Zhuan Zhu (專諸; died 515 BCE) was an Assassin from the State of Wu who lived in the 6th century BCE. He was hired by Prince Guang (公子光) to kill King Liao of Wu (吳王僚) so that Guang could take the throne for himself.
In 515 BCE, Zhuan Zhu succeeded in this deed by assassinating King Liao at a party with a dagger hidden in a fish although he was slain upon completing this mission. Prince Guang went on to ascend the throne as King Helü of Wu.
Biography[]
What follows is the legend of Zhuan Zhu as recounted in Sima Qian's Record of the Grand Historian.[1]
Succession crisis[]
Zhuan Zhu was a native of Tangyi (堂邑[1] or 棠邑[2]) in Wu, and his feats were known to Wu Zixu (伍子胥), a noble who was forced to flee for his life from Chu to Wu.[1]
Upon gaining an audience with King Liao of Wu, Zixu initially pitched to the king the benefits of a campaign against Chu. King Liao's cousin, Prince Guang, advised against this, reminding him that the king's father and brothers all met their ends in Chu. He shared his insight that Wu Zixu sought only to satiate his vengeance and did not have the interests of Wu in mind. While Liao ceased to consider the proposal any further, Zixu came to learn that Guang secretly longed to murder his uncle and usurp the throne. Remembering Zhuan Zhu, he recommended the man to Guang as an agent, simultaneously hoping that involvement in this conspiracy would advance his own ambitions.[1]
Liao and Guang were both grandsons of King Zhufan (諸樊), who had three young brothers: Yuji (餘祭), Yimei (夷眛), and Jizha (季札). Because Zhufan greatly respected the virtue of Jizha (季札), he went against primogeniture, did not create a crown prince, and mandated that the throne would be passed from brother to brother, so that Jizha might become king himself one day. As chance would have it, both Yuji and Yimei did get their turns on the throne, but after Yimei's death, Jizha still obstinately refused to accede himself. This resulted in a reversion to primogeniture where the throne was instead given to Liao, the eldest of Yimei's sons by a concubine. Because of Liao's underprivileged birth status, Guang believed that he, as Yimei's son by his formal wife, was the rightful heir to the throne.[1]
Wu troops bogged down[]
Upon being hired by Guang, Zhuan Zhu served the prince faithfully. In 516 BCE,[2] King Ping of Chu died, and King Liao of Wu thought it was opportune to invade in their time of mourning. In the spring, he assigned his younger brothers Gaiyu (蓋餘) and Shuyong (屬庸) as generals to lead the campaign against Chu, and they laid siege to the city of Qian (灊). At the same time, he dispatched Jizha to Jin to monitor any changes in the other feudal lords' activities. Back at Qian, Chu forces counter-attacked and managed to cut-off Gaiyu and Shuyong's path to retreat.[1]
Noticing this, Prince Guang excitedly urged Zhuan Zhu, "This moment cannot be lost! If we do not seek after it, how would we obtain it? After all, I am the true heir to the throne. I ought to be the one acceded to it. Although Jizha has returned, he will not oust me".[1]
Zhuan Zhu agreed with his analysis and responded:[1]
"I can kill King Liao. His mother is old, his children are young, and his two little brothers, leading troops against Chu, have had their rear lines severed. Presently, the Wu on the outside are trapped in Chu, and on the inside, they are devoid of officials with the gall to obstruct us. They have nothing like what we can do."
With this affirmation, Prince Guang bowed his head in gratitude and pronounced, "My body is your body."[1]
Killing with fish intestines[]
In 515 BCE,[3] Prince Guang invited King Liao of Wu to a banquet for the assassination. He hid armoured troops in the basement below his mansion while Zhuan Zhu hid a dagger inside of a fish's stomach. On arrival, King Liao was scrupulous about his security and had his own guards posted from his palace all the way to Prince Guang's residence in a long line. Every door and every stairwell of the mansion were likewise stationed by his most intimate followers on both sides, and every one of them wielded pi (鈹), long spears with double-edged sword blades for heads.[1]
A relief of Zhuan Zhu presenting a fish to King Liao before assassinating him
The feast appeared to go on merrily until Liao fell drunk from wine, whereupon Guang excused himself by claiming that his foot was in pain and that he wished to go check on it and rest. In reality, he was fetching his guards in the basement for the ambush. Meanwhile, Zhuan Zhu carried the roasted fish up to the dining room as though to personally serve it to the king. The instant he split open the fish, he seized the dagger within and stabbed it into him. King Liao died at the scene, but this brazen act was committed in front of all the other guests, and the king's guards threw themselves at Zhuan Zhu from all sides. He was swiftly cut down himself.[1]
The room erupted into panic and disorder, and it was then that Guang entered with his soldiers and slaughtered King Liao's party en masse. Following this, Guang declared himself King of Wu with the regnal name Helü (闔閭). Although he was slain in the act, Zhuan Zhu had succeeded in his mission.[1]
Legacy[]
Zhuan Zhu's story passed into folklore, where the dagger he used came to be known as the 'Fish Belly Blade' (魚腸劍) because it was small enough to be hidden in the stomach of a fish.[2][4]
Centuries later, the historian Sima Qian wrote Records of the Grand Historian, where he listed Zhuan Zhu, alongside Cao Mo, Yu Rang, Nie Zheng, and Jing Ke as being one of China's earliest Assassins. They were known to later generations as "the Five Great Assassins".[4]
The Fish Intestine Dagger was kept in an Assassin vault beneath the Mohist village of Qinghe Commandery. By the time of the An Lushan Rebellion, it was being guarded by Pei Min. In 756, he gave it to the Hidden One Li E to help him in his quest for vengeance against the Order of the Ancients. Li E adapted it to his gauntlet to serve as a new Hidden Blade.[4]
Appearances[]
- Assassin's Creed: Dynasty (mentioned only)
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Sima Qian (94 BCE). 太史公書: 刺客列傳 [Record of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Assassins] (in Chinese). Chinese Text Project. Retrieved on 26 June 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2
專諸 on Wikipedia
- ↑ Sima Qian (94 BCE). 太史公書: 十二諸侯年表 [Record of the Grand Historian: Timeline of Twelve Feudal Lords] (in Chinese). Chinese Text Project. Retrieved on 26 June 2021.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Assassin's Creed: Dynasty – The Hidden Ones (Part 2)
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||