Tu Qiong Bi Xian

At the end of the Warring-States Period， the State of Qin was the most powerful state in China. It began a long march to conquer all the other nations. After destroying the State of Zhao and Han， they began to march towards the State of Yan. Knowing that they had no chance in the battlefield， Dan， the crown prince of Yan， sent out an assassin to assassinate the Lord of Qin， hoping to reverse the situation.

The assassin was called Jing Ke. He was good at swordplay， which made him the best choice to assassinate the Lord of Qin. In order to get Jing Ke close to Lord， Dan prepared two things the Lord wanted most： the head of Fan Yuqi， a traitor-general from Qin to Yan and the map of the Dukang area in Yan that the State of Yan could give to the State of Qin for truce.

Jing Ke placed these two things into a pair of boxes respectively. The dagger he was going to use to assassinate Lord of Qin was hidden in the rolled map. In addition， he brought an acolyte named Qin Wuyang. Before leaving， Crown Prince Dan set a banquet， in which Gao Jianlin， a famous musician and friend of both Crown Prince Dan and Jing Ke wore the mourning apparel and played the famous melody One Year In Beginning for them.

Lord of Qin was very glad to hear that Yan sent emissaries with two things he wanted most. He threw a banquet at his palace in Xianyang to welcome Jing Ke and Qin Wuyang. Jing Ke got into the palace head-on holding the box with Fan Yuqi’s head. Qin Wuyang was right at his heels with the box containing the map.

When Qin Wuyang approached Lord of Qin， he was so nervous that he could not stop his hands trembling and his face paling. The Lord felt strange about this. Jing Ke quickly came forth an explanation that it was the Lord’s demeanor and solemnity that unnerved Qin Wuyang. Then he brought the map-inside box to the table in front of the Lord as requested. With great care and caution， Jing Ke held the map with two hands and offered it to the Lord， who slowly unfolded the map while reading it. When he was reaching the last part of the map， the dagger was unveiled. Seeing this， Jing Ke took the Lord’s sleeve with his left hand and held the dagger with his right， lunging forward and trying to stab the Lord.

However， his first strike missed the target. The Lord tried to get his own sword out of the scabbard for selfdefense， but within the close quarter， he could not make it in time. Therefore， he rid himself of Jing Ke’s grasp and circled the palace pillar with Jing Ke after him. His guards tried to come to help but feared that they could hurt the Lord during the process.

At this moment， one of the Lord’s servants hit Jing Ke’s head with a medical bag and reminded the Lord to push the scabbard to his back so that he could take out the sword. The Lord took the advice and used his sword to maim Jing Ke’s left leg. Jing Ke made the last attempt of assassination by throwing the dagger at the Lord before being killed by the guards， but the last resort also failed to work， leading to complete failure of the assassination and later the destruction of State of Yan.