Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast.

This is a supplemental episode.

In this episode, we're going to talk about a famous assassin, Yao Li.

His story was invoked by the Wei

General Jia Kui in episode 123 when he was trying to talk some sense into his commander

Cao Xiu. Cao Xiu had been fooled by a governor from the kingdom of Wu, who said that he

was going to surrender his territory to Wei.

To convince Cao Xiu of his loyalty, this governor had cut off his hair,

which, as we discussed in episode 123, was no small thing.

So Cao Xiu believed him, but Jia Kui told Cao Xiu,

Look, cutting off hair is nothing. Just look at the story of Yao Li,

who cut off his arm to assassinate a man. So let's look at the story of Yao Li, and there's a lot

more to it than just cutting off an arm to assassinate a man. And if you thought that cutting

off an arm so you could kill a man is

cringe-inducing, oh, just you wait. Yauly lived during the spring and autumn period, that famous

period of division that has given rise to so many idioms and references in our own novel. Yowli lived

sometime in the early 500s BC, in the southern state of Wu.

Yeah, I know, we also have a state of Wu in the Three Kingdoms era.

They both occupy somewhat similar territories,

which is why the state in the Three Kingdoms adopted the name of a state that existed centuries earlier.

Anyway, to talk about Yao Li, we must first talk about the king of Wu at this time.

This king came to the throne by assassinating his own cousin, but his cousin's son, who was named Qing Ji, fled to another state.

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