New Reading of Qin Assassination: Threat, Not Stab, Claims Scholar
Creatrip Team
2 months ago
Seoul National University historian Kim Byung-joon reinterprets Sima Qian’s account of the attempted assassination of the King of Qin (later Qin Shi Huang). In a paper in the humanities journal Munheon gwa Haeseok, Kim notes that the original text uses the character ‘揕’ (translated as “thrust” or “intimidate”) rather than the usual ‘刺’ (“pierce” or “stab”) found in other assassin biographies. He argues that Jing Ke (Hyeongga) brandished a dagger and threatened the king to secure favorable promises for his patron, Crown Prince Dan of Yan, rather than trying to kill him outright. Kim points out that Jing Ke’s dagger was coated with strong poison and could have killed the king with even a graze, suggesting the act was intentional intimidation. The reinterpretation also suggests Sima Qian may have wanted to show Crown Prince Dan as an unfit sponsor for the plot. This reading challenges the long-standing view popularized in literature and films (e.g., the movie Hero) that Jing Ke tried and failed to stab the king.
