22 Jing Ke

A Household Name Assassin

During the Warring States Period, seven powers fought each other constantly and fiercely. After Qin State (in Shaanxi Province) destroyed Han (in Shanxi Province) and Zhao (in Henan Province) states, the premier of Yan State (in Hebei Province) named Dan, also the crowned prince, saw the looming doom of his own state. He designed a plan for a last ditch struggle. He announced he was willing to cede its 15 cities to Qin State exchanging for peace, and then the envoy, who was sent to offer the map and complete the transaction, could burst up to assassinate Qin’s Emperor. This assassin was Jing Ke (?-227 BC).

When Jing Ke set out his trip for the special mission, flanking by Prince Dan who walked him farewell, all people in the caravan wore in funeral attire, even the horses were wrapped in white. They came to the bank of Yi River (at southwest of Beijing) and held a special farewell banquet. When someone stroke up the percussion instrument with elegy tune, Jing Ke began to chant a song Ferrying across Yi River to the music. The two-line song actually became a history acclaimed poem:

Winds sigh sad and Yi chilly water run,

The warrior once go will never return.

The song soon became a sonorous chorus, and everyone on the spot burst into tears. It is said, with the rising of the extreme passion and indignation, Jing Ke’s hair erected and even propped up his cap. The story had later brought forth an idiom: “indignation made hair prop up the cap”. People saw off Jing Ke ferry across the river, get in a carriage and run afar.

At Qin’s court, Jing Ke unveiled the map scroll in front of Qin Emperor. At the beginning, the atmosphere was peaceful. But, all of a sudden, Jing drew out a dagger from the end of the map (“dagger shows-up at the end of map” became an idiom), and there soon broke out a death struggle. As Qin Emperor was on some alert, Jing failed, and was finally killed.

Jing Ke had become a household name for thousands of years, as the story of “Jing Ke assassinating Qin Emperor” had given artists endless creative inspirations, even Jing Ke’s TV soap operas were showed up repeatedly on screens. Why an assassin could touch so many hearts? The attraction mostly derived from the immortal masterpiece Ferrying across Yi River and its heart-wrenching story.