SuaveG – The Gentle Path

Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature

public execution

  • Han Feizi – Chapter 11.2

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    Juan

    Han Feizi argues reformers face five disadvantages against corrupt elites. Isolated, they risk execution or assassination.

  • Why did Cao Cao kill Miao Ze? [Three Kingdoms]

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    Juan

    In Chapter 57 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a clandestine conspiracy unfolds in the heart of Cao Cao’s capital. Huang Kui, an imperial secretary, secretly allies with the veteran general Ma Teng to assassinate the powerful warlord Cao Cao, whom they view as a usurper threatening the Han dynasty.

  • Why Sun Ce should not kill Yu Ji? [Three Kingdoms]

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    Juan

    Sun Ce’s execution of the revered Daoist healer Yu Ji is often remembered in Romance of the Three Kingdoms as a tale of supernatural retribution—but historically, it was a grave political miscalculation rooted in impulsiveness, insecurity, and a failure to understand soft power. Far from eliminating a threat, Sun Ce’s public killing of Yu…