The First Emperor and His Would-Be Assassins
The Qin creation of a unified Chinese empire faced considerable opposi-
tion both from the kingdoms it ultimately destroyed and from individuals
who sought to derail the rise of a despot. Of course, the Qin was not unique
in either of these areas, as attested by the constant warfare and frequent
assassinations of individual rulers during the Warring States period. When
the Qin king became thefirst emperor of China, however, he also became a
symbol of harsh, despotic rule. This association of the Qin king, usually
referred to as Qin Shihuang or Qin Shihuangdi (the First Emperor of Qin),
continues today. Thus the stories of the men who attempted to assassinate
him portray individual resistance to despotism rather than the simple effort
of someone to murder a ruler.
The most famous assassin in Chinese history is Jing Ke. Jing Ke was
described as loving reading and fencing, a significant juxtaposition of inter-
ests that set him above the ranks of mere violent thugs. Sima Qian’saccount
of Jing includes two incidents in which he withdrew in the face of an
aggressive and angry interlocutor. In thefirst instance, Jing Ke was discus-
sing fencing with a man named Gai Nie. When Gai Nie became angry
and glared at Jing, Jing withdrew and immediately departed the town. Gai
regarded this as a sign of his own ferocity and Jing’s timidity. He thought he
had thoroughly intimidated Jing with a glare.
In the second instance, Jing was playing a board game with Lu Goujian.
When Lu got angry and shouted at him, Jing left, never to return.^4 Jing’s
response to angry, rude, and confrontational behavior was connected to
his interest in reading. Although Jing would prove himself to be the bravest
man of his time, and a skilled swordsman, he refused to respond in kind
to unpleasant aggressive men who could neither discuss fencing nor play
a board game without losing their temper. Gai Nie’s self-satisfaction with
having intimidated Jing, as he believed, was not only a way for Sima Qian
to demonstrate Jing’s superior character but also to denigrate the sort of
loud-mouthed, overly aggressive behavior of the common martial artist.
The truly great warrior and martial artist was not a chest-thumping thug.
Sima Qian’s biography of Jing paints him as humble, erudite, and unpre-
tentious. When Jing reached the state of Yan, he began habitually to hang
around the marketplace with a dog butcher and a dulcimer player, Gao
Jianli. Jing spent time with men of low standing and also associated with
worthy and powerful men during his travels. Sima Qian repeatedly refers to
Jing’s love of reading, reinforcing his intellectual strength and making it
clear that Jing’s interest in reading carried through into his adult life, rather
The First Emperor and His Would-Be Assassins 57