Lust and Assassination in Early China

Contrary to impressions of a sophisticated, tranquil culture unmarked by personal lethality and the taint of aggression, strife and virtually interminable warfare quickly beset early China. As lust, assassination, and political murder proliferated in the Spring and Autumn period (722-481 BC), the accounts began to fascinate Chinese audiences, as well as stimulate imitators. Motivation varied from personal animosity and a desire for revenge to blatant quests for sex and power, the impact of their actions from miniscule to the extinction of entire families and quashing of clans. Some assassinations prompted immediate retribution, others triggered far reaching events and spawned murderous links with epochal consequences. Targeted killing, which became part of subversive political programs during the Warring States period (453-221 BC), then resulted in slaying several prominent generals and facilitated Ch'in's conquest of the realm.

By interweaving materials from the period's great literary depictions, Lust and Assassination in Early China reprises the significant asocial incidents that unfolded in the culturally definitive early period, ponders the psychology of motivation, charts the appeal of beauty and the dynamics of sexual exploitation, and examines assassination as a political weapon. Intended for a general audience rather than China specialists despite the extensivenes of the underlying research, Lust and Assassination in Early China features expansive discussions and notes on aspects likely to be unfamiliar to non-Chinese readers.