Jing Ke's dagger in the map, and how the king of Qin survived
TL;DR — In 227 BC the assassin Jing Ke hid a poisoned dagger in a map of Yan’s Dukang district; the king of Qin tore free, circled a pillar and survived.
In 227 BC, the 20th year of his reign, the king of Qin, the future First Emperor, survived an assassin who reached him in his own hall. Jing Ke, sent by the crown prince of the state of Yan, had hidden a dagger inside a rolled map. The story is told in the chapter on assassins in Sima Qian’s Shiji. Yue Zhang writes in the journal Early China that the attempt “has been discussed for millennia, in literature, history, philosophy, fine arts, and archeology.” Quotations from the Chinese below are our own translations.
Quick facts
- When
- The king of Qin's 20th year, 227 BC
- Where
- The Qin court at Xianyang; the farewell at the Yi River in Yan
- Who
- Jing Ke; Prince Dan of Yan; Zheng, king of Qin; the court physician Xia Wuju; Qin Wuyang
- Outcome
- The attempt failed and Jing Ke was killed; Qin sent Wang Jian against Yan and took its capital, Ji, the next year
Two gifts for the king
Yan was next in line for conquest, and its crown prince, Dan, was afraid. The Shiji’s annals of Qin record that “Dan, crown prince of Yan, fearing that Qin’s armies would reach his state, sent Jing Ke to stab the king of Qin.”
Jing Ke needed a way into the king’s presence. He proposed two gifts: the head of Fan Wuqi, a Qin general who had offended the king and fled to Yan, and on whom the king had set a price of 1,000 jin of gold and a fief of 10,000 households; and “a map of the Dukang land of Yan.” The prince bought the dagger of Xu Furen, a man of Zhao, for 100 pieces of gold and had craftsmen treat its blade with poison. A young man of Yan named Qin Wuyang, thirteen years old, went with Jing Ke as his deputy.
At the Yi River
The prince and those who knew of the plan saw him off in white robes and caps. At the Yi River, Gao Jianli played the zhu, a stringed instrument, and Jing Ke sang:
“The wind is mournful, the Yi River is cold; the brave man goes, and will not come back.”
Then, the Shiji says, he got into his carriage and left, and never looked back.
The map runs out
At the Qin court Jing Ke carried the case with the head, and Qin Wuyang the map. At the steps of the throne, Qin Wuyang went pale and began to shake. Jing Ke laughed and excused him as a rustic from the north who had never seen the Son of Heaven. The king told Jing Ke to bring him the map.
“Jing Ke took the map and presented it. The king unrolled it, and when the map came to its end, the dagger appeared.” Jing Ke seized the king’s sleeve with his left hand and struck with the dagger in his right. Before it reached him, the king leapt back and the sleeve tore away. He tried to draw his sword, but it was long and stuck fast in its scabbard, so he ran, and Jing Ke chased him around a pillar.
A pillar and a medicine bag
No one in the hall could stop the assassin. “By the law of Qin,” the Shiji explains, “the ministers attending in the hall could not carry the smallest weapon, and the guards with weapons were all ranged below the hall and could not come up without a summons.” The ministers fought him with their bare hands.
The court physician, Xia Wuju, threw his bag of medicines at Jing Ke. As the king circled the pillar, his attendants shouted, “Push the sword onto your back, Your Majesty!” He did, drew it and struck Jing Ke down. Jing Ke threw the dagger. It missed and lodged in a pillar; the Shiji’s word for it, tong, names a tree, so the pillar was of wood. Jing Ke said he had failed because he had wanted “to take him alive,” to force a pledge for the crown prince, and the attendants killed him.
The king later rewarded the physician with 200 yi of gold, saying: “Wuju loves me. That is why he threw his medicine bag at Jing Ke.”
Yan's fall
The attempt hastened what Yan had feared. The king, “greatly angered,” sent more troops, and Wang Jian marched on Yan. In the 21st year, 226 BC, Qin took the Yan capital, Ji, and the king of Yan withdrew east to Liaodong, where he was captured in 222 BC. The next year, Qin took the last kingdom, Qi, and the king became Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor.
Key facts
- Jing Ke’s attempt was made in the king of Qin’s 20th year, 227 BC (Shiji 6; Yue Zhang).
- His gifts were the head of the exiled Qin general Fan Wuqi and a map of the Dukang land of Yan (Shiji 86).
- The dagger, once Xu Furen’s, a man of Zhao, had been treated with poison (Shiji 86).
- “When the map came to its end, the dagger appeared” (Shiji 86).
- Qin law barred ministers in the hall from carrying weapons, and the armed guards could not come up without a summons (Shiji 86).
- The physician Xia Wuju threw his medicine bag at Jing Ke and was rewarded with 200 yi of gold (Shiji 86).
- Qin took Ji, the Yan capital, in 226 BC (Shiji 6).
FAQ
Did Jing Ke kill the king of Qin?
No. The king tore free, ran around a pillar, drew his sword and struck Jing Ke down. The king went on to unify China in 221 BC.
What does "the map exhausted, the dagger revealed" mean?
It comes from the Shiji: when the map was unrolled to its end, the dagger appeared. In Chinese it became a saying for a hidden purpose exposed at the last moment.
What did Jing Ke bring to the king of Qin?
The head of Fan Wuqi, a Qin general who had fled to Yan, and a map of Yan's Dukang district, with the poisoned dagger rolled inside it.
Why didn't the guards save the king?
Qin law barred ministers in the hall from carrying weapons, and the armed guards waited below the hall and could not come up without a summons.
Who saved the king of Qin?
In part the court physician Xia Wuju, who threw his medicine bag at Jing Ke, and the attendants who told the king to push his long sword onto his back so he could draw it.
Sources
- Sima Qian, Shiji, chapter 86, "Biographies of Assassins," Chinese text, Wikisource
- Sima Qian, Shiji, chapter 6, "Basic Annals of the First Emperor of Qin," Chinese text, Wikisource
- Sima Qian, Shiji, chapter 73, "Biographies of Bai Qi and Wang Jian," Chinese text, Wikisource
- Yue Zhang, "Commemorating a Failed Assassin: The Making of the Jing Ke Lore in Early China," Early China 47 (2025), Cambridge University Press
Cite this article
- APA
- Song Letter. (2026, October 11). Jing Ke's dagger in the map, and how the king of Qin survived. Our Earth's History. https://ourearthshistory.com/east-asia/classical/jing-ke-assassination-map-dagger/
- Chicago
- Song Letter. “Jing Ke's dagger in the map, and how the king of Qin survived.” Our Earth's History, October 11, 2026. https://ourearthshistory.com/east-asia/classical/jing-ke-assassination-map-dagger/.
- MLA
- Song Letter. “Jing Ke's dagger in the map, and how the king of Qin survived.” Our Earth's History, 11 Oct. 2026, https://ourearthshistory.com/east-asia/classical/jing-ke-assassination-map-dagger/.
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