. This period of history became known as the Warring States Period. Before this time China was divided into numerous small kingdoms, or fiefdoms, but during the Warring States period seven dominant kingdoms emerged – Qin, Yan, Qi, Qu, Yan, Han, Zhao and Wei – of these Qin was the most powerful.
After such a violent and tumultuous period, the people were ready to accept Huangdi’s vision of a unified China with open arms. But their excitement was to be short-lived because the emperor not only used violence in his drive to unify China, but he also resorted to the slaughter of thousands of innocent people who he felt were not true to his cause.
The Kingdom of Zhao plays a very significant role in the life of the emperor, as this is where the King of Qin was raised and where he first met his life-long lover and confidante, Lady Zhao. Lady Zhao was a commoner and a servant to the emperor’s family. She was a simple, but elegant woman, and possibly the only person who shared the emperor’s vision. When Lady Zhao heard of the emperor’s dream of a unified China she decided to sacrifice her dream of leaving the Qin palace and returning to her homeland in order to support her lover. But despite her loyalty, ironically, it was the emperor’s brutal destruction of Zhao and the murdering of the children of Zhao that destroyed their relationship. The killing of the Zhao children is testimony of both the emperor’s brutality and his inability to keep his promise to the one person he truly loved.
At the commencement of his rule, the emperor’s vision for a unified China was genuine, wishing to bring an end to war and build one big empire where everyone spoke the same language and used the same currency. To avoid the anarchy of the Warring States Period, Qin Shi Huangdi and his prime minister, Li Si, completely abolished feudalism. They divided the empire into 36 provinces to be run by three governors – one civilian, one military, one moderator – all of whom could be dismissed by the emperor at any time. The emperor ordered that all members of the former royal houses of the conquered states to move to Xianyang (the capital of Qin) so that they could be kept under tight surveillance for rebellious activities. Huangdi also developed an extensive network of roads and canals, which provided easy access to the various provinces in the hope of promoting trade to his new empire. These also meant that there was an easy route if he needed to send his military section to any rebellious provinces too.
During his reign the Chinese script was unified. The new script was developed by Li Si, which he called the ‘small seal script’. This was based on the script already used in the Qin State, and the emperor ordered that the new script was made mandatory, thus abolishing any previous scripts. Edicts written in this new script were carved on the walls of the sacred mountains that surrounded China, making sure that his people followed his law.
Qin Shi Huangdi continued to expand his military power, and he fought neighbouring nomadic tribes to the north and northwest in a constant effort to increase his empire. Although his army managed to subdue the tribes, the battles were inconclusive and to prevent the Xiongnu from encroaching on the northern frontier any further, Huangdi ordered the construction of an enormous, defensive wall. This new wall linked several walls that were already in existence during the time of the Warring States. The construction of the new wall caused the death of thousands of men, and it was the forerunner of the present Great Wall of China. In order to build the great wall, the roads and the canals, Huangdi had to force peasants to do manual labour, and he believed that all his subjects should suffer in order that he live in relative peace. He suppressed freedom of thought and burned all Confucian literature, and through his constant cruelty and lack of compassion for his people Qin Shi Huangdi soon made many enemies.
Jing Ke
Qin Shi Huangdi had by this time conquered the states of Han and Zhao and was now threatening the state of Yan, to the northwest of his Empire, along the coast. Prince Dan, who was the son of the King of Yan, felt that their military were not strong enough to defend the state, and decided the best way to solve the problem was to assassinate the Emperor Huangdi. He already held a grudge against the emperor, because he had been captured by him and held prisoner in the Qin province for five years before be managed to escape.
About this time, Prince Dan befriended a young man by the name of Jing Ke, who was a native of the province of Wei but had journeyed to Yan. In Yan he had formed a good reputation as he was always prepared to assist anyone in need and was well accepted by the local people. Jing Ke and Prince Dan got on well right from their first meeting, and the Prince soon decided that it was this young man who should carry out the assassination of his arch rival. In an effort to win Jing Ke over, the prince had a luxurious palace built for him and made sure that he had everything he wanted. The prince visited him every day and made sure that his favourite chariot was always available to him. The prince even had his favourite horse slaughtered and the liver cooked for Jing Ke, as it was one of his favourite dishes. All this attention worked, and Jing Ke felt that he would be willing to do anything for his friend.
Meanwhile, the Qin troops were starting to mass along the southern border of the Yan state. rince Dan went to see his friend Jing Ke and told him of his fears that the state of Yan would soon be overthrown. Tentatively he suggested to Jing Ke that he felt the only way to save his state was to kill the emperor of Qin. To his surprise Jing Ke replied that he had already been thinking about doing the same thing, but felt that it would be very hard to gain access to the emperor. He asked the prince for two things – a map of the Dukang district, an area which Huangdi longed to possess, and the head of a man named Yan Yuqi. Apparently Yuqi had defected from Qin to Yan and was on the emperor’s most wanted list. Jing Ke felt that if he offered the emperor these two items he would most certainly be granted an audience.
While the Prince prepared the map, Jing Ke himself went to see Yan Yuqi and told him of the assassination plot. As a loyal subject Yuqi was willing to sacrifice himself to save Yan and took a knife to his own throat. Prince Dan gave his friend a dagger with a poisoned blade and assigned another well-known warrior, Qin Quyang to accompany him on his mission.
When the pair arrived in the State of Qin it wasn’t long before the news got to the emperor and they were offered an audience. However, when they actually confronted Huangdi, Jing Ke lost his nerve and his hands started to tremble uncontrollably. This aroused the emperor’s suspicion, but Jing Ke recovered his composure and told him that it was just the fact that he was totally overawed to be in the presence of such a famous emperor.
Carrying a wooden box containing the severed head and a map scroll with the poisoned dagger rolled up inside it, Jing Ke approached the emperor. As he approached him and unrolled the map, the dagger was revealed and caused the emperor to take a step back. However, Jing Ke lunged at him, grabbed his sleeve and pointed the dagger towards him. The emperor moved swiftly and as he jerked away the dagger only managed to make a tear in the sleeve of his garments. The emperor hid behind a pillar with Jing Ke still determined to complete his task.
Because Huangdi had always been prepared for an attempt on his life, he had ordered that no one, not even his own retainers, could enter the throne room carrying any sort of weapon, so consequently he had very little protection. However, the emperor’s personal physician attempted to get between them with his bag of medicine, and this gave the emperor a little more time. In this instant the emperor pulled out his own sword and managed to sever Jing Ke’s left leg. In a last effort to assassinate the emperor, Jing Ke threw his dagger at him, but unfortunately he missed. Hearing the commotion the guards rushed in from outside the throne room and killed both Jing Ke and his accomplice, and consequently their plot to assassinate the emperor of Qin failed.
After this incident the emperor was incensed and drove his forces down to Yan. On reaching its capital the following year, Huangdi forced the Emperor of Yan to have his own son, Prince Dan, put to death and by the year 222 BC, the state of Yan had been completely wiped out by the state of Qin.