The Individual and the State: Stories of Assassins in Early Imperial China
Publisher
The University of Arizona.Rights
Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction, presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.Abstract
In my thesis I try to give a new reading about the stories of assassins in the Han dynasty. I relate the assassins’ figures to Han scholar’s thoughts and read these stories as a kind of new relationship between the individual and the state. My research includes the translations of all the Chinese texts I used – many of them are not translated before, and my readings about these texts. By analyzing these stories, we may get the point that assassins shown as a category emerged during the early empires and this emerging category reflect a new conception of an individual’s role in history, namely that any given individual can have influence over the fate of the empire.Type
textElectronic Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.Degree Level
mastersDegree Program
Graduate CollegeEast Asian Studies