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The wind is rustling and the Yi River is freezing,
the hero leaves and will never come back.
This is a famous line from a piece of
ancient Chinese poetry – The Cold Yi River,
which is for bolstering and inspiring the warriors
who are leaving for the battles.
The matching melody of the poetry is solemn
and the poetry tells a sad story of a warrior.
Hello everyone, welcome to Steven's idiom story.
Let’s grasp the essence of Chinese,
understand the history of china and appreciate the culture
of china by learning Chinese idioms.
The idiom we are learning is The Assassian and the King,
Tu Qiong Bi Xiang.
I will explain the Chinese meaning of this idiom first.
The word 'Tu' refers to the map,
'Qiong' means the end,
'Bi' means the dagger
and the word 'Xian' means disclosure.
The idiom means the truth or the original
purpose is disclosed in the end.
The ones who know Chinese history must
be also familiar with this idiom,
which develops from a solemn and legendary allusion.
The story behind this idiom is recorded by
two important history records
The Strategies of Warring States and
The Record of the Grand history written by Qian Sima.
The Strategies of Warring States records
the political views and strategies, which show the features
and traits of the society in the Period of Warring States.
The story dates back to the end of the Warring States Period,
which was more than 2200 years ago.
I have introduced the term “the Warring States”
in my previous shows.
It describes the situation of disunity that China
was divided by states in different levels of national power.
These states had endured ceaseless wars for many years
and had been dreaming to be the king that united the world.
Eventually, seven independent states with
the strongest national power survived after
hundreds of years of wars.
They were the state of
Qin, Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao and Wei, which
were “the seven powers of the Warring States”
in Chinese history.
The state of Qin was the most powerful
among all the seven states.
Qin located in Shanxi province and it accelerated invasion
and annexation of the other states as
it constantly expanded its power at the later
stage of the Warring States Period.
In 228 B.C, Qin invaded the northern parts of China and
conquered the state of Han and Zhao,
then immediately marched towards
the neighbor of Zhao – Yan.
The territory of Yan included the northern
part of Hebei province and some districts of
northern east Shan’xi.
Yan was seriously threatened when the main forces
of Qin approached the boundary.
The disaster of being defeated by Qin and having the
people displaced was pressing Yan.
Given the situation that the military power
of the two states was in great disparity,
the prince of Yan, whose name was Dan,
thought really hard for the strategy that could successfully
resist the threats from the powerful Qin.
Finally, Dan decided to send someone to slip into Qin
and assassinate the king.
If Yan wanted to defeat the enemies it must
kill the enemies’ leader at first.
Qin’s strategy of invasion will be broke
if their king was killed,
Therefore, Dan chose the well-known professional killer
– JIng Ke to perform the assassination.
Jing Ke was skilled in using swords and had a strong sense
of justice so he resented Qin for invading other states.
He took this dangerous mission with his determination
of killing the king of Qin and saving his own country
even if he would never return.
In order to gain the trust and get close to the king of Qin,
Prince Dan deliberately prepared two things that
the king of Qin was eager for: the head of Yuqi Fan,
the general who defected to Yan from Qin;
the map of Dukang district in Yan, which was the eastern
part of Zhuo county in Hebei province today.
He would present this map to the king of Qin showing
that Yan was willing to present this place to Qin
since it was subservient to it.
Jing Ke put these two things in two different boxes
and hid the dagger for assassination in the rolled map.
Prince Dan and Jing Ke’s best friend – the famous
musician Jianli Gao had put on their mourning dress
and sent him off at the bank of Yi River.
Jianli Gao played the famous song
The Cold Yi River for Jing Ke's farewell.
The lyrics describes:
The wind is soughing and the Yi River is freezing,
the hero leaves and will never come back.
Jing Ke shouldered the great mission fearlessly,
bidding farewell to his country,
his relatives and calmly set foot on the journey
that he could never come back
in the echoing solemn melody.
The king of Qin was delighted when he received the news
that Yan had sent someone to present the two things he
needed the most since he believed
Yan was afraid and subservient.
He granted Jing Ke an audience in
in Xianyang Palace in the capital.
Firstly, Jing Ke presented the box with Yuqi Fan’s head
inside and the king was very satisfied
so he lowered his guard.
Then, Jing Ke presented the box with the map according to
the king’s requirement and opened it in front of him.
He calmly took out the map and presented
it to the king with both of his hands.
The king slowly unfolded the rolled map and carefully
watched it with his greedy eyes.
As soon as the end of the map was
about to be shown,
a flashing dagger suddenly appeared.
At that moment, Jing Ke immediately used his
left hand to seize the king’s sleeves
and used his right hand to stab the king with the dagger.
But the king of Qin was not the ordinary,
he quickly avoided Jing Ke's first attack
and pull out the sword immediately.
The sword was too long that the king couldn’t
pull it out in panic,
so he had to flee around the pillars and
Jing Ke closely ran after him.
At this intense moment,
the king’s bodyguards stepped forward to
to attack Jing Ke and the king immediately
stabbed Jing Ke's left leg with his sword.
Jing Ke still threw his dagger towards
the king after he fell down,
but the king successfully avoided his attach again.
At that time, the bodyguards came up and killed Jing Ke.
Even if the king was frightened, he survived.
This is the well-known king in Chinese history,
Ying Zheng.
Emperor Ying Zheng didn’t slow down
his expansion after the assassination,
he quickened his pace in uniting China on the contrary.
Qin finally united China in 221 B.C, it ended the chaotic
status which had lasted hundreds of years that China
was divided by several powerful states and established
the first united dynasty in Chinese history, the Qin dynasty.
Qin’s achievement in history has been commented a lot and
Jing Ke’s heroic story of assassination
will be preserved forever.
The story of assassination develops
into the well-known idiom
People use it to describe the situation that
the truth or the real intention will be revealed at the end
just like the appearance of the dagger
that was used for the assassination.
Thank you for watching, see you next time.